Notes
More Info
It should not be a surprise that this topic touches upon other things which Ancient Hixtory has covered. As noted below, past articles provide more depth about several topics, and can be accessed by the links provided here:
| Link | Description |
| August 2019 Edition | Hicksville's beginnings; When tunnels made it feasible for commuters to turn L.I. into suburbia |
| June 2018 Edition | WW I brings the Service Flag phenomenon to Hicksville |
| May 2019 Edition | The Hicksville men who died in WW I; Creation of the WW I Monument |
The Distorting Lens of Time
I want to expand on a point I began to make here some months ago. Many times, the quality of the only online photograph of a given subject suffers for at least one of these reasons:
- It was created under difficult circumstances.
- It was shot without adequate awareness of film and lighting constraints.
- Inferior film or processing was used.
- The resulting picture was stored improperly.
I feel that such flaws usually detract from what the photo should communicate. And so, each month I spend a significant portion of the time I devote to Ancient Hixtory trying to negate the worst flaws in the best photographs I have found. Two examples follow:
The glorious "Hicksville Orange" of the first photograph probably resulted from using outdoor color film with indoor incandescent light. Digitally removing the hue while trying to maintain proper contrast resulted in a less crisp image.
The second photo appears to have been shot through a reflective pane of glass (likely the glass of a picture frame), using color film to capture a monotone image. Dark "fringes" in the corners indicate either a poor lens that failed to illuminate the film evenly, or an improperly-fitted lens hood. As I wanted to give readers a good idea of what Depot Square looked like, without distractions, I leveled the horizon and did some terraforming - aka faking. I digitally created land and vegetation to fill in the absent corners.
I hope that historians of the future have an easier time with today's digital pictures.
Ciao!
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Please Stay Healthy - I have Very Few Readers As It Is; I'd Hate to Lose Any!
