This is something that has concerned me in our newspaper office.
Our current system of "archiving" consists of copying the raw images to a
C.D. each month. Two copies are made, one that we use on a daily basis
for file photos, reprints and the such, and one set that is stored in the
company safe. I fear that these photos will be unaccessable in a few
years, but no one else seems concerned. We have boxes and boxes of
negatives from pervious years. Any ideas for a better, more reliable
way to archive?
Thanks!
Angi Turnpaugh
Hey, friend...good to hear from you.
Excellent points you make about the storage of our current media.
I'm totally digital now and have been for almost 6 full years. Wow.
That's hard to even imagine.
I used to back up to cd and dvd but had three fail and threw in the
towel and now only archive to hard drives. I have two copies on two
different drives of all my 'final' images. Three copies spread across
three drives for those things that are most important to me.
I print those images using my Epson printer and the pigment inks
which I deem to be super important, then store them for safe keeping
in the event I have a total data loss.
I'll update my storage media as I go along...don't know what else a
person can do.
Lea
On Apr 1, 2007, at 9:29 PM, Philip Wayner wrote:
> The thread on appreciating prints made many years ago brings up a
> point that can be a topic for conversation.
>
> A few months ago I pulled a negative from my file that was made
> more than sixty years ago and made a print in my wet darkroom. The
> negative was in prime condition and had weathered many years of
> storage.
>
> Today I opened a digital file of a portrait taken a few years ago.
> During that time it has been copied to at least three different
> means of storage from a floppy to my external hard drive. These are
> all very fragile means of storing valuable information. I have had
> computer crashes, Zip disks that suddenly lost all data, CDs that
> failed and back up on the external drive that became contaminated.
>
> Assuming that an image is to be archived digitally for a period of
> sixty years, as you might want for a family history, will it be
> available for someone in the future to make a print?
>
> At my advanced years this is really not a concern of mine, but it
> does illustrate that digital does not have the certainty of the
> simple negative. With a film archive that covers my professional
> years, there is a tangible record, I can still pull out a negative
> to make a print.
>
> I am not a "stuck in the past film user," I started using digital
> in my professional work with the introduction of the great Amiga
> computer in the 1980s. Many times in my work I combined the use the
> wet darkroom and the computer.
>
> It would be interesting to find just how many in the Forum are wet
> dark room users or dedicated digital users. There may be members
> who have questions on either process who can get answers from the
> talent that is in the Forum.
>
> Phil
>
>
lea murphy
www.leamurphy.com
www.whinydogpress.com
blog: web.mac.com/leamurphy
Angi Turnpaugh
Pharos-Tribune Staff Photographer
(574)722-5000 ext 5152
Excellent points you make about the storage of our current media.
I'm totally digital now and have been for almost 6 full years. Wow.
That's hard to even imagine.
I used to back up to cd and dvd but had three fail and threw in the
towel and now only archive to hard drives. I have two copies on two
different drives of all my 'final' images. Three copies spread across
three drives for those things that are most important to me.
I print those images using my Epson printer and the pigment inks
which I deem to be super important, then store them for safe keeping
in the event I have a total data loss.
I'll update my storage media as I go along...don't know what else a
person can do.
Lea
On Apr 1, 2007, at 9:29 PM, Philip Wayner wrote:
> The thread on appreciating prints made many years ago brings up a
> point that can be a topic for conversation.
>
> A few months ago I pulled a negative from my file that was made
> more than sixty years ago and made a print in my wet darkroom. The
> negative was in prime condition and had weathered many years of
> storage.
>
> Today I opened a digital file of a portrait taken a few years ago.
> During that time it has been copied to at least three different
> means of storage from a floppy to my external hard drive. These are
> all very fragile means of storing valuable information. I have had
> computer crashes, Zip disks that suddenly lost all data, CDs that
> failed and back up on the external drive that became contaminated.
>
> Assuming that an image is to be archived digitally for a period of
> sixty years, as you might want for a family history, will it be
> available for someone in the future to make a print?
>
> At my advanced years this is really not a concern of mine, but it
> does illustrate that digital does not have the certainty of the
> simple negative. With a film archive that covers my professional
> years, there is a tangible record, I can still pull out a negative
> to make a print.
>
> I am not a "stuck in the past film user," I started using digital
> in my professional work with the introduction of the great Amiga
> computer in the 1980s. Many times in my work I combined the use the
> wet darkroom and the computer.
>
> It would be interesting to find just how many in the Forum are wet
> dark room users or dedicated digital users. There may be members
> who have questions on either process who can get answers from the
> talent that is in the Forum.
>
> Phil
>
>
lea murphy
www.leamurphy.com
www.whinydogpress.com
blog: web.mac.com/leamurphy
Angi Turnpaugh
Pharos-Tribune Staff Photographer
(574)722-5000 ext 5152
