With digital photography now the most popular photography format, knowing how to store your precious images is vital.

To many people out there storing there images takes second place to taking them. It’s not the most glamorous side of photography, though without it you could loose years of memories and valuable photographs.

It’s not only the novice that falls short in this field, many semi-professional and professional photographers have less then adequate image storage methods. There are several reasons for this, perhaps the most common is that while the basics of photography haven’t changed, the technologies associated with digital photography have.

Recent work I did for a museum highlighted how even a professional organisation could fall severely short when it comes to conserving their digital collection.
Over the last few years museums have been digitising their collection for cataloguing and conservation. Though much of their work can be futile, and need to be repeated if the initial steps are inadequate.

It is important to save images in an uncompressed format, or using the least amount of compression that your camera allows. The more compressed the file has the less information and detail it saves. This can become particularly troublesome if the image is edited and saved, as each re-compression decreases the image detail further.

Another important aspect of the digital image conservation process is the actual storage medium.
Ideally you would have your images present simultaneously on at least two different storage devices, and perhaps even different mediums. there are plenty of back up devices available that are as simple as pushing a button. In case of fire or theft where both devices could be harmed in the one instance, it highlights the importance of having the storage devices in different location, such as saved on a DVD in a safe. The practicalities are dependant on your own individual needs.

This is a very brief introduction into the necessity of being aware of your own digital conservation. If there is interest in this field I will write further and in more depth on the areas involved in digital photo conservation, from the camera and scanners, image formats, and storing mediums.