Revised Image Assignment and Plans for Design Project

I couldn’t move on to the final project until I fixed the image assignment. Thanks to our digital fellow students, my image assignment page looks like a webpage! And all the images aren’t broken! Compare my last image assignment to the revised version. I still think I can do more to it. Maybe, change the fonts for the title and navigation bar. But I think I should leave this for a while and start working on the design project.

For my design project, I will be using the same research materials that I used in Clio 1. I focused on Walter Plecker (Virginia white supremacist) and Indians of Virginia. But I found out that there’s a lot of images of John Powell (another white supremacist and the person I used for my image assignment) from the Library of Congress, and I want to use his images, too. So, I will expand the project from Clio 1 by including more stories of various white supremacists and discuss on topics about race and eugenics in Virginia during the early twentieth century. And because I enjoy using Photoshop, I hope to edit and include more images on my website. Also, Professor Petrik suggested useful sites to look for fonts during class. I hope to play around with the fonts and find the one that best fits with my website.

Commented on Kirk’s blog.

“Blending Scenes from World War 2 into Present Day”

Check this out: “Blending Scenes from World War 2 into Present Day,” http://www.kulfoto.com/interesting/694/blending-scenes-from-world-war-ii-into-present-day/10290/picture. Is this Photoshop? I want to know how to do this.

Image Assignment

I tried fixing my image assignment on Monday night after class. Martin and Amanda helped me a lot and I thought everything was fixed. I was excited about putting the link to my blog, too. But when I got back home and opened my Dreamweaver again, something wasn’t right… The page looks weird and the images aren’t showing. I don’t know what I did wrong. I gave up after spending a few hours and when I realized that all I am doing was making it worse. Anyway, I felt that I should put the link. So, here it is: http://mikaendo.com/image-assignment.html. But I will try it again this weekend!

Image Assignment

Here are the images I’ve been working on using Photoshop. I used photos of John Powell, a white supremacist, a pianist and a composer. He was also a founder of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, a Virginia-based white supremacist organization, established in 1922.

Cropped & resized image (before & after):

Hand-colored photograph (before & after):

Vignetted photograph (before & after):

 

Finally, I used some images that I found on the web for restored photograph and matted engraving.

Restored photograph (before & after):

Matted engraving (before & after):

 

I commented on blogs by Beth and Sara.

 

Adding Color to History – The Use of Photoshop on Historical Images

I wasn’t always comfortable with editing and altering images especially when it gets to historical photos. I’ve been thinking about the purpose of historians using Photoshop. Why do we need to use Photoshop, and what can it help to interpret history?

Beth talks about the same question in her blog, “Editing Historical Images: How Far Is Too Far,” and I’ve read several other blogs that raise the same issue. And I’ve had similar thoughts on what she said. Yes, I am somewhat comfortable with using spot healing brush to clean cracks or tears in a image. I also think adjusting the tone or changing contrast can help restore a worn-out picture. But it seems that not many people feel comfortable with manipulating historical images by using all the tools in Photoshop. Then, adding colors to a black and white picture can be something most historians never dared to think of.

Last week during class, we did engravings and adding colors to the Cat and Man. After struggling learning the several tools in Photoshop, I admit that it was quite fun to know those techniques. It was fun to imagine the man’s skin color and the color the cat. And indeed, it was all my imagination.

Is that why historians feel uneasy about adding color in history? We don’t know the exact color and there’s no evidence unless the actual object or a written proof of describing what the color is are left with us. Historian uses their imagination, too, but it’s not like we can guess and add whatever color we want to in historical images. We need to be responsible on how we handle and use the sources. So, even though I like learning these techniques in Photoshop, I am still worry about applying it on historical images. I would like to think more about the purpose of Photoshop for historians, and to learn how others feel about it.

This week, I commented on Becca’s blog. I wasn’t able to give helpful comments but I was amazed with her beautiful website and her image assignment.

I also went back to earlier blog post from Martin. He showed how color can give life to a black & white photo. Thanks for sharing the link!