The Schenzinger collection photos were glued into an album of thin, black construction paper that is now crumbling. The glue has caused many of the images to have "waves" which makes scanning difficult. This describes the steps that I've taken with virtually every image included in these pages, not just those from the Schenzinger collection (although those needed the most work owing to their age and storage conditions). Browse through these steps and see the effects each change has on one of the Schenzinger images. Note the difference between the initial scan and the final result!

Step 1

Each of the 3.5"x5" photographs were scanned with a Logitech hand-scanner. Midway through this exercise (about the middle of the Pacific types), I acquired an HP Scanjet IIcx bed scanner which has made the job much easier.

Step 2

The image was then cropped to provide a tighter image of the locomtive and maximize image area.

Step 3

Image brightness was adjusted.

Step 4

Copying can increase contrast, so each image went through contrast adjustment.

Step 5

Gamma adjustment allows controlling the density of intermediate gray tones in the image. Making the gamma adjustment allowed for the better rendition of shadow detail that was otherwise "blocked up" and difficult to see.

Step 6

The final, and optional editing step involved using an electronic image sharpening tool.

In reality, each of these steps may be repeated. Rarely does one setting of contrast, gamma, and brightness produce the desired end result, so one "plays" with the various values until the "correct" combination is found. What is "correct" of course, is very subjective and based on individual tastes.

Finally, images were stored in JPEG compressed format, low compression. JPEG compression provides a balance between quality and download time (file size).