When Archiving Your photos do you put your photos on

[waloshin]

For Picture Archiving Do you put your pictures on a CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, USB Thumb drive or Hard drive?

The reason why I am asking as I am starting a business and I am not sure if customers would prefer Blu-Ray or would be happy with DVD.

[sffvba[e0rt]

the cloud

[PondPuppy]

I archive to a hard drive, but for portability I would recommend offering both DVD or thumb drive archiving. Along with -- as not found says -- the option of upload to a customer's online storage. I suppose it depends somewhat on your business model? Do you anticipate processing small batches of home photos, ie less than 5 or 10 GB at a shot -- or very large archives of high-res photos, ie 50+ GB batches?

[pfeiffep]

I use the cloud also.

If I were starting a business such as this I would offer multiple choices to my clients!

[Bucky Ball]

If I were starting a business such as this I would offer multiple choices to my clients!

^^^
This. Give 'em options to increase business. ;)

[pfeiffep]

"CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, or other removable media has been the primary method of consumer backup for quite some time. They have the advantage of being reasonably inexpensive and broadly compatible. Probably their biggest drawback is inconsistency; some removable media lasts only 5-10 years, while others claim a lifetime of 50-100 years. It can often be difficult to tell which longevity category your media purchase falls under." full post (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/archival-photo-backup.htm)

In addition to media one should also consider Format obsolescence (http://www.dpbestflow.org/file-format/archive-file-formats) ... does anyone remember using 8" floppies (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/60-minutes-shocked-to-find-8-inch-floppies-drive-nuclear-deterrent/)?

Future Proof your data archive (http://www.cnet.com/how-to/future-proof-your-data-archive/) - How many of the media types and file formats will be available in 100 years ... for your family posterity and history you might want to actually print the images. (http://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/storing-photos.html)

[waloshin]

Thanks for the responses. Uploading to the cloud is a great idea thanks.

Something interesting: http://i.imgur.com/zHB8DNW.png

[malspa]

For Picture Archiving Do you put your pictures on a CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, USB Thumb drive or Hard drive?

The reason why I am asking as I am starting a business and I am not sure if customers would prefer Blu-Ray or would be happy with DVD.

My job, I work with stuff like this. My customers definitely want ALL of these options. Plus the ability to print photos and to scan old photos. There are still so many people that really just want to store photos in photo albums or photo books or whatever. I'd say, take care of those people too, if you can, because they'll keep coming back.

[waloshin]

If I were to scan peoples photographs from their photo albums, restore colour, repair scratches then reprint these photos. Will I need permission from the original photographer either it be one of the clients family members or a studio?

[malspa]

Customers want their old photos reprinted?

Yes, absolutely. They're bringing in old photos all the time, every day. Some very old photos, too -- I've seen 'em go back 80, 90 years or more. These are very important photos to these people and if you're nice and have time they really like to talk about them. Often they do want to digitalize the images but more often they just want a nice reprint. A lot of older folks who don't want to have to deal with a computer. And they have money and are willing to pay.


Though would I need a photographers release to re print photos?

Well... yes, you're supposed to get a release from the photographer. But these days it's becoming very difficult to tell if the photo was done by a professional photographer or not, unless they've put their name on the print. I mean, if it says "Olan Mills" or something on it, okay, don't copy it without a release. And school photos. But what if it's a school photo from like 1942 or something? Hm.

A lot of people, they're bringing in CDs, DVDS, or flash drives that they purchased from the photographer, and the release is already saved to the media, so they can print the images if they want to.

[pfeiffep]

Customers want their old photos reprinted? I do have a Canon Pixma Pro 100. Though would I need a photographers release to re print photos?
If the customers want old photographs re-printed then you certainly want to have a method to print that will LAST a long time (http://www.archival-photos.com/).

"The type of ink and paper that you use to print them can have a significant effect on photo lifespan. Inkjet photos always fade faster than photos done in a photolab or a digital photo printing kiosk at a supermarket. Labs use a special ink that is archival quality, meaning that it could last over 100 years. Kiosks use a dye-sublimation process that doesn’t last as long but is still reliable. Inkjet printers, on the other hand, offer the least digital print longevity. The standard photo ink and paper for inkjet printers will result in only a 20 year lifespan for photos. Many printer companies offer ever-increasing levels of photo-quality ink, but even some of the best ink for inkjet printers will only give a digital print a lifespan of 50 years." full article (http://printers.toptenreviews.com/photo-only/how-to-make-your-photos-last-longer.htm)

[malspa]

If I were to scan peoples photographs from their photo albums, restore colour, repair scratches then reprint these photos. Will I need permission from the original photographer either it be one of the clients family members or a studio?

Somebody took a snapshot back in the 60s or 70s with a Polaroid camera or one of those old Instamatics, and now their grandkid wants to make a copy of it, we don't worry about stuff like that.

[waloshin]

If the customers want old photographs re-printed then you certainly want to have a method to print that will LAST a long time (http://www.archival-photos.com/).



The inks used in the Pixma Pro 100 say they last 100+ years.

[mamamia88]

Dropbox camera upload. Automatically uploads my pictures to my dropbox folder which also creates a local file on my computer as well. Good enough for me but, i don't really take important pictures. In fact sometimes I just empty entire folder.

[nerdtron]

I lost faith on hard drives years ago when I had a hard drive failure. So now important family pictures and documents are stored on the cloud. I know they still use hard drive for storage but at least I won't maintain anything.

Upload files and don't worry of hard drive failures again. Plus if the company chooses to close, I can still transfer my photos safely to another provider.

[onetome]

I also use the cloud: Dropbox, Box, Google Drive. Because I use Android, things get backed up to Google's cloud service.

Using If This Then That also helps, automagically uploads to Box or Dropbox. Although I'm sure Dropbox has that functionality built into it, no?

[Hexxus]

I'm presently using my OneDrive account for my picture archives/backups. I've got 200GB of cloud storage for free that I didn't have to pay for. I want to migrate over to "OwnCloud" but I'm having too many problems getting that finalized.