How Long Do You Keep Your Raws?

[table1349]

I keep them until the 8GIG DL DVD's I've burned them to die. I would imagine they'll last most of my lifetime.

If burning your RAW's to an external drive AND DVD isn't part of your workflow (for professional pics), I would say your workflow is broken. HD's fail. DVD's are cheap. I stick my CF card in the reader, import them into Lightroom which copies everything to an external drive, then I drag the contents of the card to a 8GIG DVD (same size as the cards I use) and burn a hard copy background while I start to edit.

I too use DVD's for a final backup solution, along with triple redundant external hard drive backup. If you choose to use DVD's purchase archival quality DVD's. They are more expensive, but DVD's and CD's also fail. The archival quality DVD's and CD's will last longer than the average off the shelf products. I also only use single density DVD's (4.5gig) instead of dual density (8gig). Less chance of failure with single density.

 

[Agoraphobic]

I would personally keep them locally and also a copy in the cloud. Websites, such as backblaze.com offer online storage for just $5 per month. Say something bad happens and you lose the images, backblaze gives you 3 options to restore your data (Download, or if its a lot of data, you can choose to have them mail you a DVD or HDD). There's a 15 day free trial waiting.

 

[JamesMason]

Shoot jpg and save space and time.

 

[Overread]

Shoot jpg and save space and time.

Whilst you save on space, you do however have problems, especailly for archiving the photos.

1) JPEG has a lesser amount of editing you can do to it, exposure corrections and whitebalance tweaking are much harder to perform (and get to look right) than they are in RAW where its simply a process of adjusting slider bars.

2) Further JPEGs have apready had a round of editing done on them in the camera, global sharpening and noise as well as saturation, contrast and other things - things that are best done out of teh camera where the photographer has control over the processes and where they happen (selective sharpening and noise for example)

3) JPEGs are a lossy format - which means each time they are saved or changed image data is lost. It does not take many saved either before you start to get image degradation and then you have problems if you start to tweak or edit the shot at a later date. Its not a good format for archival - TIFF is a far better storage method for edited shots since it does store all the data (ergo why its a lot bigger in filesize) and RAW also stores all the image data, in a fully unedited format.

 

[thenikonguy]

Shoot jpg and save space and time.

thats just about the dumbest thing I've read on here

 

[FrankLamont]

I'm thinking of scrapping HDD's and going with Taiyo Yuden...

Apparently, they are the best archival DVD/CD makers. Ie, longest lasting. I have the chance to order them 600 (OEM) for $299... AUD. Just wondering if that's a good price?

 

[Phranquey]

The RAW's are my permanent archive. Deleting the RAWs would be like shooting a roll of rilm, thinking the prints are good, and tossing the negatives.

 

[JerryPH]

Shoot jpg and save space and time.

thats just about the dumbest thing I've read on here

Maybe he was kidding... at least we *hope* he was.

 

[thenikonguy]

Maybe he was kidding... at least we *hope* he was.

i'm hoping to..

 

[Clawed]

I delete my RAWS as soon as I grow tired of looking at them. I always convert to JPG once I do my batch RAW processing, and save those.

They take up way too much space and I suck anyway, so no real keepers yet.

 

[Derrel]

I archive them onto two sets of DVD's and two external backup drives. Once the backup drive is full, the BACK-UP drive is erased, and BACK_up Drive #2 becomes the primary backup, and the other drive is replaced by a brand new drive. So, the answer to how long I keep my raws is , "since 2001 when I bought a D1." I guess that's only eight years...

The backup drive, the permanent one, has the files stored in folders that reflect the catalog structure of each backup DVD....drives are much faster to search than DVDs, but I want to be able t know where the files are on the DVD stacks.

 

[inTempus]

Shoot jpg and save space and time.

Great for the hobbyist not concerned with overall IQ after edits are performed, but for a working pro RAW is the best solution.

 

[inTempus]

I would personally keep them locally and also a copy in the cloud. Websites, such as backblaze.com offer online storage for just $5 per month. Say something bad happens and you lose the images, backblaze gives you 3 options to restore your data (Download, or if its a lot of data, you can choose to have them mail you a DVD or HDD). There's a 15 day free trial waiting.

I use Mozy.com because they support external HD's for their online backups. But I don't rely too heavily on these companies. 3-5 years from now many of them will be out of business. Sometimes when they go down, they do so without any warning. They go broke and quietly close their digital stores.

The best solution is to backup using storage media like DVD's. If you're particularly anal, you can make dual copies and store one off-site.

I only keep copies on HD that I plan on working with. With HD's it's not a matter of if they'll fail it's usually only a matter of when.

 

[inTempus]

The RAW's are my permanent archive. Deleting the RAWs would be like shooting a roll of rilm, thinking the prints are good, and tossing the negatives.

+1

 

[shmne]

If you are worried about space try this -

Newegg.com - Seagate FreeAgent Desk ST320005FDA2E1-RK 2TB 7200 RPM USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - External Hard Drives

There is really no need to ever lose old work, it helps show you were you came from. Especially something like this 2tb drive, you won't be filling it up anytime soon.