FAQ


Question:	What do the numbers mean in the bottom left menu?
Answer:	The photographer numbered all the glass negatives chronologically in boxes. Each box had an average of 30 negatives inside (small negatives 6 x 8 cm) or fifteen large negatives (12 x 16 cm). The large numbers i.e. in this case , means the year they were taken. The smaller numbers represent the serial number of the all the negatives in the box (4491 - 4520). He then numbered each box using this system, therefore 4491 – 4520 means negative number 4491, 4492, 4493 up to 4520, are in this box.


Question:	When looking closely at the serial numbers in the left menu there appear to be boxes missing?
Answer:	The boxes of negatives are stored at present in a cellar and have, over a period of time, been moved several times, and have become mixed up. Plans to rectify this situation are already in progress. The next batch of photos will hopefully, be from the very first boxes.


Question:	How large is the photo archive, i.e. how many negatives are there in total?
Answer:	No-one can say for certain, but the total is thought to be somewhere in the region of 50,000 - 100,000 negatives!


Question:	When was the very first picture taken?
Answer:	The very first picture was taken around the 1st of December 1903. This is the date that Adolf Stahre registered his fotoateljé. The oldest photo at present in the internet archive is from 1904.


Question:	Are the pictures scanned from photos or negatives?
Answer:	All the pictures are scanned directly from the original negatives.


Question:	At what resolution have the pictures been scanned in?
Answer:	All the negatives are scanned in at 400 DPI (dots per inch).


Question:	In the period of time when these pictures were taken were people not allowed to keep their negatives?
Answer:	Luckily for us, no.


Question:	What is the actual size of a glass negative?
Answer:	The largest negatives were 18 x 25 cm but this size was rarely used. More often 12x16 cm was used, even though the size of the glass was 13x18 cm. The most common size was 6 x 8 cm (60x80 mm), which is still considerably larger than the 35mm films of today.


Question:	Will I be able to purchase a picture from the archive?
Answer:	You will be able to at some point, but at the moment this is not possible. Arrangements are being made to make this option available on site shortly.


Question:	What does Bak mean?
Answer:	BAK: almost all the negatives have a piece of paper pasted to the back of them. This piece of paper contains the relevant information about who ordered the photo, where they lived, the unique serial number given to each photo, and lastly, in the top right hand corner, a record of how many copies were made. Note, Bak means back in Swedish.


Question:	What is the difference between the photo gallery in the left menu and the database?
Answer:	The photo gallery is easier to browse (left bottom menu). The database has also a gallery but is better for searching. The photo gallery came first to create an overview of the contents of the boxes. Each photo, and the information on the back of each negative was intentionally placed side by side, the box was scanned, and placed at the bottom of each box gallery for easy viewing or browsing. All the boxes were then placed in descending order by year with their serial number. The down side with the gallery is that continuous updating of information on the page would be time-consuming and the graphic layout would suffer. I therefore chose to use a database. The advantage of using a database is that large amounts of detailed information can be constantly added and updated with very little effort, making it possible for users and administrators to search and add information as they please.


Question:	Why is there so little information in the database?
Answer:	Before a photo ends up in the archive it must be: Cleaned. Scanned and numbered. Lighting corrected (compensating for fading, over-exposure and under- exposure). Cropped. There is a blank space about 1cm between the negative and the edge of the glass. This is removed. Resized and compressed to .JPG format for easy internet viewing. (Original format is .TIF). Added to the HTML gallery, and then added to the database gallery. As you will understand, each negative has to pass through each and every one of the above processes, not forgetting the scanning of information on the back of each negative; 50,000 negatives + 50,000 unique pieces of paper pasted on the back of each negative. That is 100,000 scans in all, as well as trying to decipher the handwriting of the photographer, which is not always easy. I decided to leave this part to those who have a talent for it, or maybe those who are doing their genealogy research, or anyone who would like to maybe volunteer. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. In this way, with your assistance, the database will be completed quicker, the photos will be scanned faster, and this archive will then become a priceless source of information for future generations to come.


