[35mmfilmfan]

I'm sure someone else will jump in on this, but here goes.

I use Windows. My Open Source software (XnView, FastStone and Irfanview) will all open and process both PEF (Pentax RAW files) and DNG (Digital Negative) RAW files from my K20D and my K3. When i shot more film, I used to enjoy hours in the darkroom - now I enjoy hours on my PC processing RAW files. This suits my lifestyle. I know many people have less free time to spend processing images, so may choose to use JPG files instead. Up to them. I would never try to insist that my way is the right way - it just suits me. If my backups fail, and I lose some or all of my images - I still have the cameras, none of my images are important in the great scheme of things, so I can just continue doing what I do now - taking photos.

.

[normhead]

How much is Apple charging people to save their unlimited photos on Apple's so called "cloud" or "icloud" - ?

For the amount I'd need, $13.99 Canadian, Maybe a little over $10 a month American. You can buy a new drive every year for that. For 50 GB it costs me $1.29, but, if all you are storing is jpgs you might get away with that. My pixel shift raws are as much as 200 MB. MY tiffs are as much as 380. I also shoot Apple ProRAW on my cameras.

This image is 48 MB on my hard drive as a RAW. 1 MB as a Jpeg.

[35mmfilmfan]

@Normhead said :

'And they say old people shouldn't mess with computers, why? '


When you ARE old, please let us know.

.

[normhead]

Great to hear you got to the bottom of the problem Norm.

Thanks Mark. It does make me remember, when my mom got a bit older than my age, Apple stopped taking her calls. My brother who used to live next door moved so she'd stop trying to get him to fix her computer. She did have a great guy who lived across the street who'd come over and set her up though.

[MarkJerling]

I've been following this thread. I simply use the .jpg file format when taking pictures or editing on them - nearly 99% of the time I just do an auto-level(s) to my photos in Gimp.

I find the DNG file format interesting. I just read that it is a type of photo format meant to be a standard in the photography world. Can someone tell me, do Pentax cameras save raw photos in the DNG format ? What opensource software will open and edit DNG files? I mostly just use Gimp, which may not recognize DNG files. Do my other freeware options recognize DNG - such as Darktable or RawTherapee ?

I also find it intriguing on how some of you save your backup photo files. I read that some of you use a fireproof/water proof safe or vault? That would be a good choice. Many a moon ago, I use to backup all my photos to DVD disks and my wife would store the DVD's at her office - just in case a fire or something happened to our home. I'm divorced now and don't have anyone or anywhere to store backups of my photos, so one of the reasons I pay for Flickr is to have full file sized backups my .jpg photos off site. I just wish Flickr was more affordable - I see where Flickr is charging me $8.75/month because I don't choose to pay for a yearly fee (yet). I did speak with one user, on this webiste, that instead of paying Flickr, they simply created a 2nd Flickr account when they reached 1,000 photos on the Flickr site. That is certainly a way around paying Flickr a subscription fee. But I do like all my photos in one place under my authentic real name.... Hmmm.....

How much is Apple charging people to save their unlimited photos on Apple's so called "cloud" or "icloud" - ?

Addendum: I read that one can make Darktable or RawTherapee as a plug in for Gimp. I'm reading that there are several different ways to make Darktable/RawTherapee open a DNG file for Gimp to see/edit. Question: Which way is the fastest way to simply open a DNG file in Gimp please?

Addendum 2: Besides Darktable or RawTherapee, I just read that "One of these options is called UFRAW, and it’s designed to work with GIMP." Can UFRAW be used by Linux users that have Gimp? I'd basically like to know what is the quickest and smoothest way of getting a raw file from DNG and into Gimp.....please....

See this video:

You Tube

You Tube

[normhead]

@Normhead said :

'And they say old people shouldn't mess with computers, why? '


When you ARE old, please let us know.

.

My wife says I don't act old, I don't really believe her. But then, she never knew me in my prime. When I think I used to make up my own calculous theorems, I feel really old. That is so 58 years ago.

[MarkJerling]

Thanks Mark. It does make me remember, when my mom got a bit older than my age, Apple stopped taking her calls. My brother who used to live next door moved so she'd stop trying to get him to fix her computer. She did have a great guy who lived across the street who'd come over and set her up though.

You're doing well. I tried to get my mom to use a mobile phone and a computer when she was in her 70s, but she never got her head around it. She's now 86 and any attempt at learning anything new is a no-go.

[GUB]

Ya, stuff like that takes talent.
And they say old people shouldn't mess with computers, why?

It takes the smartest guy in the room to figure out what I've done.

Na na - old barsteward here too!. I am just shocked profession software intended for general public use allows you into that trap!

