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Geneology


Photographs, Copying Photos, Negative Storage and Digital Cameras

by Elaine Powell

Most people will admit that the first thing they would take from their home in the event of a fire, flood, etc., after their family members of course, would be family photos.

Taking photos and collecting family photos to add to the genealogical records of your family is a wonderful addition to your family history. If you are planning to take photos of relatives, tombstones, old homesteads, etc., be sure and keep the negatives of these photos.

It is unlikely that you will have a negative for an old family photo. And so, if you do not have the negatives, I recommend making copies of all of your older photos. Your vintage photos are a piece of history that you will want to preserve and protect. Store your original photos, or negatives if you have them, in a safety deposit box or in a different location other than your own home so that in the event of a loss, you will still have a backup copy. They should be stored flat, in archival envelopes or in archival albums.

If you have old photos, the best way to copy old photos, if you do not have the original negative, is to have a negative made of your old photo. Then you can have a print or several prints made from that negative. You can have this done at a good quality photo lab. If you are a skilled photographer, you can also take a photo of your photos, using a macro lens, if your camera has removable a removable lens. You should take the photos outside and lay them on a plain neutral background in an area that has good natural light, but not in direct sunlight, as you want to avoid shadowing. A bright, overcast day would be perfect. Turn your flash OFF so you don't get a flashback on your photo from the flash bouncing off the glare of the photo. Then and put your camera on a tripod to insure that you don't get a blurred photo. You should also use a timer, if you have that option on your camera, to further prevent blurring. You can then have prints made in any size you wish.

There are self-service photo copying machines in stores such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sam's Club, Eckerd Drug, etc. There is one made by Kodak called the Picture Maker Machine. There is also one made by Sony. Those companies say that a photo copied on their machine is considered an archival print that will last 75 years. A laminate of sorts is sprayed on the photocopy to preserve the image. These copies are fairly expensive, costing from $5.00 - $8.00 per 8 x 10 print.

Photographs stored on Compact Discs are becoming more popular. The benefits of such storage are that they cannot fade while on the disk and are very compact. However, the media can fail. Cheaper discs have a shelf life of only ten years. Other higher quality discs are rated for 100 years or more. Also, the media on which they are recorded can "fail" by becoming obsolete. If you had a picture stored on an 8" magnetic floppy disk, you wouldn't be able to find a machine that could read such media today

Many people today are copying their photos on color copy machines or scanning them into their computer and then printing them out onto acid free paper or photo paper, thinking that those are safe, long-lasting photos. Many people are using those copies in their family albums. People also are using their digital cameras and printing out those images on their home printers. Remember that these are NOT photographs. They are simply ink printed on paper and they will fade rapidly. (This includes the paper designed for computer photos.) Real photographs go through developer, bleach-fix and stabilizer. So, if you use a digital camera, use film also. And get prints made, if you wish to keep the photos for any length of time.


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