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STORING theimageOne of the most frequently askedquestions I receive about digitalphotography is how do I store my imagesand take as much precaution as possibleagainst loss or damage.These are two very important topics anda feature we should have looked at earlier.In terms of storage, as soon as I return tomy office after a photo shoot, I downloadthe images, using a FireWire card reader.I create a folder on my desktop identifiedby date (ie 25/09/07), all the imagesare placed here. As soon as possible Irenumber each image file, the system I useis the date (ie 250907), followed by a dash(-) and the frame number, this will start 001upwards. Thus I am left with image filesnumbered for example 250907-001, theseare suffixed either .JPG or .NEF, to keepthe files separate I move all the NEF (raw)files into a separate folder within the dayspicture file. This way it is easier to reviewthe jpg files quickly via an automated slideshow, then to select the NEF file if needed.To avoid taking up huge amounts ofspace on my computers hard drive, I havea bank of stand alone Fire Wire connectedhard drives onto which I write the imagefiles, in addition I burn the days work ontoa DVD and store it away from the mainoffice.As hard drives can crash at anytime, Irenew the image file hard drives everycouple of years or so. This might sound alittle wasteful, but if considered alongsidethe possible loss of a huge number ofunrepeatable images, it is a small cost.Different people have differentapproaches to editing images. I tend toonly edit the material I need. This policywas adopted from an early time in theworld of digital photography after Ifound that an image edited today andconsidered good and perhaps could not bebettered, could be vastly improved withthe release of new software in just a fewmonth. Editing every kept image as soonas it is taken to me wastes a lot of time andfrankly a new edit for each use is the bestoption.Captioning images using Photoshopor other image handling software andsaving the data in ‘File Data’ is very useful,however, I keep a full database of everyimage taken, logged against the individualimage number in an Excel database. I havefields for file number, loco/train number,exposure date, location and description.These can then be sorted by any or amultiple of parameters to provide a reportof the images you are seeking.The one thing I will always recommendis that you keep your original exposedfile safe and well and only use and editcopies. We still hear of people who are soexited about seeing their new pictures thatthey open and edit original files withoutkeeping any back ups.Please do not do this, always work witha back up. nTelephone PhotographyThe days of publishing pictures taken on mobiletelephones is now with us, especially in terms of webpages. Modern c-mos sensor cameras are now emergingwith camera resolution of around 5mp and these arequite good enough for screen reproduction at say 800pixwide.In terms of paper reproduction you still have to bevery careful, even using a top end mobile telephonesuch as the Nokia N95 fitted with a 5 mp camera anda Carl Zeiss 2.8-5.6 autofocus lens the quality is onlyjust good enough for printing. This is mainly due to thelens quality of the camera. However that said once ortwice recently TRC have used telephone images and theresults with careful digital darkroom work have beenvery successful.The Nokia N95 produces an image of 2592 x 1944pix with a size 21.95cm wide at 300dpi. The imagereproduced below was edited in Photoshop CS3, witha little brightening all over, slight dodging of the frontend area, the entire image was then given a very smallamount of ‘Shadow & Highlight’ around 3% in Shadowand 0 in highlight, finally 6% of ‘Smart Sharpening’ wasapplied.The resultant image was then used as a print trialand the image quality was sufficiently good for normalmagazine reproduction.When taking this image the camera was used at justa small amount off the base wide angle setting, withtrimming performed on the computer. Tests undertakenby TRC found that as soon as any form of zoom wasperformed the quality dropped off drastically.We would not suggest that any photographer throwaway his prime Nikon or Canon in favour of a qualitydigital equipped telephone, but if you are out and aboutwithout your prime camera you might get away withthat important news story.The present phone results are on par with the low-endcompact digitals of about five years ago - just look howfar this technology has come and I have no doubt that inthe long term phone camera will be used in every daypicture taking and publication work.CJMRailway Photography 5