Eismann/Petrik Readings
March 30, 2009
Eismann
Katrin Eismann’s guide to Photoshop Restoration and Retouching is a particularly good resource for us as historical website designers/contributors.
I believe it was Susan who brought up a good point in her blog that this kind of ‘restoration’ through a digital software program like Photoshop is perhaps a bit more nuanced than the kind of ‘family photo’ or ‘glamour shot’ type of restoration.
Just like in writing a monograph, it is important for a historian to consider the amount of ‘lenses’ she is putting her evidence through. A photograph was taken (possibly staged or set up), selected for a historical database or a family album based on criteria we may not have access to and subsequently processed digitally by the photoshop user, who enhaces the features of the picture to most closely communicate her argument. The viewer then views that argument in whatever context the web-designer/historian chooses to place it.
Despite all of this, I don’t think that, in a general context, all of these lenses carry us that far from the original evidence. While the potential for truly malicious alterations are possible, this is true for documentary evidence as well! At some point we have to determine which sources we trust and analyze their evidence with a grain of salt.
As for Eismann’s text, I enjoy the layout of the work, I find it easy to use, but I believe I will employ it as a reference more than a step-by-step learning guide. Trying to process it in the time available has not led to an in-depth knowledge of photoshop restoration. I certainly admit that this is because of time difficulties, to go through the book, while in front of the computer and trying the steps the whole time, is only feasible to me when I am actually attempting to do to one of my pictures what is being described.
Petrik
Petrik was a simpler exercise, and I was better able to comprehend the steps (it helped that she broke things out by ps and el!). Her exercise is something I may try to place a static background image using a matted picture. We’ll see though!
The rest of her site seems to have good resources for historians of the web as well. I particularly liked this article, as it answers questions I have had since the beginning of class.
The article actually includes the CSS for creating footnotes on a page and describes what the CSS is doing to create the desired effect. I’m not sure if we will need this for our project, but it will be useful if needed. As a side note, this article cites Cederholm’s book from earlier in the semester.
