# How to deal with digital photos?



## lindahua (Jun 11, 2009)

I believe the most guests of the forum are shutterbugs. There must be lots of photos on each one's hard disk. May i ask how do you deal with so many photos? And what software do you use to modify and enjoy the photos?


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## Josh220 (Jun 11, 2009)

Good computer, external hard drives and having a backup of everything on one of these. The most common program seems to be Lightroom for both organizing and the majority of editing. For more in depth editing, then Photoshop takes over. Mac users have the option of using Aperture which is probably the best photo organizing program there is, but it falls a little short of Lightroom in the editing department.


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## lvcrtrs (Jun 11, 2009)

I save everthing to an external hard drive as a back-up. At the end of each year I copy everything to DVD as a second back-up.

There are lots of ways to organize, but I like to use a directory of the current year and and then subs for events. Works for non-pros and doesn't rely on software. When I make the DVD I type up a list of all the subs on it, fold it up and tuck it inside. So, at anytime I can flip through the DVD(s) and look for an event where I think a photo might be.

With the advent of "tags" for photos finding and viewing photos on the computer (organization) is really nifty. The more you shoot, the more important it is to get a handle on the file management monster. I'd be interested to see what people have to say as well.


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## farmerj (Jun 11, 2009)

right now I save them by day, into month, into year.

I keep about the last 4 months on the laptop, the rest are kept on a WB My Passport Elite 250 GB external HD.

There's about 50 GB of pictures there so far.  I back up monthly.

For software right now, I use PSP for editing.  The cataloging is becoming an issue.  I have a friend that uses Lightroom, and that's got me interested.

I suppose I could look into Picassa and see how it does cataloging.


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## DanFSU (Jun 11, 2009)

My process is:
1. Shoot
2. load into Lightroom and edit
3. export to iPhoto for storage and organization
4. remove from lightroom
5. backup to external 

I use iPhoto to distribute the photos to clients (mobileme album) 
I have found lightroom to be a very efficient means to edit large amounts of photos from several different events at the same time.


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## musicaleCA (Jun 11, 2009)

My process:

1. Import all photos straight to my Drobo (provides robust, redundant storage that is easily expandable later) via Lightroom 2.
2. Sort through the photos as they're importing, confirming that nothing went awry, and that there are no errors of files not being copied after the import.
3. Format the card.

I really should figure-out an online back-up though.


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## DanFSU (Jun 11, 2009)

musicaleCA said:


> I really should figure-out an online back-up though.



 iPhoto + Mobileme is very easy... sorry, had to throw that one out there! (enable/disable download and upload feature; password protect albums)
 Gmail account + picassa 3 = free online storage (don't know about privacy and options) I know of a good photographer who uses it.

Those are the easiest and cheapest I know of


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## farmerj (Jun 11, 2009)

Gmail / Picassa offers three options for "security"

Public - your pictures are open to search.
UnPublished - You can put links and send people links to them.  But if people know your "public" folder, they still can't see them.
Sign in Required. - Basically Private.  You need to have the username and password to get to these.

Photobucket is another on-line storage place as well.  You can also put up and they will be viewable as animated gifs there also.  They also allow video here as well.

I use both these locations.  They take some getting used to for being able to link files from there.


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## musicaleCA (Jun 11, 2009)

Oh no, I was thinking straightforward data backup solutions. Not something tailored to images. Mostly because, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I used iPhoto or Picasa, I'd have to manage two distinct photo management programs (since unlike DanFSU, LR is the only program I use to manage my photos...not at the moment though; the fans on my computer are broken so all I can't run LR for very long without over-heating *sigh*).


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## DanFSU (Jun 11, 2009)

best data backup will be an external hard drive.  Online storage can get very pricy, and is limited.


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## DanFSU (Jun 11, 2009)

Automatic backup soloutions
(Free) If you have a Mac use "Time Machine" with an external drive
Carbonite online will backup files online for you for $50 a year??  (may be way off) for both mac and PC


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## musicaleCA (Jun 11, 2009)

I already have an external backup *points to Drobo*. It's redundant. What I meant was that I really should have an off-site backup.