[GUB]

I've been following this thread. I simply use the .jpg file format when taking pictures or editing on them - nearly 99% of the time I just do an auto-level(s) to my photos in Gimp.

I find the DNG file format interesting. I just read that it is a type of photo format meant to be a standard in the photography world. Can someone tell me, do Pentax cameras save raw photos in the DNG format ? What opensource software will open and edit DNG files? I mostly just use Gimp, which may not recognize DNG files. Do my other freeware options recognize DNG - such as Darktable or RawTherapee ?

I also find it intriguing on how some of you save your backup photo files. I read that some of you use a fireproof/water proof safe or vault? That would be a good choice. Many a moon ago, I use to backup all my photos to DVD disks and my wife would store the DVD's at her office - just in case a fire or something happened to our home. I'm divorced now and don't have anyone or anywhere to store backups of my photos, so one of the reasons I pay for Flickr is to have full file sized backups my .jpg photos off site. I just wish Flickr was more affordable - I see where Flickr is charging me $8.75/month because I don't choose to pay for a yearly fee (yet). I did speak with one user, on this webiste, that instead of paying Flickr, they simply created a 2nd Flickr account when they reached 1,000 photos on the Flickr site. That is certainly a way around paying Flickr a subscription fee. But I do like all my photos in one place under my authentic real name.... Hmmm.....

How much is Apple charging people to save their unlimited photos on Apple's so called "cloud" or "icloud" - ?

Addendum: I read that one can make Darktable or RawTherapee as a plug in for Gimp. I'm reading that there are several different ways to make Darktable/RawTherapee open a DNG file for Gimp to see/edit. Question: Which way is the fastest way to simply open a DNG file in Gimp please?

Addendum 2: Besides Darktable or RawTherapee, I just read that "One of these options is called UFRAW, and it’s designed to work with GIMP." Can UFRAW be used by Linux users that have Gimp? I'd basically like to know what is the quickest and smoothest way of getting a raw file from DNG and into Gimp.....please....

Just install Darktable. The when you right click on a file and "open with" Gimp then gimp will open but pass the file onto Darktable. Once you make your DT adjustments just close it and the file opens as a tiff in Gimp. Quite an elegant set up.

[Michael Piziak]

How much is Apple charging people to save their unlimited photos on Apple's so called "cloud" or "icloud" - ?

For the amount I'd need, $13.99 Canadian, Maybe a little over $10 a month American. You can buy a new drive every year for that. For 50 GB it costs me $1.29, but, if all you are storing is jpgs you might get away with that. My pixel shift raws are as much as 200 MB. MY tiffs are as much as 380. I also shoot Apple ProRAW on my cameras.

This image is 48 MB on my hard drive as a RAW. 1 MB as a Jpeg.

If one were only using the internet/cloud for backup purposes, one could do what someone PM'd me on here to do for free, which is store up to 1,000 photos on a Flickr account then create a 2nd Flickr account and start storing photos on it also. Flickr is unlimited file size up to 1,000 photos at a time...

---------- Post added 02-07-23 at 03:53 PM ----------

See this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcna-v5fXeA

Thanks MarkJerling so much for the instructional video! Gonna watch it now!

---------- Post added 02-07-23 at 03:56 PM ----------

You're doing well. I tried to get my mom to use a mobile phone and a computer when she was in her 70s, but she never got her head around it. She's now 86 and any attempt at learning anything new is a no-go.

My Aunt is in her 80s. Her daughter bought her a new HP laptop that had Windows 10 (or whatever Windows version that was that you touched the screen and swiped and such that everyone hated). Anyways, she couldn't figure out how to use that Windows OS. So I took the laptop and installed a light version of Linux, set it up to where her computer booted right into her browser and her browser opened up her Facebook account upon opening. So, she just has to start up her computer and she's into and using Facebook. She has no idea she's a Linux user, but she uses the laptop to do Facebook every day or so!

Ha!

---------- Post added 02-07-23 at 03:58 PM ----------

Just install Darktable. The when you right click on a file and "open with" Gimp then gimp will open but pass the file onto Darktable. Once you make your DT adjustments just close it and the file opens as a tiff in Gimp. Quite an elegant set up.

Oh, ok, that sounds super easy!

I may just get into shooting/editing RAW. I know RAW allows one to do much more post-processing than the .jpg files. So I've read.


Thanks!

[AggieDad]

How much is Apple charging people to save their unlimited photos on Apple's so called "cloud" or "icloud" - ?

Apple charges $10 U.S. per month for 2 TB of storage space. Their iCloud storage is very tightly woven into their total ecosystem and daily use is transparent. For example, I can save a file (any file) on my MacBook laptop and later retrieve and edit that file on my iMac desktop, my iPad or my iPhone. Open Pages and all my documents are available. Open Numbers and all my spreadsheets are available. Etc., etc.

