Backing Up Your ImagesHow and Why

Steve Ross | sxross@gmail.com

All of this will be online

you don’t need to get screenshots or take notes i’ll post link on the SD Photo Facebook group

http://www.slideshare.net

about me

• I’vemanageddataforalongtime

• Ihaven’tlostanyofit…yet

• Mymethodshaveevolvedovertime

• IpracticeGOODDATAHYGIENE

name your files sensibly

• Itdoesn’tmatterhowgreatyourbackupisifyoucan’trecognizeafileonceyoufindit

• Pickaschemeanddon’tdeviatefromit

• Lightroom,PhotoMechanic,CaptureOnePro,etc.allowrenameonimport.Takeadvantageofthatfeature

File Naming• IuseYYYY-MM-DD-camera_model.CR2.Thatgivesmelongfilenameslike: Wyoming/2016/Grand Tetons/2016-06-25-Canon 5d Mark III/_S8398.CR2 ItmaylookunwieldybutIuseitbecauseI:

• CansortmyfilesbydateandfindtheonesfromJuneof2016

• Knowtheshootlocationbecausethedirectorynameaddsinformation

• Evenknowwhichcamerabodywasusedduringtheshoot

“Tokens”

Why?• Believeitornot,somepeopledon’tdownloadimagesofftheirmemorycard.Huh?

• Manypeoplekeepallimagesontheirharddrive.Whatifitfails?Whataboutfireortheft?

• Youmightlosesomeorallofyourimages

• Datarecoveryservicesareexpensiveandnotalwayssuccessful

• Thinkofthisasprotectingyourlife’swork

How?

• WeusedtobackthingsuponCDsuntilimagesgottoobig

• WethenbackedthemuptoDVDsuntilimagesgottoobig

• Happily,thecostofmagneticmedia(harddisks)hasmadeitaffordabletobackuptoanexternalharddisk

What to Back Up?• Withdigitalimages,youhaveseveralfilecategoriestobackup:

• RAWimages(ifyoushootRAW)

• PSDs/TIFFsifyouaredoingpost-processing

• Metadata,ifitissavedinXMPformat

• JPEGs,whichareessentiallyyourprints

• CatalogsifyouuseLightroom,C1,etc.

Where?• Backingupcanbedonetooneormoreexternalharddrives

• Itcanalsobedonetothe“Cloud”

• The“Cloud”isamarketingtermforhighcapacityserverswithhighavailabilityconnectedsecurelytotheInternet

• BackingupdatatotheCloudcanbefairlycost-effectivebutitisanongoingcostandextremelyslow

• Morecloudinformationlater

Create Mirrors• Thereisnoneedtobackupallyourfileseachtime.Onlyonesthathavechanged

• Mirror(createaduplicate)ofallyourfiles

• Whenmirroring,onlycopychangedfilestothebackupdrive

• Considerusinga“sync”optionsoimages/filesdeletedduringeditsareremovedfromyourmirror

• Mirroreachdrivethatcontainsrelevantdata.IfthecatalogisonafastbootdiskandRAWimagesonalargeexternaldisk,backbothofthemupatthesametime

More About Mirroring

• Itissafertocreatemultipleseparatemirrors

• Storeoneonyourshelfandupdateitfrequently(onceaweekatnight)

• Storeoneoffsite,perhapsinasafedepositbox,andswapitfortheoneonyourshelfperiodically(onceamonth)

Software for Backup

• IamanunabashedKISS(keepitsimple,stupid)advocate.Themore“smarts”yourbackupsoftwarehas,themorepointsoffailure,inmyopinion

• IuseSuperDuper!ontheMac.Itmakesyourbackupdisklookexactlyliketheprimary.Italsoallowsperformsincrementalbackupsoncethefirstoneiscomplete

Ultra complicated mirroring

setup

How About RAID?• RAIDstandsforRedundantArrayofIndependentDisks.IuseRAID5.OtherRAIDlevelsprovidelesssafety

• Theideaisthatdataisspreadacrossanumberofdisks,makingitpossibletosufferacompletediskcrashononeofthem,andyetretainallyourdata.Youcanjustpullafaileddiskoutwiththepoweronandthereplacementrebuildsitself

• RAIDdoesn’tprotectfromaccidentallydeletingafileorfromafireorfloodwipingoutthecomputingdevices

• DrobooranyotherNAS(NetworkAttachedStorage)appliancearenotassafeasoffsitebackupmirrors

More Backup Software• TimeMachineispartofMacOS.Keepsversionsoffilesonyourdisk

• TimeMachinehasworkedformefortextfiles.

