Digital Photography provides myriad benefits over using traditional film alternatives. However, security is not often a guarantee.
Unlike negatives or prints, it’s easy to lose your digital photos during disasters such as device damage or accidental deletion. Even if data restoration software might be helpful, there is a likelihood that your approach might fail to work.
The most crucial detail for storing digital photos is to store the data using offsite and onsite measures. Fortunately, this guide should light on some helpful techniques you can use for the photo storage
Methods Of Storing Digital Photos
Below are some of these helpful suggestions:
1. Use Recordable Media
Recordable media such as DVDs, SD cards and more, are excellent for storing photography content. However, be careful with this approach as you are likely to accumulate large amounts of photo data that are not easy to organize.
Common types include when using resources such as SD cards, CDs, and various other similar media. The issue means that it will be easy to get mixed up, and organization is crucial to the success of your approach.
Ensure that you label each media using the correct dates and information for ease of identification. Next, find a secure spot in your home to store the recorded media, especially in an excellent dry space.
2. Use Cloud Storage
Cloud storage ranks high up among some of the most effective techniques that you can use to store different types of data. While most of these services are available at a cost, they usually offer free storage limits upon creating a new user account.
Cloud storage refers to an online service, which lets you store your content on their servers. Usually, you have to create a new user account, which gives you access to the free storage limit package. A few of the common cloud storage platforms you can use include:
Cloud Storage Package | Free Version Details | Paid Version Details Per month |
One Drive | 5GB | 100GB for $1.99 |
Google Drive | 15GB | 100GB for $1.99 & 2TB for $9.99 |
Dropbox | n/a | 2TB for $9.99/month
3TB for $16.58/month with Dropbox Professional |
3. Invest In an External Drive
You have many options for the types of external drives that you can use to store your photos. However, you also have to realize that external drives are prone to water or high-impact damage.
The typical external drives you can use to store your digital photos include USB drives, Micro SD cards, and external hard drives. The external hard drives come into options which are the SATA drives and Solid-State Drives (SSDs).
SSDs are better because they are fast and less prone to damage over time. However, the SATA types are slow and prone to physical damage. The only benefit of SATA hard drives is that they are significantly affordable than their counterparts.
Remember to find a suitable storage area for your preferred external drive solution. For instance, store it in a designated area in your home or office, where it sits in a cool and dry space.
4. Use Your Email
Did you know that emails also act as excellent data stores? The typical email platforms such as Google, Outlook, and Yahoo all have specific data stores you can use. Gmail, for example, provides users with up to 15GB of storage space.
On average, this should be sufficient for countless photos. However, since you also probably use your email for other functions, ensure that you correctly label and organize your pictures. You should tag them with the correct phrases or terms to make locating them conveniently.
5. Use Your Computer or Handheld Device.
You can also use your computer as part of the photo storage process. Both computers and flagship handheld devices provide lots of storage space you can use to store photos. However, since you probably have lots of data stored in such devices, you have to label and organize images correctly.
Computers are excellent for storing photos because they have extraordinary security measures and are easy to use. Handheld devices are also ideal, but be careful when using them as they are prone to damage or loss.
6. Print Out the Images
While printed images can be hectic to manage, it’s an excellent way to store your photos. You might need photo albums or a simple container that you can use to store the images. You can also get a marker pen to write out a few details on the photos for ease of tracking.
However, remember that you need to use a high-quality printer to print your images, especially if you plan to use them as memorabilia. We recommend that you check out this guide on how to print high-quality photos first.
Tips for Storing Your Digital Photos
Now, you already have lots of helpful information on the basic ways you can use to store digital photos. Next, let us take a look at a few helpful tips for keeping digital photos:
- Ensure that you use at least three of the methods mentioned above to store your photos. You never know when your preferred data storage solution might fail to work as required.
- Update and evaluate your stored photos occasionally. Doing this helps ensure that your photo data has excellent organization and that you can remember them.
- Integrate cloud storage options to your device. A good example would be Android users who can use this guidefor backing up photos.
You have to be careful in storing your digital photos as the options you can use are many. Be cautious in choosing a suitable approach, and use the right measures to ensure your photos are safe. While each method recommended above is unique, caution is still a crucial resource for image storage needs.