Storing those photographic memories…

As a lot of you know, I more than fiddle with a camera in my spare time. However, there comes a time when I have to start pruning the photo collections.

Why you may ask?

I’ve recently switched to a Canon 6D, and the file sizes are… well… enormous. 

I shoot Camera RAW files (as well as a lot on the iPhone), and here are the output files of a simple file (ISO 100-200ish – files shot over ISO 1600 or so just tend to swallow hard disk space) :

• Canon 40D – 12MB
• Canon 50D – 17.5MB
• Canon 6D – 22.1MB

(Of course, these file sizes are small compared to the Hasselblad H5D files which start at 77mb each)

My Canon 6D at rest from plane photography.

As you can tell, this can lead to a storage crunch very quickly – especially if your primary machine is a laptop (even more so with Ultrabooks with integrated Solid State Drives).

What options therefore can you go for to help you along:

• Boost the size of the internal storage of your laptop – A common method (and the first stop when I get a laptop), is to throw out the supplied laptop and install a 1TB Hard disk drive.  Whilst Hard disks are slower than solid state, they come at a fraction of the cost, and can provide a boost. This is great for older/cheaper computers, but not good for Ultrabooks and Ultra-thin laptops
• Get an external Hard disk – Whilst an external hard disk is a good idea, if you’re on the road and working off your lap, they can be a bit of a pain. But used effectively, they can boost available storage if you’re shooting lots of photos and video

When travelling:

• Use the external Hard disk to store and back up with
• Back up as soon as possible – The last thing you want to do lose what you’ve shot – get them onto a backup device/laptop as soon as you realistically can.
• Avoid using USB Sticks – Simple reason – they’re easy to lose. You’re trying to keep your memories, not lose them!

Long term, storage is an issue and how you approach it is an individual thing.

• Use a Network Attached Storage Device (NAS) – Plug a box into the network, configure it, and you’ve got network capable storage. Simple and a snap to install.
• Build Home servers – I’ve gone down this line as I have a few issues with cloud storage (which stems from the fact, one day, you will be out of reach of the internet and you’ve got a 12 hour restore ahead of you. I use a pair of HP Proliant Microservers to store my photos running FreeNAS.  I find it gives me flexibility to operate without worrying, whilst allowing disk redundancy in case the worse does happen

My pair of HP Proliant Microservers – sometimes working in IT can force you to over-think a solution…

• Cloud storage is popular – however at the storage amounts I use, the costs can be eye-watering. Whilst I can’t make any recommendations.  There is also the minor issue of getting your stuff into the cloud, the legality of ownership, the viability of a cloud service, etc. However, for some this is a great option. Some good sites include: BackBlaze, Carbonite. Even through I use Dropbox, I don’t consider this a backup service – rather a sharing service, and thus more vulnerable that other on-line services.

What I avoid:

• CD and DVD’s – Not overly what I use at all for long-term storage. Degradation of these is an issue, and will happen
• USB Sticks – I only use these to shift data around – not for long-term storage (that and some of the SD Cards/CF Cards I use match the same size as USB Sticks)

Storage is a very personal thing, and depends how much risk you are happy with… as well as “how happy you are loosing your memories” risk factor. I’ve gone through my fair share of hard disk losses (along with content that thankfully easy to replace)

 What do I do?

• I’ve boosted my laptop to as big a hard disk I can install without ripping out a CD drive to add a 2nd Hard disk
• I use an external hard disk for backup purposes on the road, and synchronise it when I get home with the rest of my storage
• I clean up my images library often, with sections earmarked for removal
• I back up as soon as I get back to base so I can edit sets safely.
• Edit on a copy, don’t touch the original: So important so the original file is not degraded (especially when working with JPG files)

 What I don’t do:

• Compromise on image quality – I’d rather work with a full size image than a half-size image. The camera has a setting for full quality, I use it.
• Clean up my image library often enough. I don’t need to tell you times I’ve got to single Gigabytes of storage… on a 1 TEREBYTE hard disk.
• Shoot in JPG mode (except on the iPhone). I’m too used to spending time in the lab experimenting with my photos. Camera RAW allows me to fiddle to my heart’s content. JPG has a lot fewer options

So what do you to preserve your digital memories? I’m interested in your thoughts – the box below is open for the next month as always…

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