What is your image backup process?

[gary payne]

<p>I’m curious what backup workflow others may follow. I shoot only RAW, and download files from the card using NIKON Transfer to two different drives. I view and down select images using NIKON View. I then edit the selected RAW files in NIKON NX2 and save the Edited RAW files onto two different drives. Finally, after all edits are completed, I convert the Edited RAW to JPEG, and again save the JPEGs to two different drives. The amount of hard disk space is becoming problematic, especially given the size of RAW files. And, finding a specific image a year or so after capture and processing is often a challenge. By the way, I use a MacBook Pro, plus Time Machine and MyBook for backup storage. Any suggestions or ideas on improving my process will be greatly appreciated.</p>

[bruce_watson1]

<p>I don't want you to think this facetious, but my backup plan is: I shoot film. Mostly B&W. If I do a good job storing it, it should be good for well beyond my life. And after I'm gone no one will care.</p>

<p>The best way to handle image storage problems IMHO is to edit your images with a heavy hand. Toss 'em out. Hit the delete key. The vast majority of anyone's images aren't worthy of being saved. That certainly applies to me. If I have an outstandingly good shooting session, I find I get about one keeper out of every 10 sheets of 5x4 film I shoot. The other nine get processed, evaluated, and trashed. The one I keep usually ends up printed (unless it's an in-camera dupe for a shot that I knew at exposure time would be a keeper), either in my portfolio or, much more rarely, on the wall.</p>

<p>Scan files (drum scanned 5x4 film files up to 2GB each [no, that's not a typo]), image editing files, print files for specific sizes and/or purposes, etc. all get grouped together and burned on a DVD. Not fully permanent I know. But I can always rescan them -- the film is the backup.</p>

<p>See what I mean?</p>

[kevin_delson]

<p>Your backup strategy will differ from others depending on end use of the file.</p>

<p>I always save the RAW file immedietly to a dedicated HDD; 2 TB now and then to a RAID drive for complete redundency. Then burn them to a DVD.<br>

The latter is hardly efficient use of space as they fill up rapidly.</p>

<p>EX 1 : If I am doing something for a AD, they may want to see a few different varients; in this case I save the RAW file with it's changes. Once the AD has decided on a particular look, I'll send them the RAW + the finished TIFF. I save both for as long as necessary; usually no more than a few years for commecial clients.</p>

<p>EX 2: My neices birthday party...I shoot jpeg and save as a jpeg.</p>

<p>Ex 3: Magazine Shoot: RAW + saved as a TIFF following PP.</p>

<p>There is much discussion about the long term use of RAW; so many are converting to DNG.<br>

I am not one of them; yet.</p>

<p>HDD space is cheap, so save it all if you don't mind keywording and cataloging it all.</p>

[jay_poel]

<p>I agree - hard drives are pretty cheap now - a 1 TB drive can be bought for under $100 and a 2 TB drive goes for about $170. I have 2x 1 TB, and 3 500 GB drives.</p>

<p>I download from my camera to my D: drive, then using Microsoft Sync tool, I sync my whole picture folder to my E: drive and to an external drive. I have a second external drive that I sync to about once a month that I store at my parents home. I also go through each picture to make sure they were copied correctly (I've yet to see an error) and physically delete the one I know I won't use or print (focus or extreme exposure problems, boring picture, etc.). Since most of my stuff is of my family and friends, I tag them to make it easier to find a shot.</p>

<p>Any editting I do is non-destructive or I save as a new file (ie. DCS_0001.jpg becomes DSC_0001_edit1.jpg). These to are synced to my backup drives.</p>

<p><br />After I am done with that, I format the memory card in the camera.</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>I shot only Raw, convert to DNG when importing into Lightroom and all images go onto a dedicated 2tb mirrored raid system which is like having a backup on the fly. Since the Raid only has the images and LR associated files (database, users settings). Then I "clone" that to any number of external drives using SuperDuper (Mac) so that I have a clone that I can place in a fireproof safe, take another on location etc. Since only new documents are updated in the clone/sync, the process is rather fast. </p>

[Larry_G1664882113]

<p>First, I copy images right off the camera with no editing to a CD. This becomes my real "negative" file. <br>

Then I store edited images on an external hard drive. I don't toss nearly enough images. Toss the ones you don't want and won't use. <br>

I save images processed from RAW as tif files because tiff images are lossless.<br>

Purists recommend saving to two external drives, one being off of your premises. This way if one is restored you have a backup. I don't do this. </p>

[vrankin]

<p>To an external drive through Time Machine (Apple).</p>

[MattB.Net]

<p>I use Windows Home Server to automatically back up all my computers on an ongoing basis (super easy, works with Mac & PC - highly recommended). Then I also use MS SyncToy (free download) to sync to a shared folder so I can share my photos with the family from our TV. I also periodically sync to an external drive that I keep at my office in case of flood or fire.<br>

I don't currently have RAID, because the redundancy already happens across different computers/drives. I have used it in the past and found all those drives spinning created a lot of heat and used a lot of power that I felt like I didn't need to be using all the time.<br>

For those of you who use RAID, do keep in mind a backup in addition to having redundant drives is a good safeguard for a couple of reasons:<br>

One is that if your file gets messed up by user error (like overwriting an original with a version re-sized for email), having it on a RAID volume won't help because it will be immediately overwritten across all drives in the RAID.<br>

The other, which someone mentioned is having an offsite backup. If there is a fire or flood and your backup is in your house you could still lose it all.<br>

Being in IT and having to tell someone all their stuff is lost every now and then keeps the subject of backup close to my heart. So even if it's not the ideal solution, back up your data any way you can and test the backup to make sure it's working right! It could save you and others a lot of unnecessary grief.</p>