Legacy format decision

[RQ44]

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I was watching a documentary on Garry Winogrand. Garry obviously used film and to this day his photos continue to be enjoyed by millions of people around the world. When we move onto the next world, will we be leaving RAW files or jpegs? I know it's an odd discussion, but I think to myself that in years when I am gone, people ( hopefully ) will enjoy my photos, but they will be in RAW format. Should we be shooting in jpeg so our photos are ready for consumption by people in the future? Your views? Please note this isn't a RAW vs jpeg discussion.

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[Deeetona]

Leave a good handful of well curated photos but not 100s

[jaapv]

Make archival prints of your best photos. 
As for digitaL DNG is at least as durable as JPG. Probably more so, as it is basically a TIFF file. 

[evikne]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

As for digitaL DNG is at least as durable as JPG. Probably more so, as it is basically a TIFF file. 

I thought a RAW file could only be correctly interpreted by the program that created it, and maybe even only the same version of the program?

[FrozenInTime]

The problem with camera raw files is that they are only the starting point to a final image; all the corrections, cropping and manipulations reside in the editing software associated files or database libraries. A high resolution 16 bit TIFF of the flattened final image and a screen resolution 8 bit jpeg would seem to ensure access in future. Is exporting to DNG not just adding a wrapper to the TIFF ?

[Jeff S]

Prints.  Don’t expect heirs to plow through old hard drives.

[Einst_Stein]

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As far as I know, no digital media are considered archival yet. Any decision must base on bet.

My best bet is hard copy. If really serious, keep both colored print and B&W print. 

[erl]

In latter years, I have been printing MY preferences direct to A2 size, which is the limit my desktop printer will do. I would prefer larger. Big is beautiful.

The bulk of my archive is film and digital files. When I am gone, anyone desiring access to my images will have to organize their own access methodology. All is numbered and fairly logically sorted, but some intelligence will be required.

I even have 'proposed ' exhibitions ready printed, but someone else will inherit the task.

[SrMi]

Photobooks.

Anyone knows of high quality photobook maker (above Blurb level)?

[Einst_Stein]

10 minutes ago, Al Brown said:

Magnetic tape (LTO) is considered archival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open

You are right. But I don't know if any consumer photo storage are using tape. 

Also, for the digital files that are stored on tape need to rewind and re-archive frequently. You cannot just leave it on the shelf and expect the files are still there.

If you can afford to rewind and re-archive the tape, you probably can do the same thing with other digital storage. 

Edited February 3 by Einst_Stein

[Stevejack]

I went through this recently after an accident. I know if I died my wife would never be able to work out how to find or access my RAW files. Maybe my kids would when they got older. 

I went through and printed every family photo as a 6x4, and spiral bound them into booklets. At least we have those.
 I also created contact sheets on A4 photo paper, including the file path + file name of each image so that they could be identified and located down the track. These contact sheets are spiral bound into booklets. All of the folders on my hard drives are dated in the format "2025-02-03 (description)" so any specific should be easy to find on the main NAS or individual drives. 

I would consider RAW files as unusable by your heirs. They will never know your intentions for the picture unless they have a finished example (an edited Tiff for instance). I store my edited Tiffs in the same folder as the RAWs, along with any Jpegs of the same. I'll never have a finished Jpeg without a  master Tiff version of the same image. I'll usually label the Tiff as "[Filename]-MASTER".   If I've prepped a Tif for print, I will label it "[Filename]-TO PRINT". 
I figure this way my kids might be able to follow along with my process after I'm gone, especially if they want to re-print a favourite photograph that was on the wall in the house when they were young. 

 

[Einst_Stein]

9 minutes ago, Stevejack said:

I went through this recently after an accident. I know if I died my wife would never be able to work out how to find or access my RAW files. Maybe my kids would when they got older. 

I went through and printed every family photo as a 6x4, and spiral bound them into booklets. At least we have those.
 I also created contact sheets on A4 photo paper, including the file path + file name of each image so that they could be identified and located down the track. These contact sheets are spiral bound into booklets. All of the folders on my hard drives are dated in the format "2025-02-03 (description)" so any specific should be easy to find on the main NAS or individual drives. 

I would consider RAW files as unusable by your heirs. They will never know your intentions for the picture unless they have a finished example (an edited Tiff for instance). I store my edited Tiffs in the same folder as the RAWs, along with any Jpegs of the same. I'll never have a finished Jpeg without a  master Tiff version of the same image. I'll usually label the Tiff as "[Filename]-MASTER".   If I've prepped a Tif for print, I will label it "[Filename]-TO PRINT". 
I figure this way my kids might be able to follow along with my process after I'm gone, especially if they want to re-print a favourite photograph that was on the wall in the house when they were young. 

