Acknowledging Sources of Photos

[Robin Helmond]

We are very diligent to cite the sources of the facts we record about our ancestors, but I wonder how we should treat photos of them. There doesn't seem to a formal place to record the sources, but I suppose we could use the comments section of the multimedia page.
I wonder what other people do?

[Reiner L. Sauer]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

We are very diligent to cite the sources of the facts we record about our ancestors, but I wonder how we should treat photos of them. There doesn't seem to a formal place to record the sources, but I suppose we could use the comments section of the multimedia page.
I wonder what other people do?

Hello,
To record this for a non-published photo, I've set up a source type for "Photo" with the following fields:

1) Photographer: Smith, Jane
2) Description of photo: Smith-Jones Wedding at the Plaza Hotel
3) Further description (people left to right): Ida Smith, Andrew Smith (1902-1975), C
4) Size of original photo in inches/cm: 9 ½ x 11
3) Place it was taken: New York
4) Date it was created: 4 Jul 1931
-----
5) Legend Writer: Ida Smith
6) Date of Legend: 4 Jul 1983
----
7) Private Collection: John Smith, Nevada, Son of Smith-Jones
8) Received from: Josef Smith, Grandson of Smith Jones
8) Date received: 1 Feb 2018

The photo itself is attached to the source as a multimedia item.
For a photo-collection/album, I set up a different type of source; same for a published photo, because they require different source fields.

Drag the source number (e.g. #1234) of the photo onto e.g. the wedding date/location, or any other person appearing on the photo.

For thumbnails (or cut outs of same photo, for the person(s) card), I use a Fact field named "Photo" where I enter e.g. "Smith, Andrew (1902-1975) 1931" with the same source number (e.g. #1234) to indicate where the cut outs are from.

Best regards
Reiner

[Robin Helmond]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

Hello,
To record this for a non-published photo, I've set up a source type for "Photo" with the following fields:

1) Photographer: Smith, Jane
2) Description of photo: Smith-Jones Wedding at the Plaza Hotel
3) Further description (people left to right): Ida Smith, Andrew Smith (1902-1975), C
4) Size of original photo in inches/cm: 9 ½ x 11
3) Place it was taken: New York
4) Date it was created: 4 Jul 1931
-----
5) Legend Writer: Ida Smith
6) Date of Legend: 4 Jul 1983
----
7) Private Collection: John Smith, Nevada, Son of Smith-Jones
8) Received from: Josef Smith, Grandson of Smith Jones
8) Date received: 1 Feb 2018

The photo itself is attached to the source as a multimedia item.
For a photo-collection/album, I set up a different type of source; same for a published photo, because they require different source fields.

Drag the source number (e.g. #1234) of the photo onto e.g. the wedding date/location, or any other person appearing on the photo.

For thumbnails (or cut outs of same photo, for the person(s) card), I use a Fact field named "Photo" where I enter e.g. "Smith, Andrew (1902-1975) 1931" with the same source number (e.g. #1234) to indicate where the cut outs are from.

Best regards
Reiner

Thank you for your detailed and extensive suggestion. It seems to me that instead of attaching a source to a photo, we are attaching a photo to a source. I may be missing something, but if a photo appears in the multimedia section, how would the presence of the source be evident?

[Kim]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

I suppose we could use the comments section of the multimedia page.

This is what I do; place source info in the comments section of the multimedia page.

[Robin Helmond]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

This is what I do; place source info in the comments section of the multimedia page.

That's what I think I will do. It is not a structured place for such information, but it will do. I may experiment with the photo EXIF information too.

[Reiner L. Sauer]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

Thank you for your detailed and extensive suggestion. It seems to me that instead of attaching a source to a photo, we are attaching a photo to a source. I may be missing something, but if a photo appears in the multimedia section, how would the presence of the source be evident?

Hello,
You have a couple of options to make the presence of the source (for a photo) evident: For example, attach the source

a) to an event/ a fact field, which records the event/fact for the photo e.g. marriage, christening, retirement (party), or
b) to a note in the notes field, which describes why the photo was taken. For example: "John met President John F. Kennedy during the 1960 election campaign."
c) a fact-field (e.g. named „Photo) where you enter "Smith, Andrew (1902-1975) 1931“ i.e. the name, dates of the person appearing on the respective group-photo (, cropped) or the cut-out thereof.
d) copy the source preview information into the „Comments“ section of the „Media Window“ on the person card. Caution: the contents of the „Comments“ section won’t appear on any Reunion report; it will just appear on the screen.

as to the photo itself: you can drag it
a) to the "Media Card“ of the person; this way, the photo (or a cropped version of it) can be included in one of the many book reports or web projects.
b) to the „Family Multimedia“ (Sidebar >Multimedia). Caution: this photo won’t appear on any Reunion report; it will just appear on the screen
c) to the „Mulitmedia“-Section of the Source. This allows the photo to be included in a Web Project.

I’m a big fan of EXIF- and IPTC-information, but unfortunately Reunion doesn’t really use it. Neither can Reunion-reports include it, nor can you search for IPTC/EXIF information in the "Comments" field of Reunion. Let’s hope this will change in future.

I hope this helps to explain where to store photos and sources, so that their presence is evident.

Best regards
Reiner

[Robin Helmond]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

Thank you again Reiner for a detailed reply. That's given me something to think about.

[ttl]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

Reunion can't edit EXIF/IPTC data, but if you open a photo in the Media Window, you can click on the green up arrow in the lower right corner and Reunion will load selected EXIF/IPTC fields into the Comments field. There's more info on what's supposed to be imported in the Metadata Imported by Reunion table in the Media Window section of the manual.

[Dardel]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

Reunion can't edit EXIF/IPTC data, but if you open a photo in the Media Window, you can click on the green up arrow in the lower right corner and Reunion will load selected EXIF/IPTC fields into the Comments field. There's more info on what's supposed to be imported in the Metadata Imported by Reunion table in the Media Window section of the manual.

JPEG image files contain EXIF data provided the picture was taken by a fairly recent digital camera.

[ttl]

Re: Acknowledging Sources of Photos

JPEG image files contain EXIF data provided the picture was taken by a fairly recent digital camera.

Not sure what you mean by “fairly recent,” but if someone is interested in this feature, he should give it a shot... my experience is that most digital cameras have at least rudimentary EXIF support. I’d guess no smart phone camera fails to support metadata. Also, one can manually include EXIF data in most image processing apps and I think some scanning software. I’m not suggesting the green up arrow is the final answer to the image metadata question, but it’s one possible piece of the solution puzzle that some may find useful.