ethaninthestreets Posted July 2, 2013 Share #1 Posted July 2, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hello, I use Lightroom to import all the photos I took from SD card, post production, then I export JPGs for sharing and print, and keep all the raw files in Lightroom as it is. But this method has a big problem, which is my computer built in harddrive will be out of space real soon because of all the raw files that remains in the Lightroom, which I don't want to delete just in case I needed it in the future. I was wondering if someone could share the best method to back up photos in different formats, RAW, DNG and JPG... I saw an article that says don't import photos directly into Lightroom out of SD card, rather import all the photos to an external harddrive, then work on the prost production by using Lightroom as a platform only, which means the files are in the external harddrive, Lightroom is just for editing...do you have any better methods on this? I want to keep my computer clean and fast, which is getting slower and slower because of all the otiginal photos in Lightroom... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted July 2, 2013 Posted July 2, 2013 Hi ethaninthestreets, Take a look here Lightroom / Photo back up. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
viramati Posted July 2, 2013 Share #2 Posted July 2, 2013 I keep all my photos for the last 6 months on the laptop and and the rest on an external hard drive with everything backed up on another RAID hard drive. I am also protected by using time machine so I have the following 1. Laptop with last 6 months 2. Portable hard drive (1tb) last 5 years 3. RAID drive (4tb) with backup of laptop and External hard drive + pre LR photo library 4. Time machine back-up of laptop on separate partition on RAID drive Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Duane Pandorf Posted July 2, 2013 Share #3 Posted July 2, 2013 Hello, I use Lightroom to import all the photos I took from SD card, post production, then I export JPGs for sharing and print, and keep all the raw files in Lightroom as it is. But this method has a big problem, which is my computer built in harddrive will be out of space real soon because of all the raw files that remains in the Lightroom, which I don't want to delete just in case I needed it in the future. I was wondering if someone could share the best method to back up photos in different formats, RAW, DNG and JPG... I saw an article that says don't import photos directly into Lightroom out of SD card, rather import all the photos to an external harddrive, then work on the prost production by using Lightroom as a platform only, which means the files are in the external harddrive, Lightroom is just for editing...do you have any better methods on this? I want to keep my computer clean and fast, which is getting slower and slower because of all the otiginal photos in Lightroom... If you haven't developed a system yet to catalog your files even though you're importing into LR, may I suggest investing in George Jardine's LR video series: George Jardine on Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Digital Photography — Learning Lightroom, and Digital Asset Management for Photographers George is a former Adobe Lightroom produce manager and in his video series he walks you through a complete library/catalog system to ensure you know how and where to find your photos and how to keep them safe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethaninthestreets Posted July 4, 2013 Author Share #4 Posted July 4, 2013 Thank you for sharing, I haven't figure out the solution yet, for now I think I'm going to import all the raw files into an external harddrive, then import to LR from there, I'll definitely take a look at the videos. Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager Posted July 4, 2013 Share #5 Posted July 4, 2013 There is no one, perfect solution. But there are a couple of important precepts to bear in mind. Most important is that all digital storage media will eventually fail. So having multiple copies, preferably Raid'd, is important. It's useful to keep at least one copy physically remote, in the event of home/studio destruction. (I admit I don't do this). Reasonable convenience is important, or you won't keep doing it. For me that means a streamlined, simple workflow and very quick access to any image in my image library. I also want to have clean, unfettered, indexed access to my images without having to go through proprietary software. I love LR but, like any software database, it is subject to corruption. That means creating a simple, repeatable folder structure at an operating system level. My workflow: - A distinct, descriptive folder is created in the OS on my computer, on the local (internal) hard drive. e.g. "2013 Jul 4 - Parade." SD card is removed from camera, inserted in computer, and images are copied to that folder. - SD card is removed from computer. Images are imported from that folder into LR. Images are edited. - Copy of folder backed up to 16TB Drobo S. This is a hard drive enclosure holding multiple hard disks in a Raid configuration. - If