I have done research for myself and my clients to find out the ways we can preserve our precious photos. When I go through the photographs that I have done for a client, I ask myself which are the ‘winners’ and should be preserved. I then wish to make prints right away. However, I know that several edits are necessary as my first choices are too many. As a professional photographer it is my job to give time for these several edits. This is the time to look and look again to pick the most compelling and memorable photographs to recommend to my clients.
I feel it is important to edit because we often have too many photographs of an event, vacation, or picture taking time with our children. If we do edits, we are more likely to have those moments and memories that we know we must preserve.
First, I would like to address how to preserve your photos digitally. They are already digital, but we need to consider two main factors that can lead to losing them: there are device failures and changes in technology. Hard drives die and CDs and DVDs degrade over time. So, the only way to make sure you’ll retain your photos is to back them up multiple times in multiple locations.
The first type of backup can be an external hard drive or even a USB drive. You would back up your files every time you have new photos. You can even do another external back up and give this to a friend or relative to store. A third back up system is ‘the cloud’. There are several services where you can store your photos.
An important issue for your digital photographs is that technology evolves to new forms and older technology can disappear. The jpeg and other digital photographic formats may be replaced by newer ones. Review your digital photo collection every few years and see if you need to update your files to a new format and change your storage system. There may be specialty companies to help you with this.
If you are dealing with digital images, the most secure way to have heirlooms is to physically print these images on archival paper. These prints can be framed and hung on walls, displayed on tables and mounted in albums or stored in boxes.
There are two ways that are readily available to make prints from digital photographs. One type of process, the digital C-print, is the same as that used for color negatives. Your digital file is printed on a continuous tone printer that uses silver-based paper and processes that paper with traditional chemistry. These type of prints can last up to 60 years.
A new form of printing is done with pigment-based inks. This is different than inkjet prints. Pigment-based inks are often called archival and are rated to last 100 years depending on the paper used. You must use a paper that is also rated archival for the print to last. I recommend that you work with a trusted professional lab for both the digital C-print and the pigment-based ink print.
It is advised to keep prints away from direct sunlight. If you wish to frame them, using an archival mat to separate the print from the glass or acrylic is a must. Without a mat, the print may stick to the glass and be ruined. The glass and acrylic can also come in UV protective forms.
Albums have been a traditional way to store prints and have the advantage of being able to group prints by event, trip, or keeping track of the growth of your child or children. Look for albums that are archival. For mounting the photos, there are a multitude of products from archival corners, tapes and archival glues. Prints can also be stored in archival boxes. There are also archival plastic sleeves. These products are very popular and easy to find. The images I am using as illustrations are prints mounted to an archival paper in an album, one with archival corners and the other with archival glue tape.
Although printed books are fun, they are not archival. Do not consider them for heirloom pass-alongs.
Canvas prints, on the other hand, can be top coated for longevity to prevent fading from sunlight and scratching or scuffing. There are several top coating options that have UV inhibitors and waterproofing. Have your canvas prints done professionally and ask about the top coating options. These options may also offer you a choice in finishes from matte, satin, semi-gloss, or gloss.
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Alice Garik is a professional photographer specializing in working with families. Her child portraiture and her maternity work were cited by Px3, a prestigious international photography competition. For more information, please visit www.alicegarik.com.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.
