There are certain things to consider when digitizing items. First, the user needs to consider the type of item, whether it is text or a physical object. When a text in a book or print source is captured, the focus is on the text. For the photograph of an object that implies a three-dimensional view but displays a two-dimensional view, the user might consider capturing the object with a different digital tool. Second, the user has to consider the type of background and lighting for the item. For example, certain objects are captured best in dim or bright lighting. Paul Conway contends, “Ideally rendering decisions take place under controlled lighting and through a carefully calibrated computer monitor, tools that may not be readily available to the most skilled user” (“Building Meaning” 5). Dark or light backgrounds can enhance or diminish the visual display of the text or object. This part of the digitization process becomes subjective and based on the user’s skills and experience. Third, the user needs to consider that a three-dimensional view of the item is impossible to capture in a photograph. However, a 3D view of the item can be best captured with a video because it shows all sides of the item from different angles, depending on the user’s experience with the video camera. The user can also record sound of the item by using video to enhance the visual experience and evoke an additional sensory detail of an item.
Photographs capture the images of the items by providing a visual reference for them. By making a video of the text, the user can guide the reader to zoom in and out of the image. Manoff cites N. Katherine Hayles by explaining that “a reader, viewer, or listener’s experience of a text is shaped by its material characteristics” (“Materiality of Digital” 313). The still image or photograph of the the text allows the reader to view it by inviting his or her own experience with textual resources. On the other hand, photographs do not capture other sensory details such as smell and some texture.
The video is the best form of digitization of different items. It provides a better visual of the item from different angles. It displays close ups of the item, enhances the view of the texture, and it records sound. Similar to the photograph, the video does not capture smell. Depending on the videography, the item’s size can be determined. On the other hand, the photograph is a more suitable digitization of the text item since it is a flat visual source, and the user is focusing only on the text. The OCR is a great tool for enhancing the photograph of the text by capturing an visual image as if it was viewed in real time.
Working with digitized representations of items teaches scholars and digital humanists that capturing an item in its original form changes once it is captured as a photographic image and video. Something does get lost in the digitized translation of each item. According to Melissa Terras’ article, “Digitisation and Digital Resources in the Humanities,” “Digitisation programs aim to create consistent images of documents and artefacts which are fundamentally individual and inconsistent, presenting a variety of physical attributes and capture requirements to the digitiser.” Perhaps, the guidelines for digitization will become uniform for the sake of consistency; or they may change depending on the purpose, research techniques, the availability of the digital tools at the time, and rise of new types of artifacts for digitization.
