POLL - Files or prints?

[WillCAD]

I have seen many people commenting that they print their pics and then delete the images (which is unthinkable heresy to me!) To these folks, a picture is not a picture unless it's printed.

Others keep the files, but treat them like negatives - they are put away in a closet someplace as a backup and never looked at in digital format.

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I never print any of my photos. I keep the files on my computers (backed up in multiple places, of course), and use them for various digital projects, but when I look at my pics it's always on some kind of screen, never on paper.

What do you do?

 

[Alacrity]

I keep most digital. Many shots go online. Some I print for gifts or decorating.

 

[handicap18]

I have my photo albums that go back the 25+ years I've been taking pictures. I like having them showing the kids, checking them out myself every now and then and having them out for others to view at their leisure if and when they come for a visit.

I also keep all my digital images on my computer in the order that I take them each year. They are also backed up on CD like a negative and in case the computer crashes (which it did a few years ago and I lost about 8 months worth of pictures) Now I don't delete the images from the media card till they have been downloaded to the computer AND backed up on CD.

I also have a few different on-line sites that I download pictures to for sharing with family and friends that we might not see all the time or those that are far away.

 

[pattyT]

i scrapbook


about 1/8th of pictures get printed the rest on cd

 

[Annette_VA]

I do the exact same as you, Will. I *never* print my photos. I burn CD's and give them to family instead of prints. If I have people over & want to show pictures, we show them on the TV.

 

[safetymom]

There has been growing concern because many people are not printing their images for future generations. A printed picture everyone can view but in the future people may not have ways to view images saved on media that isn't supported.

If you keep updating your images to the latest media that wouldn't be a problem.

They also say you aren't seeing the bad images anymore either. You know the one that was a double exposure but made for a good image for example. People either correct their images or they delete them.

I wish I was as organized in real life as I am with maintaining my images. The digital images are my negatives and I don't want anything to happen to them.

 

[WillCAD]

There has been growing concern because many people are not printing their images for future generations. A printed picture everyone can view but in the future people may not have ways to view images saved on media that isn't supported.

If you keep updating your images to the latest media that wouldn't be a problem.

They also say you aren't seeing the bad images anymore either. You know the one that was a double exposure but made for a good image for example. People either correct their images or they delete them.

I wish I was as organized in real life as I am with maintaining my images. The digital images are my negatives and I don't want anything to happen to them.

My take on this is, like anything else in life, if you want to keep something for a long time, whether it's a house, a car, a printed photo, or digital data, you have to store it properly and be willing to perform routine periodic maintenance on it.

In the case of digital data, that means copying it to a new, up-to-date file format or storage medium every so often.

Fortunately, the most common image formats in use today (jpg, tif) are outgrowths of established file formats which have been around for as much as 15 years, and although there have been changes to the standards, newer applications can still read files saved in older versions of the tif and jpg formats. Proprietary formats like Photoshop PSD are usually backwards compatible for many years, too.

Storage media, on the other hand, need attention. CD-Rs in the early days were only archivable for 1-3 years before the dyes began to break down, so older CD-Rs should be copied onto newer media that have longer archive characteristics. Most CD-Rs and DVD-Rs today are rated at 5-10 years, and there are some archival-quality discs on the market rated for 25 years.

Personally, I intend to copy my old stuff to new discs of current format every few years to avoid any trouble before it starts. Most of my CD-Rs are less than 4 years old anyway, but when I finally step into the 21st century and buy myself a DVD burner in the next few weeks I will copy all of the old discs, including my photo and MP3 collections, over to a couple of new DVD-Rs.

Digital images are like cars; you can't expect them to last foreer if you don't bother changing the oil every once in a while!

 

[miss missy]

great topic Will!

I just got a digital, and am just stepping out of 35mm! I had other digitals, but mainly used the 35mm for family and stuff and only used to digital when I needed to email, ebay or play in photoshop!

Now I have 881 pic from my last trip, I will print off (via kodak online) the best of them and put them in an album! I am half and half I guess. CD for backup. I could NEVER delete a pic off the computer! And I have a lot of PSD files too! I am a NEVER delete anything LOL

 

[tubachick]

Since I like to scrapbook (not quite up to digital scrapping yet) I need the prints. I also love to hold my pictures and show them to others on the go. HOWEVER..... I love to email and edit them on line too..... so give me prints, but burn the CD too!!!!

 

[Ratpack]

I usually only print the ones I want to put in frames, scrapbook or give to other people. Otherwise I store them on CD's for future use. If someone wants to see our photos, I just show them on the TV like a slide show. A lot of CD's takes up far less room than a bunch of photo albums.

