Comments on: As Photographers, Are We Backing Up Too Much?

By: John Levin

John Levin — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:21:33 +0000

For those of you that are having trouble with bad hard drives, do you use an uninterruptible power supply? Did you know that the electricity that comes out of the socket is subject to voltage spikes, dips and other harmful excursions EVERY DAY?

Get a UPS. Not the cheap ones — the ones with a battery inside. These UPSs filter out all the voltage dips and spikes and harmonics that are in EVERY power system. The electric company does not guarantee that your power will be clean enough to protect computer equipment — they only promise to protect your toaster and other electrical (not electronic) equipment. “Guarantee” is a misnomer, too. If your toaster does blow up from a power surge, don’t bother trying to sue the power company. If they don’t want to admit fault / volunteer to replace the toaster, tough luck. Most of them have a limited liability tariff which protects them from all claims except when they deliberately seek to cause injury (good luck proving that).

Electronic equipment and valuable electrical gear should always be behind a battery based UPS. It’s the only way to assure yourself you are getting clean power to your equipment.

By: Contract Management Seminar

Contract Management Seminar — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:56:55 +0000

Contract Management Seminar…

Very nice, I like your post….

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:19:25 +0000

Scott Kelby shining the light once again. You’re the man.

By: Backup Like Nike - Just Do It : A.J. Wood - Love is a battle, love is a war, love is the ultimate outlaw.

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:22:28 +0000

[...] case you’re wondering about my backup strategy, it’s very similar to what Scott Kelby described on his blog back in October. Images are downloaded from camera cards simultaneously to both external drives. I work off the [...]

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:47:11 +0000

Here’s my professional advice:

1: Tell the client that you back up for 3 months (or whatever). (Make sure client fully understand this for legal reasons).
2: Deliver the chosen pictures hi-res and keep the rest for 3 months.
3: Invoice client.
(4): Optional – Keep x pictures for your portfolio.
5: Delete files after 3 months.

VoilÃ¡ – Computer is clean and you’ve got paid.

By: Allan Wood

Allan Wood — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:18:32 +0000

My strategy is to import via LR2 adding keywords upfront, delete the junk, rate, then backup to an external drive. I will rate them, place them into collections if need be, then work on them as needed. Only the ones I (personal) or a client are interested are backed up, similar to Scot’s last step. According to contract, I may store all images on an appropriate size flash drive or DVD, file with a contact copy, in case Uncle Joe is needed in the future. Again, similar to Scot’s blog. For personal and fine art work, I am ruthless, only the best are kept and backed up. I cannot afford a lot of backup space since even if some drives are relatively cheap, the costs add up. Even in film days, due to lack of space, I junked the junk. Why so different now?

By: Ana

Ana — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:31:46 +0000

I back up all my photographs, except the obvious shots that don’t make the grade, to an external HDD. It is time consuming, especially when shooting in RAW and I am way into the GB’s of data.

Recently, someone put me on to a free appliaction called “teracopy”, and it moves files, folders filled with whatever you want, at a rate almost triple that of the usual speeds we attain.

Last night I moved 12.9GB’s of data in 7mins, and I am only using USB.20.

I hope this helps someone out there, but I couldn’t go back after using this tiny application.

As for re-backing up, I back up to two drives, but the second backup is more at my leisure.

By: sun

sun — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:23:02 +0000

I just want to point out that backing up to DVDs or Harddrive doesn’t mean that you just do it only one time. DVDs and harddrive both have their lifespan.
Why don’t you try to re-backup your stuff every 2 to 3 years.

By: Linnet

Linnet — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:17:33 +0000

>> Rich

By: Koki

Koki — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:58:49 +0000

Joe’s comment really caught my eye, I made great 8×10s from my 3 mp olympus 3030, I think most people will NEVER print every picture they take. I know this could make some teeth grind, but it’s possible my original 6 mp rebel takes better shots than my new 40D! How many of us will print a wall size poster to really need 21+ mp???.
Yes, back up, be selective, but also be sensible and realistic, things are getting WAY out of hand. I’m sure hard drive manufacturers an camera makers are loving it all the way to the bank. I love gadgets and features has much as the next guy, but I spend more time in Lightroom and thinking about what and how to save, transfer and protect, than actually taking pictures. Something has gone wrong!

By: Serge

Serge — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:40:22 +0000

I almost have the same backup strategy as you.

I must admit that I wouldn’t keep those 710 shots, I only keep my very tight selection and all the rest will be deleted. Only my final selection stays on my HD and backup disc.

By: Mike Palmer

Mike Palmer — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:46:05 +0000

I love the idea of putting the shoots on the USB drive ! Thanks Scott