Family Photo Storage - Some Major Environmental Factors

Despite the good intentions of many families to better organize family photo prints, stacks of photo prints are often stored in unfriendly environments.

Until they get around to organizing the photo print collection, it is useful for them to understand that some things can be done quickly and easily to prolong the useful life of the images.

Most deterioration of the paper, pigments, and binders used for older prints is attributable to chemical reactions. Therefore, any effort to minimize or slow these chemical reactions is helpful. The attic, basement, and garage are simply not good places to store photo prints.

Major environmental factors related to these locations include:

Temperature - Museums strive to maintain temperatures of roughly 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Although it may not be possible to control temperature as precisely as a museum, the further outside of a human comfort zone, the greater the risk to your collection. Extremes and dramatic swings in temperature damage the paper and other materials in photos and documents by accelerating chemical reactions and/or by expansion and contraction.

Humidity - Museums typically strive to maintain a relative humidity of 50%. Particularly in combination with temperature extremes, humidity both initiates and accelerates many chemical reactions. High humidity can also create an environment conducive to mold and mildew, a situation that can cause rapid deterioration and irreversible damage.

Pollutants - Pollutants include a broad range of substances or objects that cause or accelerate chemical reactions, or create an increased risk of abrasion or other surface damage. These pollutants include dust, smoke, fumes from cleaning materials, chemicals and acids present in improper storage materials, and many glues and tapes used to mount and display images. Even fumes being created by natural chemical reactions in unventilated storage can accelerate other chemical processes. Clean storage areas, reasonable ventilation, and proper archival storage materials reduce the risks associated with most pollutants.

Pests - Insects and rodents may choose to take up residence in certain types of paper. Worse yet, they may perceive the collection to be a food source. The best way to avoid pest damage is to periodically inspect the collection in order to detect and resolve a pest problem early.

Exposure to Light - Museums go to extraordinary lengths to control exposure of collections to certain types of light. Many types of lighting, particularly direct sunlight, impact chemical reactions of the different materials that may be contained in displayed objects, and fade or discolor images in a meaningful way. Careful placement of displayed images, rotation of collections, use of special lighting, and day-to-day display of duplicates, are some of the many techniques used to control the level of exposure to harmful light.

Therefore, at a minimum, photo print collections should be stored in areas of the house that feel comfortable to the home owners. It is better to store the prints in a closet than in an attic, garage, or basement, as the temperature and humidity is likely to be closer to museum standards and more consistent in the closet. It is also important to eliminate obvious pollutants such as paper clips and rubber bands. Use of proper storage materials such as acid free envelopes and boxes will also help to prolong the useful life of the prints.

For additional tips and resource suggestions on family photo and document storage, organization, and image sharing, visit LocalArchiver.com.

Organizing Family Photos - Hysterical Preservation and the 80/20 Rule

With limited time and budgets, families and others hoping to preserve a historical heritage in photos and documents often have a difficult time drawing the line between what is important to preserve and what can be preserved.

Many preservationists have been referred to as "hysterical preservationists" when they appear to take the position that most or all things historic should be preserved. The "hysterical " approach is often criticized as spreading resources and attention too thin, to the detriment of truly special and unique objects of historical significance.

I believe that the same debate can be applied to family photo and document collections. If a collection consists of boxes of photos or "keepsakes" in an attic, there is a decent probability that someone named in your will could be even less motivated to sort and cull the image collection than you are.

On the other hand, if you approach a culling and organizing project as an application of the 80/20 rule, it is much easier to make some decisions and real progress. In a recent culling project of family photos around our house, we tossed about 80% by volume of our old prints.

We determined that uniqueness and mediocrity were the most obvious criteria. We simply decided that we did not need to keep all of the mediocre shots of a trip to the Grand Canyon in 1975. A couple of the better shots of us with the canyon in the background were sufficient to recall a memorable trip in our younger years. Likewise, multiple shots of a young child in a Halloween costume could be easily reduced to the single best shot.

Uniqueness and historical significance can also be measured differently over time. Historical photos of people may only have had significance to the people in the picture at the time. If people in a picture were engaged in some activity that has historical significance, perhaps the activity is the uniqueness to future generations.

In any case, the person who is culling, sorting, and organizing images is likely the person most qualified to judge uniqueness and historical significance. Keep in mind that you are not just sorting and organizing the collection for yourself, you are also helping those who will inherit the images in the future.

If based on the best judgement of the sorter, roughly 20% of the collection ends up properly sorted, organized, and captioned, the most unique and historically significant photos and documents are much more likely to survive and be shared into the next generation.

For more suggestions on culling and organizing photo and document collections, see the article on Organizing Photo and Document Collections.

Family Photo Sharing in The Digital Age

There are now so many creative ways to share digital family photo images. If you have not yet tried some of the popular online photo image services, you likely can not grasp the range of possibilities.

In days past, we would ultimately remember to take that roll of film to be developed and perhaps order double prints so that we could share photos with at least one friend or another family member. Less often we would take a negative to have additional prints made. This is the reason many of us have older one-of-a-kind prints that others would like to have as well.