Question:	What does a glass negative look like?
Answer:	Have a look below..


Question:	I am a 56k Modem User - Why does it take so much time to load a page from the photo gallery?
Answer:	Because of the graphic nature of this site, using a 56k modem is not recommended. Photos usually take much longer to load than text using this route. Fewer photos could have been put on each page but this would risk the user getting completely lost, hence the decision to put one box of negatives per page and not several Please be patient if you are accessing via a 56k Modem. Searching or browsing though the database gallery will be somewhat faster.


Question:	what does this mean?

Answer:	Av etiska skäl är bilden bortagen = For ethical reasons this photo has been removed. In those days it was quite normal to take photos at funerals and even photos of the deceased in open coffins. Times have changed... Out of respect for the remaining famlly members we have decided to remove these photos from the online archive.


Question:	what does uppgifter skaknas mean?

Answer:	Uppgifter saknas basically means that no information was glued to the back (Bak=Back) of the photo in question, sometimes a number was scratched on the negative but on most occasions this was not the case. To keep the order of info - photo ect. I created these so-called (Lapps) information tags that will not disrupt the order of the photos and information side by side. This keeps the stucture intact and makes it more clear that this photo has missing information.

Question:

Some files have Z and others have HD & HDX written in them, what does this mean?

Answer:

Firstly, one very frustratng thing about viewing old photos online is the size of the photo. You just cannot get close enough to see the detail or identify who or what is in the picture. So I decided to address this problem...

(Z = Part of the original photo has been zoomed in on).
Z at the end of a file name means that this file is an extra zoom, cut out from the original scan (400 dots per inch) file. Some photos were taken at a distance making some interesting features too far away or too small to see. To compensate for this I have zoomed in on these features so they can be viewed more easily. In this case objects that are not too far away.

(HD = High resolution rescan of part of the original photo) .
HD means that the file has been rescanned at a higher resolution i.e more the than 400 dpi. Some examples of this can be 800 dpi, 1200 or even 2400 dpi, depending on the size of the original negative, and the distance of the object in question. We can call this scan an intermediate file because we are going to use it to zoom in further on specific parts of interest. Ironically this photo can often appear to be smaller in the gallery or database, because it is just a part of the original scan, and the width or height appears to be less than the original . This is because all the photos in the gallery and database have a maximum width or height of 450 pixels. Confused? Read on about HDX. This will explain.

HDX = Extra photos created by zooming in on part or parts of a HD (or High resolution) scanned photo.
As earlier explained, some photos were rescanned at a higher resolution HD. We can call these new scans originals too because from these higher resolution scans, we can zoom much further into the photo than before, making it possible to create multiple zooms of specific features previously too distant to see in the original. Many examples of this can be found in the XX10 - XX15, XX16 - XX27 up to XX44.


Question:	When I clicked on a photo under a chosen year in the database I thought it would be enlarged, but instead lots of small photos appeared under each serial number.
Answer:	The photos you see when you click on a year are randomly chosen photos from that box or album series you just clicked on. If you browse through the album you will eventually find the photo you are looking for.

Question:

I have lots of photos in my personal collection and would like to donate them to the archive. What should I do?

Answer:

First check that they are not on-site already:
If not, scan your photos in at 400dpi if you can (or get professional help)
then save them all without compression in *.Tiff (Photo file format).
Do not email them!
Do not mail the originals!
Tell us about yourself and send us your contact information:
Document all you know about each photo:
Burn them all on to CD or DVD
Afterwards contact one of the administrators.
Or send them to:

Kindabild
Kisa Västra Eneby Hembygdsförening
590 40 Kisa
Sweden (S)

We cannot promise the photos will end up on the site.
Our highest priority is the negatives already in our archive .
Your photos will however, be put in our archive for future use.



Frequently Asked Questions