paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

Do the photos that are stored on the hard drive degrade over a period of time or do they stay at the same intensity? I have heard that photos that are saved to a DVD are permanent but when looking at some photos I have save to the hard drive they seem to have lost some intensity. Is it just me or am I losing it literally. Please be civil in your response.

Bill_de Loc: US

Digital photos files are nothing but numbers, they shouldn't change.

If you have stored them for a while, your monitor could be the culprit. Do you periodically calibrate it?

Are you still using the same software?

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paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

[quote=Bill_de]Digital photos files are nothing but numbers, they shouldn't change.

If you have stored them for a while, your monitor could be the culprit. Do you periodically calibrate it?

Are you still using the same software
I am viewing in Picasa. What I do is take the photo and then do some adjustment in photoshop. Only adjusting the brightness and contrast. That's it but when viewed later they seem to have reverted back????

Bill_de Loc: US

Since you adjust them in PhotoShop, maybe you should try viewing them in PhotoShop.

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JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The DVDs themselves are not permanent - they will degrade eventually. But it wouldn't change the look of the photos on them - they will either be readable or not.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

It is possible that you have saved a saved jpeg on hard drive. It will get worse after resaving jpeg on harddrive. (RAW files normally stay the same.)

Whereas on a read-only DVD you will not be able to re-write the photo. It will stay as the origional. Very few people ever lock a hard drive and you will then be able to modify the jpeg photo.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

:thumbup:

:thumbup:
No, digital images won't change over time like film does. There is no degradation of the image.

A new monitor or different angle of the monitor they will look different. Possibly a different software package (but I hope not).

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

DVD's are not permeant, they will degree over time and become unusable. Its also harder and harder to find a computer with DVD drives in them. DVD's are going the way of the floppy. If you doubt this, Just remember Floppy 5.25, floppy 3.5, CD's then DVD's,Blue Rays

Hard drives are a mechanical device, they will fail we know this for a fact. The only question is when will they fail. Manufactures normally publish a MTBF (Mean Time before failure). Now you know why one copy of any file is not enough. This is why they invented a process known as a backup.

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

Thanks, I have been saving jpeg photo since I have not as of yet shot in RAW. Looks like I will have to switch.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

FYI - He's talking about the quality of the saved image, not that it degrades.

mainshipper Loc: Hernando, Florida

If you leave your hard drive in the sun your images might fade.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Remember when music CDs became available? When was that 20 years ago, maybe 25? There was hot discussion as to "how long will the CD last?" Yet, many have CDs from 20 years ago, and they play just perfectly.

Let's talk CDs and DVDs used for image storage. I have been doing that since I began shooting with my Canon 20D, and that would be 2005 if memory serves correctly. Just last week I pulled images from our first trip to London, and from a CD used for storage, eleven years ago. Images are perfect, still.

Likewise, I've had two hard drives go sour before transferring my finished work to a DVD. Lost. And before you say "copy your work onto two, or three, or four external hard drives", spare me. I'll continue storing my memory card-to-DVD and post-production work to DVD.

I've worked at a radio station, and heard doom and gloom of how every music CD would stop functioning. Yet they play today. And, by the way, before you say "factory stamped CD", there are custom burned CD's from 1998 that still function perfectly to this day.

For those who find peace and a better night's sleep by using multiple external hard drive, I encourage you to continue since it gives you peace of mind. But don't consider a CD or DVD storage as Death Row.

Music CDs are still around and doing well, as are image CDs and DVDs.

mainshipper Loc: Hernando, Florida

Only certain laptops (not desktops) are not including optical drives and that's because of space constraints. DVDs are a long way from going the way of the floppy.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Believe what you will, this is fine with me. Storage mediums have changed many many times over the years, HD's have remained a constant thing.

Nobody is saying DVD's will expire tomorrow. But make no mistake they are NOT permanent. The bigger issue is finding computers with these devices in them anymore. Sure you can still add them on if you want to. But they hold very little data compared to todays file sizes, this is what will make them extinct before their time. Who in their right mind wants to change DVD's 100 times to do a backup when you can select all and copy to one location with one click? Can you name any consumer level device that will change DVD's for someone when needed? I value my time too much to spend it tied to a computer changing DVD's in and out.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

LoL