Sections:
About Capturing Images
Using the Image Capture Screen
The Capture Screen Image Size Icon
The Rotate Image Icon
The Pan Window Icon
The LSI Area Tool Icon
The Zoom Windows Icon
The Histogram Window Icon
About Capturing Images
Image capture is the act of taking a digital picture of a document. DCam is designed explicitly to capture images of archive records at both a high speed and a high degree of accuracy, quickly creating pristine records of valuable information that can be used by people around the world to discover their families.
Using the Image Capture Screen
The image capture screen provides tools that help you view records in many ways, helping you capture the highest quality images possible. The image capture screen includes the following sections:
Image viewer toolbar
- Thumbnail images
- X-Key buttons
- Capture images panel
- Capture screen
Using the image viewer toolbar, you can zoom in and out to check the quality of a captured image, add image tags, and perform a variety of other functions. You can see a description of the buttons on the toolbar by hovering your mouse over each button.
The image viewer toolbar buttons include the following:
| Tool | Description | Shortcut key |
| Set the image to full screen or to a selected zoom percentage. | F11 (full screen), Ctrl+5, Tab (set zoom percentage) |
| Rotate the image clockwise or counterclockwise | Ctrl+7 (clockwise), Ctrl+8(counterclockwise) |
| Pan window | N/A |
| LSI area tool | N/A |
| Zoom windows | N/A |
| Histogram window | Ctrl+G |
| Image tags | Ctrl+Q |
| Quality checks | Ctrl+U |
| Show my results | N/A |
| Enable or disable live preview mode | N/A |
| View template in preview mode, alternately showing the image and the image template overlay | N/A |
| View grid on top of image | N/A |
| Focus the camera | Ctrl+F |
| Recalibrate the camera | Ctrl+E |
| Move the toolbar | N/A |
The Capture Screen Image Size Icon
You can view the entire image on the capture screen or view the image magnified to a selected zoom percentage. To do so, click the Full Screen icon.
Note: An image set to full screen view is not necessarily a zoom percentage of 100%. The zoom percentage value in full screen view varies, depending on the size of the captured image. To magnify your view of the image, use the set zoom percentage tool.
You can change the magnification of the image using the zoom percentage drop-down by entering a percentage directly. To do so, click the Image Capture screen, and rotate the mouse thumbwheel to zoom in or to zoom out. The range of magnification is from .4% to 25,600%.
The Rotate Image Icon
This option allows you to rotate the selected image clockwise or counterclockwise at 90º increments.
The Pan Window Icon
To view the entire image in the pan window while viewing a magnified section on the image capture screen, click the Pan Window icon.
Note: The best practice during capture is to magnify the capture screen to 2,300% while viewing the entire document in the pan window. This allows you to verify that the focus and quality standards are being met at both the pixel level and at the image level.
The LSI Area Tool Icon
To quickly check the LSI score for a captured image, click the LSI Area Tool icon. Depending on the LSI score, you may need to recalibrate the camera.
The Zoom Windows Icon
To magnify and view 2 separate regions of an image at the same time, click the Double Zoom Windows icon. The zoomed regions are highlighted in blue and outlined by a thin dashed blue and white border.
To select the region that the zoom windows are viewing, do one of the following:
- Adjust the horizontal and vertical scroll bars in the zoom window
- Left-click the area highlighted in blue, and drag it.
- Left-click the image in the zoom window, and drag it.
To adjust the magnification level in the zoom window, click the drop-down arrow in the zoom window zoom percentage tool, and do one of the following:
- Enter a percentage directly in the zoom percentage tool.
- Place the mouse cursor on the image in the pan window, and rotate the mouse thumb wheel.
Note: After using or adjusting any zoom settings on the capture screen, to resume capturing images with the X-Keys stick, click on the capture screen, or click on any thumbnail image.
The Histogram Window Icon
Histograms are visual tools used to determine the tonal range from light to dark in an image. They also show the number of pixels for each color or shade of gray. To determine if the proper tonal range is captured for an image, click the Histogram Window icon.
An image with good tonal range shows a histogram with a short peak on the left, representing black colors, and a taller peak on the right, representing white. When both sides of the 2 peaks are visible, all the image details will be captured.
This is an example of a histogram showing a good tonal range for an image with a white background and black lettering.
