Concerned about what might happen to your precious digital memories if your computer should crash? You should be. What's the best way to make sure those digital photos are around for a long, long time? How do you show off those digital photos to your friends and family? How do you show those pictures without boring your audience? Preserving digital images does not have to be difficult or expensive. Showing off your digital photos should be done in a fun and entertaining way.
Before you think about showing your digital images, you should make sure that they are safe. Digital images have the potential to be some of the longest lasting photographs possible. They also have the potential to totally disappear for good within seconds if you're not careful. They are primarily three ways that people save digital images:
*On a memory card
*On the hard drive
*On CD or DVD
Despite some attempts by the industry to introduce low-cost memory cards, saving your digital images on memory cards is an expensive idea. While I urge you to buy large cards, so that you can use the highest resolution of your camera at all times, there are much less expensive ways to save your digital images. Memory cards, although durable, are best used as temporary storage until you can save them permanently.
While at some point almost every digital image will be copied to a computer, this may be one of the most dangerous places for your digital image to be. First, it is not a matter of if, but when, your hard drive will crash. Computer hard drives spin upwards of 5400 RPMs. This mechanical part has very small tolerances. It will fail. Even a raid backup system can have problems.
Besides mechanical problems, while your images are on a computer they can also be exposed to a virus. I have met people that have lost all their digital images due to a virus getting onto their computer. I admit to having digital photos on my computers that have not been properly backed up. An external hard drive is also prone to mechanical problems, either from sitting without use or just bad luck. A raid backup or external hard drive are a good idea just be aware that they can have problems.
CD or DVD has the potential to be one of the most permanent methods to store digital photos. Buying good quality DVDs, you can save 200 to 300 GB worth of digital photos for less than $40. That is a lot of digital photos. Good, high-quality DVDs have an expected life of 75 to 100 years. It is important to stick with high quality name brand DVDs such as Fuji, Sony, or Verbatim. Gold standard DVDs do provide even better lifespan.
Once you have enough digital files to fill a DVD, burn them to a DVD all at once and then close the disc. Always make sure the disc is closed, do not use the option that lets you add to the disk again at a later time, because this can cause compatibility problems.
Once burned to DVD, images can no longer be deleted or modified in a way that might harm them, such as by a virus. All you need to do is make sure your DVD collection is stored safely. If you're extra cautious, make a second DVD. The only real potential for problems is a change in computer software or hardware that makes it impossible to read the file. However, just copying your files to whatever new standard comes to the forefront in the future, will solve that problem.
Now that your digital photos are safe, how do you show them off? It's not much fun for more than one person to look at images on the back of the camera no matter how large the preview screen is. The good news is that this is getting easier and easier.
One option is showing them on a computer. This again, has a problem with the difficulty of larger groups of people looking at the images all at once. Also, people who are not computer proficient can find the process little bit intimidating. Grandma probably will not enjoy it. If your images are of high resolution, it can also be somewhat slow.
The good news is that many DVD players will automatically do a slideshow when a CD or DVD of digital photos is inserted. The bad news is that unless the files have already been edited before going on the DVD, everybody sees all the bad pictures too. The other problem with this is that you usually do not have any control over the amount of time any image stays on the screen. I have seen a room full of people empty out long before one of these slideshows has gotten halfway through.
There are several programs that allow you to create a slideshow from digital images where you can control the amount of time between the different photos. You'll find that people will play a DVD slideshow multiple times if you keep the show short versus not even watching the whole show if it is long. Lots of images in a shorter period of time usually works better than a long period of time. I heard once that the average as scene on American television is three seconds, perhaps this accounts for short attention spans.
Perhaps the most pleasant way to view digital photos is a good old fashioned traditional photo album. One of the wonderful things about digital photography, is that you can decide to only print the best pictures. Having all your favorite photos in an album or scrapbook allows an individual viewer to spend a longer time looking at the digital prints that they find interesting. They can then skim over the digital photos that they did not find that interesting. Each picture affects each person differently, you may even view of the same picture differently at another time. Being able to enjoy the pictures that interest you at the moment is what makes a photo album such a wonderful experience.
One final advantage of having high-quality digital prints made from your digital photos is that photo lab prints have a fairly long life expectancy nowadays. Traditional silver halide prints from a photo lab have a life expectancy of around 50 years, second to that of DVDs. Pigmented ink prints, printed on a professional level printer, can have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years. Be warned though that some consumer inkjet printers have had prints fade within five years. An excellent and surprisingly inexpensive option is to use one of the better-known online digital print services. They can provide you with a high-quality long-lasting digital print that will probably cost less than trying to print yourself.
Make sure that you back up your digital images to DVD or CD for safekeeping. Take a look at a digital slideshow DVD program for viewing them on your television or computer. Then to enjoy your photos without having to turn a computer or television on, half high-quality digital prints made and place them in an album or scrapbook. You'll be able to enjoy your digital photos for a long, long time.
You can get additional information on how to take better photos here. James Thoenes is a professional photographer with over 20 years in photography. Learn how to take better photos at his website http://www.photographybyjet.com
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