Storing a lots (and lots) of Photos!

Well, I travel a lot and obviously click a lot of photos. Kudos to my SLR, usually the pics are 3-5 MB in size. I believe to keep a online backup of all my precious pics. There are a lot of options available - OneDrive (SkyDrive), Dropbox, Google Drive etc. Consider the following before selecting your online friend...

1. A Mobile friendly app to preview the pics 'On The Run'
2. A desktop app to sync all the pics in background
3. Storage .. Storage ... Storage .. Trust me, more the better

Until recently, I was storing the pics straight from my camera in their original format ... and then the day came, I fell short of the storage space. The option was to either buy more storage space OR 'think do I really need the extra space'

I found some interesting facts and some interesting ways to get more from less, which I'm gonna share here...

How many megapixels?

I know, everyone is running after megapixels these days, the more the better... But another truth about these numbers -

more megapixels = more storage required

Fact 1. These numbers do not govern the quality of the photo. A nice and bright standard print will suffice with 5MPx only.

To calculate the megapixels you need for printed photograph:

1. Determine the physical size of your print, such as 4x6 inch, 8x10 inch etc
2. Multiply the height and width by 300 each (which gives you pixels per inch [ppi] required for a 300ppi photo, which is a good print quality)
   For 8 x 10 -> 2400 x 3000
3. Now Multiply Height and Width
   ==> 7.2 million pixels. 

Thus, you would need a 7.2 MPx photo for a good 8x10 inch print. For standard prints, you need much less

Fact 2. If you are just planning to share the photos on social network, here's what you'll need

A Twitter photo, for example, measures just 375 x 375 pixels, which equals a mere 0.15 megapixels.

A Facebook timeline photo, at 960 x 720, requires 0.69 megapixels. 

A Google + cover photo, requires 2.53 megapixels. 

 

How to compress?

Now, if you have decided to compress your pics... Here's a very simple tool I use - Picasa :-)

• Just import your album into picasa. 
• Select the Album and click on 'Export'
• I prefer to store my pics in 3MPx size. Choose accordingly.
• Keep the image Quality - 'Automatic'
• Done!!

 

Keep clicking.... Keep Storing... and Keep Sharing !