Now most of us have more recent subjects as digital image files on our computers. Many of us send downsized copies via email or post these in an online album and send a link for a quick look by friends and relatives.

Older relatives without easy access to email or the internet, and those who simply can not be bothered, are now often left out of the image sharing flow.

By easily uploading your images to an online gallery, you can then order inexpensive prints for hard copy display and sharing, create photo books, and access a broad range of other image based products.

My favorite online printer is Shutterfly.com based on its breadth of products and cutting edge services, including its share sites. Uploading and storing your digital images is free. Then you or others ordering prints and image products pay only for orders placed. Your relatives who want a print can place the order and pay themselves. If you know a relative without access to the digital photo album would want a print, you can order one for them and have it delivered directly. Prints are typically shipped within two days, and there is an option to pick up 4x6 prints at local Target stores.

It is also easy to take your best older one-of-a-kind prints and turn them into digital files that can then be added to your online gallery and/or used in other family photo projects.

If you do not have the time, energy, expertise, or equipment to scan your older prints, check out the services of ScanDigital.com.

If you are hesitant to create an online album because you have so many old prints and digital files on your computer, try one of the online services such as Shutterfly with just a handful of images. Once you realize how easy the process can be and experience the flexibility and convenience, you are likely to become more motivated to grab a second handful. You will also begin to see the many sharing possibilities more clearly.

For more family photo sharing guides and project ideas, visit LocalArchiver.com.

Preserving Family Photos and Documents - Archival Paper Basics

Understanding the basic archival qualities of paper is useful in understanding how long a family photo or document might last, and to better select proper paper storage products.

Most paper produced since the late 1800s has been produced using wood pulp, an inherently acidic material. The quality of paper made from wood pulp often equates to how many steps are taken in the manufacturing process to reduce the acidity of the paper and to improve the chemical stability of better quality papers.

This is why we see rapid deterioration of cheaper paper materials such as newsprint, which remains highly acidic. This rapid deterioration is the result of chemical reactions, which are accelerated by light, heat, and humidity.

There are some labeling terms often used with paper products, which provide clues to the appropriateness of using paper for archival storage purposes.

Be cautious as you see these terms, as suppliers' definitions of archival qualities vary. In any case, if you can become satisfied that paper being used for reproductions and storage are chemically stable, your preservation efforts are improved.

pH Balanced - A chemically neutral paper is typically described as pH balanced. This paper will have a pH between 7.5 and 10. A pH of 7.5 is often referred to as "balanced" and a pH of 10 is often associated with "archival".

Buffered - Paper is referred to as buffered when it is manufactured to contain a small amount of Calcium Carbonate to act as a barrier to acid contamination. The calcium carbonate is typically in the range of 2%.

Acid Free - The term acid free is used to suggest a very low acidic content. In paper content descriptions, this is often denoted as the % of lignin content. Lignin is an acidic compound present in wood. Therefore, a very low lignin content percentage is indicative of a low acid content, and is often described as acid free.

Archival - Materials are best described as archival when the pH approaches 10, and lignin is not present. However, you may see materials described as archival when pH is above 7.5, only small percentages of lignin are present, and materials are buffered.

Although many products sold through mass marketers are labeled archival or such, the best way to be certain of labeling is to buy from sources that are experienced with these materials. Dick Blick Art Materials has a dedicated archival materials department and Archival Methods provides a broad range of archival storage products, and provides custom solutions as well.

Photo Fading Factors - A Reason to Consider Having Your Photos Printed Online

Inkjet printers are the most common choice for home photo printing, and printer manufacturers have made great strides in providing relatively inexpensive equipment to satisfy home printing needs. Compared to just a few years ago, we can now create astonishing photo prints at home with available color and resolution capabilities.

However, a risk that we should all be aware of is the permanence of the image we print at home. Each printer manufacturer and office supply company offers us a complex choice of inks to feed our printers, and each of these have varied qualities that impact the original printed image and how long it will survive before colors shift and fade. Equally mysterious is the wide choice of papers to place beneath the ink image as these papers also deteriorate and will perhaps impact the inked image above.

In order to be confident that your home prints will last as long as possible, you would need to learn the language of paper and ink quality characteristics and conduct some comparative research. Wilhelm Imaging Research is the best know image permanence testing organization, and they publish test results for many brand name inks and papers. Better papers and inks can be expected to reflect a higher cost. This is something to consider the next time you reach for bargain private label photo paper at your local office supply superstore.

On the other hand, large online printers such as Shutterfly.com need to be able to satisfy the questions and printing needs of their most sophisticated professional photographer customers. The online printers' professional staff and buying clout allow them to identify and purchase the best materials for initial and long lasting quality. It is also important to note that processes used by major online printers are simply not the same as those available in the home.

Although printing at home may provide some instant gratification and you may like the apparent added control over the editing and printing process, you are probably not using materials that will maximize the enjoyment of the image by you and perhaps future generations. The effort to identify the best materials for your home printer combined with the added cost of these materials may actually exceed the cost of having your prints made professionally. Even if you use quality materials at home, you may still not attain the same consistent high quality available through major online printers.

