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Photo Sharing

“Can you imagine the terror that must have been in the heart of 11-year-old Dieter Uchtdorf as his family fled their home in East Germany in 1952 to find freedom in the West? For political reasons, the life of Dieter’s father was in extreme danger. He would have to escape alone to minimize risks to his wife and children. To avoid suspicion, the rest of the family would not be able to travel together. They would have to make the attempt separately.

“A plan was implemented. Dieter’s two older brothers, Wolfgang and Karl-Heinz, took a northern route out of their hometown of Zwickau. Their sister, Christel, traveled with two other girls on a train that passed briefly through West Germany en route to its destination city in East Germany. As the train passed through West Germany, the girls persuaded the conductor to open the door for them, and they jumped out of the train.

“Dieter, age 11—the youngest of the children—and his courageous mother took still another route. They carried with them only a little food and precious family photographs that had been preserved from destruction through World War II [emphasis added]. After Dieter and his mother had walked long hours, Sister Uchtdorf’s knees began to weaken. Dieter carried their belongings and helped his mother climb a final hill to freedom. There they stopped to eat a meager meal, only to realize, when they saw Russian guards, that they were still shy of the border. The mother and son terminated their picnic, picked up their packs, and climbed even higher before reaching their goal.

“Dieter and his mother continued their trek as refugees, hitchhiking and walking to their destination at a suburb near Frankfurt. After many long and perilous days of separation, the family was finally reunited.. . . Their great reunion was joyful.”

Russell M. Nelson,“President Dieter F. Uchtdorf,” Ensign July 2008

The only belongings they took with them were their “precious family photographs.” What are you willing to do to protect yours so they can tell their stories across generations? In this chapter we will explore digital options for not only preserving but for sharing your photographs as well.

How Should I Store Photos?

We have all seen photographs dating back to the 1800’s. The silver crystals that formed those early black and white images endure well. Even modern day color dyes in film retain their color for decades. So what is the life span of a digital photograph? The answer is—it depends. It depends on the media on which it is stored.

Storing your photos only on your computer is dangerous because if your hard drive fails, you have either lost your photos or found a way to spend a lot of money to have them recovered. There is safety in using multiple storage mediums, not the least of which is to print your still photos. Other storage media to consider include:

•    CD/DVD—be sure to use high quality name brands. CDs that you make on your computer may start to degrade in as few as two years. (Recorded CDs and DVDs that you buy at the store are “pressed” and, depending on how you store them, will last for decades. •    Flash drives are also a very easy way to store photographs. It is estimated that a flash drive should be good for about ten years. •     Internet data storage sites such as Carbonite will automatically back-up your data, including photos, for a reasonable yearly fee, as of this writing $50. Such sites usually have the same level of protection as financial institutions. Absolutely hacker proof? No one can make that claim. •     Photosharing and social Websites can be used to store as well as share photographs. We will discuss the pros and cons of using these sites a little later. Be aware that relying on Web sites as your only archive could prove dangerous. Internet sites have been known to shut down without warning. With our ever-changing technology, be certain to upgrade to newer storage technology as it comes along. It is also a good idea to print the most important photos and to use multiple media for storage.

What Format Should I Use or What’s With the Alphabet Soup?

TIFF, JPEG, RAW, BMP, GIF, PSD among others are letters you’ll see after the “dot” following your photograph’s name or number. These are called file extensions and they describe the format of your photograph. If you want a detailed explanation, search the Internet. To keep things simple we will describe two of the most popular formats. Because of their widespread use, they stand the best chance of being readable over time.

TIFF (TIF) and JPEG (JPG) formats are probably your best options. Many digital cameras produce “raw” format images which means you will see the image exactly as the camera captured it. Because raw images take up a lot of room, most cameras will convert the raw image into TIFF or JPEG (JPG) format. This means that your camera (or photo software) will compress your raw photo into a format that is smaller and therefore for economical to store.

•    TIFF formats retain all the detail in the photo and are excellent if you plan to print your photograph on a press or copy machine. •    JPEG compresses the data more than a TIFF but in the process actually throws some of the pixels away. A photo saved as a JPEG will produce excellent prints. Roughly speaking, a TIFF photograph will take about four times more space than a JPEG of the same image. You will not notice the difference between the two unless you make very large prints. How Much Space Do I Need?

One GB (gigabyte), a common size for flash drives, and a common amount alocated on photo sharing sites will hold about 4000 standard resolution images.

How Big is My Photograph?

If you are familiar with film, you know that it comes in various sizes—35mm being common. When you have your film processed your original photo is 35 mm in one dimension. You usually have a larger print made say, 4x6 inches. Such is not the case with digital photographs. Digital photos don’t come in fixed dimensions. Rather they come in pixels per inch (ppi). (Some people will use the term dpi—dots per inch—a carryover from having to screen photographs in order to print them on a press.) These days people use ppi and dpi interchangeably. Pixels are small squares that contain the color information for a spot in the image. Think of a tile floor and you get the picture. The greater number of pixels, the greater or “finer” the resolution, which means the greater the amount of detail will be retained in your image and therefore the larger you can make a print. Popular digital cameras take images in the range of 5 to 10 megapixels. This means that you can produce large prints 8x10 and larger with excellent quality.

