How To Contribute
to the Franklin County Photo Album.

Return to: Franklin County Photo Album

Your donation of photographs, tintypes, "real photo" postcards, etc., that portray the people and places in Franklin County's rich heritage are needed to make this album grow!

  1. NO photographs of living individuals will be accepted.
  2. Photographs should be at least fifty (50) years old.
  3. Your name and email address (encoded so that it can't be "harvested" by SPAM "robots") will appear with your photos.

What information do you need to provide with your photographs?

The only required information is:

  1. The name of the person/people in the photograph, the location (in Franklin County), and approximately when the photo was taken.  If you don't know the names or exact locations see Unknown Subject
  2. The name of the location (building exterior or interior, park, farm, etc.)
  3. Your name and e-mail address for the contributor's credit.

I would like to have:

  1. Short biographical anecdotes, or brief descriptions of places.
  2. At least bullet comments telling the relationships between the individuals named.
    Examples:
  3. Brief descriptions, or comments.
    Examples:

To get the required information to me simply add a note to your email with the attached image files or your US Postal Service letter with the prints along with any other details you want to add.

How do you contribute your photographs?

Contributing Scanned Images and Digital Photographs

There are two ways to get your image files to us for uploading:

1. E-Mail - Attach the compressed image files to an email message to along with a note providing the required information. If you chose this method be sure to read the email tips/limits section of this page!

2. US Postal Service - Copy your image files to a CD and mail it to the address provided in the Contributing Prints section below along with a note providing the required information and a listing of individual names vs image file name. Note: Many film developers now provide an image CD at nominal cost when your print or slide film is processed. Your CD will be returned to you after you approve the upload.

1. Send only compressed images as email attachments. Your scanner's native BMP or TIFF file is not compressed! Your digital camera image file may or may not be compressed depending on the camera and the options you choose. In either case, JPEG photo image compression is usually provided with the basic photo processing software package provided with your camera or scanner.

2. Limit your email message attachments to a single photo or a group of photo images totaling less than 1 MB (1000 kb) per message!

3. The total file size of the image attachments sent during any one day (either via a series of messages with one photo or as a group of photos attached to a single message) must also be limited to about 3 or 4 MB (3000 or 4000 kb)!

General Tips for Scanning:

Image Size/Format: Remember the target media for your photo is display on a computer monitor. For most visitors, that monitor will have a viewable display area of 600x400 pixels. However the 600x400 pixel image size is only a rule of thumb!

File Size and Compression: When I process an image file, my target compressed file size is 50kb. Again that is only a rule of thumb. Some images are quite clear when cropped and compressed to 15 kb. Other images with larger formats and more detail produce files as large as 150 kb after compression. We must also remember that the JPEG compression standard actually throws away photo information in the compression process. Applying too much compression results in a fuzzy and blurred image.

Scanner Tips:

Scanner vs Display Resolution: This setting is expressed in dot per inch (dpi) for both media. If you accept your scanner software's default 72 dpi scan resolution for a 3.5 x 5 photograph to be displayed on a monitor, you will wind up with an image that is only about 350x240 pixels. However, I have found that using 150-200 dpi for the scanner resolution usually provides a better starting point (a displayed image 750-1000 pixels wide before cropping). Your scanner software may provide a separate enlargement setting that can be used to adjust display size instead of changing the resolution.

Bottom Line: The more detail in the original scan (consistent with a reasonable compressed file size) the better. We can always throw out pixels that aren't needed in the final image. We can't add pixels without producing a fuzzy image.

Need Assistance Getting Started?  An excellent scanner tutorial can be found at A Few Scanning Tips.

Contributing Prints:

DO NOT send originals!  The webmaster refuses to be responsible for any original photographs.

If you don't have access to a scanner or would rather have someone else do the work, mail actual copies (not Xerox copier type) of your prints along with the required information to the address below. When the scanned images are uploaded and you approve the product, your prints will be returned to you.

Leona L. Gustafson
ATTN: Franklin County Photo Album
3099 Walker Road
Hilliard, OH 43026-9759

Please send an email to to let me know they are on the way.  Also, be sure to include your full name, address, and e-mail address on any correspondence.

Unknown Subject:

You can still contribute to this photo album if you have a photograph that you know was taken in Franklin County, OH of a person, group, or place that you are unable to identify. Simply let the webmaster know in an email message that the photograph was taken in Franklin County, but you don't have the names of the person or location.

    Some helpful information that you should try to send with the photograph:
  1. Where you acquired the photograph.
  2. When the photograph was taken.
  3. Where the photograph was taken.
  4. Who owned it before.

Notes:

The webmaster reserves the right to crop, enhance, and resize your image donations to meet the needs of the project. The webmaster also reserves the right to refuse, replace, or remove any images due to poor quality or general unsuitability. Your donation will become a permanent part of the Franklin County, Ohio American Local History Network (ALHN).

You retain the copyright and publishing rights for your contributed photographs except those noted here. By contributing your photos, you grant the Franklin County, Ohio ALHN non-exclusive permanent publishing rights to your photographic work.  The following notice will appear with your photos:

Contributed for use by the FRANKLIN COUNTY, OH ALHN. These electronic photographs may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the contributor, and contact the listed webmaster with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the Franklin County, OH ALHN to store the file permanently for free access.

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© Leona L. Gustafson 2004-2017
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All original content found on these pages is copyrighted by the submitter/author and all rights are reserved.