the shoot is important, the folder will also be copied to one or more simple bus-powered USB external hard drives. - SD card is inserted back in camera and re-formatted there. - Additional copies of the folder are captured over subsequent weeks/months during weekly system backups. (This system backup is OS level and separate from backing up of discrete photo-related imagery). After several months, as my local hard drive space is consumed, image folders are moved to a Drobo Mini. The Drobo Mini is my primary image repository. It contains my entire image library with the exception of recent months that are still on my local hard drive. If there was a fire, it is the first thing I would grab. Why use the Drobo Mini rather than the Drobo S (since files are already being backed up to the S)? Because the Mini is much faster - nearly as fast as the internal SSD on my computer - and because it provides a separate Raid'd copy. The upshot is that everything I need is either on the Drobo Mini or on my local hard drive. And it's all pretty quick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted July 4, 2013 Share #6 Posted July 4, 2013 I use Lightroom. My personal work is in one catalogue but for my work, every job gets it's own catalogue. My workflow procedure is as follows. On Location Shoot to card or laptop. Back up the files to an external hard drive on location. If the shoot is more than one day I will always back up multiple times. If for example I'm shooting overseas I will put a hard drive in each bag and also one in the assistants bag. Back at main computer Copy them to the Mac Pro, it has 4x3tb RAID 0 with 12TB internal storage. 2 separate copies are made straight away to external bare Sata Drives via a dual Sata Drive Dock. Import into lightroom Separate external drive using Time Machine backs up the Lightroom catalogue. Retouched project file is backed up to the external sata drives. The final high res are also uploaded to webspace for client delivery which count for another backup of final images. Long Term The two external Sata drives, when full are then stored away in different locations. I print the finder out and seal them in an envelope with the date range. So on the Mac Pro I have a working copy of everything I can access. Each job has it's own folder with: Lightroom, Capture One or Aperture catalogue retouching working file final output and upload My personal catalogue is a separate Lightroom catalogue althogether and it gets backed up hourly by Time Machine and scheduled backups to the Sata Dock drives. So all in, I have 3 copies of everything I shoot and retouch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethaninthestreets Posted July 17, 2013 Author Share #7 Posted July 17, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) Thanks a lot for your sharing, I have learned a lot! I guess now I have to get couple of more external harddrives for photo back up, or to get a "16TB Drobo S" :-) thanks again! Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erudolph Posted July 17, 2013 Share #8 Posted July 17, 2013 In addition to steps similar to the above, my folders are backed up to DVD. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WPalank Posted July 18, 2013 Share #9 Posted July 18, 2013 Thanks a lot for your sharing, I have learned a lot! I guess now I have to get couple of more external harddrives for photo back up, or to get a "16TB Drobo S" :-) thanks again! Cheers None of it means crap unless you have another which you take to a remote location or the cloud. Fire and I doubt a thief that has broken in will only stop at you Mac Pro... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoppyman Posted July 21, 2013 Share #10 Posted July 21, 2013 Ethan take a look at the new capabilities with LR5 if you have not already done so. Some prominent LR users/trainers routinely use a laptop for all of their images with the actual images on external drives. Many laptops now have Solid State Drives which have a lot of benefits but are typically much smaller capacities. Now you can actually edit/develop too even if an external drive with the originals is not attached. Smart previews allows you to also create lossy DNG versions of your images which are much smaller and can stay on your internal drive (in the catalog). Talking specifically about backups, you can tell LR to import your files to an attached external drive but also make a second copy of the originals in original form to a second drive at the same time. You can also later export versions/copies with whatever settings you want to any media/location of course. After that you still need a backup strategy as with any files you value. That typically might include copies on multiple devices/locations. Lately the Cloud has emerged as another possible vehicle. Various programs and hardware have different capabilities of course. The only constant with hard drives is that they all will fail at some point. This is a pretty broad topic and any back up strategy is only as good as how you implement it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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