In today’s world, our precious digital photos capture cherished memories and moments. However, safeguarding them demands attention due to the unique challenges and benefits of the digital world. The digital environment offers convenience and possibilities, but it also poses risks to the safety and longevity of our images. Digital photos require specific care to make sure they aren’t damaged or lost. The computer environment that digital photos are stored in provides both great opportunities and great dangers. Therefore, understanding how to properly store and archive digital photos is essential to ensure these valuable images remain protected and accessible for years to come.
TYPES OF DIGITAL INFORMATION
STORAGE | Recording Media to Retain Data
Users provide the input data. Computers provide output data. But a computer’s CPU can’t compute anything or produce output data without the user’s input. One short-term solution is computer memory, also known as random access memory (RAM). But its storage capacity and memory retention are limited.
Earlier Images and Videos were saved in
FILM: Film or film rolls for photography and we stored our images as Prints. Film Negatives were carefully stored for Later enlargements or for taking duplicates or copies of the images.
FILM REEL: The old type film Projection in Movies used film reels. Nowadays it’s through Satellite.
VIDEO TAPES: These are magnetic tapes for recording and reproducing visual images and sound
DIGITAL: Digital gives a whole new meaning to the idea of painting by numbers. (Disc, Memory card, etc.,)
FORMS OF DATA STORAGE
Data can be recorded and stored in three main forms. Files, blocks, and objects are storage formats that hold, organise, and present data in different ways—each with their own capabilities and limitations.
FILE STORAGE
File storage—also called file-level or file-based storage—is a hierarchical storage methodology used to organise and store data on a computer hard drive or on a network-attached storage (NAS) device. Data is stored in files, the files are organized in folders and the folders are organized under a hierarchy of directories and subdirectories.
BLOCK STORAGE
Block storage, sometimes referred to as block-level storage, is a technology that is used to store data files on Storage Area Networks (SANs) or cloud-based storage environments. Block storage breaks up data into blocks and then stores those blocks as separate pieces, each with a unique identifier.
OBJECT STORAGE
Object storage, often referred to as object-based storage, is a data storage architecture for handling large amounts of unstructured data. This is data that does not conform to, or cannot be organized easily into, a traditional relational database with rows and columns.
TYPES OF DATA STORAGE
Data storage refers to the use of recording media to retain data using computers or other devices. Data storage makes it easy to backup files for safekeeping and quick recovery in the event of an unexpected computing crash or cyberattack. Storage is a key component of digital devices. Data storage can occur on physical hard drives, disk drives, USB drives or virtually in the cloud. There are mainly two types of Data Storage, namely Direct area storage (DAS) and Network-based storage
DIRECT AREA STORAGE
This storage is often in the immediate area and directly connected to the computing machine accessing it.
Floppy Disks: It is a flexible removable magnetic disk for storing data.
Solid-State Drives (SSD): It replaces traditional mechanical hard disks by using flash-based memory, which is significantly faster.
Compact Discs (CDs): It is a small plastic disc on which digital information is stored in the form of a pattern of metal-coated pits from which it can be read using laser light reflected off the disc
Flash Drive: It is a small electronic device containing flash memory used for storing data or transferring it to or from a computer, digital camera, etc…
Digital Video Discs (DVDs): It is a type of optical media used for storing digital data
Hard Disk Drives (HDD): It is a non-volatile memory hardware device that controls the positioning, reading.
NETWORK BASED STORAGE
Network-based storage allows more than one computer to access it through a network, making it better for data sharing and collaboration.
Network-Attached Storage (NAS)
Single storage device or a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), File storage system, TCP/IP Ethernet network, Limited users, Limited speed
Storage Area Network (SAN)
SAN storage can be a network of multiple devices of various types, including SSD and flash storage, hybrid storage, hybrid cloud storage, backup software and appliances, and cloud storage.
How Data is Stored?
Binary Numeral System
All data stored on storage media can be converted to a string of bits, known as binary digits having a value of 1 or 0. The strings can make up photos, documents, audio and video. A byte is the most common unit of storage and is equal to 8 bits.
TYPES OF DATA
Text, Image, Video
MUSIC: Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.
IMAGE: A visual representation of something: such as. (1) : a likeness of an object produced on a photographic material. (2) : a picture produced on an electronic display (such as a television or computer screen)
VIDEO: The recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images.
TEXT: Text is a collection of words or letters that are understandable by the reader.
CLASSIFICATION OF DIGITAL IMAGES
With regard to the manner in which they are stored, digital images can be classified into two categories.
VECTOR IMAGE: Vector images are stored in the form of mathematical lines and curves. Information like length, color, thickness, etc., is stored in the form of a vector. These images can be displayed in any size, any resolution and on any output device. Vector images are suitable in illustrations, line art, font, etc. The degradation in the quality due to zooming is clearly visible on the boundaries of the character stored in raster format.
RASTER OR BITMAP IMAGE: A bitmap or raster image is a rectangular array of sampled values or pixels. These images have a xed number of pixels. In the zooming of a raster image, mathematical interpolation is applied. The quality of a zoomed image degrades after a particular value of zooming factor
DIGITAL IMAGE FILE TYPES
Image file types are based on the compression technique used for reducing the size of the image file.
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) – This format is very flexible and may be based on a lossy or lossless compression technique and, hence, are quite large in size. The details of the compression technique are stored in the image itself.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics): This format is a lossless storage format and uses patterns in the image to compress the image. The compression in PNG files is exactly reversible, meaning the uncompressed image is identical to the original image.
