• Burning images on DVD is a popular way to archive photos.Tsuneo Yamashita/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  Burning images onto a DVD (digital versatile disk) allows you to store and preserve digital photos and images in various forms: files, slide shows or ISO images. All the photos are generally collected and organized in a specific folder or a series of folders, then opened in DVD-burning software. After configuring the requirements for the DVD burning and the type of content that will be stored on it, you can finally confirm the files to write onto your DVD.
  
  

Storing Images as Data Files

• Saving the actual files of digital photos on a DVD as how they appear from the camera or the computer is one of the many popular options where you can store and archive files with mobility in mind. As long as the disk is properly stored and protected from harsh conditions, including dirt, scratches and spills, a regular disk can preserve thousands of photos for up to 100 years.
  
  A basic DVD can hold up to 4.7GB of data or about 15,000 high-quality photos. This is about seven times the capacity of a CD. Using double-layer DVDs, although a bit more expensive than a single-layer DVD, is a practical option that can store twice as much data than a regular DVD.
  
  

Creating Slide Shows

• Many multimedia players can readily recognize compatible image content (digital files) on DVDs, thus, you can view the original data files (photos) through a player (and your TV). However, there are certain occasions that you would want to create a more presentable slide show, instead of showing simple image transitions provided by multimedia players. In such cases, it is ideal to burn an actual slide show of the image files so you can further customize your presentation. Slide shows burned onto DVDs for player viewing can be customized by adjusting each photo's display duration time, the slides' display text, the show's background music and can be burned in additional output formats other than DVD, i.e. MP4, WMV, 3GP or MPEG-2 formats for perhaps creating movie files to upload them online or transfer them to a mobile phone.
  
  Popular slide-show creation programs include Wondershare DVD Slide Show Builder and iPhoto. A slide show saved on DVD is typically used during presentations and showcasing photos on TV.
  
  

Creating and Mounting ISO Images

• An ISO file is a disk image of a CD or DVD that works as a virtual drive, which can either be burned for archival purposes or mounted like a typical CD or DVD. For instance, you can create an image of a DVD containing specific files, and then store this image on the computer. This works as a virtual drive in the sense that you can access the disk's files through the disk image instead of having to physically access the actual DVD. The ISO image opens the contents of the particular DVD for which the disk image was created.
  
  The disk image is ideally stored on a computer hard drive or any external storage device. Therefore, regardless of if you choose to use a DVD to archive photos or store a slide show, creating and mounting an ISO image is another way to have easy access to that particular DVD's contents without being required to have the actual disk on hand.