[krantzbucks]

Sigh. The ongoing battle about what is requested, posted, or even desired on this site or even this sub forum. Hard to believe this but it will soon be eight years since I first discovered and joined the OOTP web forum. I first chanced upon the OOTP website and the historic Gambo and T_Will thread in 2010 while playing another baseball simulation and was seeking photos to complete that game's photo pack to better enjoy the game as a progression of history. That thread and its previous iterations were a gold mine of discovery and really enabled me to flesh out that collection to the point where instead of seeking obscure missing players in my database, I found myself searching for better images of existing photos.

After a time I bacame fascinated by the works of Bill II, Ctrane, Sal1199, Simarc and several of the older contributors who converted the black and white originals into brand new Sparkling fresh full color masterpieces that made their subjects seem so much more vital and for lack of a better word "current." I wondered how hard it would be to do this myself and did a little research, chancing upon a free program called GIMP and a webpage with a basic "how to get started" tutorial for that program.

Turns out it's time consuming and occasionally frustrating, but not that difficult to produce some quality colorized images-- particularly if you are using them at smaller aspect ratios. I started by posting a few test efforts and even began doing some requests from other forum members. Usually these requests would coincide with an image I also would use, so doing them was no real skin of my nose. For a while everything was fine and hunky-dory and then some of the Gambo contributors complained that the requests were taking up too much space on the forum.

It was suggested that a separate forum for such requests and their results be created. Some of these requests changed from being a request for colorization to more of a "Photoshop" treatment, whether that be a different cap or an entirely different uniform. I experimented with these sort of images, I always liked that Fatjack used to call them "Frankensteining" because it usually involved combining photos of two different players. Some of these would yield good results for me, most-- the majority I would say-- do not. But I tried my best and as a wise man once said "It didn't cost ya nothing."

Six years later and here we are today. I have tried to stay out of the wars going on here between contibutors, requests, and commentors. As I have previously stated, I came here to find baseball photos and that goal was accomplished and then some. After a while I wanted to share what I had found and then later what I was able to create. I like helping people and the forum here continues to find new images to impove my own collection and many that are just plain fun to see. I hate to see the squabbling and fighting that is going on here .

Here is what I like to see. When someone submits an image, make it the best quality image of the player or subject that you are able to find. If you want a colorized image, check to see if there is already a color image that exists. If you are looking for a player with a specific team, do a google search for the player, I would also suggest searching these very forums using the search feature.

Concerning the search feature, I have also requested that requests be labeled as fully as you can. In the subject line, the default format for a post here has always been Name and Debut year. This really helps the "Search the forum" feature. In addition, any notes that you find with your submission are VERY useful-- like the year the photo was taken. Like I said previously, please search for a better image or an existing colorized image before submitting your request. Please understand that I will also search for a better image at times, particularly if the submission is of too low resolution, too grainy, too dark, or too light to work what "magic" I can with the photo.

As to what is submitted, what derserves to be created , or this "merit" question that seems to be the new debate, I don't really think there should be any real taboos or absolutes. Like everyone else here I started with and continue to focus on my own agenda, the best possible images in the baseball simulation I continue to play. Once most of the missing photos were found, I started with a new goal, to acquire better versions of the photos I had and later to replace those with color images of as many players as I could. That remains my primary focus on this subforum.

I like working with real images best, colorizing them is my first best skill and those results are usually the best. My personal preference would be to work on images of players with no color photos, doing those who have high quality black and white originals (ie the Conlon Collection) first. There have already been several instances where I have colorized a black and white image of a modern player or done a "cap swap" or photoshopped a player into another uniform only to have a real color image of that player with that team surface shortly thereafter. I realize these things happen, but this goes to why anyone requesting a particular player photo should be thankful when another contributor posts an image from their own collection. No need for the sniping and name calling either way.

Bottom line, post your requests. If I feel like I can make a reasonable effort at the request I will probably atempt it. I know others have their own pet projects and would like to see their own undertakings realized. I am glad to help you out where I can. But... keep in mind that these are all pro-bono works. I remain an amateur and hobbyist and maintain a full time job as well as family life and other interests. Whew! Funny in what a spot a few hardcore baseball image collectors and historians whose interests for the most part overlap, can find themselves.

One last point, echoing UKBaseballfan, "I would also offer a tip if you value your image collection then back it up, memory sticks are relatively cheap."
I recently had a hard drive fail and lost a lot of my older works. That also is amplified by the sad demise of Baseball-Birthdays.com's fantastic web forum where I had posted a number of the images I created.