Hard Copy Digital Creating and maintaining modern photographic prints Cheryl Jackson

Today’s topics What a photograph actually is today. How to create and store your digital photos How to store your analogue photos.

Photography today Most of us have a 5Mb camera in our pocket at the moment It is estimated that between cameras and mobile phones there will be more than one trillion photos taken this year. 350 million photos are uploaded the Facebook every day. More photos will be taken in the next 2 minutes than in the whole of the Nineteenth Century There are 10,000 times more photos on Facebook than in the Library of Congress

DIY photographic prints Inkjet printers – desktop printers and multi- function centres made by many manufacturers In-store kiosks – mostly for large orders that wouldn’t be printed at home Dye sublimation printers – dedicated printer docks the camera plugs into and some in-store kiosks. Colour laser printers and photocopiers– becoming more high end

In-Store Kiosks

Dye Sublimation Printers

Laser printing

Photo Books Excellent way to display, store, back up and enjoy your photos Good permanence

Inkjet Printers

By far the most common printer for home use and in institutions like the NAA. Many manufacturers. Dye or pigment based inks Coated or plain paper

Making Permanent Prints Good quality inks Good quality paper Correct storage of prints Correct handling of prints Correct display of prints

Papers Photo paper is designed to receive and hold on to the inks.

Papers Use the right paper for the job to give the best results Top – liquid inkjet on plain paper Bottom – liquid inkjet on glossy photo paper

Inks Use the inks recommended for your printer Manufacturers design their inks to perform best in their own equipment Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) inks shown to perform best Aftermarket inks have a lot of catching up to do

Wilhelm Imaging Research

Display and Storage Low light, or reprint. Low humidity, or reprint Low temperature, or reprint Low pollution levels, or reprint Archival quality albums and papers, or reprint

Creating a Digital Preservation File It is difficult to set specific Standards for preservation digitisation. The parameters will vary according to material type, colour and size of the original. Equipment needs to be calibrated and maintained. You need to have enough reliable storage for the files you create

Creating a Digital Preservation File

Creating a Digital Access File Original Material Raw (high resolution) Large (low resolution web version) Small (low resolution web version) Photographic film material  Format: TIFF  Resolution: 2000ppi (over 35mm), 5000ppi (35mm and smaller)  Scanning ratio: 100%  Type of image: colour  Colour Management: Adobe RGB 1998  Bit-Depth: 16 bits per channel  Byte Order: PC ordered  Format: JPEG Level 10  Dimension: 700 pixels longest side  Colour Management: sRGB  Bit-Depth: 8 bits per colour  Format: JPEG Level 10  Dimension: 150 pixels longest side  Colour Management: sRGB  Bit-Depth: 8 bits per colour

Creating a Digital Access File Photographic prints and artwork under A3 in size  Format: TIFF  Resolution: 600ppi (over 10x15cm) 900ppi (10x15cm and smaller)  Scanning ratio: 100%  Type of image: colour  Colour Management: Adobe RGB 1998  Bit-Depth: 16 bits per channel  Byte Order: PC ordered  Format: JPEG Level 10  Dimension: 700 pixels longest side  Colour Management: sRGB  Bit-Depth: 8 bits per colour  Format: JPEG Level 10  Dimension: 150 pixels longest side  Colour Management: sRGB  Bit-Depth: 8 bits per colour

The Digital File BACK UP

The Digital File Don’t rely on just one type of back up Copy onto a write-once CD or DVD or thumb drive for transport to another computer off site Copy onto an external hard drive Store a back up off site – at work or among family or in a “cloud” Make the files read only so they can’t be accidentally deleted Migrate your files to any new operating system

Internal/External Hard drives Most reliable option Mechanical failure of the hardware Data integrity problems Total loss of the drive Recommended that professionals use a RAID 1.

Home made disks Are not considered an archival medium The CDs and DVDs you burn yourself use a dye layer to record information, not a metallic layer like CD- ROMs. This is an organic dye which is less stable than the metallic layers. Gold reflective layers more permanent than silver alloys or silver. ReWritable CDs and DVDs are even less stable than write-once disks and can be accidentally over-written.

Preserving the disks you have Check for playback as soon as you’ve created them. Keep them cool and dry with no direct sunlight and no pollution. Direct sunlight and other elevated temperatures can compromise the dye layers. Keep them in protective cases. Use an approved pen for labelling, and no stickers. Do regular checks for usability. Rewrite your data to new disks regularly.

Thumb drives and memory cards Are not considered an archival medium Use as a transport medium, copy files to a hard drive Fail instantly and catastrophically May use recycled parts Get lost easily

Cloud Storage Cloud Storage is basically an offsite storage and server centre for your data. You can access it from anywhere thru a secure login – work, home, friends house, on holidays. If disaster strikes, your data is still available

Storing Analogue Photos

Storing Glass Plates

Online Resources

The Future Hard drives will have more capacity. Helium filled, 6Tb Hard Disc Drive? 64 Gb Solid State Drive in thumb drives. Nanolithography and self-assembling molecules – a hard drive with magnetic islands only 50 atoms wide to hold information

Summary - Prints Inkjet inks can be quite stable Match your ink set, paper and printer Store and display prints as for all other artworks

Summary - Files Make your files to the highest resolution you can support Save your files in an accessible file format Store your files on a reliable server BACK THEM UP Keep your fingers crossed

Very Important Websites