Now that you’ve had some fun capturing great photos and touching up the images to arrive at a finished product, it’s time for a less fun task – that of backing up all those files. This is one of the more mundane parts of being a photographer, but if you don’t, you risk losing all the moments you’ve frozen in time and the work you’ve put into them. So, what are some of the best methods and options for this?
Standardize Your Naming Methods
Having a standardized and systematic way of importing, naming, and saving sets with whatever software program you’re using gets you off to a good start. Personally I start with the year, then the month, then some sort of description. That way, all the folders from each year will be listed and grouped together.
External Hard Drives
The next step for backing up photos for a lot of people is transferring them to an external hard drive. I put every shot on my external hard drive including the original and any edited version. I try and keep up with this about once a month. I’m currently using the Cirago 60gb Portable Storage. The only flaw in this method is that if you keep your computer or laptop and the external hard drive in the same household/space, there’s still a chance you could lose them from an unfortunate incident such as a fire or burglary.
Cloud Storage
This brings me to the use of cloud drives which are becoming increasingly popular. It’s all digital matter so it doesn’t take up any physical space and you can access it from wherever you are connected to the internet. Some options for cloud services include Apple’s iCloud, Amazon, Dropbox, and Box. Most of these offer 2-5 gigabytes for free. Beyond that, there are monthly/yearly rates depending on the amount of storage you need. I started using the Amazon cloud drive back in June of last year and have been satisfied with it for the most part (it’s been known to crash a few times). The most advantageous aspect is that you don’t have to download and install any program to use it. The cloud technology is really convenient – the only inconvenient thing is going back and uploading everything you’ve shot before you started using it. Just keeping up with current archiving can be a challenge, so uploading everything you’ve done can turn into quite a long-term project.
Your Email
This may seem like overkill, but I also email shots that I really like to myself. Not only is it an added layer of protection, but it also makes them easier to retrieve should I want to upload it to a site or print it down the line.
CDs and DVDs
Other strategies to make sure you don’t lose photos include burning them to a CD or DVD or keeping some of them on a thumb drive. Some people also use photo sharing sites or printing sites, but just be aware that some of the sites do not save images at the original size they’re uploaded at.
The final tip is to make sure that you are careful with any of these options. It doesn’t do much good to store files with a cloud service with poor security or on a DVD that gets misplaced!
And if you ever lose anything, take a look at how our Editor in Chief recovered three months worth of images.
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