This is Part 2 in a series by my “real-life” friend, Danielle Zacharias, of Side by Side Video… {Read Part 1 here.}
Going Digital: Photos
Today we're going to talk about photos. I would guess that most people were hesitant when digital cameras first came out. I know I was! The first versions had a very "digital" look if you know what I mean, and many people thought digital cameras would just be a fad. So, let's figure you have most of your life on film. I'm almost 27 and did not get a digital camera until I graduated college so for my 5 years of life in digital, I have 22 years of my life on film.
Now, here's the problem: we took less pictures when there was film because it cost more. But we have all these years worth of printed pictures since you HAD to print all of them and that takes up lots of storage space, boxes and boxes and boxes. Now, with digital, you only end up printing a select few but you take ten times the amount of photos. So the problem lies in keeping yourself organized. Later on, I'll give you plenty of ideas about organizing and storing, but first let's talk about getting them all in the computer!
"Are you seriously asking me to scan all my photos into my computer??" Yes. Unfortunately there is no easier or faster way to get your photos digitized. Like we talked about with the copies of copies, the sooner you can get a digital original of your photos, the sooner they will be future proof or archival. You can keep negatives for the rest of your life but you have no idea when people will stop developing prints from negatives. Some places like Costco don't develop film anymore and I'm guessing that soon you will be hard-pressed to find any place that does. If all your photos are digital, you can make prints from them any time you would like. You can even email photos to places like Costco and they will have them printed in an hour or so!
Digital originals will also be easy to transfer when the next technological advance comes around. Plus, you absolutely do not have to scan in all your pictures. If you go back and look through boxes of printed photos, you will find many of them you don't care about anymore or don't even remember the people who were in the picture. Be ruthless! Just keep the absolute best pictures to remember your life by. You don't need to keep them all! I used to feel really bad about throwing pictures away but when I've given them a bit of time, I can go through them from a less emotional point of view. If you really must kept them all, that's fine too. As long as you have the space on your computer, you don't have to throw anything away! For this project, all you need is a good quality scanner and a photo organizing software, which I'll touch on later, so stay tuned.
Why not make it a New Years' Resolution to start going digital with your photo collection?