2019 has arrived and we are well and truly in the digital age, and that is wonderful and so convenient!
With our cellphones that have brilliant cameras on them we can now capture even more images of our loved ones and our experiences and of course share them with others which means that those precious memories can be so easily preserved.
However, do you know how to safely store those digital images so that they don’t disappear when that DVD or flash drive stops working?
1. Print those photos!
Why, because computers and hard drives die, but good quality prints last forever (if properly cared for).We hear all the time about the heartbreak that happens when someone’s computer or hard drive crashes and they realise that they’ve lost everything. Or their phone dies or is stolen, and all the images on that phone is lost forever!
While images from a professional photoshoot will often be provided on a DVD or, more often these days, on a USB Flash Drive, these are not archival and only work for a limited period of time of perhaps 5 – 25 years. They are also affected by mold and rot from wet conditions, and can be damaged by heat and sun. Your photographer can also only store your images for a limited period of time due to storage limits. There is however a simple solution: print.
Print all your favourite images, the moments that are the most precious, so that if something terrible does happen, you’ve got a tangible version of your memory, and something to pass down to your children. Prints are really not that expensive and even coffee table books have become very affordable.
Another point to consider is that we don’t look at our digital images very often. How often do you look through the images on your phone, computer or hard drive? If those images are displayed on your walls, or in albums on your book shelf or coffee table, my guess is that they will be viewed and enjoyed a lot more often.
2. Store your digital images over several libraries.
Because it is easy to accidentally delete or lose information stored on a computer or hard drive, or even on your phone, make sure to store your images in several locations.
The one thing that we know about hard drives is that most of the fail sooner rather than later. A good rule of thumb is that they usually fail after roughly 5 years or 50 000 hours of use. Because hard drives can fail without any notice (this has happened to me), it is not a good idea to store your images on only one. Make sure to not only have your important images on your computer, but perhaps on an external drive (preferably on two) as well. Also, don’t store all these in the same location, as you can lose all of them at once to theft, fire or floods or even have them taken hostage by malware.
CD’s, DVD’s and Blueray discs have a limited storage capacity, and can last anything from 5 years to some of the more expensive archival ones 100 years. If they are not rewritable there is also a smaller risk of accidentally deleting the images and they won’t get infected by malware or viruses. They are however susceptible to mold, damp, warping from heat, scratching etc. so be sure to do your research as to the best storage methods. Data storage devices also change from time to time, so who even knows if you will still be able to play any of these discs in 100 years’ time?
USB thumb drives and SD memory cards are not suitable for long-term archival storage because the charge decays over long periods. Ideally they should be refreshed every four or five years. You can do that by running the Windows checkdisk command.
Storing photos “in the cloud” solves all the problems of using a lot of hard drives, or dvd’s and of having to transfer your images to new media all the time. It is however important to remember that data in the cloud is not safe and not under your control.
The biggest risk with cloud storage is being locked out of your account (ever forgotten your password lol), or being hacked by someone who deletes your images or holds them for ransom if you don’t pay their fee. Of course, online storage services may also close down or go bankrupt, though I think most of the larger ones should be pretty safe to use. I always advise to sync your phone to the cloud to backup automatically, that way if your phone breaks, is lost or stolen, you have not lost all of your precious memories. Most of the free online storage companies do not however store your images at 100% resolution, but make the files smaller (resulting in loss of quality) so that they take up less space. So make sure to investigate this, or upgrade to a paid facility. Google’s free online storage will reduce the size of your images to “high quality” which is 16MP only. Facebook online photo storage is free, but it will reduce your images from printable quality to web viewing quality only.
So the key is to do backups often, store your important images over multiple platforms and storage devices and … if you love it, print it!
Durban Newborn, Maternity, Children’s Photographer
info@janinezphotography.co.za | 073 827 8200
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