Google Photos - a place for your photos

Some time ago on my blog I touched on the topic of storing and managing a collection of photos. With the development of Picasa coming to an end, I decided to use Lightroom.

My adventure with Lightroom lasted for some time, but I always felt insecure when it came to storing photos.

Hard drives can fail, just like computers. Thefts are also common, and no one wants to lose a valuable collection of photos from the last 15 years. At the same time, having photos only on one computer creates another problem if you want to show or share them with someone.

Here, Google Photos (Google Photos) became an almost perfect solution.

Before I switched to Google Photos, I faced a very important question. What do I need my photos for and how much do I need their original resolution.

It may seem like a trivial question, but the choice of the final solution will affect the entire future of photo storage.

Google Photos offers two options for storing photos. The first is, of course, storing them as they were uploaded — i.e. in full, original resolution. Each photo takes up space in our Google account. With my collection of 200GB of photos and videos, the 15GB basic package left no illusions that I would have to pay.

Portable drives also cost money. And despite the fact that it is a one-time expense, they are not the safest form of data storage. In particular, they should not be the only form of backup.

I am not a photographer. I do not take photos to earn money from them. In my life I have had fun with a semi-professional SLR camera, but it is not my way of life. When children appeared in my life, the number of photos began to grow logarithmically, and the basic camera became a mobile phone.

My family and grandparents are hundreds of kilometers apart, so easy sharing of photos of my grandchildren became a priority. Sending photos by e-mail became very inconvenient.

After thinking a bit more about Google Photos’ second option - unlimited storage for high-resolution photos - I decided that this is what I needed.

Google Photos in high resolution gives us unlimited space for our photos and videos along with the ability to quickly share with others. However, the lack of a limit comes with a price. Our photos and videos are additionally compressed.

This is not a bad thing, because in this package, photos up to 16Mpix will not be reduced, which will allow us to print them later on A4 paper or in a larger format without any problems. However, the photos are compressed using a special algorithm. Compression is practically invisible when it comes to visible space. However, if we need to store the originals, we can always do it using other media. Our videos are compressed to a maximum resolution of 1080p. If our phone, camera or camcorder records photos in 4K, unfortunately, we will lose something here.

Despite the benefits of unlimited space for photos and videos, I’ve found that 95% of users will actually be more than happy with it.

Google Photos also has an app for Android, iOS, and dedicated programs for Windows or macOS to easily back up from your computer and mobile device.

Our photos are always available online. If we decide to change phones or computers, there’s no need to transfer them — just log in to your Google account and we have everything we’ve sent.

And so I transferred my 200GB to Google Photos. What’s more, I occasionally make an independent copy of my photos and videos from Google Photos using Google Takeout, which I store on an external USB drive. And so, the first time I did it, my 200GB took up just over 85GB. As you can see, compression does its job, but the visual quality doesn’t suffer.

Although I personally decided to buy an additional 100GB package for my Google Drive, which I also use for other purposes, most users will be able to use this solution without having to spend extra money.

However, it is important to remember that our photos are as safe as our Google account. In this case, having a simple password does not guarantee us security and we should consider using two-factor authentication (2FA), which Google provides. Additionally, we should set an alternative email address, phone number and write down (or print out) and store in a safe place the security passwords (related to 2FA) that will allow us to regain access to the account in case something goes wrong.

I hope I can help you make a good decision when it comes to photos and videos.

Of course, nothing in life is free. Google’s service, although free, will not allow us to store, for example, movies downloaded from the Internet, so that Google does not become a tool for spreading piracy. At the same time, something that is free must be compensated to some extent in the form of user Privacy.

Let’s not leave ourselves any illusions - nothing is free, and in this case our payment is our Privacy. And, although our photos and movies are ours, let’s remember that companies like Google need this type of data for their own purposes for something - for example, for internal training of their own AI algorithms for facial recognition, etc.

Despite this, Google’s solution is what I have been looking for for a long time.

Best regards.