{"id":18,"date":"2011-01-10T19:44:24","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T00:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rutamurphy.userblogs.ganoksin.coms\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2011-01-10T19:44:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T00:44:24","slug":"tips-to-keep-your-digital-photos-for-a-lifetime-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/tips-to-keep-your-digital-photos-for-a-lifetime-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips to keep your digital photos for a lifetime and beyond!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was amazed at the amount of information the instructor shared with us \u2013 and thought there were be some useful tips for anyone that takes digital photos, not just with a DSLR. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the things discussed was making your photos last. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>It seems DVD and CD media are the best way to store your photos.\u00a0 <\/span>While you can store your photos on your computer\u2019s hard drive, or even an external hard drive, the life span of these hard drives is about 3-5 years \u2013 whereas the life span of a \u00a0<\/span>DVD gold disc can be up to 300 years and a silver CD can be up to 50 years. \u00a0<\/span>And it was interesting to learn that CD media has been around for several decades and probably will remain around for some time- – Check out your disc slot, you\u2019ll see the sections allowing different sized CDs to sit in the slot. If you have an older CD (3\u201d) your current CD drive should be able to play it. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Always store your CD\/DVD media in archival sleeves \u2013 those plastic jewel boxes may be fine for simple day to day documents that you want to have readily available, but they contain an acid releasing component that will degrade the integrity of your CD\/DVD media. Go to the photo store and purchase some archival sleeves. If you can print out an index sheet of all the photos on that CD\/DVD and keep it with the media, \u00a0<\/span>you will know at first glance what it contains. Loading 50 CDs\/DVDs to see where that special photo is can take a long time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Use an ACID FREE pen to write on your media. Regular Sharpies or other markers will leak acid and start to burn away your CD\/DVDs and the data that is on them \u00a0<\/span>in as short a time as 1-2 years. As evidence, several CDs were passed around the class and the \u201cghosting\u201d from the writing was very evident. \u00a0<\/span>I purchased an acid free pen for about $3 after the class.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Once you burn your photos onto the CD\/DVD, do not go back and continue to add photos to them. This too will degrade and\/or possible corrupt your data \u2013 and who want to risk losing those precious family photos?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Burn two CDs each time \u2013 one can be for playing and the other for your \u201cfire safe\u201d as a kind of \u201cnegative.\u201d If you only have one CD and it gets destroyed, scratched, etc. \u2013 the photos are gone for good.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

6.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>This last point is also very important and deals with downloading your photos from your camera onto your computer. When you use your camera to connect to your PC and download the photos, you are using the camera itself which can cause premature wear on parts \u2013 something no normally covered under the warranty \u2013 as it is perceived to be overuse and not manufacturer\u2019s defect. So it is best to either purchase a card reader for about $30 or (if your PC has the slots for SD cards), just insert the SD card directly into the computer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>The thing to remember with the direct SD card insertion is to:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

a.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Make sure your camera is turned off before you remove the SD card<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

b.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>After you have downloaded the photos from the card to your PC, make sure you \u201csafely eject\u201d the card, otherwise you are risking a chance to corrupt your SD card. There are different ways to do this: on my PC, I go to \u201cmy Computer\u201d and right click on the drive holding my card. I choose \u201cEject\u201d and then I select \u201csafely remove media.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>Other PCs will have an icon on the lower right hand side of the tool \u2013 if you hover over the icon, you will have the choice of \u201csafely ejecting\u201d the media.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope these tips have been as helpful to you as they were to me. \u00a0<\/span>As I learn more about my camera and take additional classes, I\u2019ll be sure to share things that may be of interest to you.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to hear your comments. Please feel free to post then here. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past weekend I attended a class to learn about taking photos with my DSLR camera which I bought a few weeks ago. It\u2019s been a couple of decades since I used an SLR camera and wanted to take a class to refresh my memory and see what the main differences were between film SLR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/rutamurphy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}