Deleted images do not “disappear.” Formatting a memory card does not “erase” the images.

Never sell or loan a memory card unless you’re willing to risk the possibility of sharing every image, video, tax return and any other file that’s ever been saved to it. The same applies to hard drives, SSDs and USB drives. Here’s why it happens, and how to protect yourself.

Scarier than AI Zombies? Your bet it is. But you can prevent it from happening.

When an image is deleted from a memory card or other storage media, the space that the image file physically occupied as digital data is marked “available” and new image data can be written to that space. Formatting a memory card does little more than mark ALL of the space available. In other words, image files do not fully disappear unless they are overwritten by other files or deliberately “scrubbed” or “wiped” by special software. The Format command tells the firmware in the card that it’s okay to write new files over the ones that already exist. It does not vanish the existing files. It just enables writing over the older images.

This is neither a bug nor an oversight; it’s a safety precaution. If this were not the case, you’d lose accidentally deleted files forever. It also makes the Formatting process much faster.

Recover Images
Inexpensive (sometimes even free) software from SanDisk and others can recover deleted images, video files and other data in full or in part, and this is great in the event of unintentional deletion. But the software that rescues us has a dark side. This has two important implications for all, especially in this world of common person-to-person online auction transactions.

First, the consequences of accidental deletions and inadvertent formatting can very likely be reversed, although it’s not 100% certain. If you delete or format unintentionally, stop shooting immediately. If you continue shooting, the new images may overwrite the ones you want to restore. There is no 100% guarantee that the data can be resurrected, but the odds are in your favor to recover at least part of it. Download SanDisk RescuePro or another brand of Undelete Software and follow the onscreen directions. RescuePro has saved my bacon more than once, I’m unhappy to admit. This is why I recommend it over all others, but probably there are other brands equally as effective.

The recovery process can take a long time—plan on it. The file names change, and the images may be restored whole or only partially. The occasional fragmentation and/or other corruption of image frames are caused by the way data is written to the card on noncontiguous spaces.

The second implication is not a smiley face. With the right software and a little patience, others might be able to view the images you thought you deleted from your memory card. Even though the images may be completely innocent, do you really want to give them to strangers?

Wipe Cards Clean
SanDisk RescuePro software has a built-in option to wipe cards 100% clean by completely filling them with randomly sequenced digital garbage. The only other way to render a card neutered and inert (short of tossing it into the Weber grill) is to format it and then shoot pictures of the sky, ground or your feet until the card is full. With a large capacity card, this could take weeks. Seriously.

If you are dealing with an SSD (Solid State Drive) you can usually wipe it clean using software tools provided by the manufacturer. Check their website. Keep this in mind if you ever decide to sell your PC.

While there is no guarantee that any data can be recovered from a blundered-up card, the chances are strong enough that you should protect yourself with these extra steps before loaning or selling a card. Or make it your policy to never share your media.

Don’t make the mistake of dimwitted confidence that I once did by not keeping some brand of Undelete Software installed at all times. Some brands of memory cards come with a free full or trial subscription. Don’t wait until you need it. Buy Undelete Software today and practice with it now so you are prepared to deal with accidents without panic.

—Jon Sienkiewicz

You may have seen rumors recently about Adobe stealing content from creators and using it to train their stable of applications and/or for other reasons. To address these unsubstantiated claims, Adobe sent a notification via the Creative Cloud dashboard that explains Adobe that does NOT steal your images to train Firefly, their robust AI engine, or for any other purpose.

Essentially the same information is also posted on Adobe’s website. Additionally, you can read Adobe’s Firefly Policy here. For complete details, read Adobe’s General Terms of Use.

Here, verbatim, are the points Adobe calls out in their Firefly Policy. Many of the points have dropdown menus that offer additional information. To read it, visit the URL shown above.

“We do not and have never trained Adobe Firefly on customer content.

“We only train Adobe Firefly on content where we have permission to do so.

“We compensate creators who contribute to Adobe Stock for the use of their content in training Adobe Firefly.

“We do not mine content from the web to train Adobe Firefly.

“We developed Adobe Firefly to prevent it from creating content that infringes copyright or intellectual property rights, and it is designed to be commercially safe.

“We do not claim any ownership of your content, including content you create with Adobe Firefly.”

“We believe in protecting creators’ rights and founded the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) focused on ensuring transparency in content ownership and how it was created.

“We defend the intellectual property rights of the creative community through advocating for the Federal Anti-Impersonation Right Act.

“We explicitly prohibit third parties from training on customer content hosted on our servers (such as on Behance).”

Further, Adobe invites users questions by adding, “If you have any questions, or just want to hang out and chat, you can join us on Discord or the Adobe Community forums.”

Adobe is a founding member of the Content Authenticity Initiative. CAI is dedicated to restoring trust and transparency in the age of AI.

∞ Shutterbug Staff

It’s nearly mid-September, so you know what that means. It means the Halloween paraphernalia has been on display at the supermarket for nearly a month already, and the kiddos are happily (?) back in the classroom, using interactive smartphone apps to track the days until Spring Break.

But more important, it means that we’ll soon be enjoying Mother Nature’s fall festival of fabulous foliage. Here is the prediction map you’ve been waiting for, courtesy of the wonderful folks at smokymountains.com.

No one can predict the timing of autumn color change with 100% accuracy, but in our experience, the Fall Foliage Prediction Map from smokymountains.com has been very trustworthy. In fact, since they began inviting users to report local conditions back in 2022, they’ve gotten more and more reliable.

We’re big fans of autumn here at Shutterbug, and we’d like to share some tips and tricks with you. All you really need is your smartphone, but if you want to record an album full of rich fall colors, use a full-featured camera. 

Using the right screw-in photo filters in front of your lens has long been the favorite technique of pros and passionate amateurs. These two stories will get you headed in the right direction.

3 Screw-in Filters for Fabulous Fall Foliage Photography Fun

Our 5 Favorite Photo Filters For Photographing Fall Foliage

For more general how-to info, check out this story:

Maps & Pro Tips for GREAT Fall Foliage Photography

We can’t do anything to mitigate the misery of winter, but we can revel in the majesty of fall. Plan a weekend trip—or a day trip—with your family and go make some magical pictures.

Share your best fall photos with the rest of us by submitting them to Shutterbug for possible publication on our Photo of the Day gallery. It’s super easy. The following article shows you how:

It’s Easy to Become a Published Photographer

When you post to our Photo of the Day gallery there’s a chance that your image may be featured on our homepage for all to see. The internet reaches even the most remote corners of our planet (and possibly beyond—who knows for sure?) and endures essentially forever. You may even hear from friends you haven’t seen in years, after they see your photo on Shutterbug. And they’ll be saying, “Wow, you took that?”

∞ Shutterbug Staff