GIF (Graphical Interchange Format): This format creates a table of up to 256 colors from 16 million colors. If the image to be compressed has less than 256 colors, then the GIF image has exactly the same color. But if the number of colors is greater than 256, then the GIF approximates the colors in the image using a table of the 256 colors that are available.
JPG or JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): Its an optimized format for photographs & continuous tone images that contain a large number of colors.
RAW: This is a lossless image format available on some digital cameras. These files are very small but the format is manufacturer dependent, therefore, the manufacturer’s software is required in order to view the images.
BMP: Bitmapped Image is an uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft.
RAW vs JPEG
8-bit JPEG image & 14-bit RAW images
RAW
A RAW image (also known as a “digital negative”) is an image file that contains unprocessed or minimally processed data from a digital camera’s sensor. Similar to raw food ingredients that need to be prepared and cooked before consumption, a RAW image also needs to be post-processed in software before it is ready to be printed, shared or shown on a display device. JPEG files that can be easily opened, viewed and printed by most image-viewing / editing programs.
Can adjust color space after image capture.
Wider dynamic range and color gamut
Finer control and adjustment potential
Compared to an 8-bit JPEG image that can only contain up to 16.8 million colors (256 tonal values for Red, Green and Blue channels), a 12-bit RAW image can contain up to 68.7 billion colors (4,096 tonal values per color channel). Stepping up to 14-bit RAW images increases RGB tonal values significantly to 16,384, which boosts the potential to 4.4 trillion colors. And some high-end cameras are even capable of recording 16-bit RAW images.,
Far more shades of color.
RAW images are lossless.
Better sharpening potential
ARCHIVING | Archiving Stores Data
Archiving is the process by which inactive information, in any format, is securely stored for long periods of time. Such information may- or may not – be used again in the future, but nonetheless (എന്നിരുന്നാലും/बहरहाल) should by stored until the end of its retention schedule. Archived data can be stored in a number of different formats, on variety of devices.
BACKUPS vs. ARCHIVES
The key difference between backup vs. archiving is that data backups are designed for the rapid recovery of operational data, while data archiving stores data that’s no longer in day-to-day use but must still be retained.
BACKUPS
Data backups are Designed for the Rapid recovery of Operational data
FLASH MEMORY: Memory cards are highly portable, they can be used in small, lightweight, and low-power devices easily. This is not good for long term.
CLOUD: The best cloud backup services make it easy for you to backup your files and folders online, and access them from mobile and desktop devices.
HARD DISK: Hard disks are the most efficient physical way to backup your system. There are two types of hard disk i.e SSD and HDD. It can be internal and external.
CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud Computing is accessing and storing data over the Internet instead of doing it on your personal hard drive.
Offers various services like storage, databases, networking, data processing, analytics, and more.
Unlimited Storage Capacity, Services in Pay Per Use
Employees Can Work from Anywhere
CLOUD STORAGE | For Archives and Backup
Cloud Storage is a service for storing your objects. An object is an immutable piece of data consisting of a file of any format. You store objects in containers called buckets. All buckets are associated with a project, and you can group your projects under an organization
ORGANIZATION: It is Your company, for example, Example Inc. creates a Google Cloud organization called exampleinc.org.
PROJECT: Example Inc. is building several applications, and each one is associated with a project. Each project has its own set of Cloud Storage APIs, as well as other resources.
BUCKET: Each project can contain multiple buckets, which are containers to store your objects. For example, you might create a photos bucket for all the image files your app generates and a separate videos bucket.
OBJECT: An individual file, such as an image called puppy.png.
Process of Saving File
- MEMORY CARD
- BACKUP
- SYSTEM
- EDIT & PRINT
Process of Image Archiving
Recordable Media: SD cards, Compact Flash card
Computer: Upload your image in proper folder
External Drive: External hard drive (SATA hard drive, Solid State Drives (SSDs)), SSDs are more stable.
Multiple Libraries: Advised to use multiple hardware options to backup and store your photos, there are also different software options you can use.
Archive photos in the Cloud: Backup of digital photos, syncing them to the cloud is a great way to “set it and forget it.
Print them out: Print or Make a Digital Album
ARCHIVING
Cloud Computing is accessing and storing data over the Internet instead of doing it on your personal hard drive.
Specified file or folder name is too long
Keep Indexing for the file hierarchy. Keep Folder and File names short.
Use ‘-‘ and ‘_’ for separators in the folder and file names.
Do not use illegal web characters ‘.'()’, ‘/’, ‘&’, etc…
Do not use spaces in any Folder or File name (these appear as an ugly ‘%20’ in the URL).
Build no more than 3 levels of Folders.
Wedding Album
Printing Size varies eg. 10″ x 14″ Portrait, 14″ x 10″ Landscape, 12″ x 16″ Portrait, 16″ x 12″ Landscape.
If 50 sides means 25 pages. One Page means two sides and the editor can decide how many photos need to be included in one page. eg. Group Photos can add more and portrait photos can be one. Pages should divide according to the priority of folder eg. Engagement, Pre Wedding, Wedding Day, Post Wedding & Reception.
eg. Engagement – 5 Pages (10 side) + Pre-Wedding – 2 Pages + Wedding 10 Pages + Post Wedding – 3 Pages + Reception – 5 Pages = 25 Pages (50 sides).
Paper Style – Glossy, Mattee, Special Paper. A glossy finish will come with an ultra-smooth, shiny appearance. A matte paper gives off a duller, more subtle finish.
