Award Winning Photo

In the early part of the 21st century, the dominant method of viewing still images has been on computers and, to a lesser extent, on cellular phones (although people still make and look at prints). These factors have led to a decrease in film and film camera sales and film processing, and has had a dramatic effect on companies such as Fuji, Kodak, and Agfa. In addition, many stores that used to offer photofinishing services or sell film no longer do, and those that do have seen a tremendous decline.
Photographic images have always been prone to fading and loss of image quality due to sun exposure or improper storage of film negatives, slides, and prints. Since digital images are stored as data on a computer, the image never loses visual quality, detail, or fidelity as long as the digital media remains intact. The only way to ruin a digital image is to delete the image file, corrupt or re-write some of the image file's data, or damage or destroy the electronic storage media (hard drive, disk, CD-ROM, flash card, etc.) that contains the file. As with all computer files, making backups is the most effective way of ensuring a digital image can be recovered.