How do the professionals store and archive digital images (Raw, jpg, tiff etc)

[ChrisFACE]

I just started my journey into photography a few months ago and the first week or so I shot in JPEG fine then decided to go to RAW to have more controle of my final image. I love RAW but as we all know the files are HUGE! I use my Canon Digital Photo Professional application which came with my EOS 550D DSLR to edit the images and I then "convert and save" which converts the image to JPEG but also leaves the original RAW file as well, so I then have both the RAW and JPEG version on my images saved. WHICH TAKES UP EVEN MORE SPACE.

My hard drive as you may have guessed is full and I brouth an external hard drive to back up images but I know you should keep images in at least two places incase something happenes to the location of your first back up.

Can anyone share with me some of the BEST ways professional photographers store and archive your RAW images as well as JPEGS, TIFF etc. I really need help here.

Thank you.

ChrisFACE

 

[Rekd]

Spend a couple hundred bucks on an external hard drive. (You've got that)

Spend a few bucks a month on an online backup like Carbonite. (Haven't tried this)

Spend some money on optical backups (DVDs etc) and put in a safe deposit box or a relative's house.

Those three things should ensure the safety of the images beyond most catastrophes short of a meteorite hitting the Earth.

 

[KmH]

I just started my journey into photography a few months ago and the first week or so I shot in JPEG fine then decided to go to RAW to have more controle of my final image. I love RAW but as we all know the files are HUGE! I use my Canon Digital Photo Professional application which came with my EOS 550D DSLR to edit the images and I then "convert and save" which converts the image to JPEG but also leaves the original RAW file as well, so I then have both the RAW and JPEG version on my images saved. WHICH TAKES UP EVEN MORE SPACE.

My hard drive as you may have guessed is full and I brouth an external hard drive to back up images but I know you should keep images in at least two places incase something happenes to the location of your first back up.

Can anyone share with me some of the BEST ways professional photographers store and archive your RAW images as well as JPEGS, TIFF etc. I really need help here.

Thank you.

ChrisFACE

Professionals uses multi backups, and make sure at least one of those backups is kept off-site.

 

[pbelarge]

Professionals uses multi backups, and make sure at least one of those backups is kept off-site.

I have 2 fire/water safes. I store a lot of good stuff that I do not want to loose to fire and water damage. The safe is rated to a temperature higher than an average home fire reaches.

 

[ChrisFACE]

Ok maybe I didnt ask the right question. This is the scenero. I have all my images stored in iPhoto. the original RAW image as well as the edited jpg image. I also have the exact same images on an external hard drive. I want to convert all the Raw images that are on iPhoto to jpgs so it will free up space on my hard drive and keep the Raw files on my external hard drive. But if I do that I will only have the RAW files in one place. Should I upload the RAW files to a site like Flickr or something similar so they are backed up in another location? Is this efficent? Do professionals do it this way?

 

[Cy-Gor]

Professionals uses multi backups, and make sure at least one of those backups is kept off-site.

I have 2 fire/water safes. I store a lot of good stuff that I do not want to loose to fire and water damage. The safe is rated to a temperature higher than an average home fire reaches.

the safe may be rated that high, but are the internal temps low enough to keep from damaging what you have in there?

i personally don't trust any onsite as a true backup. what if you live in an apt and it takes weeks to get to the stuff.

or a tornado hits and 100s of homes turn into one giant rubble pile.

The more valuable your data the further away you want your backup to be offsite to allow for disaster recovery.

The other thing to keep in mind is access. If you need your backups, how quickly do you want them. If time isnt important then shipping cd/dvd off somwhere would be an OK solution.

There are also a bunch of cloud solutions but i dont really have any specific advice since i dont use them.

 

[darkchild]

I use 2 external hard-drives. I drive a motorcycle so i always have a backpack on, i keep 1 hard drive, my laptop, and my camera in it at ALL times. my house has been broken into 2 times, one of those times being 2 months ago... so i decided to put security on my home, but if someone wants to break into your house, they will, so that's why i decided to also carry one of the hard drives with me.

 

[table1349]

I archive all raw files. They are my negative and I never destroy a negative. I archive only the worked and converted files that may be needed again in the foreseeable future. I have a redundant Raid 1 setup with 2 external drives, do a once a week backup to a third drive that is kept in a safe and keep a third copy off site.

