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Thread: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

  1. #11
    Christopher Barrett's Avatar
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    The golden resolution for inkjet printing has long been 300dpi, though many will argue for 360dpi for Epson printers. Now keep in mind that that is the resolution of your print size, so obviously the film will have to be scanned at a higher resolution to be enlarged to 16x20. For a 16x20 print, you want a file that is 4800 pixels by 6000 pixels. For 4x5 film, that means scanning at 1200 dpi. *You'd actually want a little more since the image area is not the whole 4x5 inches.

    Personally, I scan as high as the scanner allows, so 4000 dpi on my Howtek Drum Scanner. Hard drives are cheap and computers keep getting faster. I'd hate to put all the time and effort into perfecting a file and then wish I'd scanned at a higher res some time down the road.

    I've never had a DVD or CD go bad, but all the experts say that these are NOT stable media. Hard drives are a little scary too (I have had some of those go bad) so redundancy is imperative. Most commercial operations have double redundancy, so 2 backups of the original. My next investment is going to be an LTO tape drive for archiving off site.

    HTH,
    CB

  2. #12
    2 Bit Hack
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    I have found tape backups to be cumbersome. They are by no means stable. Nothing is stable, (with tongue in cheek) unless you put it on the internet.
    I use a series of USB hard drives and duplicate when necessary. I also backup my music in the same manner.
    Regards

    Marty

  3. #13
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    Quote Originally Posted by paulr View Post
    [... snip excellent information...]I'm not comfortable archiving files on optical media. Its permanence is questionable, because of the fugitive dyes. I keep everything on a big hard drive, with another big hard drive in the machine for automatic hourly backups (time machine), and other drives in a fireproof box or offsite for periodic manual backups ( carbon copy cloner).
    I am also uncomfortable with optical media, but perhaps for no good reason today with JVC Archival DVD-R media. My reasons come from the burden of over thirty years of backup and recovery efforts for a university which I must admit has come up with a good system. (Their third tier (of four) storage was carried to safes in my former lab.) I do not do any significant digital storage of personal images. Period. The originals are on film, the darkroom is up-to-date and the films are ready to be scanned just-in-time, however I doubt there is any value worth the effort. That's just me.

    Tape is far, far from archival. I would never use it. Perhaps my experience is dated, but I've experienced tape failures throughout the years, and have even coded some recovery methods, including physically exercising the tape to defeat some of its tendency to shrink or stretch - not so important with good methods.

    A facetious closing - if you want an image to last, it must be worthless in every respect. Just put it on the open net with your name and it will live forever to haunt you. Happy Halloween.
    .

  4. #14
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    +1 Jac!
    Tin Can

  5. #15

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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    You have lots of RAM, plenty of processor speed. Get some storage hard drives and be done. There is no reason to downsize anything. Use adjustment layers so you can go back, adjust anything up or down at will...

    Lenny
    EigerStudios
    Museum Quality Drum Scanning and Printing

  6. #16

    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    Several Hitachi 1TB hard drives in external enclosures w/ Firewire connection (Mac-only user) store 'em all. Incidentally, my drum scans of 4x5s are exactly 1GB. I keep every raw scan, as well as all selected and PSed for inkjet there. A Macbook on 10.6 w/ 8GB RAM and 50-80 GB free space chews 1GB scans just fine.

  7. #17
    BAB
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    I have a reluctance to using DVDs, even the JVC 100 year variety. At 3.7 gb, that's only three scans per disc at 3800ppi. For $100 or a bit more I can buy a portable hard drive that will store almost 2000 such scans. And retrieval is quicker as well. Besides which, silver doesn't degrade as quickly as discs or hard drives. I'm currently sorting b/w and transparency 4x5s from 25 and 30 years ago, keeping the ones that are keepers for storage in the aforementioned safe deposit box. That and a hard drive I carry with me (as I do currently) would satisfy my archival considerations.

    My biggest problem currently is I have no scanner that handles 4x5, which curtails my use of that format. It's much easier to get 6x9 color developed here in Maine, as there's no longer anyone that does 4x5 E6. A scanner may be in my future, but right now I have no problem sending them out to be scanned except for the turn around time.

    Thanks for the suggestions.....much appreciated.

  8. #18

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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    Just a quick note on back ups of these large files. I use a lot of large files, too--huge things, though I don't print them big. I just like to torture myself.

    Anyway, I used to carry around a set of hard drives in Pelican cases in the car--my back up set. That way if an earthquake destroyed my house I'd still likely have the car files, and it was nice to have them near (for comfort) on long trips.

    Recently, however, I converted those card hard drives over to cloud storage. I make flat tiffs of all the finished images plus copy in my entire Aperture, Final Cut libraries, and my desktop (and I forget what else)--and back it all up to the cloud. Terrabytes of stuff. Takes FOREVER for the first back up--literally weeks--but then runs quietly in the background afterwards.

    I pay something like $45 a month, I think. Well worth the piece of mind and low level of hassle. No more forgetting to make the car back-ups. No more wondering if a quake or fire will destroy my entire life's work (including my non-digital negatives).

    It's good. Do it....

    --Darin

  9. #19
    BAB
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    Great idea, except I'm retired and don't want the expense. Also, I once started to buy a Carbonite subscription until I noticed they'd dramatically increased the price. Too, although this is a bit obtuse, the cloud is hackable, the hard drives in my safe deposit box are not. Thanks, however, for the suggestion. A lot of photographers seem happy with cloud storage. BAB

  10. #20
    Light Guru's Avatar
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    Re: So. What do you do with 1megabyte files?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce B View Post
    Thanks, so how do you store these? I'm assuming on DVD's ?
    Nope just use hard drives and have a backup. I can't even remember the last time I put a DVD in my computer. Optical media like CDs and DVDs are more dead then film in my opinion. Many computers now days don't even come with them. And they certainly are no longer needed to install programs or even new operating systems.

    Quote Originally Posted by paulr View Post
    So, if you want to store the best scan possible, it may make sense to keep doing what you're doing. If you save the files with LZW or Zip compression you can cut the file size in half (more or less). This is lossless; the only disadvantage is greatly increased open and save times (especially if you add layers).
    No seed to bother compressing files to try and save space. Hard drives nowadays are BIG and cheep.
    Zak Baker
    zakbaker.photo

    "Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter."
    Ansel Adams

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