curious--how many do you actually print?

I come from a film background and am the sort of family archiver, having photos dating back to the early 1900's. So because of that, I tend to print copies of a lot of photos--even those we'd call 'snaps' as they're family history. I guess a part of me, being over 50, worries about not having these well into the future and I know from experience that photos printed do last a long time when cared for in archival boxes, etc. I also worry about the laziness factor--saving it for later and then oops, it's on a floppy and who does THAT any more? Not really kidding--I had one of the first sony digitals that used floppies and they're still on those damn floppies! I've learned since then.

So I'm really curious--do many of you print copies of your photos or just keep them all electronically? If electronically, even in multiple storage modes--do you feel they're 'safe' for the future?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as this is something that even makes me question shooting video stuff. (disclaimer--I might just be overly paranoid

I keep my archive images on several hard disks (one is external) and burn them to DVDs.

But who knows if you can read either in 50 years? I don't...

-js

I print a few, but not many. I too am the family historian/archiver and I have actually taken to scanning all the old pictures especially the ones from 1970 and earlier because they are seriously degrading, loosing color and sharpness, and in some cases the paper is beginning to seriously yellow.

I have set up a central server where all my pictures are stored. This way when the technology updates, I can simply copy the images to the new format and keep going. In addition, I do burn the images to archival DVD (Taiyo-Yuden0 media and provide my sisters with a copy and store one at work. In addition I use my wife's computes as a secondary local backup device as well.

So, I have my main working PC with it's RAID-1 disk array as my primary source. My wifes PC as a simple backup. I have my home archival server also with a raid disk array as main backup, and I have 3 sets of DVDs distributed at three different locations (work and two sisters) for offsite storage.

As to media obsolescence, that is a real problem. The only way to deal with it is to copy your whole library when you change storage devices. So going back, I use to use 5 1/4 disks, then 3 1/3 disks, then CDs, then tape, then DVDs, and soon it will change to Blu-ray I'm sure. The good news is each time I was able to copy them to a media type that required less pieces of media.

I have no way to read my 8 inch floppies any more.

Certainly not enough to justify the printer I have but, hey, who needs to justify that anyway! I keep all of them on hard drives and online storage and who knows what the future may hold. The way I figure it, there's going to come a time that it's really not going to be an issue for me.

I do try and keep up with storage changes, since my floppy losses. But then I look at what my kids want now, to show their own kids eventually--and it's all prints. The old photo books--they want those more than a cd etc. Maybe the photo books by Apple, Mpix, shutterfly etc are the way to go for that kind of 'snaps' not "art" stuff. I guess I just worry that when the net goes down or the power goes out, where are my photos of the grandkid discovering green beans??

The ironic part is that now we have such an abundance of images, where before they had so few, so they were treasured--I guess I'm thinking some of them we take now still must be 'treasured' even though it seems so easy to take so many. Does that make sense?

Nanboh wrote in post #8449066
Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. I'm sure that there are plenty of images on our hard drives that are every bit as treasured as the print ones. However, when my in-laws died in September 2007, it was quite an experience sitting with the family going through all of the prints going back to the 1920's. Somehow, I don't think it would be the same sitting around a video screen.

rfreschner wrote in post #8449242
Somehow, I don't think it would be the same sitting around a video screen.

THere would be no need. YOu can just give anyone who wants a copy, a copy. That was not possible with prints.

I don't print personal photos at all, but I keep them in RAW and the best in jpeg format, with backups of course. I do have 4-6 big prints of my photos around the house.

My wedding photos get printed a lot more, but still of the 500 or so images from each wedding about 40-80 appear in the album and 1% get printed by me. The couples might print more, since they get a disk.

gjl711 wrote in post #8449289
That was not possible with prints.

Well, actually it was. After I took all the prints, scanned them, fixed the rips, water stains, fading, etc. and made books out of them.

rfreschner wrote in post #8449582
Well, actually it was. After I took all the prints, scanned them, fixed the rips, water stains, fading, etc. and made books out of them.

Exactly, thats why I am scanning all the old photos.

I'd personally rather store stuff on a Laserdisc rather than dvd...

But I print, but not for archiving or other things like that, rather just so I have something to look at and show around or hang on the wall.

I'm 51 and also came from the time when everything was printed. Today I photograph and use my photographs differently.

Today I take lots of photos and typically create books (from Apple) out of the good shots. Some of the books are of family events, some from vacations, and some are personal project books. My last book was a project where I took nearly 3,000 photos. Just under 50 made it into the book, but they were the really good ones. There's no way I would print all of them because many are practically duplicates and most are just not my best.

Vacation books are a little different. Quality is less of an issue, and saving family memories is what is important.

I also create note cards from some of my photos. Some of them have been produced as photo cards through Apple, and some were crafted from printed photos by my wife.

I save each shoot as RAW files on 3 seperate hard drives after being sorted/keyworded in Bridge, I print any picture that I think is "extra special" from the day.

I grew up with my grandmother being the photo guardian, and each of us had our own photo albums showing from day one to present, that was then handed to us once we got out on our own.

So I've carried that on, and yes, print all the photos worth keeping and put them in albums, as well as preserving my own digital backups. When the family gets together, it's much easier to pass around an album. But then, my family still mails (postal!) "newsletters" every year with pictures and details of what's been going on with everyone.