The safe is not a fire safe, it is a real live genuine safe that happens to be rated to 2400 degrees for 3 hours. I managed to pick it up used for a good price from a lock smith I know. I don't worry about my gun collection with this safe either. Any burglar that wants in this thing needs either real good tools and some knowledge or explosives cause a pry bar is not going to do it.

I do pity the poor home owner that buys this house after I am gone. That safe ain't coming out so they better like it.

 

[kkamin]

ChrisFACE, there is actually an organization (ASMP:American Society of Media Photographers) and an initiative (DP Best Work Flow) funded by the US Library of Congress that is tackling your issue.

Planning Overview | dpBestflow

If you are serious about this concern, study the above link.

As many have mentioned, professionals back-up their files to multiple sources at various stages of their workflow, on-site and off-site.

Something else to think about is that files can degrade over time--your data can become corrupted. Some people create MD5 checksum files of their important files so they can routinely check on the integrity of their data. What that does is basically looks at the data of your file and creates a 16 digit code based off that data. If the data ever changes due to corruption, it will produce a different 16 digit code and the codes (original file and corrupted file), when compared, will not match. This is the big problem with digital photography. There is not a solid archival solution yet. Data stored on hard drives or DVDs or flash drives can eventually degrade. It seems like periodically verifying your important data is necessary. And if a problem is found, having a good copy on another source is priceless.

 

[Zrock]

I may be a little redundant in my backups but i have them on my HD, back up to external drive, back up to thumb drive that i always have with me, and finnaly back up to DVD when i have enough to fill

 

[ChrisFACE]

ChrisFACE, there is actually an organization (ASMP:American Society of Media Photographers) and an initiative (DP Best Work Flow) funded by the US Library of Congress that is tackling your issue.

Planning Overview | dpBestflow

If you are serious about this concern, study the above link.

As many have mentioned, professionals back-up their files to multiple sources at various stages of their workflow, on-site and off-site.

Something else to think about is that files can degrade over time--your data can become corrupted. Some people create MD5 checksum files of their important files so they can routinely check on the integrity of their data. What that does is basically looks at the data of your file and creates a 16 digit code based off that data. If the data ever changes due to corruption, it will produce a different 16 digit code and the codes (original file and corrupted file), when compared, will not match. This is the big problem with digital photography. There is not a solid archival solution yet. Data stored on hard drives or DVDs or flash drives can eventually degrade. It seems like periodically verifying your important data is necessary. And if a problem is found, having a good copy on another source is priceless.

Thank you for thi link. I will look into it. And thank you for your answer as well. I know see that there is no clear cut answer. I had no idea data saved on HDs and DVDs could be corrupted over time. Jeez! Oh well. I guess I will have to figure out a solution that works best for me and my work flow.

Thanks again. Good answer.

 

[ChrisFACE]

Professionals uses multi backups, and make sure at least one of those backups is kept off-site.

I personally don't trust any onsite as a true backup. what if you live in an apt and it takes weeks to get to the stuff.

or a tornado hits and 100s of homes turn into one giant rubble pile.

The more valuable your data the further away you want your backup to be offsite to allow for disaster recovery.

The other thing to keep in mind is access. If you need your backups, how quickly do you want them. If time isnt important then shipping cd/dvd off somwhere would be an OK solution.

What about online storage solutions like Flickr? Do you see that as a save place to store images. You can create albums that you dont give the public access to.

 

[Rekd]

I've heard there are ways to see personal albums on flickr. I would think you'd almost have to know they were there, though.

Not sure if you can store RAW files there though.

 

[table1349]

I personally don't trust any onsite as a true backup. what if you live in an apt and it takes weeks to get to the stuff.

or a tornado hits and 100s of homes turn into one giant rubble pile.

The more valuable your data the further away you want your backup to be offsite to allow for disaster recovery.

The other thing to keep in mind is access. If you need your backups, how quickly do you want them. If time isnt important then shipping cd/dvd off somwhere would be an OK solution.

What about online storage solutions like Flickr? Do you see that as a save place to store images. You can create albums that you dont give the public access to.

Simple answer. NO. Jpg, no raw files. They do not have the kind of secure storage needed and they make no promise of perpetual storage.

 

[camera obscura]

Floppy disks are the best backup. :mrgreen: