Storing Digital Photos From Camera

Storing Digital Photos From Camera

was fortunate to have a mentor who taught me on the day he took me under his wing all about the importance of caring for negatives and slides. “Pictures can be damaged,” he told me. “But as long as you have a good negative or transparency to work from, the world won’t end when your great work of art meets an ill fate.”

And so every time I developed film or picked up transparencies from a lab (I would never, but never, send them through the mail – way too many opportunities to be lost or damaged), I faithfully put the negatives and slides in protective, archival sleeves inside notebooks. Then I dated them and stored them in a dry, safe place. To this day I can find negatives and slides from 20 years ago within five minutes (whether I should have saved them all is a totally different story).

I was even a bit smug with how well I had preserved everything.

But when I began shooting digital images I was so intent on learning new technology and exploring possibilities and limits that I simply downloaded my photos onto my hard drive and went to work on them in PhotoShop without even considering how to protect my images. At the time, I wasn’t sold on digital and was just playing around with a little point and shoot, so I didn’t consider things like organizing and storing the pictures.

A few months into my digital dizziness, I noticed my computer had become very slow. It took a few hours before it hit me: those digital images are real space hogs! Immediately following that realization was the frightening thought that if my computer were to crash or if a virus attacked it, I could lose months of work.

Immediately, I began to look for solutions. While I’m not totally satisfied with any of these solutions, in the right combination, these steps will help you protect your digital images.

1. First and foremost, make sure you save original files. Never change that file. Do a “save as,” and only edit the “saved as” image. I learned this the hard way. I was in a rush to get a client an image for her Web site and resized the image accordingly. I was so used to being able to change sizes with negatives, I didn’t stop to think about changing a size with a digital image. When the client asked for the same image for a brochure, I couldn’t provide her with a high-quality print image. Learned from my mistake.

2. Next, you need to back up every image. There are a number of ways to do this.

• Keep them on your memory card. Beware of choosing this option. It can be pricey, and those small cards are easy to lose. They can also get damaged easily.
• Back up every image on a CD. Make two copies. Store one someplace handy; store the second copy somewhere safe off-site. Space is limited on a CD. I’ve found them less than adequate for the number of photographs I take.
• Back up every image on a DVD. Again, make two copies. DVDs have far more memory than a CD, so if you have lots of images, it’s worth investing in a DVD burner.

3. Make high-quality prints of all your images. This isn’t ideal because scanning an image sacrifices some degree of quality, but it will provide some level of protection.

4. Use online storage. There are numerous websites that allow you to download photos to their server so you can share your photos with others. Sounds like a great solution. You won’t have to invest in CD or DVD burners or writable discs. However, size limits do apply. I also strongly advise only going with a web site that has a proven track record. Remember, too, that their server could get a virus. They could go out of business. And security issues are a concern.

5. External drives. There are a number of these, from very small in size (but big on memory) thumb drives to external USB hard drives, some of which can hold up to 40 gigs.

Things to keep in mind when choosing a storage method:

1. Technology changes rapidly, so be prepared to change with it. CDs and DVDs may well be obsolete in ten years, so all that downloading and burning will likely have to be redone down the road. Expect change.

2. Using more than one backup method is a good idea. External hard drives can get viruses. They can get broken. They can crash. CDs and DVDs can get scratched. It’s a lot of work to have multiple backup sources, but if you value your images, it’s worth the investment.

3. Do not buy off-brand CDs or DVDs. Go with a name you can trust. Same with external or portable drives.

4. Remember that you should never edit your original image. And that is the image you will want to back up. (Although if you have spent hours creating special effects on an image, that’s certainly worth backing up as well.)

Perhaps the day will come when you can easily print directly from your computer to a 35mm or medium format film, which will give you the assurance that you will have negatives just like you used to. Until then, make sure you back up, back up, back up.

from

http://www.photography.com/articles/featured/storing-digital-photos/

-Of the hardest types of photography

Of the hardest types of photography

 

Children are a favorite subject for many photographers. Advertisers know a photo of an adorable child will grab people’s attention. Fundraisers know an image of a sick, wounded, or sad child will bring in donations. And parents cannot imagine a better subject than their child. Parents take cameras to sporting events, school functions, and parties. It seems like every moment of a child’s life is documented either in a still photograph or in a video. But how many photos of children are truly memorable?
Here are some tips on getting shots that draw total strangers into your photographs of children.
Take Time to Get to Know the Child
Most children let you into their world quickly. Before you start taking a picture, spend at least 10 minutes talking to the child. Ask questions about things that interest the child. Good openers include:
“Do you like bugs?”
“Would you rather be a giraffe or a butterfly?”
“What’s your favorite game?
Pay attention to how the child responds. Does he/she make eye contact? Capture that confidence when you take his/her picture. Does the child laugh at the questions or seriously contemplate them? Look for that sense of whimsy or pensive side when you take the picture. Does the child doodle when he/she responds? Then look for ways to show the child is creative. Does the child twist her hair while she’s thinking? Great. Include that in a photo.
If you’re taking photos of your own child, you already know your child’s personality traits, his/her habits, his/her facial expressions. Capture those instead of (or in addition to) a posed in-front-of-the-camera smile.
Observe, Observe, Observe
After you talk to the child, explain you’re going to get your camera ready and back away. The child will soon lose interest in you, giving you a chance to observe the child relating to the world. Inquisitive? Intent? Distracted? Capture that in your images.
If you’re taking photos of your own child, try observing your child as if you don’t know him/her at all. You’ll probably see some things you haven’t noticed before.
Be Unobtrusive
Use a telephoto lens. The best photographs of children are those when a kid is acting like a kid. To capture that and all the emotions that go with it, you need to be an unobtrusive as possible. Use a telephoto lens so you can have some real distance between you and the child. This will help the child tune you out and do whatever he or she does best, whether it’s play, dream, run around, make up stories. Capture that.
Alternately, move in close to the child to capture a curve of the cheek, curls tumbling down a forehead, eyes deep in thought.
Show the Child’s Environment
Try to take your photographs in a place that means something to the child. A bedroom, playroom, playground, field – all of these say something about how the child relates to the world. Does the child run freely across the open field or sit quietly reading a book? Does the child see how high he or she can climb a tree or does he/she prefer to lean against it and pet his/her dog? Is the child’s room spotless, showing the child’s organizational bent, or is it a wild jumble of clothes and toys?
Look for the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Take photos of the child doing everyday things like eating breakfast, elbows on the table, hair not yet combed; sleeping, curled up with a favorite animals or spread eagle, blankets off, bold even in sleep; doing homework, scowling over a difficult problem or with one eye on the TV. These say a whole lot about who the child is, which is way more moving than a posed photo with perfectly combed hair and a brand new outfit.
Try Shooting in Black and White
This really adds drama. Check it out. You can have black and white prints made from color negatives. You can also turn digital prints into black and white either in your camera (depending on which camera you use) or in a photo software program.
Above all, respect the child’s world. It is complex, compelling, and very, very deep.

from

http://www.photography.com/articles/featured/taking-memorable-photos-of-children/