Quality Developer In Bangkok And Storing Digital Pics

[Nawtilus]

Two questions here that I would appreciate some help/advice on...

1. Does anyone know a shop in Bangkok that does quality printing of photos, printing that will show the true colours as taken and even able to enhance a little from digital to print and show off the best of the pic naturally. Also for some real quality enlargements for the wall and framing etc.

2. What is the best way to store digital photos for long long periods, I am talking lifetime deal here. As with prints, I have photos that are ###### near a century old, so this method is tried and true. But for digital, what is best and secure for the long haul.

I have heard that cd's can deteriorate over time and certainly can be damaged etc. I am also thinking of mass storage hard drives and backing everything up onto them as well as cd's and even my favourites into print. I have thousands of pics and do not want to lose a single one and want to be able to hand them down to kids and gran kids in the future.

I am not really interested in online storage at all, i want the best inhouse type of storage available.

[ourmanflint]

This is a very serious question.... beleive me I've spent hours trawling pro photo forums all over the world.... and a few things have become apparent.

DO NOT USE CDs or DVDs TO ARCHIVE IMAGES

There are certain types of CD that claim to last a hundred years, but the scientists at IBM refute this strongly. Cd's and DVD's if stored correctly may be good for five years max.

After this you risk losing large amounts of data if you have a bad batch!! And how would you know that!

Hard drives really are the best an safest way we have at present for storing large amounts of data safely, but to be honest even here I personally have 2 x 80gb just in case one is damaged. In any event you should re-archive everything you have every few years....

good luck!

[Nawtilus]

Thanks, so while this new digital age is great for taking photos, it is not so great for the long term and 100% confidence of keeping them.

I had a similar idea as you, more than one hard drive for storage. I actually intended to get several smaller ones and keep them seperate, then get a couple of larger ones and store them all on the one as well. This way if something happens to one drive, then the others should be ok and can backup from either the main store, or the smaller ones.

I also think I will develop to print all my favourites.

It all sounds a bit much, but I have thousands of family pics that I want to hand down to kids when they are older, so keeping them safe is very important.

Problem now is sorting through literally 5 to 10 thousand photos and storing them in some respectible order.

[Crossy]

Talk to 100 digital photographers and you will get 101 different answers.

Here's what I do:-

Working storage is a second drive in my PC.

Backed up weekly onto two portable hard drives, one is stored at my son's house, I swap the drives when we go for dinner on sunday night.

I'm only a keen amateur photog, but my 'work' data lives on these drives too, it's the work stuff that I'm really backing up, the photos are a bonus. Luckily hard drive space just keeps getting cheaper so I never actually delete much.

For my real 'keepers' I get proper silver-halide prints made (10x8) and store them in a decent photo album. These are my 'show the grand kids' copies and should last as long as prints made from film (same process).

Piccies for display are inkjet, just replace them when they fade.

[Nordlys]

1. Does anyone know a shop in Bangkok that does quality printing of photos, printing that will show the true colours as taken and even able to enhance a little from digital to print and show off the best of the pic naturally. Also for some real quality enlargements for the wall and framing etc.

http://www.iqlab.co.th/

Considered the best in Thailand but expensive. I know other labs that does reasonably good job for less. Labs at Silom and Ekkamai. Their customer base seems to be largely professionals and high-amateurs (lots of farangs).

[Crossy]

http://www.iqlab.co.th/

Considered the best in Thailand but expensive. I know other labs that does reasonably good job for less. Labs at Silom and Ekkamai. Their customer base seems to be largely professionals and high-amateurs (lots of farangs).

They certainly seem to offer all the services you should need.

Watch out for the premium (140%) on file formats other than JPEG (convert before you visit them) it's also a shame that the online printing limits you to JPEGs at less than 2MB (my 6Mpixel JPEGs are nearer 4MB although it does depend on content).

Certainly worth a try as they are quite near my office.

[astral]

This is an area that has many scientists scratching their heads as well.

The printed word of Guttenberg's first Bible has lasted for 400 years,

but how to preserve documents and photos for the next 400 years

is a really big headache.

For the time being, I believe Crossy has the right approach.

At least with digital images you do not loose quality with each copy that

you make.

[Nawtilus]

Considered the best in Thailand but expensive. I know other labs that does reasonably good job for less. Labs at Silom and Ekkamai. Their customer base seems to be largely professionals and high-amateurs (lots of farangs).

Thanks, could you please give directions to the Silom and Ekkamai shops.

[Nordlys]

Thanks, could you please give directions to the Silom and Ekkamai shops.

