In the News - April 2008
How to protect your family photos from disaster
 LITTLE ROCK - The recent image in a statewide newspaper of a family trying to
dry out its irreplaceable photos after flooding in east Arkansas should warn us
that a natural disaster can claim some of our most precious possessions.
In Scott (Lonoke County) a few years ago, a volunteer fireman ran into a
burning home and pulled family photos off the wall and brought them outside to
safety for a relieved homeowner.
Now is the time to start protecting your precious photographs from a
disaster, says Lamar James, extension communications specialist with the
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
"One of the best ways to protect prints is to store a second copy or the
negatives (if film was used) at another location such as a friend's home, your
job on in a safe deposit box," he said.
Photo prints degrade over time, so a better solution is to digitize your
photos, put them on a disk and keep the disk at another location. Many people
have already switched to a digital camera, which makes saving pictures easier,
he said.
If you're using film, ask your photo processor for digital copies on DVD or
CD or ask that the images be uploaded to the Internet when you have the film
developed.
"An option for old prints of your relatives is to use a scanner to digitize
them. Flatbed scanners are becoming cheaper and are being offered as a feature
on some computer printers," James said.
When scanning, use the highest resolution, he recommended. Digitizing photos
in this way allows you to save them from further degradation if they're damaged
or beginning to fade. You can also hire a service to restore the photos and
digitize them.
Film negatives and slides can be scanned with a film scanner or a flatbed
scanner with transparency adaptor.
Many scanners have built-in batch scanning features to scan several photos at
once, but if your's doesn't, photo editing software such as Photoshop Elements
have tools to automatically separate and straighten multiple photos.
If your scanner allows you, save the photos in TIFF format. Saving to
high-quality JPEG is OK, but be aware that the images will be compressed and
lose a little quality, according to James.
Clean dust off photos and clean the scanner glass. Make sure the glass is
completely dry before scanning to keep photos from sticking to it.
Scanning photos will take time, so make sure you set aside enough time for
the job.
"When the job is complete, burn two copies of the photos to CD or DVD and
store the copies at different locations," James said. "Online storage of photos
is another option for keeping photos safe, and it allows you to share photos."
These safeguards will not only protect your digitized family photos from
natural disasters but from computer crashes.
Be aware that CDs or DVDs don't last forever. They can degrade over time, so
it's important that you periodically make sure they're still readable and
replace them as needed.
The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of
Agriculture.
April 4, 2008
Media Contact: Lamar James
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2187 or (501) 753-0207
ljames@uaex.edu
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