Dec 30, 2007 11:56 am US/Central
Secrets To Preserving Your Digital Photos
(WCCO)
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Saving digital pictures to paper, your computer, or even a CD doesn't mean your pictures will last forever.
Canon
Pictures
help us remember the past but with 30 million digital cameras being bought this
year -- most of those pictures are ending up in places where they could be
lost.
A
few years ago we uncovered the secrets to making those memories last and we
decided it was worth a refresher course.
Christina
and Charles Nguyen had a wonderful wedding.
"We
took a lot of pictures," said Christina.
Two
ceremonies, 26 rolls of film -- hundreds of pictures that they had developed.
However,
when the newlyweds went on their honeymoon they brought along their new,
digital camera. They came home and transferred the photos to their
computer. Months went by and the
pictures piled up.
Christina
said, "It's so easy. You take, take, take."
Honeymoon Pictures Gone
One
morning as Christina came down the stairs, she heard a funny noise.
She
said, "Oh, that's not a good sound. I definitely knew it was something
electronic, a sound like a cell phone would make, but it wasn't the cell phone,
it was the computer."
Christina's
hard drive had crashed -- her honeymoon memories were gone.
Not
exactly a happy moment for the newlyweds. Saving digital pictures to paper,
your computer, or even a CD doesn't mean your pictures will last forever.
"It's
one of the most common pitfalls that people run into when they first get their
digital camera," said Jeff Isham of National
Camera Exchange.
We
asked Isham and Jenny Kouzes of West Photo
for some tips on how to avoid digital disaster.
Memory Card
You
entrust your priceless pictures to the memory card, so handle with care. Consider
the card only temporary storage.
I
think it's a good idea to treat it like a role of film, shoot it for a specific
event," said Isham. "Download it to the computer and blank it out and
use again from scratch."
Cards
come in different sizes of memory -- bigger isn't always better.
Kouzes
recommends buying two or three smaller ones, instead of putting all your eggs
in one basket with one big card.
Downloading to a CD
Even
if you download your pictures to a CD they may not be safe. If a CD is
scratched or exposed to heat and humidity it may last as little as five years.
DVD
DVD'S
provide more space and they're more durable.
Printing Your Pictures
It's
those magical moments that we always treasure and that's why our experts say it
still pays to print
your favorite photos.
We
wondered if it mattered where they're developed. So we took pictures with a
digital camera then had them developed at Target and printed them on a home computer.
Our
experts judged the quality of the paper, color and images.
"On
the ones done at a store, you can actually see more of the image," said
Kouzes.
The
home printer cut off part of the photo. There were other differences too, and
our experts had an easy time picking out the pictures printed at the lab.
Isham
said, "The density of the shadow areas is just a lot richer in the lab
prints than it is on the ink jets."
"I
actually like the matte finish a lot better too, because finger prints don't
show up as much," said Kouzes pointing to the ones printed at the store.
If
you do print at home remember this: 70-percent of people still print your
pictures for home, so like CDs -- scratches, lighting and time can change the
color of your photos.
Spend
the money on high quality paper in smaller packages.
Any
one of these things could have saved Christina from her honeymoon heartbreak.
She's lucky she recouped her pictures, but it cost her $2,000.
On-track Data Recovery a company
in Eden Prairie
that's even helped recover data from the Space Shuttle found them in her
computer's hard drive. A costly lesson,
but to the newlyweds, worth every dime.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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