Photo storage

Hi there,
I'm improving daily from serious illness. I bought this Macbook Pro about 12 months ago to assist in my recovery and use it mostly for photographs.
I make DVD's from stills in IMovie for friends and loooooove it.

My question is, what is the best way to store/save photos for the long term?
Thanks

I store mine on DVDs. Some folks like to store their photos on an external hard drive but hard drives have a way of failing without warning. If you do decide to store your photos on DVD media, buy a good brand of media and you might consider making a duplicate copy for extra safety.

Before using something like iPhoto, which will make a total proprietary mess of your files, make plans to store them on external hard drives. Redundant backup is key! You might even consider an online back up with a hosting service such as Carbonite, Mozy, or even putting your photos on a site dedicated to photographers like Smugmug or Zenfolio.

If you do use iPhoto, you can also simply do a backup of the library file. It's actually easy enough to copy it and paste it to an external. OR, you can use something like Carbon Copy Cloner, which is free and backs up only what you want, when you want it to... on external drives, of course.

Doug

Thank you to Doug b and chscag.

A local Tech Company employee recently told me photos stored on DVD's begin to deteriorate after two years. He strongly recommended I purchase an external hard drive but said even that was not reliable in humid weather conditions.

What is the expected life-span of photos stored on DVD's?
Thanks,
photodudess

Well, DVD's can certainly last a decent amount of time in the right conditions, but when you consider how messy and unorganized and bulky they can be, it almost seems silly to use them anymore given how cheap external drives are these days. Another thing is that a HD in properly stored conditions will likely last longer than a DVD in general, since the elemental breakdown of an optical disk will happen more rapidly.

Again, keep redundant HD's around and you're good. Maybe get a new one every couple of years to replace older ones even if they are still in great shape. If your data is that important to you, purchase a high temperature fire rated safe box and put the eHD's in there. Or if you belong to a bank, put one in a safety deposit box, and every other month, swap it out with another external. Then you can use something like Carbon Copy Cloner when you bring it home in order to copy the new data over.

Doug

+1 on the HDs and Safety Deposit Box.

This is almost exactly what I do.

Doug b said:

Before using something like iPhoto, which will make a total proprietary mess of your files

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This is untrue and incorrect. If you don't understand iPhoto's library, that's okay -- but don't lie about it.

Hint: there is absolutely NOTHING proprietary about what iPhoto does with images. In fact, it doesn't alter images at all. It just stores them in a particular folder structure. I'd suggest either reading up on iPhoto a little more or just skipping questions about iPhoto rather than spreading FUD, thanks.

chas_m said:

This is untrue and incorrect. If you don't understand iPhoto's library, that's okay -- but don't lie about it.

Hint: there is absolutely NOTHING proprietary about what iPhoto does with images. In fact, it doesn't alter images at all. It just stores them in a particular folder structure. I'd suggest either reading up on iPhoto a little more or just skipping questions about iPhoto rather than spreading FUD, thanks.

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Well, it IS functionally a digital asset management database, linked to that particular folder structure. This differs from say, Lightroom (which utilizes a db that references user specified file structure), in that it intentionally obfuscates the (multiple) files locations from the user. This is somewhat counter intuitive, and can cause problems when people go putzing around inside the package itself. There have been numerous posts around here where people have fallen into that trap. That said, are the changes proprietary? No. Do I use iPhoto? Nope, not at all.

A local Tech Company employee recently told me photos stored on DVD's begin to deteriorate after two years. He strongly recommended I purchase an external hard drive but said even that was not reliable in humid weather conditions.

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That's hogwash. I've had stuff stored on DVDs for years on end and never had anything deteriorate. I've got some DVDs that were burned in the 90s and I can still read them fine. And I live here in nice steamy Fort Worth where the Summer time humidities and temps are out of sight.

Hard drives fail all the time. I don't care if you stuff em in a safe, under your mattress, where ever... they will eventually fail. Remember hard drives (except SSDs) have moving parts.

One thing I will agree with Doug is that it's important to have redundancy. That's why I recommended burning two copies of the same DVD. The media is inexpensive.

Thanks heaps everyone. Info most helpful.

Next Question: Is there a "best" size for photos to be emailed? Family members tell me my emailed photos to them are 10 times bigger than they should be.
and
how do I resize a photo to email?

I've started a book of Q&A for this forum...so thank you, and be prepared for lots of questions from the land down under.

how do I resize a photo to email?

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You can use Preview or iPhoto. Also, when you take photos with your camera and you know you're going to be mailing them out to relatives and friends, take the photos at VGA resolution. That will result in smaller JPG files.

Dysfunction said:

Well, it IS functionally a digital asset management database, linked to that particular folder structure.

Click to expand...

See, you DO understand iPhoto's library!

This differs from say, Lightroom (which utilizes a db that references user specified file structure), in that it intentionally obfuscates the (multiple) files locations from the user.

Click to expand...

By DEFAULT, yes it hides the library folders inside a package -- but there's nothing special about the package or the folders within it was my point. Also, you can easily set iPhoto NOT to do this if you prefer. It's literally one checkbox in the preferences.

This is somewhat counter intuitive, and can cause problems when people go putzing around inside the package itself.

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Which is EXACTLY why Apple hides it.

You can do exactly the same damage in Aperture or Lightroom putzing around with the vault or whatever they call it.

There have been numerous posts around here where people have fallen into that trap.

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Yes, but there are numerous posts of people doing dumb things with their machines all the time. At least you have to be VERY DETERMINED to do something dumb in order to wreck an iPhoto Library -- we get a lot more people who come here for advice because they poured a drink on their computer or never EVER made a backup and have lost crucial files than because they went spelunking inside a package they should have a clue is obscured for a very deliberate and good reason.

That said, are the changes proprietary? No.

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Okay, I had a feeling you just misspoke. All cleared up now, thanks.

I would keep multiple backups.
1 DVD
2 External Disk drive
3 Cloud service such as Flckr or LiveDrive

Yeah, can't have too many backups in too many different formats when it comes to digital photos. I even make (well, have a lab make) prints of some of my better efforts -- hey some paper photos have managed to stick around since the US Civil War, it's just another backup technology as far as I'm concerned ...

I wonder how many photos will be lost to history as no one seems to print them anymore.
So many people keep them on one form of electronic media or other. Who knows if they will last the test of time

It is difficult to say, but the relative ease of making duplicate copies of photos should actually increase their chances of being preserved if people are even moderately vigilant about it. All this move to the cloud stuff should also help, as having an *additional* offsite backup of your locally-backed up stuff should help guard against natural disasters et al.

A local Tech Company employee recently told me photos stored on DVD's begin to deteriorate after two years.

Click to expand...

Maybe they do:
Homemade DVD's: Going, Going, Gone? - NYTimes.com
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Optical Storage Media: Storing Temporary Records on CDs and DVDs

Maybe they don't:
How long do homemade DVDs last? How about CDs? - Albuquerque Web 2.0 | Examiner.com

If my extensive collection of DVD and CD backup media (from back before it was more practical to back up other ways) is any indication, proper storage in a cool dry environment (ie anyone's normal household) away from strong sunlight should allow (as it has for me) reliable storage for at least a decade ... I can still read discs I made in 1996 without issue.

Now, you put a homeburn (let's say as an example) Audio CD in the glovebox of your car or someplace where it gets lots of heat and direct sunlight ... well don't count on that disc working indefinitely ...