Tag Archives: archival

My photo naming conventions

Posted on Friday, 8. December 2023 by hmvh

Anyone who’s laboured through the task of digitising physical photos from multiple (analogue) sources will have been confronted with the issue of how to sort them or, more specifically, what to name the files before introducing them to an existing collection of (digital) images. Continue reading →

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The quality of slide scans

Posted on Tuesday, 5. December 2023 by hmvh

Photo slides had completely disappeared off my radar until early 2008 when my father brought them over — along with a slide scanner he couldn’t figure out how to operate. I knew that someday I would revisit them with my trusty old Epson Perfection 3490 Photo flatbed scanner. What follows are my thoughts and experiences on the matter. Brace for impact! Continue reading →

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Photo restoration through AI? Nope!

Posted on Monday, 21. August 2023 by hmvh

Despite the recent incredible developments in artificial intelligence and image generation, I remain steadfast that AI still has no role in the workflow for digitising personal snapshots on prints, slides or negatives. While I obviously made basic edits like cropping, or adjusting brightness, contrast, white balance and colours so that the viewer can actually see what’s going on in a photo, my experiences with AI services (read: face enhancing) have done nothing but confirm a phenomenon that’s already been termed “identity shift”. Continue reading →

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The rise and fall of Bookogs, Comicogs, Filmogs, Gearogs and Posterogs

Posted on Friday, 11. December 2020 by hmvh

About four months ago the sites Bookogs, Comicogs, Filmogs, Gearogs and Posterogs closed down. They provided much of the same features as Discogs (the audio recordings database) but (as their names suggest) catered specifically for the cataloguing of books, comics, films, audio gear, and posters, respectively. Continue reading →

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Webris, netsam and the demise of Flash

Posted on Friday, 4. December 2020 by hmvh

“Webris and netsam” is a term I use to describe material and debris left over by internet-related tasks — you know, the kind of stuff you download during a specific project and hold on to in case you might need it later or because it’s too good to delete. Continue reading →

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It’s all on video

Posted on Sunday, 9. July 2017 by hmvh

I’ve recently been clearing out a bunch of old video clips. The early web was home to many weirdos, and videos of the kind didn’t help its reputation. Continue reading →

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2014: A look ahead

Posted on Sunday, 5. January 2014 by hmvh

Last year we moved house. While packing you tend to discover a shitload of forgotten items that you didn’t know you (still) had, and then you’re faced with the decision, “do I box it, or do I bin it?” Continue reading →

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The Archivist’s Dilemma

Posted on Friday, 14. December 2012 by hmvh

I am a collector because I collect a particular kind of cassette. I am an archivist because I disseminate and publish facts and data which future generations might find useful. The (meta)data ends up in a database called Discogs. Scans end up in my personal stash, and the cassettes end up in the trash. Nobody wants those, they’re just plastic matter. But what of the audio on those tapes, the gist of it all? Let corporate greed ensure that the majority of “European” recordings will survive for future generations to gush over. Continue reading →

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