If you want independent cloud storage with a Mac, then look for a different provider such as Dropbox or similar. If you don't like cloud storage, then a nice 4TB SSD should do the trick.

Apple Photos is also tightly woven into the ecosystem and is essentially designed for everyday picture-takers rather than serious photographers. If you wish the photos to be saved to iCloud, then every photo you save to the Photos app will be saved to the cloud. If you don't want it in iCloud, you don't save it to Photos. While I save my images to iCloud, I do not use the Photos app — I simply upload my images to folders and use Adobe Bridge. I only add selected photos to Apple Photos.

[JohnMc]

Past the operator and design issues, Aperture was dropped for inability to play nice with 64bit SW. Good bad or whatever doesn't really matter, that was what, 8 years ago. We're using a lot of SW now that's potentially susceptible to similar vagaries. That's why you want to keep the orig raw if you ever want to revisit and/or a standard flattened full res file. I'm a bit confused over what you do/don't actually have and what you do need. While you're still young enough, and your favorite devices are still running, I'd figure out how to get them out to a lasting format. That could be accomplished with a reasonably simple scripting solution once you've got the recipe and locations down you can press go and hit the woods, dance floor, or sack, the Retroactive Ap may also be worth looking at depending on you ultimate plans for your catalogue. Odds are the problem/issue won't be getting easier as all parts ages. ;

[Michael Piziak]

Apple charges $10 U.S. per month for 2 TB of storage space. Their iCloud storage is very tightly woven into their total ecosystem and daily use is transparent. For example, I can save a file (any file) on my MacBook laptop and later retrieve and edit that file on my iMac desktop, my iPad or my iPhone. Open Pages and all my documents are available. Open Numbers and all my spreadsheets are available. Etc., etc.

If you want independent cloud storage with a Mac, then look for a different provider such as Dropbox or similar. If you don't like cloud storage, then a nice 4TB SSD should do the trick.

Apple Photos is also tightly woven into the ecosystem and is essentially designed for everyday picture-takers rather than serious photographers. If you wish the photos to be saved to iCloud, then every photo you save to the Photos app will be saved to the cloud. If you don't want it in iCloud, you don't save it to Photos. While I save my images to iCloud, I do not use the Photos app — I simply upload my images to folders and use Adobe Bridge. I only add selected photos to Apple Photos.

I can understand using the Apple storage space if you have lots of different types of files. However, if you have predominately photo files, as most photographers do, then I would go with Flickr as it is more cost affective but more importantly you get unlimited storage for photos & videos. I don't know how much dropbox costs, but I'd be interested in it's price and the amount of storage one gets for the price. As far as an Apple Ecosystem goes, I find that terminology to be more or less gimicky as most file types are standard across all operating sytems and can be opened and edited across them as well - for example a .jpg photo file or .mpg video file can be worked with on Apple, Windows, or Linux equally easily.


There's still that sneaky option someone told me about, which is to simply create multiple Flickr accounts when you reach 1,000 photos in your Flickr account - the guy I messaged with wasn't paying anything for Flickr storing his photos in 2 Flickr accounts. And here I sit and foolishly pay them monthly for one account.

[bspn]

You're doing well. I tried to get my mom to use a mobile phone and a computer when she was in her 70s, but she never got her head around it. She's now 86 and any attempt at learning anything new is a no-go.

My Mom stopped using her flip-phone a year ago. Her hearing not what is one was, we got her a phone that displays what's being said by the caller on a 'real' phone, albeit not on a landline.
Not bad considering she'll be turning 100 in little more than a month. We moved her to a senior apartment around the same time she gave up the cell phone, didn't want to leave her house, but now claims the move was the best thing for her.

---------- Post added 02-07-23 at 07:01 PM ----------

How much is Apple charging people to save their unlimited photos on Apple's so called "cloud" or "icloud" - ?

For the amount I'd need, $13.99 Canadian, Maybe a little over $10 a month American. You can buy a new drive every year for that. For 50 GB it costs me $1.29, but, if all you are storing is jpgs you might get away with that.

I've sort of been buying another portable drive every year or so, for my backups, two copies, one at home one off site. Looking at a 5T at B&H for about $120 us. I rarely reuse SD cards, unless I need one in a hurry.

Nice shot of the vacant house...

[MarkJerling]

My Mom stopped using her flip-phone a year ago. Her hearing not what is one was, we got her a phone that displays what's being said by the caller on a 'real' phone, albeit not on a landline.
Not bad considering she'll be turning 100 in little more than a month. We moved her to a senior apartment around the same time she gave up the cell phone, didn't want to leave her house, but now claims the move was the best thing for her.

Oh, wow! That's a very impressive age. If she lived here, she'd get a letter from the King on her 100th birthday.