A thought on how digital photography has changed everything.

**Free Range Lobster** · 11-10-2006, 06:56 PM

note: On the amateur side of course. I've heard how many print and digital images people like Onne Van Der Wal and the likes have. Its horrifying.

How many family pictures do you have?
You know, real, developed pictures.
Now how many do you have digital?

I just moved all my directories of photographs into one folder (post dvd backup) on my external drive. By all I mean EVERYTHING.

Digital Camera.
Scanned photos.
Scanned negatives.

Adobe Lightroom is halfway done scanning the directory and its at 4742 pictures right now.

How crazy is that?
How much money in film would that be if it weren't for digital cameras?

**Dr. Send** · 11-10-2006, 07:36 PM

If you love them so much, why don't you marry them?

**cj001f** · 11-10-2006, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Dr. Send

If you love them so much, why don't you marry them?

Because I can't marry more than one JPG

**truth** · 11-10-2006, 09:37 PM

I must have 20,000 images, but only 11.5 gb are really something special. So those are the only ones I back up. The rest will evenutally be pruned when space runs out and I get them moved from an old PC onto my mac's. As far as prints, I have about a dozen that I've printed for myself, a hundred or so that others have bought or I've printed as gifts. I have 1 shoebox of old "film" photos that I have no idea what to do with so I just keep dragging the box along with me. If I had cared for the negatives and I'd think about scanning them but they are all pretty trashed. I do have some slides that eventually I'll scan.

**hutash** · 11-10-2006, 10:01 PM

I have a lot of pictures, and they all seem to be sisters, their lastname is Jpeg.

**icanseeformiles(andmiles)** · 11-11-2006, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by likwid

note: On the amateur side of course. I've heard how many print and digital images people like Onne Van Der Wal and the likes have. Its horrifying.

How many family pictures do you have?
You know, real, developed pictures.
Now how many do you have digital?

I just moved all my directories of photographs into one folder (post dvd backup) on my external drive. By all I mean EVERYTHING.

Digital Camera.
Scanned photos.
Scanned negatives.

Adobe Lightroom is halfway done scanning the directory and its at 4742 pictures right now.

How crazy is that?
How much money in film would that be if it weren't for digital cameras?

Originally Posted by truth

I must have 20,000 images, but only 11.5 gb are really something special. So those are the only ones I back up. The rest will evenutally be pruned when space runs out and I get them moved from an old PC onto my mac's. As far as prints, I have about a dozen that I've printed for myself, a hundred or so that others have bought or I've printed as gifts. I have 1 shoebox of old "film" photos that I have no idea what to do with so I just keep dragging the box along with me. If I had cared for the negatives and I'd think about scanning them but they are all pretty trashed. I do have some slides that eventually I'll scan.

Here's something you digital only people should be aware of: CD's and DVD's have an average life of around 5 years before they start to degrade. An archival B&W print last practically forever. Take care of your images before they're gone.

**truth** · 11-11-2006, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by icanseeformiles(andmiles)

Here's something you digital only people should be aware of: CD's and DVD's have an average life of around 5 years before they start to degrade. An archival B&W print last practically forever. Take care of your images before they're gone.

My most important images are stored in raid-5 arrays in three seperate locations nation wide via smugmug and Amazon's S-3 service as well as on two seperate drives here.

**icanseeformiles(andmiles)** · 11-11-2006, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by truth

My most important images are stored in raid-5 arrays in three seperate locations nation wide via smugmug and Amazon's S-3 service as well as on two seperate drives here.

**couloirman** · 11-11-2006, 07:23 PM

the best part about digital photography IMVHO is that once you buy the camera/memeory, you never worry about the cost of shooting. For every single cliff jump with my 20D at 5fps Ill usually have at least 20 frames. With film, I try to take as few pics as well as possible. Now that my camera holds 400ish pics, Its a no brainer to take every pic I can. And with instant viewing on the LCD screen to see exposures, you get better pics too. Thank god for digital camers. Makes jongs like me look like good photogs sometimes. The only problem is, I took my a700(shouldve taken a disposable) to take a self photo of me under canopy at the DZ and dropped it from about 1500 feet up

. Funny part is, it didnt break and works totally fine now, although it could have been a costly mistake on my part. Yay for durable canons, Id now have to recommend them to everyone on this basis alone.

**kchri** · 11-12-2006, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by icanseeformiles(andmiles)

Here's something you digital only people should be aware of: CD's and DVD's have an average life of around 5 years before they start to degrade. An archival B&W print last practically forever. Take care of your images before they're gone.

You may be right and you may be wrong...

Basically, the expected longevity of dye-based DVD-R and DVD+R is anywhere from 20 to 250 years, the same as CD-R discs. Some dye formulations such as phthalocyanine and azo last longer, more than a 100 years compared to 15 to 40 years for less stable dyes. Re-writeable DVD formats like DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW, which use metallic materials that change the phase of the light, rather than light-sensitive dyes, have an expected lifetime of anywhere between 25 to 100 years. It’s important to remember that the quality of materials and production process can greatly affect the longevity of DVDs. Poor quality DVDs may deteriorate within a few years and produce errors or become unreadable within a year time.

**mrw** · 11-12-2006, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by cj001f

Because I can't marry more than one JPG

you could if you were Mormon

**albatross** · 11-13-2006, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by mrw

you could if you were Mormon

Yet another reason to move to Utah

**upallnight** · 11-13-2006, 12:46 AM

Originally Posted by kchri

You may be right and you may be wrong...

Basically, the expected longevity of dye-based DVD-R and DVD+R is anywhere from 20 to 250 years, the same as CD-R discs. Some dye formulations such as phthalocyanine and azo last longer, more than a 100 years compared to 15 to 40 years for less stable dyes. Re-writeable DVD formats like DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW, which use metallic materials that change the phase of the light, rather than light-sensitive dyes, have an expected lifetime of anywhere between 25 to 100 years. It’s important to remember that the quality of materials and production process can greatly affect the longevity of DVDs. Poor quality DVDs may deteriorate within a few years and produce errors or become unreadable within a year time.

...and there's the other element that improper handling -- one scratch in the wrong place -- could make all of the above irrelevant.

**ski_adk** · 11-13-2006, 12:23 PM

That's why I double backup my images to archival quality DVDs. I keep 2 copies of every DVD. I'm also thinking that when I have some down days, i might make a 3rd copy to keep at a friends place just to have even better disaster recovery procedures in place.