Blemished cover art submission protocol

I just obtained a few dozen CD releases with the previous owners ID written with a felt tip marker and or small scrape on the mediums. These are dime size and are usually not hiding any critical art. So should I go ahead and scan and submit them when I am entering a new release or adding the medium scan to an existing one? A couple are not found on MB, Discogs etc… I’m not very good at trying to correct them with gimp/paint, etc… In the past, I have tried different means to remove such marks with “Goof Off”, isopropyl alcohol, etc., with varied results including creating more damage. Like all of you, I try to keep them as pristine as possible. As always, guidance is welcome.:smiley:

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I have a few of those, where the previous owner clipped a corner, or * shudder* made an indent in the spine with a fretsaw.

I’d just upload them with a note in the comment box. Especially if no artwork exists yet for that entry.

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Those are not done by previous owners per se; those are deletion marks made by the manufacturer.

Same. I have a few releases with such marks; they’re so rare that it would be extremely hard/expensive to find un-remaindered copies.
Here’s one for which I uploaded cover art even though it was remaindered:

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A bad picture of the actual release is better than one of another release, or none at all. I would correct blemishes had I time for it, now only doing a visible cut-out of things like previous owner name and address. STYLE-939 Cover art attribute: Suboptimal would be an easy marker. (The recently added ‘Raw/unedited’ iMO is for raw pictures of objects otherwise fine, not fine pictures or blemished objects.)

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I never considered that. Interesting, thanks.

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“would correct blemishes”

If anyone “correcting blemishes” could also upload their uncorrected scan and comment it as such then archivistic people and display people will all be grateful.

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Agreed. With “blemishes”, I here (as in the ticket linked) took that word from OP, meaning physical ones: Before scanning, removal of release-irrelevant stickers and such, if removal itself does not come with worse blemish. On scanned images I will not “correct” moiré pattern, do dithering, anti-aliasing and whatelse, partly because I see that as rather out-of-bounds artistic intent.

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The only exception I would make to this is if the “blemish” is something with personally identifiable information, e.g. an address sticker.

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Thanks all for your guidance, I get the gist of what has been said and will now be able to continue my “blemished” submissions with confidence.:partying_face: As always, I am truly grateful. TTFN

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I guess I’m the contrarian here. I try to correct any damage to the cover if I can do so without compromising the information presented. I used to buy almost exclusively from the cheap bins, so 60-70% of my vinyl and CDs have deletion damage. Most of that damage is around the edges of the cover where it’s a solid color or a pattern, so a bit of careful work with a clone brush is all it needs.

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I follow your thoughts. For my own use I am trying to learn Gimp or paint. How’s that going? Not too good. lol But it’s just for my use. I will still add my few blemished CD mediums as is to MB. @mmirG made a valid point.

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Paint.net is much easier to learn that GIMP.

The Clone tool isn’t too hard once you get in to using it. In Paint.net it is just “CTRL+CLICK” an area that looks similar, then set a brush size, now scribble on the bits that are bad. As you move your brush the “paint” colour comes from the area you CTRL+CLICKED on.

Or just upload them with scribbles and add comments. If someone is really bored and your images are uploaded at high quality then it allows someone else to download and repair them.

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I’m more than happy to have your corrected images available.
If you would also upload the raw scan that would make the archivist in me happy too.

Here is a link to my latest attempt at retouching. Both scans are here. https://musicbrainz.org/release/7d2b3c0b-379d-44e7-8519-708154f21a1c/cover-art I’m really happy to know it’s okay to add both.

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In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a “Raw/Unedited” type box you can check for unaltered versions of images. I added it in edit #65362146 :wink:

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Thanks for noticing and letting me know. While playing with my new photo manipulation program I failed to see it changed the size when I saved. (The front art was not manipulated) I put the “tiny” scan up for removal and added the ‘full figured’ size. :upside_down_face: I just forgot to check the “Raw/Unedited” box since this was the first time I had submitted this type and cruised right over it out of habit. TTFN

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