Hello
,
I'm stopping my FH research in order to try (desperately) to return to archiving my collection of old and newer photos. I feel like I've at least made some progress on the 'old prints', (storing in archive quality boxes, scanning etc) but have realised, with some panic, that my 'new' photos taken with digital cameras, have not had the same thought or storage.
I have been musing on hard drive types etc, and multiple copies of my files, but have also been trying to print 'hard copies' of many of these digital prints as another (safer?) way of storage. (I may try and do another post on file storage at some point)
My practice has been to get the photos printed by big well tested commercial printing companies, such as Photobox, Snapfish/Boots, etc. I have extensively read reviews and tried them out. Ending up with Photobox as my 'go to' printing company. (there are smaller 'better' professional printers but they are too expensive for the sheer volume i have printed over the years).
The idea being that they can afford better printing machinery and dyes than i can. The fading of several 'printed at home' on our inkjet printers (admittedly ones that are on the wall) has put me off home printing (that and the cost).
On browsing some photography forums (all too technical for me) I find warnings that 'pretty much all commercially printed photos fade badly in recent accelerated ageing tests' and that 'home printing is better'. With certain printers being mentioned as 'better'.
This surprised me greatly.
But then I haven't 'updated' any of my practices in printing and storing modern prints in over 10 years.
So my question is:
From a purely archiving point of view, what is best?
Printing your digital photos from a commercial printer
or printing at home?
Also, are 'photo books' and 'canvas's', which are so heavily promoted these days, better/worse/ the same for keeping those precious prints long term.
Looking at the old black and white pictures, which have survived pretty well, vs. some dreadfully faded 1970's prints, but then some better ones from the 1980's, how do the modern inks/papers compare? (I mean since digital has taken over).
I suppose I really want to know if it's a waste of time/money me printing so many out, or if I should just print a small selection that the family can enjoy as photobooks or smaller albums (My husband has been 'commenting' on the number of albums and boxes stuffed full of prints that line so many of our book shelves) and if so, what printing is the best one to buy and what to look out for.
Help!