One of peoples most valued material objects. One of the things most people would want to hold onto no matter what are photographs. One of the things we would grab from our homes first in the event of evacuating for a fire or other disaster situation would likely be our collections of. All those captured moments in time that mark some of the most cherished memories and people of our lives.
Here I want to go over options on how to back up these photography’s as well as for preserve and archive them to lessen any concern for their damage or loss.
PHOTO BACK-UP & STORAGE
1) Scanning photos. If you have access to a quality scanner, take the time to scan all of your printed photos into your computer. Yes, it is going to take you some time, but its worth it! You can also pay a company to scan them for you. Doing this is the best option for backing up your prints. When scanning set the settings at a resolution of at least 250 dpi (dots per inch), and select the “color photo,” or “black & white photo” accordingly. If you want your photos to be scanned at a higher resolution, such a 600 dpi, keep in mind that the scan will show more imperfections on the surface of the image (such as dust, watermarks, or hair), if you have a problem with the photo not looking good you can in many cases fix it in a good photo editing program like Photoshop.
2) Portable hard drives. There are a lot of options now adays for portable, and/or external hard drives – many of which are inexpensive for the amount of data they hold. You can save your images, music, important files, and even digital movies on a drive that is lightweight and portable, and hooks up easily to a computer via a USB or fire wire port. You can also keep your portable hard drive in a fireproof and/or watertight safe or box to keep your files safe.
4) Fire-resistant safes. Storing your photos, negatives, CDs, and even back-up hard drives in a fire-resistant safe is a great way to both ensure their protection and spare your concern for their safety, even while away from your home.
5) One of the best ways to keep your photos safe is to have them all loaded in a safe protected gallery online. If your computer crashes for any resin they are safe. I have my photos backed up on a back up hard drive and on CD ROM’s and on the internet at smugmug.com. You can download your full size files onto any computer and it is a safe way to store and share your photos!
So some of the steps toward photo preservation and storage are small, and others are much more time consuming but when you have it all finished and safe, most of us would agree, our photographs which we prize and hold very dear are worth the effort! If you have a plan of safety planned out for the people and pets in our homes in the case of an emergency, so why not do the same for our most prized possessions?