How Can I Share My Photographs?

Sharing photos comes naturally to us—always has. Whether displayed on wall, table top, refrigerator door, or tucked away in a wallet, our photos remind us good times, good places, and people we hold dear. With advent of the computer and email, photos could be scanned and sent round the world in seconds; that is if you had lots of bandwidth. However, with the rising popularity and quality of digital cameras, photo sharing in cyberspace has become simpler and richer. Dozens of photo sharing Web sites will allow you to post your photographs and allow your friends and/or the general public to view them. Additionally, other photo-related services are often available such as: •    ordering prints •    editing (enlarging, reducing, rotating, cropping) •    producing scrapbook pages •    ordering photo gifts such as mugs, calendars, shirts, picture books, etc. •     limited and unlimited storage (free or for fee) •    selling •    allowing the general public to use your work (with or without restrictions) •    attaching captions or pointing out important elements in a photograph •    making slide shows •    tagging your photos so others who are looking for a certain category of photos such the Grand Canyon, can find them. •    uploading photos to Social Networks such as Facebook, or commercial sites such as Ebay.

You might also want to use a photo sharing site as a repository for your photos when you are away from home. Rather than keeping all your photos stored in your camera or on removable media, just upload your photos and keep on shooting. If anything happens to your camera, you will still have your photos. What to Consider When Choosing a Photo Sharing Web Site.

•    How much space do you get? Some sites allow you more free storage space than others; are you willing to pay to use a particular site or get more space? •    Can you keep your photos private and/or limit viewing to only those you invite? (Remember that once photo has been placed on the Web it will remain out there even if you delete it from the site where you posted it. Absolute privacy cannot be 100% guaranteed.) •    How long has the site been operating? •    How easy is it to use? •    Does it have any special features you want such as scrapbooking, captioning, editing? •    Do people you will be sharing with use a particular site? •    Do you want to be able to categorize (tag) your photos so you or others can search and view photos by subject such as Christmas, vacations, birthday parties, particular people, and such? Popular Ways to Share Your Photos

Many people will post photos on their blog (see the chapter on blogs) rather than use a photo sharing site. If you plan on sharing all the photos from your 90-day around-the-world cruise, putting them on a blog could be cumbersome. On the other hand, if you want to blog about your daughter’s graduation and include a few snapshots, a blog might be all you need. For those of you who want to do some serious photo sharing the following table lists some of the most popular sites and features. Before you join any site, read their conditions of use. For instance, when you upload photos to Facebook (a very popular social Web site) they own the rights. This is a table (chuckle, I know) Photo-bucket	Flickr	Picasa	dotPhoto	Webshots	Fotki Storage	1 GB Free	Free 100MB per month $24.95/yr unlimited	Free 1GB	Free and paid	Free—1000 photos + 100 per month Premium—5000 photos +500 per month $2.49 per mon. Free basic features Paid-unlimited & advanced features Family Friendly	 	 	 	yes	Will remove adult content 	Filter can be turned on Editing (cropping, resizing, get rid of red eyes, add special effects, etc.)	yes	yes	yes	yes	basic	basic Blocks users from downloading your images	 	 	 	yes	no Set and change privacy settings (who can view)	yes	yes	 	 	yes	yes Others can view without registering	 	yes	 	 	 	yes Others can comment on your photos	 	yes	 	 	yes Order prints	yes	yes	yes	 	yes	yes Sell photos	 	 	 	yes	 	yes Makes other photo sizes from your orginal	 	yes Order photo products	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes Create photo/ scrapbooks	yes	yes	yes	 	yes Upload Multiple images at once	yes	yes	yes	 	yes	yes Supported Formats 	 	JPG, GIF, PNG	JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, PSD, TIF, AVI, MPG, WMV, ASF, MOV, RAW	 	 	JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, PSD, PCX Clicks need to upload a photo Organize/ tag/caption	yes	yes	yes	yes	 	yes Social Networking	 	yes	 	 	 	yes Posts photos to other blogs	 	yes	yes	yes Keeping the Story Straight

Photographs are wonderful additions to family histories. Before the age of digital photography, including photo manipulation programs such as Photoshop, you could generally trust that the people in the photo were actually there when the photograph was taken. For reasons both good and questionable, people (and other things) can be edited in and out of photographs, locations can be changed, and other elements manipulated that change the story being told by the photo. While there may not be much you can do with other people’s pictures, you would be wise to record any significant changes you have made to your photographs that without notation could cause the photo to be misinterpreted. And for the sake of coming generations please make sure that full names, dates, places, occasions (birthday, vacation, graduation), are included.

Safety

Putting digital images on the Web to either store or share has risks. Once something is “out there” in cyberspace, deleting it does not necessarily remove it from the Web. If you have seen the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, you will remember the closing scene of the crated Ark being stored in a huge government warehouse among thousands of others crates. One of the points being made is that there is safety in numbers. To some extent this is true of placing family photos on the Internet as well. Nevertheless, for those intent on mischief, or worse, your family photos can be used for less than noble purposes. While it takes some effort, it is possible to track you or children down from something as simple as a photo. Remember Jacob's plea,"O be wise; what can I say more?" (Jacob 6:12).