An image is often brought to life thru the eye of a camera lens. Unfortunately for the novice photgrapher the camera has settings and filters that can alter the color content, as well as, the resolution and light in the image. In addition, the film used in the camera also has chemical biases influencing and altering the photographers original vision. Time can also pale an image with a certain color (magenta, brown, ...) as the particular chemicals and material used in that image age.

In the second stage of the life of an image, some individual (perhaps you) will scan the image. This is also referred to as digitizing the image. Digitizing an image allows the image to be, for example,  posted on a web page. In the digitizing process, the scanner used has the same biases of color, resolution, brightness and contrast as mentioned above. All of these biases can dramatically alter your viewing enjoyment. Finally the scanner works in conjunction with image editing software. Image editing software has several purposes, one of which is to store the image in one of the many standard computer formats (such as .bmp, .gif, .tif, .jpg, ...). Image editing software also, as the name imples, can directly effect for better or for worse the image that has been scanned. That is its main purpose in life. An example of a good use of this software is to remove the pale that tends to develop over time.

In summary, all the steps mentioned above affect an image as it is viewed by others. The scanning and image editing steps we perform can, even with the best of intentions, inaccurately or inadequately interpret our documents and photos. This affects how we today and future generations will view and enjoy these documents. The current state of the technology that is used to convert our photos, documents, ... to a digital format can best be described as being very poor in quality or alternatively very expensive and or complex to perform correctly. Therefore, it is very difficult to guarantee to future generations that the steps that we perform today in passing on our visual history to them may not be performed more accurately by those same future generations. By not destoying any originals and simply letting time pass while technology gets better and cheaper, we have enabled future generations the right to revisit these same documents and photos, with the very real possibility of improving the results.

In the third stage of life, an image, after being scanned, should be stored in a dry cool place for future generations. They will most certainly be grateful. 

Please, DO NOT DESTOY ANY ORIGINALS after they have been scanned!