Library and Archives Canada archivist Yvette Hackett looks at a Long
Play record at the National Archives in Ottawa in this file photo. Many
people have cardboard boxes hiding somewhere in their homes that are
filled with family heirlooms like baby photos, old newspapers and high
school yearbooks. But now that we've all come to love our digital
cameras, memory cards and CD-DVD burners, chances are future generations
won't have the same type of boxes to sift through for easy glimpses into
mom's and dad's youth. (Dave Chan/Canadian Press)
Archiving
Preserving digital photos for your grandkids
Last Updated Jan. 2, 2008
By Rosie Lombardi
The author is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
Every family has a shoebox stashed somewhere containing a
treasure trove of precious photos from bygone eras. Holidays in the old
country, Grandpa in his army days, Mom as a schoolgirl: These images will
live on for future generations to enjoy if the photos are stored properly.
But digital technology is rapidly replacing analogue film
cameras — and creating an unexpected problem. Vast, chaotic repositories of
photos are being created by people who dump their digital pics on hard
drives, memory cards and websites.
Thanks to cheap and easy-to-use digital cameras, today's kids are
becoming the most documented generation ever as parents, relatives and
friends capture the first, second and hundredth smile. But the question
is whether those photos will be stored in a way that will allow future
generations to view them. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
About six billion images are snapped annually with digital
cameras and camera phones, according to the New York-based International
Imaging Industry Association (IA3). Yet many people haven't developed habits
for organizing and safely managing digital family photos for the future.
Image files themselves aren't searchable, for example, and
few amateur photographers add simple text tags that would help people find
specific photos and identify what's in the pictures later on.
"Compare that with regular photos, where you could just flip
them over and Grandma had written it was Uncle Ernie at the 1946 family
picnic, in that lovely old handwriting that none of us can do anymore," says
Darin Stahl, senior research analyst at the London, Ont.-based Info-Tech
Research Group.
Future proofing
File storage is also a headache. Properly preserved, paper
photos can last more than 100 years. But future-proofed storage for digital
pics is virtually impossible, as types of storage media — memory cards,
rewritable discs, and so on — are usurped by new formats every few years.
Floppy disks and VHS tapes are well on their way into the dustbin of
history, several storage card formats have fallen out of favour even though
they only became popular a few years ago, and many people have already
switched from recordable CDs to rewritable DVDs.
Technology obsolescence is a big problem, and archivists
bemoan the loss of recent history due to changing storage formats. The
software used today to open and view image files — hardware, software and
the file formats themselves — is unlikely to be around in a few decades. For
example, WordStar-based word processors and Atari gaming systems with
cartridges were popular in the 1980s, but these days finding a way to read
content designed to be read by those systems is getting difficult.
Most organizations have strategies to periodically move
their data from older technology to new, as this is the only reliable
archival method, says Stahl.
Consumers who have embraced digital photography must adopt
similar approaches if they want to ensure those precious pictures are
preserved for their grandchildren.
"You need to forward-schedule a process every few years to
move your pics onto whatever technology is mainstream then, to ensure they
aren't marooned on obsolete media," says Carmi Levy, vice-president of
Toronto-based technology consultancy AR Communications and a
semi-professional photographer.
Proper habits
People need to develop the right habits now if they want to
make that eventual move from one technology to another easier, Levy adds.
One of these is to add detailed descriptions to digital pictures, just like
Grandma did when cameras used film.
There are a number of free software tools offered by online
sites, such as Flickr and Picasa, to help people add tags and other
identifiers to images so that the files can be searched and identified
later, says Levy. Some software packages allow pictures to be put into a
searchable gallery or the digital equivalent of a photo album, complete with
descriptions as detailed as you want to make them.
"The trick is to find a tool you're comfortable with and to
use it religiously," he says. "Don't just dump the pics [from your camera
onto a storage system] without making an initial effort to tag the files or
label the DVD.
"What I do is put the files in appropriate folders, tag them
based on major event, label the DVDs in chronological order, and store them
in binders so I can always go back and easily find the disc I need," Levy
adds.
