Are my RAW images eating up my computer?

[Vespa]

I have a fairly new computer, less than 6 months old, and I have no room left on my hard drive. I tried to download the new operating system for my iPad and I was told that it would not sync because I didn't have enough room. Where should I put my photos? Or is this even the problem? Please help.

 

[TheFantasticG]

Get some external HDDs. Desktop external HDDs are super cheap. I just picked up two 1.5TB Seagate desktop external HDDs for $60 a piece from Wally world.

 

[Drake]

Well, it would be useful to know how big exactly is your hard drive, how much of it is already used, and how big your photo folder is.

 

[Vespa]

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill? I don't know how big my hard drive or photo folder is, how can I figure this out?

 

[ghache]

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill? I don't know how big my hard drive or photo folder is, how can I figure this out?

right click on disk and click properties.

 

[OrionsByte]

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill? I don't know how big my hard drive or photo folder is, how can I figure this out?

right click on disk and click properties.

You're assuming they're on a PC.

Your iPad may be the one with space issues; I have no idea what the error message said in it's entirety but that would seem more likely than a brand new computer running out of space that fast. When you connect your iPad to your computer and open iTunes, it should show you how much space you have available on your iPad. I'd rule that out first.

 

[jake337]

The question is "what else is on your computer?". I recently cleaned out the laptop onto an external. 22,ooo files for around 42gigs. Also running all your programs off your external can speed things up.

 

[Big Mike]

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill?

Yes, that is (IMO) overkill.

You can easily get a JPEG out of a RAW file, but you can't go the other way. So I'd suggest shooting RAW and only taking the chosen photos for further editing.

Another issue is backup. I'd assume that if you lost your digital photos, you'd be pretty upset. So you should really backup all your photos (not to mention all the important info on your computer). A hard drive is a device that can fail, so it's a good idea to have more than one, and to keep your backups on a separate drive from the original files.

 

[Jakefreese]

Get some external HDDs. Desktop external HDDs are super cheap. I just picked up two 1.5TB Seagate desktop external HDDs for $60 a piece from Wally world.

It is what I do also. I shoot raw only now too.

 

[PASM]

Just shoot in RAW and use FastStone Image Viewer to preview quanitities of RAW files, quickly and easily.

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill?

Yes, that is (IMO) overkill.

 

[kasperkjaerphoto]

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill?

Yes, that is (IMO) overkill.

I don't think that is overkill at all, it makes it real easy to use your pictures on the computer and then if you need to edit something, you'll have the RAW-data.
What I do is I keep the JPEG files on my computer and transfer the RAW files to my external harddrive, it's like back in the film days, keeping your negatives in case you need a copy.

 

[Buckster]

All in all, the JPGs don't take up that much room, relatively, so eliminating them isn't going to buy much time. Just bite the bullet and get another drive. They're cheap.

 

[Josh66]

I am shooting jpg & raw together, is that over kill?

Yes, that is (IMO) overkill.

I don't think that is overkill at all, it makes it real easy to use your pictures on the computer and then if you need to edit something, you'll have the RAW-data.
What I do is I keep the JPEG files on my computer and transfer the RAW files to my external harddrive, it's like back in the film days, keeping your negatives in case you need a copy.

Although what Buckster says is true (JPGs are small, and deleting them won't free up much room), RAW+JPG is kinda pointless to me...

You'll end up with 3 copies of each picture...

The RAW, the JPG that got spit out with the RAW, and the JPG from the processed RAW. The middle JPG just seems unnecessary to me.

If you want unedited JPG, just shoot JPG and don't worry about RAW...

 

[tony88]

It actually depends on the size of your hard disk. But if you are saving all raw pictures you’ve taken for a long time, then chances are, your pictures are eating up the space on your hard disk and fast. What i suggest is, buy an external hard drive, i could set you back some $80 but you will not have to worry about the space, but time and again, when your HD starts to fill up, you’ll have the same problem, so a better solution is clean up and just choose images you think you are going to use.

 

[wec12]

If you love to Photoshop your pic, RAW is better; if not, save the HD space~