How to Protect your Photos: Batavia, N.Y. Photographer explains.
/Storing and caring for your family photos is crucial so they can be shared for a lifetime and for future generations to enjoy. Below are a few tips on how to do just that.
Prints
Obviously we want to display prints on our walls, but we do run out of space and have to update images along the way, so what are you to do with those prints to ensure quality for the future?
Be sure that whatever you store your prints in is an acid free material; This includes when you are planning to frame them on your walls. You want to make sure you have acid free matting and glass. Use archival sleeves to store prints.
Store them in a cool, dry place. Less than 75 degrees is best.
Avoid displaying and storing them in direct sunlight; this will fade your images over time.
Keep in a low humidity location, but not too low. You want to discourage mold growth (too much moisture) and brittle photos (to dry).
If you want to take extra precaution to protecting your images, have extra prints made and store them in a secondary location (off-site).
Digital Negatives
We live in a digital age and so with that comes photographers giving digital negatives (jpgs) instead of just prints from their sessions so I think it’s important for you to know how to care for those types of files too. There’s really only a couple of rules for this.
Always, always, ALWAYS save your digitals in multiple locations; external hard drives, cd/dvd, multiple computers, etc. Your family photographer only has so much space to keep images, and many dump images after a certain period of time, so don’t rely on them as one of your back-ups
Print them in different forms: prints for the wall, 4x6’s to store in a table top box, and/or an album. Then, refer back to how to care for your prints.