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National Be Kind to Your Distributor/QC Day

Started by Mhayes, September 23, 2016, 05:17:55 PM

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Mhayes

Hi Everyone,

I appreciate all of the hard work that you put into doing a restore as it means everything to the family. However, we need to be kind to our Distributors and QC people. Bambi, Jonas, and Tess spend a great deal of time sending out photos, but also reviewing the restores as they come back. If there are problems they will email the volunteer and point out what needs to be fixed. Sometimes that means multiple emails and screen shots showing how to fix the problem. Once all the photos are restored, they are then sent to Quality Control (names withheld for their own protection).  Once in QC the photos are gone over one more time and this time a lot closer and they have to fix the mistakes. It wouldn't be so bad if they were minor and didn't happen very often, but unfortunately it is happening a lot and that is causing things to slow down and back up. No, not all of you are guilty of having anything wrong with your uploaded restores. It is hoped that once these are pointed out, they will be noted and not keep cropping up.

Below in no particular order of importance are some of the problems. The one exception that I would put at the top that always needs to be done is: color corrections. With the exception of a few photos that don't work with a simple auto Levels or Curves Adjustment, there is no reason not to do this first.

1.   Changing the file size from the original
2.   Corrupting the file name other than adding the suffix "finished" or "done" before the extension .jpg
3.   Changing the color space from sRGB to something else
4.   Cropping the photo without permission
5.   Unnecessary background replacement
6.   Sharpening
7.   Warping of the photo
8.   Adding body parts

When you receive a photo you will note that it will have a file extension. For example: BrownS_10_01_8_5x11_5.jpg. What that means to us is that the BrownS family has 10 photos all total and that 01 means this is the first photo in that series. Next is the dimension and an explanation of the underscore that stands for a decimal point, and why we can't add another dot in a series before the .jpg. If we did,  things would get confusing as the computer doesn't like the extra dots. The last part is the .jpg. The only thing that you can add to that extension is to put a finish or done after the size and before the .jpg.

On #3 there have been some problems that occurred on our end. Somehow photos were uploaded to the gallery that had a color space of Adobe RGB instead of sRGB. The reason this is so important is that when our photos are sent out to be printed they all need to be in the same color space. It is perfectly fine if you want to work in Adobe RGB, but before you upload you need to go to Edit, Change Profile and change back to sRGB. For Photoshop users you need to know what color space you have set on your computer. You can find out by going to Edit>Color Settings. If your working color setting is set to Adobe RGB then any photo you open will change it to that setting. You can keep that from happening when you get the message before the photo opens up: Embedded Profile Mismatch followed by the selection of: Use the embedded profile (instead of the working space). The photos you receive from us should all be sRGB and if you are in a different color space, click ok to not change the embedded profile.

On #6 it would appear to be easy enough to follow and should QC decided to sharpen the photo, then they will. However, for some of you that take your photo into Camera Raw and Lightroom, you may not realize the default may sharpen. You need to have that removed as your default.

Last but not least, the OPR Forum is your best bet for getting help to your problem and also will get you different ways to attack a problem. There is no reason to feel embarrassed for posting as all of us are here to help and we have all started out as beginners. I realize that it is easier to run your problems by your distributor for help, but for more detailed help you need to post here. If you have questions on how to post, ask and there are plenty of tutorials we can point you to.

The Head Policeman  :police:
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Marydh

Very informative Margie!  Thanks for posting.
Mary

Mhayes

"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Lynnya

Hi Margie thanks for info.. I am guilty..  :cool: Yup I am.. or was.. I was using wrong color space, I've corrected that but.. I have a question re body parts. In some of my restores complete body parts were torn away, legs, hands etc.. I am guilty of taking pics of hands legs etc and morphing them in.. some of my wedding restores had very little content left apart from lovely faces and parts of clothes.. now I'm not sure what I should be doing.. :-\ HELP please clarify..
Lynn
never giving up......learning from others as I go...

Mhayes

Lynn, when in need of a body part (sounds like a black market scheme), contact us and we will see if in the owner's folder is another photo to use for reference. A lot of photos can use the opposite appendage, but if that is not possible let us know. We will let you know and one reason to be cautious is that photos borrowed on the web may be copy righted. Let your distributor know and show what you are doing and we may approve in that case. The problem with body snatching is that sometimes it is so obvious when very sharp as compared to no so sharp in the original. I do understand where you are coming from. Some time you can use the outline of the body part and shade in.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]

Tori803

Replacing missing body parts has to be one of the biggest challenges in restoration. I often try to copy something in the original image and then try to make it look like it's the missing part (flipping it around, scaling it, warping it, etc.). It's possible to make a finger look like a thumb, but you can't make a nose look like an eye!
Tori
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence." -Calvin Coolidge

Mhayes

"It's possible to make a finger look like a thumb, but you can't make a nose look like an eye!"  :funny:

Tori, well put, I just hope volunteers don't look at that as a challenge.

Margie
"carpe diem"

Margie Hayes
OPR President
[email protected]