For a description of materials used by at least one major online printer, go to Shutterfly.com, use the menu near the page top to access "help" and then search on "Photographic Print Durability" once in the help section.

It is clearly useful to have a photo printing capacity in the home for many photo projects. However, if the purpose of printing a photo includes the goal of long lasting enjoyment, perhaps into future generations, one should consider the image permanence issues raised above, and at least explore having the print made professionally and conveniently by a major online printer.

For a broader discussion of printing photos, read the article titled Printing Quality Photo and Document Digital Images at LocalArchiver.com.

Feedback on Photo and Document Preservation and Sharing Topics Most Welcomed

This blog and its related website, LocalArchiver.com, have now been up and running for about three months. In addition to starting this blog in June, articles have been added to the LocalArchiver.com website and additional features such as print friendly pages and the ability to email page links to others are now available.

I am receiving some welcomed feedback on the usefulness of the site. This feedback is much appreciated, as it is the primary way of knowing whether others are finding the website content useful. This feedback also lets me know that the site is beginning to meet its primary goal of helping families and community historical societies save time and money in their efforts to organize, preserve, and share photos and documents in their image collections.

Feedback to date has been positive. Some kind excerpts from emails include:

"Great job on developing a user friendly and informative web
site."

"...Your site is fabulous! I just checked out your blog, too. Very nice. Extremely informative, too.... I have fallen heir to a great deal of very old photographs and letters. You're helping me preserve things as they ought to be. I'm forever grateful for that. "

"I don't know how I stumbled on your site but thankfully I did! ......I still have a long way to go but I have a much clearer vision now and feel the weight has lifted from my shoulders. A HUGE thank you! Your site, resources and links are wonderful...."

Feedback such as this has helped me to feel that I am on the right track and that some visitors are finding the content at LocalArchiver.com useful.

I ask that visitors also let me know what they feel is missing, inaccurate, or unclear. Many of the topics in the website are subject to ongoing debate (best scanning resolutions, best number of pixels for quality print resolution, etc., etc.). The LocalArchiver.com offers what it considers to be the best information available, consolidated and presented in a way to be useful to a non-professional.

Clearly, the "rightness" of a given solution is somewhat dependent on circumstances. The "correct" image capture resolution and digital file format selection will likely be different for a family vacation photo and a professional landscape photo.

Likewise, a large urban museum with a full time professional staff will likely catalog collection images differently than a community historical society. Please keep providing feedback, both positive and constructive, so that we can jointly make LocalArchiver.com as useful as possible, and to represent the varied views of visitors to this blog and to LocalArchiver.com.

Family Memories and Color Photo Prints Fade Together

Due to differences in materials and processes used, family color photo prints begin to show deterioration much more rapidly than older black and white photo prints. For a relatively concise explanation of why, read A Consumer Guide to Traditional and Digital Print Stability at the Image Permanence Institute website.

In short, the dyes, pigments, and other materials used to create color photo prints are inherently less stable than those used in black and white prints, and the materials and processes vary more widely. Therefore, it is generally agreed that noticeable fading and color shifts are possible within roughly 50 years, even when prints are properly handled and stored.

Color photo prints became widely available in the 1950s. Therefore, most families are likely to have some portion of their collection demonstrating this color photo print instability, and they can expect to see additional deterioration of aging color prints in the future.

The Image Permanence Institute article suggests that "Color prints, not electronic files, are the best way to ensure that digital images will be preserved for future generations."

I agree that understanding the optimal print technology, storage, and handling of color prints is important, particularly when a decision is made to display prints in albums, scrapbooks, and elsewhere in the home.

However, I believe that creating digital scans of older color prints before they show fading, and properly managing newly created digital files is the best way to preserve and share these images with current and future family generations. In addition to expanded ways to share and distribute the images once in digital format, I believe that we can be confident that clever people will develop ways for us to easily transition digital family history images from generation to generation.

Clearly one should create backups of digital files to avoid complete loss in the event of equipment failure. However, backups of photo prints is equally important, as these are subject fire, floods, and other calamity as well.

Digital file formats, digital storage media, and the technology used to view the digital images will undoubtedly change over time. However, this will not happen overnight. Further, I am willing to bet that my descendants will be smart enough to see these changes coming and transfer family digital image information to evolving technology. I also suspect that there will be competitive business services to help them. There are still a lot of ways to transfer old 8mm movies to DVD, and I am confident that there will be inexpensive and readily available ways to transfer CD and DVD information to the next and subsequent generations of storage media. There are simply too many digital jpeg images on hard drives, CDs, and DVDs to think that these digital images are at greater risk than prints.

I also believe that the transfer of family history images can be made easier and more likely by placing the images in the proper digital format and distributing multiple copies now. Regardless of the care taken to prolong the useful life of one-of-a-kind color prints, many will be faded in another generation or two, and will become more likely to simply be tossed as faded old photos that were not properly captioned and indexed as digital files.

For more suggestions on organizing, preserving and sharing family photos, visit LocalArchiver.com.

To explore creating digital files of your older color prints, or your entire photo print collection, visit ScanDigital.com.