Photo storage sites

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

Where do you store your photos? My iCloud storage space is full, and I'm wondering if there are any good free storage sites, or if not, what's the best inexpensive place to get unlimited photo storage? I'm just getting started, but want to sell my work eventually.

table1349 · Jul 13, 2015

Multiple external hard drives that are redundant backups. One back up is kept in our bank box and brought home to have every thing new put on it while another backup drive that is completely backed up is put in the bank box. (It helps that my wife works at the bank so it is no extra work to get drives swapped out. )

TCampbell · Jul 13, 2015

Google Photos allows for unlimited free storage IF (gotta read the fine print) the images are LESS than 16MB images.

If they are greater than 16MB it counts against your Google Drive storage space (of which I think I recall the first 15GB are free and then you have to pay for more.)

I don't know how good it is about organization.

I only shoot RAW and I want to preserve my original RAW files and these are almost never less than 16MB (so Google Photos isn't going to help me). And while Lightroom will sell me online storage, I'd rather it all be local. So I have a small 4-drive storage array setup as RAID 5 and that gives me about 3TB of local storage and I back it up. I only use Lightroom's cloud storage to share images between Lightroom on the desktop and Lightroom Mobile on the iPad (and then only the images I plan to edit on the iPad.)

paigew · Jul 13, 2015

Amazon prime members get free unlimited storage. Raw files included. No syncing capabilities. I use google drive for daily syncing/back up but I pay a good bit for storage. I also own large external drives

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

gryphonslair99 said:
Multiple external hard drives that are redundant backups. One back up is kept in our bank box and brought home to have every thing new put on it while another backup drive that is completely backed up is put in the bank box. (It helps that my wife works at the bank so it is no extra work to get drives swapped out. )

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

Thanks gryphons lair. Wish I had a spouse who worked in a bank!

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

TCampbell said:
Google Photos allows for unlimited free storage IF (gotta read the fine print) the images are LESS than 16MB images.

If they are greater than 16MB it counts against your Google Drive storage space (of which I think I recall the first 15GB are free and then you have to pay for more.)

I don't know how good it is about organization.

I only shoot RAW and I want to preserve my original RAW files and these are almost never less than 16MB (so Google Photos isn't going to help me). And while Lightroom will sell me online storage, I'd rather it all be local. So I have a small 4-drive storage array setup as RAID 5 and that gives me about 3TB of local storage and I back it up. I only use Lightroom's cloud storage to share images between Lightroom on the desktop and Lightroom Mobile on the iPad (and then only the images I plan to edit on the iPad.)

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

Thanks Tim. None of my images are 16MB so maybe I should/could use Google Photo for now.

Derrel · Jul 13, 2015

Drives. Discs. pBase.com for 10+ years.

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

paigew said:
Amazon prime members get free unlimited storage. Raw files included. No syncing capabilities. I use google drive for daily syncing/back up but I pay a good bit for storage. I also own large external drives

Jera · Jul 13, 2015

Thanks for your reply, Paige. What is syncing exactly?

paigew · Jul 13, 2015

With Amazon prime you have to go and manually upload your files. With Google drive the program will automatically back up anything within your drive folder so you don't have to remember to do it yourself. It also deletes files you take out of the drive folder.

KmH · Jul 14, 2015

What do you do when whatever online storage you use goes away?

Like gryphonslair99 I maintain all my backups on multiple external storage drives, including updated offsite storage in a safe deposit box at the bank. I don't have a spouse, but I regularly visit my bank.

Actually I worry a lot more about the longevity of my digital image files than I do about my archived film negatives/slides and prints.

Bryston3bsst · Jul 14, 2015

KmH said:
What do you do when whatever online storage you use goes away?

Like gryphonslair99 I maintain all my backups on multiple external storage drives, including updated offsite storage in a safe deposit box at the bank. I don't have a spouse, but I regularly visit my bank.

Actually I worry a lot more about the longevity of my digital image files than I do about my archived film negatives/slides and prints.

I don't trust online storage at all. When you upload a file, where does it go? Into the ether somewhere?

I use multiple drives.

paigew · Jul 14, 2015

KmH said:
What do you do when whatever online storage you use goes away?

Like gryphonslair99 I maintain all my backups on multiple external storage drives, including updated offsite storage in a safe deposit box at the bank. I don't have a spouse, but I regularly visit my bank.

Actually I worry a lot more about the longevity of my digital image files than I do about my archived film negatives/slides and prints.

I don't think Google and/or Amazon are going anywhere. But just in case, that is why you also have them on an external as well. But as you mentioned the most important thing is to print your images!