How long will your pictures last?

[Guest DaveW]

We have been having a discussion on the cactus site I am on about the need to digitise our slides before they inevitably fade, because they do not last forever, particularly those of us who project them for talks to meetings, or took them many years ago. If you are leaving your old slides in a box postponing digitising them to sometime in the future they may no longer be in a worthwhile state to do so when you finally get around to it and only fit for the bin. A quote from the Web on a slides fading properties:-

""Dark Fading | Light Fading

Your slides and photos will fade for a variety of reasons. Dyes will fade because they are in the dark (termed "Dark Fading") and dyes will fade because they are exposed to light (termed "Light Fading), meaning light being projected through the slide. Dark Fading occurs when your slides are not exposed to light. It is caused by a temperature and relative humidity reaction. Dark Fading will occur even if your slides are stored in the light. All dyes have a limited lifetime because they break down because of temperature, light and chemical reactions to materials within the dyes themselves. Prior to the mid-1980s, the Cyan dye was particularly unstable. Reacting to this, the film companies improved the rate of cyan fade. Light fading is caused by exposure to high intensity light such as when a slide is shown in a slide projector.

Kodachrome

While some brands of slide films, such as Kodachrome, have good dark fading stability, projection time should be kept to a minimum. Accumulated projection time and not the length of a particular showing of a slide, is what is important. If a slide is projected many times, this is particularly important. Glass mounts may actually increase the rate of fading rather than protect the slide.

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/pdf/HW_ ... es_v1a.pdf

But our digital images are safe and will be readable in the future correct? Are you sure, technology moves on fast and future equipment may not be able to read your old methods of storage. Most computers cannot now read the original 5.25" floppy disks, Many new computers do not have a floppy drive at all, so any data previously stored on floppies cannot be read. Some now only have CD and DVD drives, but who knows how long these will stay current technology and how long all your images stored on CD will be readable in newer computers? As with slides we need to regularly transfer our images to the latest media to ensure their survival. See:-

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/documents/media_durability.pdf

DaveW

[FUJI]

Dave.......My son is a travelling Fairs researcher and historian........he too has hundreds of photographs, slides, negatives and prints..........he is very serious about the way he digitally stores all of his scans.

He alway buys top quality CDrs and then reads all the latest research in archiving digital images........a good idea might be to talk to one of our National Museums......they too must have to consider the consequences of age on ALL and ANY records.

FUJI

[Guest DaveW]

There is another article on preservation of slides in the same series as that on projection in one of my previous links Fuji:-

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/pdf/HW_Book_18_of_20_HiRes_v1a.pdf

As to the permanence of digital media for image saving here is a salutatory tale from another site I am on:-

"Having recently tried to access some old files it is also important to ensure that you have software that can read the files. I had some old Kodak PhotoCDs, while I could read the CD I could not open the image files - Photoshop started to open them but then gave a wrong document type error. Fortunately I found an old PC that could run the Kodak software to open the pcd files and save them as tif."

Upgrade your computer and software and you may find you can no longer open your old images anymore.

DaveW

[Denis]

I honestly think that while the digital age has made it easier to take photographs, we will suffer eventually by a huge loss of images for future generations to enjoy. There is nothing more I like than to browse old book shops and bric-a-brac stores and stalls for old Victorian photos of my hometown and its local area.

But with the advent of the digital age, and I dare say the failure to print only the best, will those future generations be able to rummage through piles of old photos like me? Will the modern inks and papers stand up to time as the old products have successfully done?

I have already noticed the decay and fading of a few photos I took only eight or so years ago that were printed at home. And, I have also thrown away CD-ROM's that I could no longer open or view the contents. It would be interesting to hear others view on the subject.

[Guest DaveW]

I think we have to remember that old monochrome prints fade too. The Victorians recognised this and sepia toned them

"In photography, sepia tone is achieved through a chemical process of adding the sepia pigment to a photographic positive print after is passes through various negative processes. The chemical process converts metallic silver residue to silver sulphide, a chemical that resists degradation and consequently preserves the photographic print. For this reason, most surviving early photography is sepia toned."

http://www.ehow.co.uk/about_6510120_sepia-tone_.html

http://www.photography.com/articles/color-light/sepia-toning/

I have even seen it written that old photographs in fading go sepia in colour, which is why Victorian images look like that. No they don't, untoned pictures simply faded much quicker (and still do), which was why Victorian photographers deliberately sepia toned them so they lasted longer, probably the emulsions being less stable than now.

Obviously we are talking about conventional monochrome prints here. Sepia effects with digital or using ink jet printers or monochrome prints on colour paper will not last any longer. If your old prints were traditional monochromes Denis you may find sepia toning will restore them.

DaveW

[FUJI]

Amongst my many collections, I have over 400 half late glass negatives and an equal number of glass lantern slides, most over 100 years old now.........I made a swap with an old house clearance dealer back in 1966 ......all those photographs in mahogany boxes in exchange for a few bits and pieces :-)

I have stored them in the dry since......a few slides show signs of a fungus between glasses, the negatives appear to be good with little or no fading.........there is a whole variety of subject matter.....my local County Records Office took contact prints from most of the negatives.......the collection is named after me.

It was quite an expensive process so they were only able to give me a few printed samples.....they are of amazing quality......I must try to remember to scan a couple so you can see.

I would live someone to take them on as a project.......I don't want to break the collection up.....I ave researched the original photographer and his family.

FUJI