An image with poor tonal range might show a histogram with tall, thin spikes on the left or right sides. The spikes for black or white colors indicate image clipping. Clipping happens when there is an unusual number of pixels at a given color value or shade of gray, causing less image detail.
This is an example of a histogram with a poor tonal range—low range clipping or underexposure.
This is an example of a histogram with a poor tonal range—high range clipping or overexposure.
Poor tonal range is also evident when an image appears washed out or has poor black and white contrast: the 2 peaks on the histogram are not clearly defined, and most of the pixels are grouped in the middle. Captured images with poor tonal range are missing detail at the lightest or at the darkest areas.
On some images, such as on photostats or blueprints, the lightest image areas appear darkest, and the darkest areas appear lightest. Good tonal range on this type of image shows a histogram with a tall peak on the left, representing black colors and a shorter peak on the right, representing white colors.
Note: DCam displays a warning box if the image is overexposed or underexposed. The amount of over or underexposure is 5% of pixels falling outside of a given range. You can adjust this percentage in preferences.
Histograms can be viewed from any captured image by doing the following:
Step 1: To view the histogram of a captured image, click the thumbnail of the image.
Step 2: On the image viewer toolbar, click the Histogram Window icon. The histogram window displays.
Step 3: Evaluate the histogram according to the information provided above.
Step 4: To reduce poor tonal range and image clipping, recalibrate the grayscale, and make any corrections to the lighting balance.
Step 5: For interval, click Daily.
The Image Tag Icon
An image tag lets the Quality Team and FamilySearch guests know there was a problem with the original document and not with the capture process. To add a tag, click the Image Tag icon.
Tags can be placed on the individual thumbnail images at the time of capture or later.
If there is a quality issue that applies to all images in a folder, apply image tags from the folder screen or by selecting all of the thumbnail images in the folder and clicking the Image Tag icon.
Quality tags can be added while capturing images or during image evaluation by performing the following steps:
Step 1: Select the image you want to tag.
- To add a quality tag to a sequential group of thumbnail images, click on the first thumbnail image in the group, and then hold down the shift key while clicking on the last thumbnail image that you want to tag.
- If the thumbnails you want to tag are nonsequential, click on the first thumbnail image and, while holding down the keyboard Ctrl key, click on each additional thumbnail image that you would like to tag. Once the images are highlighted, stop holding down the Ctrl key.
Step 2: Either right-click the selected image and click Image Tags from the pop-up menu, or click the Quality Tag icon on the image viewer toolbar.
- Choose the quality tags that you want assigned to the image.
- Click OK. The glued or covered information tag is automatically added to all attachment thumbnail images.
Note: When you import images, the imported image tag is automatically selected and cannot be changed.
Publishing Restrictions
Sometimes handwritten information is included in the margin of a record. If there is a handwritten date that is later than or outside of the date range indicated for the folder or listing, it could affect whether FamilySearch can publish the record. For example, the written date may put the record outside the dates included in FamilySearch’s contract with the archive.
To include a handwritten date as an image tag, on the image tags dialog, check the Image May Have Publishing Restrictions check box, and then click the Year of the latest date, if present field, and enter the date.
The Image Quality Checks Icon
To open the quality checks dialog to review warnings during evaluation, or when reviewing flagged images for retake, click the Quality Checks icon.
The My Results Report Icon
Refer to Filling Out Weekly Time and Production Reports (TPR).
The Live Preview Mode Icon
To see what the camera sees, click the Preview icon. This option is helpful if you need to reposition a document before capturing the image. Otherwise, the image area displays the last captured image.
With preview enabled you can view an overlay of the selected template. To do so, click the View Template in Preview Mode icon.
The Gridlines Icon
To help align an image on the copyboard while previewing or capturing an image, click the View Grid on Top of Image icon.
The Focus Tool Icon
To check the focus of the camera at any time, zoom the image to 2,300%. You can also use the focus tool to quickly refocus without going through the entire camera calibration process. To do so, click the Focusicon.
You can use this tool to periodically refocus when capturing a book. As a book’s pages are turned, the height of the book can change, causing the pages to fall outside the depth of field.
The Calibrate Tool Icon
This tool allows you to quickly calibrate the camera while in capture mode.
Moving the Toolbar
To customize the position of the toolbar sections, click the five vertical dots at the front of the section you want to move, and drag it where you want.