Computer Information
The HTML and Javascript used in the photo album was developed using
Netscape Navigator 4.02 running under Windows 3.11. Testing has also
been carried out using Navigator 4.02 for Windows NT, Navigator 3.0
for Windows 3.11 and Navigator 3.0 under Unix X11. The layout uses only
standard HTML and Javascript features and, although it has not been
tested, there is no reason why it should not work perfectly(!) using
Internet Explorer or any other frames and Javascript capable browser
conforming to HTML 3.2.
Because of the way in which inlined images are loaded, you are advised
to set your browser memory cache as high as possible (see the preferences
menu in Netscape). A figure of 5Mb is a good starting point, but 10Mb
is preferable to allow the Javascript driven comparison windows to switch
without reloading each picture from disk. You are advised to allow all of
the images in the picture window to finish loading before selecting any of
the links - this may be fairly slow on older systems, so please be patient!
The photographs are stored in directories with names reflecting
the name of the town or village. Sub-directories called
either old/ or new/ are used to distinguish between
the turn of the century and modern views, and the HTML files are
held in the directory html/. All filenames follow the standard
DOS convention of eight letters with a three letter extension.
Because of the short time scale on which this project was undertaken,
the HTML is fairly basic. There are no fancy animated gifs or clever
Java applets partly because there was no time, but mainly because the
purpose of the album is to present the photographs simply and clearly.
Due to difficulties with some "features" (i.e. bugs) of Javascript
under Windows 3.11, the display and comparison window functions I wrote
using dynamic HTML did not always work properly with some configurations
(they were fine under both Unix X11 and Navigator 3.0).
Rather than risk the album being unusable by some people, I dropped
these functions in favour of static HTML. As a result, some of the
layout code is messy and long winded, but seemed the only safe way to
do it in the available time.
There are no external links (except e-mail addresses in mailto:
hyperlinks) and the entire album may be browsed off-line.
Photographic Information
The vast majority of the new photographs required for this project were taken
in the last two months. For those interested in photography, my camera kit
consists of two Canon EOS bodies (1000FN and Elan-IIe), a selection of
lenses ranging in focal length from 24mm to 300mm and a Canon 540EZ
speedlite. Most of the photographs in the album were taken with my
trusty Canon 24mm f2.8 wide-angle lens. A handful of pictures were taken
with Canon 35-105mm f4.5-f5.6, Canon 100mm f2.8 macro and
Canon 50mm f1.8 lenses.
One of the unfortunate side-effects of
photographing buildings with 35mm cameras is known as
converging verticals. The sides of most buildings are parallel;
tilting the camera enough to obtain the necessary field of view means
that because the top of the building is much further away than the base,
the parallel sides seem to converge towards a point in the sky.
Many of the old cameras used to take the postcard views would have
been of a larger format (the 35mm stills format was only invented in
the 1930's) and may also
have had bellows between the lens and film plane. The use of bellows
allows the photographer to employ a technique known as rising front
to correct converging verticals. See the
comparison window
for the Bath Guildhall for an example of what I mean.
The equivalent PC (Perspective Correction) lens for my camera would cost
over £1500!!
A total of five 36 exposure rolls of Konica ISO 100
were used during this project.
Processing was by Lab-35 of Milton Keynes, price £9.95 + p&p
for a 36 exposure set of 7.5"x5" prints.