 

[ducklite]

The ONLY time I print photo's are family photos to give my mom who refuses to join the digital age.

My photo's are all on my website, and the hi-res originals of all the band photo's (which are the only ones I degrade to put on the site and would ever need super hi-res to print) are archived on DVD and kept in my safe.

Anne

 

[dbenlee]

I too only print photos when necessary. I keep them backed up on 2 different hard drives, plus they are burned to a CD (unedited). They are then edited and burned to a DVD for viewing. Plus I put some as a slide show at the end of my video DVD's burned from vacation video footage.

 

[BigRed1]

I take hundreds of pictures. My first Disney cruise, I took around 600 pictures, and that is mild for me. I print the "good" ones, usually around 200, and archive the rest. I am very "protective" of my files. I store them on 2 computers, an external hard drive, and DVD. 2 dvd's, one in the house, and 1 in the bank box. Am I to uptight with my files??

 

[fiffy]

There are a few things that people need to consider. If your are storing your images on your hard drive you may as well not be storing them at all. If your computer gets a virous it will eat away at the pixles of your images. Also if your hard drive crashes, well there go all your images. External hard drives are safer but still not very safe. And don't forget the more images you have on your computer the slower it gets. As for saveing them on digitol media what format are you useing? Floppy Disks? Most current computers can't even read them even though they are saying right now that magnetic film (the kind if your camcorder tapes as well as in your floppy disk) is superior and will last longer then your CD ROM. But you can't use them very easy nowadays and floppy disks can't hold very much information and are disturbingly slow. So do you go with DVD ROM's instead? They are already makeing the next generatoin storage device wich will make DVD's and CD's obsolete so what about when that happenes? You'll be in the same boat as the floppy users. Your photograph however will never become obsolete. A computer virous or crash can not damage your photographs (well, unless your computer causes a fire in your house which trashes your photo's but lets hope that never happenes). Your photographs will be enjoyed by your childeren, grandchilderen, and possibly great grand children. Its unlikely that CD's will even be around when your grand children are (assumeing you don't have any already ). Photographs are the only way to go.

 

[WillCAD]

There are a few things that people need to consider. If your are storing your images on your hard drive you may as well not be storing them at all. If your computer gets a virous it will eat away at the pixles of your images. Also if your hard drive crashes, well there go all your images. External hard drives are safer but still not very safe. And don't forget the more images you have on your computer the slower it gets. As for saveing them on digitol media what format are you useing? Floppy Disks? Most current computers can't even read them even though they are saying right now that magnetic film (the kind if your camcorder tapes as well as in your floppy disk) is superior and will last longer then your CD ROM. But you can't use them very easy nowadays and floppy disks can't hold very much information and are disturbingly slow. So do you go with DVD ROM's instead? They are already makeing the next generatoin storage device wich will make DVD's and CD's obsolete so what about when that happenes? You'll be in the same boat as the floppy users. Your photograph however will never become obsolete. A computer virous or crash can not damage your photographs (well, unless your computer causes a fire in your house which trashes your photo's but lets hope that never happenes). Your photographs will be enjoyed by your childeren, grandchilderen, and possibly great grand children. Its unlikely that CD's will even be around when your grand children are (assumeing you don't have any already ). Photographs are the only way to go.

All very valid points. Current storage media will become obsolete eventually, which means that everyone who has digital photos will have to move them to new media once in a while to keep up.

But you should also keep in mind that the same thing holds true for current photo printing technology. Prints from your average home printer can degrade after as little as two years. There are more expensive printers, papers, and inks that will last as much as 10 to 20 years, and a few professional print media that are rated at up to 100 years under optimum conditions.

Optimum conditions, however, are the operative words there. How many people store their photo prints improperly? Quite a few.

No matter which choice you make, you will have to take care of your pictures. Both prints and files require proper storage and handling to last a long time.

 

[fiffy]

But you should also keep in mind that the same thing holds true for current photo printing technology. Prints from your average home printer can degrade after as little as two years. There are more expensive printers, papers, and inks that will last as much as 10 to 20 years, and a few professional print media that are rated at up to 100 years under optimum conditions.

Optimum conditions, however, are the operative words there. How many people store their photo prints improperly? Quite a few.

You should also keep in mind that home printing is the worst possible way of printing there is. Aside from the cost of the printer its still double to triple the cost to print at home then it is to have your photo's printed on traditional Silver Halide paper which any photolab/camera store should be printing on and will far outlast any inkjet, die-sub, or laser print. And the "optimal" method of getting inkjet pictures to last even 1/4 as long as they claim is to have them spray coated and put under UV protective glass if they are going in a frame. Just another way to majorly increse the price by them.