Best way to back up photos?

[Run_Lola_Run]

What is the best way to back up a load of old photos so that they look as close as possible to the printed ones?

Thanks

[Woolies]

In what sense "backup"? You can't really "backup" prints, you can use proper archival storage for them and the original source films to save them for the future.
Backing up digital photos is best done on good quality archival media (DVD/CD) burned at 1x speed and stored in archival conditions.


If you have old/vintage prints you just want to digitise then any decent flatbed scanner will scan them good enough for most folks.
Better to scan the negatives rather than prints, getting it done for you is pricey though. Be careful cleaning dust off before scanning as it's easy to scratch originals by wiping dust across them!

Scan in full colour rather than black & white to retain the printed tones of the black & white print but note that what an old print looks like now may never have been the intention. Old negatives & slides deteriorate and take on colour casts very quickly if stored cheaply.

[Shannow]

Originally Posted by Woolies

In what sense "backup"? You can't really "backup" prints, you can use proper archival storage for them and the original source films to save them for the future.
Backing up digital photos is best done on good quality archival media (DVD/CD) burned at 1x speed and stored in archival conditions.


If you have old/vintage prints you just want to digitise then any decent flatbed scanner will scan them good enough for most folks.
Better to scan the negatives rather than prints, getting it done for you is pricey though. Be careful cleaning dust off before scanning as it's easy to scratch originals by wiping dust across them!

Scan in full colour rather than black & white to retain the printed tones of the black & white print but note that what an old print looks like now may never have been the intention. Old negatives & slides deteriorate and take on colour casts very quickly if stored cheaply.

Given the length of time t takes to burn cd/dvds, i was planning on buying a couple of 100 gig drives for bcking up all my photos onto. which goven prces now is probablyt not far off the amount you'd pay for the amount of cd/dvds i'd need.

[Woolies]

Originally Posted by Shannow

Given the length of time t takes to burn cd/dvds, i was planning on buying a couple of 100 gig drives for bcking up all my photos onto. which goven prces now is probablyt not far off the amount you'd pay for the amount of cd/dvds i'd need.

Long term storage yer still best to use optical media burned & stored properly but aye, I have better things to do with my time!

I've currently got a three/four tiered hard drive system:
Working files on laptop, major store on an external drive. At least once a week synch that drive to internal SATA drive on a robust machine then every so often synch that with a seperate external drive that I keep offsite.

Recently paid 50 squids for 250GB WD Passport drives does the job & hope it lasts There'll be cheaper than them though.

[Run_Lola_Run]

Yeah it's just old photos from years ago I want to digitize. When you say a scanner is best for most folks do you mean there is a better way to capture them if you want the best quality?

[Woolies]

If you have the original negatives then scanning them is best but those scanners tend to cost more)

Professional spec flatbed scanners will just be overkill for "normal folks" so aye, get the best flatbed scanner you feel is justified and start scanning - it's a long pain in the ass process if you have a lot though, scanning negs you can at least do a few at once!

[Run_Lola_Run]

Thanks, yeah I don't want to do overkill and I don't have many negatives, just want to back them up incase something happens to them.

Just for talkings sake, if I wanted to use a scanner that does negatives what kind of price range are they in? I wouldn't know what to input if I searched for a scanner that does negatives.

[0x21]

You can get flatbed scanners that can handle negatives starting from about £100-150 all the way up to truly staggering figures most places that have scanners will probably have a couple capable of handling negatives in stock.

[Woolies]

Search for "film scanner", or look for flatbed scanners with the ability - often worded as "transparency unit" or some variation.

Canon & Epson are my two touted brands for adaptable consumer scanning, two £70 options that do prints & 35mm film ("normal negatives"):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/CanoScan-440...3586298&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Epson-Perfec...3586305&sr=1-1


I recently opted for a higher spec Epson model (needed for larger negatives) and am happy enough with it so far even if the Canon brand would normally entice me more

[Run_Lola_Run]

Cheers for the advice guys, £60 is a fair price to pay to back up all those family memories