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Author Topic: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call  (Read 22782 times)

MikeRoss

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Re: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call
« Reply #20 on: December 06, 2015, 01:23:29 pm »

Complete agreement - friends and family and other photographers have taken me to task for being a "luddite" and making prints.

While the digital representation of the image should, in theory, be immortal; the task of safeguarding the physical media and the continuous process of format and device conversions in order to preserve access as technologies change makes this a remote possibility for most images.
 
The combination of physical and virtual image management required for the digital domain is more complex than the preservation of a printed image (inks and light degradation etc aside). The lack of standards for image format complicates the situation (DNF anyone). Some physical images will not make it - many digital will not.

I do take pains to safeguard the digital forms of my images: regular backups to a separate device and the semi-annual archiving of the physical drives to storage. Cloud storage and backup? who knows how long or of what quality or privacy.

The ones you treasure need to be kept in both forms for as long as you care. Nice things about a print; you can hang it on the wall and the only technology needed to access it are your eyes and some light - don't get me wrong I am as technical as you like but some things do benefit from simplicity. 
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Ray

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Re: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call
« Reply #21 on: December 10, 2015, 12:10:46 am »

I much prefer to see my old photos on a large high-resolution TV screen, and look forward to the day when large 4k OLED screens become affordable.

I have of course printed a number of scans of my old photos, preferring A4 size than 6"x4", but I definitely prefer to present my photos on a large TV screen rather than turn pages in an album, for either private viewing or for guests.

Hanging prints on the wall that one considers are rather special, is fine. My largest print is a 12ft x 5ft polyptych. When the prints eventually fade, they can be easily replaced because the digital file is virtually permanent, provided one uses multiple back-up storage devices, which is always recommended.

I'm very pleased with my Seagate 4-terabyte Fast Pocket HD. It's faster than standard USB 3.0 pocket hard drives and 4 terabytes is almost enough to accommodate all my scans and digital images.
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DanLehman

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Re: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call
« Reply #22 on: February 03, 2016, 12:50:13 pm »

Quote
the print is important but just as important is the caption
 

OTOH, I'm often indebted to the digital photo's EXIF data --my supplemental memory!


 ;)
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dreed

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Re: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call
« Reply #23 on: February 05, 2016, 07:52:09 pm »

I wonder if in 40 years time we will read about 60 year olds exclaiming about how they just uncovered a pile of pictures they took with their then brand new iPhone 6 or if all of those images will have been lost to facebook or Google or Amazon or Apple or ... lost passwords, forgotten accounts, failed companies, batteries that no longer work, no cables or chargers, etc,

If I died tomorrow, all of the photos on my hard drives would be lost forever. Reformated, sold on ebay, etc.

The prints on my walls would likely go on someone else's walls.

The albums of photos would likely end up in someone's attic.

If you died tomorrow, where would your photos go?
Would digital vs printed likely end up in a different destination?
« Last Edit: February 06, 2016, 10:07:35 am by dreed »
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Herbc

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Re: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call
« Reply #24 on: February 27, 2016, 11:24:41 am »

Indeed we all have the boxes full. My concern is with color shots.  I have b/w I made in studio 60 years ago that are still as good as when printed.
Do the new inks like the p800's pigments pass the longevity test? 8)
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Les Sparks

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Re: Box Of Photos - My Wake Up Call
« Reply #25 on: February 29, 2016, 10:23:24 am »

It looks like life of color prints depends on luck. Some of the drug store color prints in my boxes are as full of color as I remember. Other prints in the same box are almost lost. And of course the ones that are almost lost some of the most important (to me).

As far as what will happen to my photos when I die. Some of the prints on my walls will probably be saved and most tossed. The photos on my hard disks will be lost unless I take special steps now to preserve them. This means that the record of my kids and grand kids growing up will be lost forever unless I print the important ones now. I've started doing this by making books.

I thinks it's really important to preserve some of my family history in printed photos. It'll help my grand kids for example to know that I didn't always have white hair and look like a grandfather--my kids could use the same reminder. All my memories of my grandmothers are of them as grandmothers. But I recently came across some prints and was amazed to discover that both grandmothers were beautiful. Changed my whole idea of who they were.

For most of us, even if we're pros, the family snaps that we neglect and store somewhere on our hard drives are the only really important photos we have.
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