Backup up photos DNG vs RAW vs JPG

[drummerJ99]

Hey guys. Kinda a newb here. I'm to the point where I'd like to start backing up some photos I like. Looking into the Amazon Cloud, since it's only $12 a year and seems to be cheapest options.

My question comes down to should I back up the DNG or RAW file or finalized JPG? Does the actual DNG file include all edits I've done in Lightroom? Or is all that stuff stored separate from DNG file someplace in Lightroom? I like the thought of backing up the RAW file but if the DNG or even my finalized JPG includes all the edits I've done using Lightroom, what's really the point to backing up the raw file?

Thanks In Advance,
Jeffrey

 

[tirediron]

I back up everything, but if I was only going to back up one thing, it would always, always, ALWAYS be the raw file.

 

[fjrabon]

I'd use a TIFF file for anything I edited. Tiff is lossless and will retain your edits. I'd use Raw for anything I didn't edit, Raw will not retain editing you've done. The ideal scenario is TIFF + Raw, but if space is an issue, lossless TIFF sorta negates an absolute need for Raw if you've done edits.

 

[KmH]

Raw will not retain editing you've done.

Raw will retain editing you've done, if you want it to.
The edits are stored in a 'side car' file.
You can choose the have the side car file embedded in your Raw file, or next to the Raw file.

If you use LR or Camera Raw - XMP Sidecar Files Julieanne Kost s Blog
More about side car files - Sidecar files Adobe Community

 

[fjrabon]

Raw will not retain editing you've done.

Raw will retain editing you've done, if you want it to.
The edits are stored in a 'side car' file.
You can choose the have the side car file embedded in your Raw file, or next to the Raw file.

If you use LR or Camera Raw - XMP Sidecar Files Julieanne Kost s Blog
More about side car files - Sidecar files Adobe Community

True, but aren't those "side cars" program specific, ie a Lightroom sidecar won't open in CaptureOne and vice versa? For me, the whole point of archives is for them to be as future proof and non-program specific as possible. TIFF is a relatively universal standard as far as image standards go, so I always feel pretty good about having a lossless, slightly compressed archive with TIFF.

 

[The_Traveler]

Depending on how much you have to upload, a low-cost 'cloud' with slow uploads may never catch up.

 

[Alexr25]

TIFF is a lossless file format but getting from a RAW file to a TIFF file is NOT a lossless process. Edits that you perform in the RAW converter cannot be undone in the TIFF file. If you are serious about preserving your original images then you must save the RAW data, whether as the camera native RAW format or as a DNG file.

 

[fjrabon]

TIFF is a lossless file format but getting from a RAW file to a TIFF file is NOT a lossless process. Edits that you perform in the RAW converter cannot be undone in the TIFF file. If you are serious about preserving your original images then you must save the RAW data, whether as the camera native RAW format or as a DNG file.

First, everything I'm talking about here is 16 bit Tiff, just for reference.

It depends on what you mean by "cannot be undone." Tiff doesn't run into issues with banding and compression artifacts and you have a pretty wide lee-way for re-adjusting your white balance. Not quite as wide as you do with raw, but pretty wide, especially if you already made a white balance adjustment to get the TIFF in the first place. Some people talk like you can't do white balance adjustment unless you have Raw, which is silly. You can do white balance adjustments in Tiff, especially since Tiff doesn't round off color values, you don't run into banding issues. You just don't have quite as wide of a range as you would with a raw image. You can't make an egg yolk into a blue ball with Tiff. But how often are you really going to want to do that extreme of editing on an image that you've already processed? Usually if you're re-editing, they're subtle edits, which Tiff is perfectly fine for.

Tiff files are between JPEG and Raw in dynamic range, and for 99% of shots, especially after processing, the entire dynamic range is going to be within the Tiff file. So, potentially there is some loss of available shadow and highlight detail in a Tiff, file, but practically, 99% of the time there isn't if you've already rescued the shadows and highlights you wanted anyway in the conversion.

What can't be undone with Tiff is the demosaicing algorithm. But how many people really think "hey, I want to try a new demosaicing algorithm on this old picture I've already edited!"?

Another exception is obviously B&W conversion, because obviously the Tiff file doesn't contain color data at all in that case.

 

[Dave442]

I only have JPG (in my Developed directory) set to upload automatically to the cloud.

 

[wfooshee]

I don't back up to cloud, I have a few 1- or 2-TB USB hard drives. I store my original RAWs (with sidecar files) on one, and my edited JPGs on another. Every week those drives themselves get backed up to another disk as disk images, and THAT backup is done to one of two disks I have for that purpose, and they alternate.

 

[table1349]

You have a priceless vase and a gorgeous reproduction. You can only keep one. Which one you going to choose?

Everything you have done so far came from that raw file and anything you want to to to it in the future can come from it again.

 

[dennybeall]

I'm a real simple minded guy, all this sidecar and this and that is not my cup of tea. Memory is cheap - save the raw, save the Photoshop file with all it's layers and any jpg/tiff that are worth saving. Then keep backups of backups....