How to deal with digital photos?

[lindahua]

I believe the most guests of the forum are shutterbugs. There must be lots of photos on each one's hard disk. May i ask how do you deal with so many photos? And what software do you use to modify and enjoy the photos?

 

[Josh220]

Good computer, external hard drives and having a backup of everything on one of these. The most common program seems to be Lightroom for both organizing and the majority of editing. For more in depth editing, then Photoshop takes over. Mac users have the option of using Aperture which is probably the best photo organizing program there is, but it falls a little short of Lightroom in the editing department.

 

[lvcrtrs]

I save everthing to an external hard drive as a back-up. At the end of each year I copy everything to DVD as a second back-up.

There are lots of ways to organize, but I like to use a directory of the current year and and then subs for events. Works for non-pros and doesn't rely on software. When I make the DVD I type up a list of all the subs on it, fold it up and tuck it inside. So, at anytime I can flip through the DVD(s) and look for an event where I think a photo might be.

With the advent of "tags" for photos finding and viewing photos on the computer (organization) is really nifty. The more you shoot, the more important it is to get a handle on the file management monster. I'd be interested to see what people have to say as well.

 

[farmerj]

right now I save them by day, into month, into year.

I keep about the last 4 months on the laptop, the rest are kept on a WB My Passport Elite 250 GB external HD.

There's about 50 GB of pictures there so far. I back up monthly.

For software right now, I use PSP for editing. The cataloging is becoming an issue. I have a friend that uses Lightroom, and that's got me interested.

I suppose I could look into Picassa and see how it does cataloging.

 

[DanFSU]

My process is:
1. Shoot
2. load into Lightroom and edit
3. export to iPhoto for storage and organization
4. remove from lightroom
5. backup to external

I use iPhoto to distribute the photos to clients (mobileme album)
I have found lightroom to be a very efficient means to edit large amounts of photos from several different events at the same time.

 

[musicaleCA]

My process:

1. Import all photos straight to my Drobo (provides robust, redundant storage that is easily expandable later) via Lightroom 2.
2. Sort through the photos as they're importing, confirming that nothing went awry, and that there are no errors of files not being copied after the import.
3. Format the card.

I really should figure-out an online back-up though.

 

[DanFSU]

I really should figure-out an online back-up though.

• iPhoto + Mobileme is very easy... sorry, had to throw that one out there! (enable/disable download and upload feature; password protect albums)
• Gmail account + picassa 3 = free online storage (don't know about privacy and options) I know of a good photographer who uses it.

Those are the easiest and cheapest I know of

 

[farmerj]

Gmail / Picassa offers three options for "security"

Public - your pictures are open to search.
UnPublished - You can put links and send people links to them. But if people know your "public" folder, they still can't see them.
Sign in Required. - Basically Private. You need to have the username and password to get to these.

Photobucket is another on-line storage place as well. You can also put up and they will be viewable as animated gifs there also. They also allow video here as well.

I use both these locations. They take some getting used to for being able to link files from there.

 

[musicaleCA]

Oh no, I was thinking straightforward data backup solutions. Not something tailored to images. Mostly because, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I used iPhoto or Picasa, I'd have to manage two distinct photo management programs (since unlike DanFSU, LR is the only program I use to manage my photos...not at the moment though; the fans on my computer are broken so all I can't run LR for very long without over-heating *sigh*).

 

[DanFSU]

best data backup will be an external hard drive. Online storage can get very pricy, and is limited.

 

[DanFSU]

Automatic backup soloutions
(Free) If you have a Mac use "Time Machine" with an external drive
Carbonite online will backup files online for you for $50 a year?? (may be way off) for both mac and PC

 

[musicaleCA]

I already have an external backup *points to Drobo*. It's redundant. What I meant was that I really should have an off-site backup.

Already have TM on drive other than my Drobo, but my photos never actually touch my system drive; they go straight to and stay on the Drobo.

And one more edit: Carbonite might just be the thing I'm looking for. Thanks for the link.

 

[DanFSU]

Carbonite
Check them out, gave more info in post above

 

[farmerj]

Oh no, I was thinking straightforward data backup solutions. Not something tailored to images. Mostly because, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I used iPhoto or Picasa, I'd have to manage two distinct photo management programs (since unlike DanFSU, LR is the only program I use to manage my photos...not at the moment though; the fans on my computer are broken so all I can't run LR for very long without over-heating *sigh*).

Oh jeez, if you are even remotely able to figure out which end of a screwdriver to turn.

Pull you computer apart and replace the fans. They are under $20 for most of them, and you could get them at Radio Shack

 

[musicaleCA]

I would if it were a "normal" PC. I've done plenty of work and done far more complex things than replace fans (PSUs are especially a pain, almost as much as replacing a CPU >.< ). However, not only is this a laptop, it's a MacBook Pro. Anything other than a MacPro is a pain to take apart, and doing so voids the warranty and the protection plan I purchased on top of that. Plus I wouldn't be able to get the correct parts anyway.