Storage media
Settling on a storage media with a reasonable life
expectancy is another issue.
Some manufacturers say their premium gold-plated CDs and
DVDs can last up to 300 years. But these claims are theoretical, and
long-lived storage doesn't solve the broader problem of technology
obsolescence, says Stahl. He points out the technology to read the discs
would also need to be preserved 300 years, which is a questionable
proposition.
"Some parents pull out the old Super 8 camera out of the
garage every Christmas, and that's an example of preserving the hardware.
But equipment breaks down over time," says Stahl. Levy agrees: "Don't waste
your money on high-end media, because no matter what your pics are stored
on, you'll have to move them [to the newest format] every few years."
Removable discs such as CDs and DVDs of reasonably good
quality are the best bet, he says. However, the market is already shifting
away from CDs, which only offer 650 megabytes of storage each, to DVDs that
offer over 4.7 gigabytes, he adds.
Hard drives
An external hard drive is one way to back up photos so that
the hard disk in your computer doesn't contain the only copy of your photo
archive. For about $100 you can buy an external drive with hundreds of
gigabytes of storage that connects to a computer via a USB or Firewire port.
It can be used to do fast backups of the PC's main hard drive, and the
external drive can then be stored in a safety deposit box or a fireproof
storage box in case of disaster.
External memory-based storage — called flash drives, USB
keys or thumb drives — are more stable and long-lived than the typical PC's
hard drive since they don't have platters that spin continuously or other
moving parts, explains Levy. But they are nevertheless electronic devices
that can fail, and they tend to be pricey compared to the per-gigabyte price
of a recordable CD or DVD disc.
Memory cards are a handy and affordable replacement for old-style
film in cameras, but they aren't necessarily the most economical and
secure way to store pictures over the long haul, experts say. (Paul
Sakuma/AP)
"The biggest mistake a photographer can make is assuming
that an external hard drive can be the only backup solution. For longer-term
backup, it is a safer bet to gradually burn DVDs and properly store them,"
he says. "Flash drives are good as a quick way to save pics and as secondary
backup, but it's harder to manage and archive flash drives."
For large-scale, more permanent backups that will be stored
offsite or in a fireproof box or a bank's safety deposit box, DVDs and to a
lesser extent CDs remain Levy's media of choice because they're less
expensive to use than external drives.
File formats
For the files themselves, people should use universal,
non-proprietary image file formats such as TIFF or JPEG for long-term
archiving, says Levy. While proprietary formats such as Adobe Photoshop's
PSD may be popular today, these are riskier, as they can't be read by other
software and are controlled by a vendor who may change the format or may not
even be around in the future.
"Virtually every camera and photo device today recognizes
JPEG, so you can read and manipulate the file in anything," Levy says.
But he warns that a trade-off is that JPEG files lose pixels
when they're edited due the way files are compressed to reduce their size.
"Quality degrades somewhat every time a JPEG file is manipulated, but that
won't happen if the file is left alone. Consumers need to be aware of that
and adjust their behaviour accordingly."
Many people use free photo management websites such as
Flickr to store and share their pics. There's a real risk people will lose
all their pics if these online companies go bankrupt, warns Levy.
Companies such as Kodak that offer similar paid services
argue they're more stable than recently established web firms, and have a
track record for longevity — but Levy is unimpressed. "There are no
guarantees any company will still be around in 100 years," he says. "Online
backup should never be the only form of backup for anything."
Stick with the shoebox?
Low-tech paper is still a viable option for archiving, too,
thanks to advances in inks and photo paper.
"Believe it or not, a shoe box in a closet with the right
environmental conditions is all right," says Craig McGowan, worldwide
product marketing manager for Kodak Gallery.
Levy agrees, noting Kodak, HP and other manufacturers have
made significant improvements to boost the longevity of papers and inks, and
now claim printed photos can last hundreds of years if they're properly
stored.
"But it's not realistic to expect we're going to be printing
and storing thousands of digital pics every year," he adds. "Paper is fine
for limited prints with special value. You don't do everything on paper or
digital — they complement each other." | 