Sorry if I confused you, but I meant that for IQ lab branches.

And the maps of these two branches are in the link I posted.

http://www.iqlab.co.th/images/map_silom.jpg

http://www.iqlab.co.th/images/map_ekamai.jpg

They now have a new branch on Petchaburi too.

http://www.iqlab.co.th/images/map_petchaburi.jpg

The other place I was talking about is in Future Park Rangsit, more or less a one hour photo lab (but with a studio). And their quality of prints really depends on the technician. One of the worst and least recommended that I came across is the lab in Emporium.

Edited April 17, 2006 by Nordlys

[britmaveric]

Storage - hard drive is best available option. I have my photos and mp3 backup on multiple devices for safety purposes. Also might consider a dvd copy for extra measure.

[Chang_paarp]

Two questions here that I would appreciate some help/advice on...

1. Does anyone know a shop in Bangkok that does quality printing of photos, printing that will show the true colours as taken and even able to enhance a little from digital to print and show off the best of the pic naturally. Also for some real quality enlargements for the wall and framing etc.

I use the lab on the corner of Soi11/1 in Sukhimvit. They seem to print with similar colour to me. They also have the same equipment I have at work.

Having said that, it is better to invest some time with a lab and communicate with the printer if you can, every one has a slightly different preference with colour. some like warm, some cool, some cannot see the difference. If you find someone you can relate to you will get prints to your preference more consistantly, do not be afraid to ask for something to be printed differently. It is part of the communication process. It can take some time and a little money but having found the person that will do your work show them some loyalty. This may be a foreign concept to some, but will make for better results for you.

As to storage, that is a different kettle of fish. Unfortunately even if the CD you burn today lasts 10-20 years will you have a device that can read it? Copying regularly is one way of ensuring your data is still there. As to the medium for storage, I have someSyquest discs that were all the rage just prior to CD's becoming affordable, I also have 5" and 3" floppys that make attractive art pieces for my 5 year old son. Then there are Jaz and Zip drives, I have them too. The medium will change as technology marches ever onward.

Remeber, trying to resist change is like holding your breath, if you succeed for to long you will die.

CP

[Nawtilus]

Well, started the process of storage anyway today, bought a 250gb external HD and cannot get the frikkin thing to work now...doh

[sylvafern]

For my real 'keepers' I get proper silver-halide prints made (10x8) and store them in a decent photo album. These are my 'show the grand kids' copies and should last as long as prints made from film (same process).

Good info on this post .... after nearly losing several months worth of baby photos of my son when my hard-drive went (luckily I had put all the photos on my friend's computer in NZ when visiting so she had them all) I now keep all my photos on both my computers plus backed up on at least two CDs (didn't know til now the life expectancy of a CD isn't great!). I plan to get an external harddrive when I have the money as need the space anyhow for my ibook (hard drive used up in no time when putting on home movies to edit!). If CD's / DVDs only have a short life expectancy, does that mean the same for video? I recently finished editing a video of a trip to Vietnam, copied it onto 4 CDs just in case, then deleted it from the hard drive as I needed the space to work on something else. Was this a mistake? Also, in the shopping malls, you can buy packets of 'budget' CD's cheaply .... would these have a shorter life span than ones that are more expensive?

What are silver-halide prints? Do they look like normal prints but with a special process for developing. I assume the IQ lab people are recommending can do them?

Sorry, lots of questions

[ourmanflint]

Hi Sylva...

At least you've got a Mac... If I were you I'd try and get hold of a program called FileSalvage, it will recover almost everything from your hard drive, if you delete it by mistake, or if it even packs up ( they very rarely do by the way, sometimes the catalog just gets damaged.. if it spins it's recoverable) If you're doing video you'll never regret getting a big external... you can pick a 300gb one for about 6000bt at pantip. You will need one that big trust me! And at the moment they are a bargain.

Don't ever rely on budget CD's for any length of time either.

And silver halide prints are black & white prints strictly speaking, colour prints on photographic paper are a mixture of silver halide and dyes! And they should last a lifetime.

[sylvafern]

Thanks for the info - I'm learning a lot from this forum. Last time I was at Pantip they told me 250gb externals were around 10,000 baht and haven't had enough spare money to buy one - glad I didn't put it on the credit card now. Will go and get one after payday!

[britmaveric]

Storage is cheap these days, no reason not to have mega hard drives for mass storage purposes.

[Nawtilus]

Couple days ago I bought a 250gb from Fortune tower for 4000b.