Storing Images

[Michael Reichmann <michael.reichmann@alphanet.net>]

Like many here whos experiences I have read over the past couple of =
days, I too lost 25 years worth of images, everything from age 15 to age =
40, pro and personal.  In my case it was to a flood, not a fire, but the =
results are the same.

The few exceptions were those images which had appeared in books and =
magazines which survived.  A handful of prints were also in private =
collections but everything else was lost.

Since then, and after a haitus of some years when I left photography =
completely in dispair, I have been rigerous in filing, storing and =
safeguarding my transparencies and negatives.

For the past year or so, since I became involved in digital darkroom =
work, I have been scanning all of my best work from the past 10 years or =
so and storing the files on CD ROM.  These have a claimed life =
expectancy of many decades (Kodak claims 200 years for their CDs) and =
this makes me a lot more confident that my images will be accessable to =
me and others in years to come.  It also helps avoid the inevitable =
fading of color materials.

35mm slides are typically 20MB in size and 120 film (depending on aspect =
ratio) 30-45MB.  Even with these large files, a CD ROM blank is only $6 =
or $7 and holds 650MB, so cost isn't a serious issue.  Raw scans, =
unmanipulated in Photoshop, only take a few minutes each so time isn't a =
big issue either. Good scanners are expensive though.  I have a Nikon =
LS-1000 for 35mm and an Agfa Duoscan for medium and large format and =
they both produce excellent results.

Michael