22 5 October 2019I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI subscribe 0330 333 1113
Technique ARCHIVING AND STORAGEMOST,if notall,photographersshootingfilmprofessionally,digitise
theirimagesfora numberof reasonsincludingforarchivalpurposes,
touploadtowebsitesandsocialmedia,andof courseforpassingonto
clientsbecausethemajorityof companiesandorganisationsusefully
digitalworkflows.Nottomention,sendingnegativesbringswithit risks
such as loss and damage, as well as cost. Scanning fi lm is an easy
processthankstointuitivescanningsoftwaresuchasSilverFast.The
difficultycomesin maintainingconsistentcolours,soit’srecommended
tocreatea customprofile usingtheincludedcolourchartandtoscanin
a roomwitha consistentlightsource.Oncescanned,digitalimagescan
oftenbesavedasDNGsandprocessedin raw-editingsoftware before
being fi nished in Photoshop or Affi nity Photo, for instance.compatibilityinthefuture.Some
cameras,includingLeica,Pentax,
HasselbladandDJIdrones,saveraw
imagesinDNGformatratherthanusing
theirownrawfileformat.
Sincerawfilesareconsideredthe
equivalentofa digitalnegative,you’ll
alwayswanttokeepa copyofthese,
whetherintheiroriginalformator
byconvertingthemtoDNGif youfear
supportforthemmaybedropped– but
what’sbestforyourprocessedimages?
Inshort,theTIFFfileformatremainsthe
bestoptionforeditedimagesbecauseit’s
nota lossyformatlikeJPEGs,andhasthe
optionfornocompression,layersupport
andtheabilitytosavein8-or16-bit;for
long-termstoragethey’recurrentlythe
bestoption.And,ofcourse,thesecanbe
usedtocreateJPEGcopiesorotherfile
formats,asandwhenyouneedthem.The
downside,albeita smallone,is thatTIFFs
aremuchlargerfilesthanJPEGsso they
requiremorestoragecapacity.
Physicalandcloudbackup
Asecondharddriveforbackupis always
thefirstrecommendedwaytoensure
filesecurityintheeventofa hard-drive
failure,andwithmechanicaldrivesstill
offeringthebestvalueintermsofcostfor
capacity,thislookssettoremainthebest
optionfortheforeseeablefuture.Thiscan
besecondarytoaninternalstoragedrive
if youusea desktopPC,butif youusea
laptopwitha low-capacitySSD,youmay
want to consider two external hard
drives:onetoworkonandtheother
forbackup.
Twocopiesofyourimagesmaysound
likea prettycomprehensivesolution,but
whathappensintheeventofa fire,flood
ortheft?If allyourcomputersandhard
drivesaredamagedorstolen,you’lllose
everything.Soit paystohaveeitheroneor
bothofthefollowingadditionalsolutions.
Havinga thirdbackupharddrivethat’s
locatedata friendorfamilymember’s
homeis oneoption.Butthedownsideis
thatyou’llneedtofrequentlyupdatethe
backup,whichmaynotbeconvenient.An
alternativeis tousea cloudbackupservice
suchasBackblazewhereyourentire
computerandattachedharddrivesare
backeduptoa datacentre,andbackups
canbedownloadedorobtainedinother
waysif andwhenrequired.Thesetypes
ofservicesruninthebackgroundusing
a simple software interface, updating theWorkingwithfi l m s c a n s
backupasnewfilesarecreatedandstored.
Onethingtoconsiderthough,is the
locationofthedatacentre(s)usedbythe
cloudserviceprovideryouchoose,asyour
datawillbesubjecttothelawsofthat
territory.Ultimately,twobackupsathome
andatleastoneoff-siteshouldensureyour
imagesareassafeastheypossibly can be.Scanninganddigitising
Ifyouowna collectionofimagesinan
analogueformatsuchasnegativesor
transparencies,digitisingthesetoensure
there’sa backupofthephysicalfilmis
alwaysworthconsideringtomakeyour
imagesmoresecure.Themostobvious
optionhereis topurchasea filmscanner,
andtherearededicatedfilmscannersand
high-resolutionflatbedoptionsthatuse
filmholderstopositionthefilmoverthe
scanningsurface.Theadvantageofthe
latteris thatthesearegreatif youalso
haveprintsthatyouwouldliketodigitise.
If youdon’twishtopurchasea scanner,
theotheroptionavailableis totakeyour
filmstoa professionalphotographylab
thatoffersscanningservices.Thiscould
bea locallab,oralternativelyyoucould
sendyourfilmsinthepost.Costultimately
dependsonthefilmformat– withlarger
formatscostingmore– aswellasthe
outputsize.Anexampleofcostis around
£4fora 30MB35mmscan,£5fora
30MBmedium-formatscanand£6for a
5x4inscan.Insomecases,buying
a scannercanbea muchmore
cost-eff ective solution.A cloudbackupservicesuchasBackblaze allows
you to retrieve files if disaster strikesUnprocessed ProcessedThisimagewasscannedfroma 6x7cmtransparencyusinga high-qualityHDRscanoptionandsavedasa DNG. This provided a large amount of detail, from
the deepest shadows through the mid-tones and to the highlights, which were then revealed in Lightroom
© JAMES ABBOTT