 

You makes me feel sad. I wish I can be as considerable as you. I wish my kids and kids of kids would be interested in my phot works, but I am not so sure.

Anyway, I think they will be more likely to be interested if I (or you) select the best favorite pictures to make good hard copy. Not too much, probably only 100 or so.

Edited February 3 by Einst_Stein

[Deeetona]

Do you all really think your "heirs" are going to care that much about your photos? What makes you think so?

And since most of us here are very well alive - what computers and software are going to be common in 20-40 years down the line? Does anyone use a computer + software that is 20 years old today?

[Stevejack]

1 minute ago, Deeetona said:

Do you all really think your "heirs" are going to care that much about your photos? What makes you think so?

And since most of us here are very well alive - what computers and software are going to be common in 20-40 years down the line? Does anyone use a computer + software that is 20 years old today?

These photos are of them as kids, so yeah they will care about them.    Other photos probably not, but those aren't in the bound albums. 

As for software yes the file formats will still be around. I've been using the same file formats for well over 20 years. 

[Stevejack]

14 minutes ago, Einst_Stein said:

You makes me feel sad. I wish I can be as considerable as you. I wish my kids and kids of kids would be interested in my phot works, but I am not so sure.

Anyway, I think they will be more likely to be interested if I (or you) select the best favorite pictures to make good hard copy. Not too much, probably only 100 or so.

Yeah I know what you mean. I probably should have been clearer, I printed out all the family photos as contact sheets - and only the ones that I have edited into a tiff or jpeg. Pics of them as babies, or all of us at the beach, pics from every birthday / Christmas etc. Over the years it adds up to a lot of images, but the RAW files that haven't been edited aren't in there.
Being able to browse through a spiral bound book of thumbnails will be a lot easier for them than trying to sort through folders on a NAS. If they spot a picture they like, it will have all the information they need to locate it on the NAS or labelled SSD drive. The key to it all is getting lightroom to include the source folder and filename under each picture in the contact sheet, which is in the format YEAR-MONTH-DAY-[description]-[Filename].   Super simple to access a hard drive and quickly locate the folder containing the image. 

Edited February 3 by Stevejack

[andybarton]

8 hours ago, RQ44 said:

Garry Winogrand

With due respect, unless you are Garry Winogrand, or a photographer of his stature, I am guessing that very few people will be interested in your digital files when you’re gone. It’s a simple fact of life. I can guarantee that neither of my children will have any desire to trawl through my hard drives. 

If you want to leave some of your photographs behind, print them and publish them in a real book. 

If anyone is still alive in 100 years time, they will look back on the last 25 years and ask “Where are all the photographs?”

[Stevejack]

2 minutes ago, andybarton said:

With due respect, unless you are Garry Winogrand, or a photographer of his stature, I am guessing that very few people will be interested in your digital files when you’re gone. It’s a simple fact of life. I can guarantee that neither of my children will have any desire to trawl through my hard drives. 

If you want to leave some of your photographs behind, print them and publish them in a real book. 

If anyone is still alive in 100 years time, they will look back on the last 25 years and ask “Where are all the photographs?”

I agree with this completely. Printed books will last the test of time and they are so easy to make these days. 

It also seems to be the case that grandchildren show far more of an interest in such things... It's that one generation removed. I seem to have far more interest in my grandparent's old belongings / photo albums than my parents do. 

[evikne]

I intend to print a selection of my photos (probably a few hundred) in 4x6 size, but would like to annotate them with some info, at least date and location. I have a LR plugin that can do this on the front of the photos, but I'd prefer to have it on the back so it's not too distracting. Some printing companies print the file name on the back. One possibility could be to include this information in the file name.

With just a few photos, it would be nice to have a photo book with captions, but that's not possible with so many photos.

So I'm still thinking about how I can implement this in the best way.

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[Deeetona]

- Dont assume that other people (including your grandchildren) find your life and photos as interesting as you do

- Technology moves on. How common is it for computers to have a CD ROM drive nowadays? Not so long ago, it was the storage medium of choice. Not saying they dont exist anymore.

- How many different standards did just Apple go through? Also not so long ago SCSI connectors were common. Anyone under 40 knows what that is?

I believe if we "leave behind" one or two well curated photo books with some liner notes about who is who ("all these dudes in their 50s with a beard, horn rimmed glasses, ironic hoodies and sneakers, Granddad! How come you all were to infantile during your midlife crisis?")

Edited February 3 by Deeetona

[Deeetona]

1 hour ago, Stevejack said:

These photos are of them as kids, so yeah they will care about them.    Other photos probably not, but those aren't in the bound albums. 

As for software yes the file formats will still be around. I've been using the same file formats for well over 20 years. 

Why dont you give them the photos now? Job jobbed.