ndf 2016 photographing a collection - from galleries to factories by dave sanderson

Photographing a CollectionFrom Galleries to Factories

Dave Sanderson – Project Leader Collection Imaging

aucklandmuseum.com/collections

@thebiglankyapedsanderson@aucklandmuseum.com

Auckland War Memorial Museum - AWMM

How is it funded?

‘We’ve been saving!’

The museum’s been working towards these projects for years and saving for approx. 10 years

All Collections Readiness projects are Capital Funded – realising

assets at the end of each project

Other capital projects are happening – building work and

galleries

Collections Hub (before – July 2015)

Collections Hub (before – July 2015)

Collections Hub (now – Oct 2016)

Imaging Studio

So you’ve got a space – now what?

WWI Collections

Collection Cataloguing

Pacific Collection Access

Collection Imaging

Collections Readiness

Pacific Collection Access Project Launch

Pacific Images

Pacific Images

Pacific Images

What don’t we do?

We don’t do…

Marketing & events images: External contractors &

marketing staff

Conservation imaging: Conservation staff

BAU collection photos: Collection Managers

Online content: Digital content team & various

Pictorial and Documentary collections: External

contractors and collections staff (scanning)

What do we do?

BK+ Imaging System for Macro and Micro work

5x 10x

20x

50x

Drivers for Collection Imaging

Pacific Collection Access Project

Collection Cataloguing

Project

Documentary Heritage

(Larger Artworks)

Collections Backlog

Logistical Demands Programmed Work

How do we do it?

Drivers for Collection Imaging

The 90% Rule

Staffing for Collection Imaging

3 photographers (increasing soon)

All from outside of the sector (so far)

All with good commercial studio experience (so far)

All come from a ‘time is money’ background

Rights Specialist (very much a museum background!)

The Studio

Studio Research

Smithsonian Rapid Capture Digitisation

Numerous sector studios in New Zealand

Commercial rental studios

My old scanning ‘factory’ at Archives New Zealand

Two large ‘department stores’ in New Zealand

Equipment – good but not the very best (for good reasons!)

Tethered flexible systems

Workflow as designed

Naming, exposure and colour accurate at time of capture performed tethered via laptop

Files arrive straight on processing PC passing straight through laptop which acts only as camera operational tool, not storage

Workflow as in operation

Naming, exposure and colour accurate at time of capture performed tethered via laptop

Files arrive onto laptop, then moving later through to processing PC

Tethered software

EOS Utility – Naming menu too deep within app

DSLR Remote Pro – Chosen app, but image previews not good across network

Capture One - Unstable camera connection within IT environment

Lightroom – Naming menu too deep within app

Working with Collections staff

Assess each job at the beginning – Curators & Collection Managers

Shoot sample images and request review

Once agreed – shoot the whole collection

Working with Collections Care closely

Occasional ‘photographer moment’ – an extra shot slips in

Naming schema

Unique name for each file – ‘uniqueID_001, _002 etc.

Filename cross checked several times through end-to-end process

Named at point of capture

File name directly relates to each object (slightly jealous of the Smithsonian’s barcoding system!)

Processing

No retouching at all (digital preservation)Basic metadata tags added

RAWDNG

JPEG

TIFF

Archive

CMS

Internet

WIZARDRY (DCP)

Disclaimer: Our IT guys are awesome…

ENTER:

DAMS

Pre-DAMS state

RAWDNG

JPEG

TIFF

Archive

CMS

Internet

File servers

WIZARDRY (DCP)

Pre-DAMS state

RAWDNG

JPEG

TIFF

WIZARDRY (DCP)

Archive

CMS

Internet

File servers

EXTRA WIZARDRY! (Several scripts & processes)

Post-DAMS state

RAWDNG

JPEG

TIFF

WIZARDRY (DCP)

Archive

CMS

Internet

RAW

JPEG

Long term digital guardianship has been front of mind since day #1

Digitisation done ‘safely’

New media for the museum created ‘wisely’

Born digital collecting

Digital Preservation

Collections are ‘Open by Default’

Rights Specialist – researching rights holders

Cultural Permissions policies – Māori and Pacific

Open GLAM

All sounds wonderful Dave…

Surely something has gone wrong?

Equipment issues

Land Vertebrate Study Skins

Logistics wins…

Small collections of objects

Logistics losses…

Victims of our own work…

Everyone wants their photos done!(but we can’t do them!)

Wins?

50,000 images +15,000 objects +

Structural colour

Structural colour

Structural colour

Grey areas?

Shooting for galleries

Shooting for galleries

Shooting for galleries

Photographer’s Faves

Questions from you?aucklandmuseum.com/collections

@thebiglankyapedsanderson@aucklandmuseum.com