Taking the Tazmanian Oath

Our primary goal in scanning is to faithfully reproduce high-quality images,…and then in some cases attempt to improve and/or edit the characteristics of…the original images.…However, before we begin the capturing, editing, and improving image processes,…we must address a fundamental issue and take an oath.…Just like the Hippocratic Oath in medicine, our prime directive in scanning is…to first do no harm.…While we tend to view the scanning and image editing process as…an image enhancing process, it is also indeed true that many of the tools, processes, and…procedures we use during the image capture, editing, and output can actually…degrade the quality of our images-- and in many cases significantly so.…

Processes such as changing the dimensional and linear resolution of our images,…repeatedly resaving our images in different file formats--and especially…compressed formats like JPEG-- applying improper tone compression, too much…sharpening, and converting our images through multiple color spaces, can…