Interesting viewpoint

The same sentiment was brought up on a factory tour of the Ilford factory some years ago, in 2007. Even back then people were losing their entire collection of digital images, through poor storage. Ilford stressed the importance of prints.

Ian
 
I spent most of my career in the design of large scale backend IT infrastructure.

At today's scale of data, even personal use requires backups.

I keep primary image files on my local computer, a copy on a network attached storage device here locally, another copy on an external drive, another copy on a second external drive kept in a bank safety deposit box. The two external drives are exchanged periodically.

I periodically also "clone" critical data to a couple of laptops that I own.

For unimportant data, a cloud backup is also a possibility, but I do not trust any of the cloud providers to not poke about in my datasets. Hence anything personal, of value, or otherwise confidential never goes into cloud storage of any kind. This especially includes things like password vaults.

Paranoid? Nope. Hard drives fail, thumb drives fail, laptops fail ... almost everything fails at some point. Having multiple copies on different media types and locations is the only mostly safe bet.

I say "mostly" because in the event of nuclear holocaust, nothing will survive but cockroaches ;)
 
And I believe that the prove able provenance of wet process photography will become more significant as AI can produce hyper real images - I.e. now??

Does anyone have tips on making notes on when exposures are made, speed f-stop, - an app? Notebook?

I like the idea that an exposure was made at "12:32, 15/07/2025, print made 20/07/2025 - capturing real Barnsley dust in the process"!

Keep it real ...
 
YorkshireBloke said:
And I believe that the prove able provenance of wet process photography will become more significant as AI can produce hyper real images - I.e. now??

Does anyone have tips on making notes on when exposures are made, speed f-stop, - an app? Notebook?

I like the idea that an exposure was made at "12:32, 15/07/2025, print made 20/07/2025 - capturing real Barnsley dust in the process"!

Keep it real ...
Click to expand...
I lived in Whitby for a while ... I have negatives with genuine Whitby dust firmly affixed!
 
YorkshireBloke said:
And I believe that the prove able provenance of wet process photography will become more significant as AI can produce hyper real images - I.e. now??

Does anyone have tips on making notes on when exposures are made, speed f-stop, - an app? Notebook?

I like the idea that an exposure was made at "12:32, 15/07/2025, print made 20/07/2025 - capturing real Barnsley dust in the process"!

Keep it real ...
Click to expand...

I use a spreadsheet preconfigured for this purpose, one per session or roll.

The sheets themselves are stored in folders, one per year, and each sheet named in the pattern YYYYMMDD-#

Within the sheet there is a top line that repeats the sheet ID and the topic.

Then, for each exposure there is a row in form of:

Exposure #. Date. Location. Lens. Speed. Aperture. Filte.r Film. EI. Developer, Develoment Method. Time. Notes
 
thronobulax said:
I use a spreadsheet preconfigured for this purpose, one per session or roll.

The sheets themselves are stored in folders, one per year, and each sheet named in the pattern YYYYMMDD-#

Within the sheet there is a top line that repeats the sheet ID and the topic.

Then, for each exposure there is a row in form of:

Exposure #. Date. Location. Lens. Speed. Aperture. Filte.r Film. EI. Developer, Develoment Method. Time. Notes
Click to expand...
Hi,

That's good advice - I can print to note on the day, and transfer asap to Google sheet or something.

I will do this soon - my use of 35 mm, 2 x b&w + 1 colour neg film types (may reduce as I become more experienced) is already confusing me...

I hope that the details, somehow attached to any ultimate print, will give the provenance and authenticity I am working towards.

Finally, I must say that the alternative view of the new member who is experimenting with AI has pushed me to think more about my practice, and how I can differentiate my work from AI.

That's a useful contribution to the Forum, imho.

Robert
 
YorkshireBloke said:
Hi,

That's good advice - I can print to note on the day, and transfer asap to Google sheet or something.

I will do this soon - my use of 35 mm, 2 x b&w + 1 colour neg film types (may reduce as I become more experienced) is already confusing me...

I hope that the details, somehow attached to any ultimate print, will give the provenance and authenticity I am working towards.

Finally, I must say that the alternative view of the new member who is experimenting with AI has pushed me to think more about my practice, and how I can differentiate my work from AI.

That's a useful contribution to the Forum, imho.

Robert
Click to expand...
Stopped clocks are right at least once a day ;)

In a serious vein though - I think AI has it's place but I'm very conscious of the way it's hitting the creative industries - they used to pay folks to write the music and create videos for commercials, now most of what you see and hear particularly on line are actually fake (Tai Chi adverts that infest the internet are all AI generated). Graphic artists are being squeezed out of business, and as someone who has spent my whole life working in the arts - music and photography - I see commercial photography being the next industry to face hardship. I don't give a damn if those images are shot digitally or on film, I was one of the first professional photographers in my to switch to digital - so long as human ingenuity, imagination and soul went into the images it's art and craft together.
AI is not yet intelligent in a true sense, it's the modern hyperspeed silicon equivalent of a hundred monkeys and a hundred typewriters. It takes material we have created, plagiarises it, blends and distorts it, compares it to a billion other plagiarised bits of material and adds the secret sauce of learning what pleases us in a dumbed down way. It creates 'bland' better than nature - and sadly we seem more and more disposed to liking bland than ever.
Yep, any contribution that makes one think is a good one ...
 
I write most of the data on the dark slide as I remove it from the camera. Then take a photo of the slides at the end of the day and once in a blue moon I put in a spreadsheet where I also add printing notes later.
I have been missing the time of day though and will begin to add that - longer stickers req.
07033988-F3F0-46F2-BA46-E2F18CB40257_1_105_c.jpeg
 
Tim Holmes said:
I write most of the data on the dark slide as I remove it from the camera. Then take a photo of the slides at the end of the day and once in a blue moon I put in a spreadsheet where I also add printing notes later.
I have been missing the time of day though and will begin to add that - longer stickers req.
View attachment 6367
Click to expand...
My writing won't go that small :) ... I carry Post-Its which I stick to each film holder as I go ...
 
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