Storing photos (electronic, prints, backup, etc.)

[gracie_r]

Sorry, long winded as usual...

Maybe it is because of spring cleaning, maybe it is my nesting instinct coming out (I am 37 weeks pregnant) or maybe it is just because things are little slow at work, but I am feeling the need to get a little more organized. So I am looking for some new ideas on how to store my photos. Please feel free to comment on how you store any or all of the following - photos on your computer, photos you've had printed, and any backup system that you use.

Right now the computer is probably the biggest mess. I have folders upon folders just labeled with the date I downloaded the pictures from my camera. In addition I have been using some scrapbooking software, but it isn't powerful enough for my needs. It DOES sort pictures which is one thing I want, but does very little editing. Last night I downloaded the trial version of Photoshop Elements, and I am hoping to get what I want from that. Any comments on that? Any other programs I should check out? First priority is keeping my photos organized, second would be to do some minor editing.

As for backing up the online photos, we used to use an online service, but my husband (a big computer guy) wanted us to have a network at home and now it doesn't work. I guess there are services like this that work with networks, but we just haven't set it up yet. Any other ideas? I don't really want to burn all of them to CD, that would piggyback onto the printed photo issue (see below). I don't want boxes of CD's to keep track of either!

Then there are our printed photos - from our pre digitial days. We have many photo boxes just filled with unsorted photos. I am looking for any suggestions here! They take up tons of room and I can't imagine ever using them, but I can't just toss them, you know? What do people do with these things?!?!

[freygr]

I use Thumbs Plus for my photo data base, but the nice thing about it there are plug-ins for digital cameras and it displays RAW files with the plug-in installed, and it has simple editing, color adjustments, and more.

But if you don't wish to burn CD or DVDs then just get a USB harddrive and back-up your photos on your hard drive to it.

[SmartWombat]

A single hard drive backup can fail.

I've been through six USB hard drives, 2x200G, 4x250G.
A total of 1.3TeraBytes of images in 4 years.
I did not want any of the 6 disks failing to lose thousands of images.

So when they were all full I went out and bought a Network Attached Storage box from Netgear - the ReadyNAS NV+. I saw them at the PMA exhibition in 2007 and found a supplier here in the UK.

The price is far higher.
But what I get for it is security, it's a RAID 5 box, which means the data is spread across 4 disks in such a way that if one drive fails none of the data is lost.

But it does not protect against user stupidity pressing the delete button or drag-and-drop-and-lose in Windows.

I use Thumbs+ for quick viewing, moving files about, and thumbnails.
My software of choice now for the image library is Lightroom.

I don't think any single backup is enough.
I have most (not all, I'm bad) of the image files on DVD.
I have my main working copy on the NAS.
Because I use Lightroom with its non-destructive editing I only keep the RAW files.
I have a second NAS backing up the main one, just in case.
Remember any hardware can fail !

I'm also looking into tape backup, the catch is getting it at a reasonable price.


When I'm out on the road:
1) copy the memory cards into the pocket hard disk: Hyperdrive Space, or Vosonic VP2160.
2) copy the card images off hard disk to the laptop at night
3) burn each day's images to 4.7G DVDs, usually needs 2 or 3
4) use FTP to send the images from the hotel overnight to my server at home
I'm not sure about (4) because I've not tried the speed.
It'll be interesting to see if it works.
5) copy all the images from laptop to NAS
6) backup NAS to second NAS

Overkill? Possibly.
Expensive? Definitely.
Lost an image? Not yet



>> folders upon folders just labeled with the date I downloaded the pictures from my camera
So do I, though I will group them by event: Autosport, DTM, PMA, etc.


>> First priority is keeping my photos organized, second would be to do some minor editing.
Lightroom if you have a PC.
Does both organising and minor editing.

>> boxes just filled with unsorted photos
Yes, that's life here too.
Though my wife has them sorted.
A4 multi-pocket files for: Signed, Unsigned, Formula 1, DTM, Others.
Then inside each tabs/pockets for each driver.
I am far less organised

[gracie_r]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think of an external hard drive, and I've never even heard of NAS, I'll have to look into that. I actually am most afraid of user stupidity and that being the reason I lose all my photos.

Is Lightroom a better program than Elements? From the website it looks like Lightroom is a little more powerful (and way more $$$). I don't know if I'd need that many editing options...

[mn shutterbug]

I use elements for all my editing and it's all I need. It will also organize the photos, which I don't really care about. I don't save all that many photos. If I go out and shoot 200 shots, I pick out the best 5 or 10, if they're mainly of the same subject, and delete the rest. The photo has to look near perfect at 1200 X 1600. If not, it's trashed. I have all my "keepers" on my laptop and desktop PC and a flash drive. I also backup my best onto CD's. If I had thousands of photos like some do, I would have to come up with different options.

Gracie, where do you live in MN?