illustration/Net
SAFAHAD - Photos are precious records of our lives, and as the summer kicks off many of us will be adding to our collection as we enjoy holidays and celebrate special occasions.
For many of us, however, these pictures end up locked on our phones, taking up storage and at risk of loss.
Without proper and timely backups – or printed copies – a smashed, stolen or accidentally wiped phone could instantly wipe out snaps of your child’s first birthday, that once-in-a-lifetime trip or just that picture you love enough to make your wallpaper.
We’ve had a look at the best options for storage and printing, how much they cost and what you get for your money – and have a guide to how to take photos you will want to keep.
Storage solutions
More than just ensuring treasured memories are safe, backing up your photos makes them much more accessible from computers, tablets and even digital photo frames. Also, it can free up space on your phone so that you no longer have to continually delete things to make it work.
How do I back up photos?
It is extremely easy and there are many different options available from a range of companies, starting from the princely sum of free. The best will use an app to automatically upload your photos from your phone to secure cloud storage.
From there you can view them on apps and the web, meaning you can carry around access to every photo you have ever taken and relive memories at any time. However, there are other options if you would rather store them on your phone or device, or curate which ones are saved, or make some public or even sell them.
For regular snappers
Four of the best cloud photo backup systems are made by the traditional tech firms, Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft, most of which have a free tier and options to pay should you need more storage.
Backups from your phone happen over wifi or mobile data the moment you shoot a photo, which means your snaps are safe very soon after you’ve taken them. But be warned, taking lots of photos and backing them up while out and about can eat through your mobile data allowance if it is quite small.
Normal phone photos typically range from one to 5MB each but special high resolution ones can easily be 15MB or more. If this is likely to be a problem, check the settings on the app and switch off the option to automatically upload shots via mobile data.
Local backups
If you want to back up your photos for free without using the cloud, manually storing them on a computer or external drive is another option.
You can transfer photos to your computer from your phone simply by plugging it in via USB, as you would a storage drive. From there you can transfer them to an external drive for safekeeping. I recommend storing them in at least two locations in case of theft or fire.
What about videos?
Most cloud photo backup services support videos, too, but the size of video files quickly eats into your storage limits. Videos shot in 4K at 60 frames a second on an iPhone, for instance, require about 400MB a minute or about 90MB if reduced to 1080p resolution.
Some backup services have restrictions on the size or quality of the video, or options to compress it to save space. Local backup or large general-purpose cloud storage drives can offer cheaper alternatives for manual backing up of lots of videos.
Printing options
It can be nice to have cherished photos in a physical form. The most popular options include 6x4in (10x15cm) single prints and photobooks.
Some of the photo backup firms have printing services but for those that do not there are many online or in-store alternatives. You can print from your computer, phone, camera or memory card with most.
The best photobook services give you the option to create one with only a few clicks or spend hours customising them. If you go for the simplest version, you will typically get a book with a photo, or photos, on each page, and no bells and whistles.
The customised options mean putting in more time to choose and arrange your photos. Many services offer different themes or framing options, from simple white borders to fancy designs based on the season or events such as holidays or family gatherings.
You upload your photos, crop and move them between boxes on the page, and add captions and titles. Most will let you save your projects before printing them, too, so you don’t have to do it all in one sitting.
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