The Textbook of Digital Photography - PhotoCourse

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Amazingly, one company ran a light fastness test that showed that gold discs

could withstand sunlight for only 100 continuous hours without damage.

Discs with the widely used cyanine dye began to deteriorate after only 20

hours and failed at 65 hours.

• Compatibility. The big problem with optical discs is summed up in the
  word “compatibility” defined by the dictionary as “existing or living together
  in harmony.”
  With CDs the problems are minimal. You can select either CD-Recordable
  (CD-R) discs that can be written to once or CD-ReWriteable (CD-RW) discs
  that can be recorded, erased, and reused, just like a hard disk.
  With DVDs, the problems are more complex. Until recently you could select
  DVD+ (plus) or DVD- (dash) formats. Since the formats are incompatible,
  the industry solved the problem by having you pay for both in the form of a
  multiformat or dual DVD drive.
  Now the industry is introducing two more incompatible formats, the HD-
  DVD and Blu-ray DVD. Only time will tell if there is a clear winner or if they
  again solve the problem by charging you for both in the form of a combined
  drive.

Cd/dVd Burning SoFtwAre

To copy files to a CD/DVD, you need recording—sometimes called authoring

or burning—software. This software is readily available—for example, the

latest Windows and Mac operating systems let you burn a CD/DVD directly

from the operating system. In addition, there are programs such as Roxio’s

Easy Media Creator designed specifically for this task. The ability to burn CD/

DVDs is increasingly being integrated into other applications. For examples,

Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture and Adobe’s Lightroom all let you select images

and burn them to a CD/DVD without leaving the application. Many applica-

tions also let you create a slide show of your images and burn the show to a

DVD disc so it can be played on the computer, a CD player, and even a late

model DVD player connected to the TV.

lABeling Cd/dVd diSCS

When you burn a disc, you or your software can add a title that will be dis-

played by your computer when you access the disc in a drive on your system.

The name will also be used by image management software to keep track of

your images. For example, with most image management programs, when

you double-click the thumbnail of an image that isn’t currently on-line, the

name you assigned the disc on which it is stored is displayed and you are

prompted to insert that disc.

You can add your own descriptive title such as Florida Trip Disc, or let the

program automatically assign one based on the current date and time. For

example, the number 070412_0849 indicates the disc was burned in the year

2007 on May 12 at 8:49 AM.

Even when a disc is labeled when burned, you still need to physically label

it. Generally, the information should be on the disc itself, not on an envelope

or insert. It’s too easy for these to get separated from the disc. One way to

label a disc is with a permanent marker pen that writes on the non-recording

side of the disc with ink that won’t rub off with use. For longevity reasons,

the best choice is a pen that uses water-based inks. Some marker pens, such

CDs and DVDs are less
expensive when you
buy them on spindles.
You then use envelopes
to store them in
drawers.

CD drive. Courtesy of
LaCie.

There are many
notebook computers
that have built-in DVD
drives, including this
ultralight from Sony.

storing imAges—on your system