Already have TM on drive other than my Drobo, but my photos never actually touch my system drive; they go straight to and stay on the Drobo.

And one more edit: Carbonite might just be the thing I'm looking for. Thanks for the link.


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## DanFSU (Jun 11, 2009)

Carbonite 
Check them out, gave more info in post above


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## farmerj (Jun 11, 2009)

musicaleCA said:


> Oh no, I was thinking straightforward data backup solutions. Not something tailored to images. Mostly because, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I used iPhoto or Picasa, I'd have to manage two distinct photo management programs (since unlike DanFSU, LR is the only program I use to manage my photos...not at the moment though; the fans on my computer are broken so all I can't run LR for very long without over-heating *sigh*).




Oh jeez, if you are even remotely able to figure out which end of a screwdriver to turn.

Pull you computer apart and replace the fans.  They are under $20 for most of them, and you could get them at Radio Shack


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## musicaleCA (Jun 11, 2009)

I would if it were a "normal" PC. I've done plenty of work and done far more complex things than replace fans (PSUs are especially a pain, almost as much as replacing a CPU >.< ). However, not only is this a laptop, it's a MacBook Pro. Anything other than a MacPro is a pain to take apart, and doing so voids the warranty and the protection plan I purchased on top of that. Plus I wouldn't be able to get the correct parts anyway.


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## DanFSU (Jun 11, 2009)

musicaleCA said:


> Anything other than a MacPro is a pain to take apart, and doing so voids the warranty and the protection plan I purchased on top of that. Plus I wouldn't be able to get the correct parts anyway.



uh, is this an obvious statement by me or am I missing something...
Take it to the apple store and have them replace it...warrenty???

I have a macbook pro and I know they take care of you... if you have a warrenty


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## musicaleCA (Jun 11, 2009)

Um...yesss...which I've done. They've ordered the parts today and it should be repaired in a week or so. In the mean I can keep the computer. Just can't do any editing; I can get away with imports as long as I keep a fresh icepack under the base.


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## johnswhite (Sep 26, 2009)

The Eye-Fi cards support all of the popular online photo sharing sites, including SmugMug and Flickr. Certain cards also support Geo-Tagging of your photos through the use of SkyHook. The idea behind SkyHook is actually pretty slick. It uses cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi Positioning to get a fast, accurate and dependable location information for your pictures. And unlike GPS, it works great indoors. 
 Eye-Fi has been in operation for approximentaly 2 years, and have had product available for about 1 year. In that year, they have seen over 5 million pictures uploaded to online photo sharing sites via their Eye-Fi cards.  That number does not include the pictures people have had sent to their computers.


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## dizzyg44 (Sep 26, 2009)

as much as I hate recommending a company I work for, take a look at Amazon's S3 cloud storage for your backups.

Now, if you want off site storage of physical media in secured facilities, look at companies like Iron Mountain.


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## Buckster (Sep 26, 2009)

lindahua said:


> I believe the most guests of the forum are shutterbugs. There must be lots of photos on each one's hard disk. May i ask how do you deal with so many photos? And what software do you use to modify and enjoy the photos?


I import, organize and do initial RAW editing in Lightroom.  Final editing is done in Photoshop.  My file structure is organized by year, then by date and event, then by file types; RAW folder, TIF and PSD folder, JPG for web folder, etc as needed.

My storage system consists of two separate banks of external hard drives connected via E-SATA II and port multipliers.  One bank is for storage and working, the other for full redundant backup.  I also back up all the rest of my computer on these (not just photos).  Each bank has (4) 1 TB (terabyte) drives and (1) 750 GB (gigabyte) drive, and the storage system can be expanded later when needed by adding more drives.  When one drive dies (and they all do at some point), I can pull it, replace it with a new drive, then use its redundant copy to get back to full operation again.  In case of catastrophic failure that wipes out all drives simultaneously, I also do a backup to DVDs each month and store them at my sister's house in a fireproof safe.

I do the redundant backups using a program called Allway Sync, which works well for me.  I backup each time I make any significant changes or add new photos, plus regular backups of all the rest of my "regular" hard drive stuff.


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