THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT OUR DIGITAL PHOTOS
The Kodak Moments App also allows consumers to capture and edit photos and order them in the form of photo books or collages, for example.
The move follows a survey of 2,000 adults by Kodak Alaris, which reveals that only 13% have taken steps to protect their photos by printing, backing up on computer or ‘posting to social media’.
Kodak Alaris, which owns Kodak’s film and photographic paper business, said the figures reveal ‘a nonchalant attitude to protecting content’.
‘People in the UK store an average of 651 photos on their mobile phones, meaning that a potential 11.8 billion photos are lost in the ether,’ said the firm, basing its estimate on the 52 million smartphones in the UK.
Lee Palmer, vice-president of the firm’s imaging division in Europe, added: ‘11.8 billion photos is a significant number and over a quarter of people were “devastated” to lose their pictures.
‘Considering we live in a digital world and are likely to have experienced some form of digital loss, be it a document, email or something as valued as photos, it’s surprising that so many people aren’t doing more to prevent themselves from having to deal with the frustration this causes.’
Although 78% of respondents were willing to print photos taken on a smartphones, they are put off by ‘a perception that photos taken on mobile devices aren’t good enough quality (31%); are difficult to get from a mobile to a printer (15%); or because they simply don’t know how to print from a mobile phone (19%)’.
The news follows warnings from experts that photographers must print images they want to preserve, or treasured photos may be unavailable to future generations when digital storage media wears out or becomes obsolete.
© istockphoto.com/Davidf
Earlier this year, Amateur Photographer (AP) published an article highlighting the dangers of photographers sleepwalking towards a ‘photographic Armageddon’.
Kodak Alaris launched a similar printing mission in 2013. Back then, it planned to double the number of images printed by making it easier for consumers to print their smartphone photos.
Kodak Alaris was set up after UK Kodak Pension Plan acquired the Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses from US-based Eastman Kodak in September 2013.
The Kodak Moments App is available for Android and iPhone.
COFFEE HOUSES AND CINEMAS LINED UP AS POTENTIAL NEW LOCATIONS FOR PHOTO PRINTING
Key findings from Kodak Alaris survey:
• 4% of people have over 2,501 photos stored on their mobile device
• Nearly one in five people in the UK (19%) look at the images stored on their device daily
• In spite of a nonchalant attitude to protecting our content, we put a huge amount of effort into capturing images, with a third (34%) of us taking anywhere between four and 10 images of the same thing in an attempt to capture the best picture
• A third (33%) of people said that looking at physical photos, rather than digital ones (14%) elicits a more positive emotional response
• 70% of people feel nostalgic when they view a printed photo
• Over half (54%) of people say viewing a printed photo makes them feel happy
• Nearly half of people (44%) have lost photos because of a broken/corrupt device
• One in 10 people lost photos from a phone as a result of dropping it down the toilet or a similar mishap
• The most common emotional response to losing photos was to be upset (63%), while many were irritated (47%) or angry (42%)
• Half of 25-34 year olds use a cloud-storage service to protect their photos compared to just 28% of those who are 55+
• 12% of people print their photos to prevent them being lost
• 18-24 year olds are the most likely to print their photos to prevent loss (16%)
• 30% of people have lost photos through defunct tech:
• Floppy disks: 32%
• MiniDiscs: 22%
• VHS: 12%
• Zip disk: 11%
• Almost half of people surveyed (46%) are worried about being able to access their photos in the future (10 years’ time)
• Over half (56%) are worried about the fact that technology will change
• Nearly a third (30%) worry that they won’t be able to find their images
