What do you do with your images?

[mreddington]

Hi, I have just joined the forum so this is my first post.

Having worked up from a Canon 300D via the 20D to a 5D I have accumulated a lot of photos, most of which are sitting on my computer. I was wondering what the fate of most of your images is. Do you tend to keep them in electronic form for viewing on the screen or do you print and frame them? I do the former but a friend of mine prints vast numbers of images and doesn't know what to do with them.

I also notice that some people add frames to their photos before posting and wondered if this is only for on-screen display or if you print with the frame and mount behind simple glass.

Cheers!
Martin

[dc2]

Welcome .
I would say* the majority I keep on DVD/CD.
Unless I am selling of coarse.

[Shortie]

[Rokcet Scientist]

Hi Martin,
welcome to the club.
What I do with my photos? I trash 99%!
After editing the remainder, the keepers (the originals and the edited versions thereof) are stored on DVD and an edited copy is delivered to principals (for wedding albums, portraits, annual reports, PR, news & events). A few times a year I print one at A-3 (29,7cm x 42cm) or A-2 (42cm x 60cm) and frame it as a gift to good friends or relatives, or to hang on my own wall.
From personal photo's (like holidays, birthdays, parties, etc.) I usually make*fullscreen QuickTime slideshows for my friends and relatives.


Cuz You Never Know...
(Amazon estuary)

[Blinky]

I keep an active archive on a 250GB firewire drive. After a shoot, I burn the RAW files to DVDs and keep the working files on my hard disk until I'm done with the project and then I archive them to DVD.

Chip

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by mreddington

Do you tend to keep them in electronic form for viewing on the screen or do you print and frame them? I do the former but a friend of mine prints vast numbers of images and doesn't know what to do with them.

A combination, but I always keep the original files. Doing so, unfortunately, leads to a problem that is significant: how to keep up with the storage demands of digital images.

http://www.photocamel.com/index.php/topic,164.0.html

[mreddington]

So up to now, everyone seems to be keeping the photos primarily in an electronic format rather than as prints. I understand this since most of you seem to be professional photographers and the fate of your photos will depend on the requirements of your clients, so maybe I should have confined my question to personal photos.

I am a pure and simple amateur and keep most of my photos electronically on a hard disk with a backup mirror and long-term storage on DVD. I am just adopting a DAM procedure using iView Media Pro and will probably keep viewing mostly on the PC with only very few printed out to hang on my walls or give as gifts. I see an endless upgrade of hard disks ahead of me!

I suppose this isn't very different to what I was doing when shooting film - making very few enlargements and keeping the rest in a cupboard. Now I certainly view more often on the screen and get far more enjoyment out of photos I wouldn't necessarily want to print out.

Cheers
Martin

[Blinky]

It may help if you think of your digital files as original negatives or transparencies.
Chip

[Sidebyte]

I have to transfer files from my Hard Drive to DVD disks but there is a risk in doing so.* *Ever wonder why the commercial disks you purchase seem to last forever when the disks you burn sometimes go "south" on you....well the answer is the fact that commercial disks like MS Windows are PRESSED not burned.* Disks that are burned on home burners WILL DETERIORATE over time, separation of the layers is inevitable.* Currently, there is no sure fire method of safely saving files.* *In the six years that I owned and operated a computer store and service facility, I have seen every type and brand of Hard Drives fail including SCSI.* Currently the "BACT" (best available current technology) is the new solid state flash memory cards that now hold up to 5 or 6 gigabytes and is increasing.* For safety, ESPECIALLY if you are a pro and transfer your files from your in-camera flash card to the HD, you should by all means be running a "RAID" system whereby multiple hard drives ( in parallel) carry the same information in case of a HD failure of one, it also markedly improves the speed of your PC.

The Force

[scoundrel1728]

One defense against the problems with CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R technology that Sidebyte has mentioned is to burn at least two backups on different brands of disk.

As for my own images, I don't print very many of them out but I do throw them up on my display occasionally and enjoy them that way. Also, CD/DVDs will fill up the cupboard a lot slower than film negatives/transparencies and paper prints.

[dvdowns]

Hmmmm , sounds like I should back-up my back-up DVD's after reading this . Starting to get paranoid . I usually fill up one folder at a time numbering them "nikon1 . nikon2 ......" with approx 4,5 gig of folders of pictures then back them up onto a DVD , sounds like I shoud put them on 2 DVD's . At a wedding I download to a laptop , keep the images on my CF card , then download them to my main computer later .

[Sidebyte]

The real danger for a pro is to offload the CF card to your hard drive and assuming that the images are safe. Reformat the CF and the hard drive crashes, you have nothing. That is why a "RAID" system is the best safeguard for ANY business.

[Rokcet Scientist]

The real danger for a pro is to offload the CF card to your hard drive and assuming that the images are safe.* Reformat the CF and the hard drive crashes, you have nothing.* That is why a "RAID" system is the best safeguard for ANY business.

Absolutely!
It's also the most expensive one.

I think I might be in the market for a DVD-jukebox that could eventually handle a couple hundred DVD's (or HD-DVD's, or Blu-Ray DVD's, whatever). Now for someone to produce and sell it...* * *

[dvdowns]

What is a " raid " system ?

[Kevin Barrett]

Originally Posted by dvdowns

What is a " raid " system ?

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redunda...ependent_disks

[Sidebyte]

RAID=Insurance..................I run two identaical 80 gig drives on this PC in parallel so not only is it faster but if one dies, the other has all of the same data. Redundant but good insurance.

[Rokcet Scientist]

What is a "raid" system ?

A RAID system is an array of harddisks suitable for fast handling of large amounts of data.
A RAID system is expensive and not 100% safe! Harddisks fail...! Usually without warning.
A RAID system does not obviate the need for secure, frequent backups!

[Blinky]

Originally Posted by Rokcet Scientist

A RAID system is an array of harddisks suitable for fast handling of large amounts of data.
A RAID system is expensive and not 100% safe! Harddisks fail...! Usually without warning.
A RAID system does not obviate the need for secure, frequent backups!

RAID 0 and RAID 5 are designed to tolerate drive failures. I've tested them by pulling power connectors and verifying the fail-over. RAID is intended to be a primary online storage system... though you could have two and back one array up to the other.

With that said, your third point is absolutely true, there is no substitute for disciplined, periodic backup to media which can be moved off-site... aaannnnd, with that said, the only reasonably safe and convenient media is mag-tape. After 15 years of managing server based networks, I can tell you that backup is the single most difficult and time consuming thing to do right.

I caught hell once when the full backup tape we planned to use for recovering from a drive failure was empty. It listed every file the system had with correct dates and locations... and every file was 0 bytes in length. They made full tape backups every night and checked them in the AM to see if the tapes were complete... but nobody thought to do test restores (this was 1992). We lost everything and had to recover from paper.

Photographers are rarely that disciplined so the best start is RAID5, that way, if a drive fails, you can survive. Beyond that, backup to tape if you can afford it, test your tapes periodically and keep them in a safe location off-site so you don't lose everything in a fire or flood.

I wish I were so disciplined.

Chip

[Sidebyte]

In my offices when I was still working I had an automatic tape backup system that saved all of my doc files at 2o A.M. every morning. It saved our bacon more than once.