• IchoseasimplerarrangementwithSuperDuper!forimages

• IfyouchooseTimeMachine,includethediskonwhichyoustoreyourimagesandtheoneonwhichyoustoreyourcatalogs

• UseTimeMachineinmanualmodesoitdoesn’tslowyoudownwhileyouareworkingonimages.

• TimeMachineworksgreatfordocumentsandsmallfiles;it’snotcleartheengineeringscalestomulti-megabyteRAWfiles

Windows Backup• Windowshashadbackupbuiltinforalongtime.YoujustgototheStartMenu,clickControlPanel,thenSystemMaintenance.Theitemyouarelookingforis“BackupandRestore”

• Windowsisadominantbusinessplatform,soextremelyeffectivesoftwareexists.Foronepersonworkingonimages,BackupandRestoremaybesufficient

• Again,considernotallowingBackupandRestoretorunexceptattimesyoudesignate(whenyoufinishaneditorwhileyou’reasleep)

• Disclosure:IamaMacuser

© Nancy Ross

THE CLOUD

strategy 2: Cloud Based Mirroring

• Onlineservicestypicallyimplementincrementalbackup(onlywhathaschanged)afterfirstcompletebackup

• Itcantake10minutesormoreperRAWfile,dependingontheresolutionofyourfiles

• Forthousandsoffiles,theinitialbackupcanbetime-consuming;ideallystartwhenyourcatalogissmall

• Butnomatterwhatsizeyourcatalogis,it’simportanttostart

• Onceyouaregoingonabackupprogram,you’resafe!

which Cloud Based Solutions

• Crashplanistheservicethatusuallycomesupastopchoice.Theyofferafreetrialandanindividualplanisabout$5/month.Unlimitedstorage

• YoumaywanttolookintoBackblaze*.Again,freetrial,unlimitedstorage,$5/month

• Carboniteisabout$60/yearor$12/month,unlimitedstorage.It’snotclearthattheyofferanextra$7/monthaddedvalue*

• Lookatthesitesforthesecompaniesanddecideforyourself

• Understandhowtouninstallthe“freetrial”beforeyouinstallit,shouldyouoptnottosubscribetotheservice

The Rest of the Cloud

• AmazonoffersbackupforPrimesubscribers.Ihaveneverbeenabletomakethisworkreliably

• Dropboxisgreatforsharingfiles,butforamulti-terabytearchive,itmaynotbeuptothetask

• Ifyoufindotheralternatives,letmeknow!

Cloud Caveat

• Youarerelyingonthestabilityofsomeoneelse’ssystemtoarchiveyourimages

• Makesureyouhaveayourownbackupaswell

• Whatiftheygooutofbusiness?

• Whatifthere’sahurricaneorearthquake?

• Don’tallowasinglepointoffailure

warning: new software!• BeforeyouinstallanewversionofPhotoshoporLightroom(orwhatever),backeverythingup

• Atcertainupgradeintervals,yourcatalogsoftwareinparticularwillneedtoaddorremovesomeparticlesofinformationfromthedatabase.Itwillneedtoalterthe“schema”ofthedatabase

• Whenyouseean“upgradingdatabase”messagebox,knowthatfromyourpointofview,thisisaone-wayprocess.Youcan’tun-upgradethatdatabase

• So,todowngradeifyouhaveproblemswiththenewrelease,youneedtorestoreyouroldcatalogfromabackup

Hope you can join us for our october talk!

it’s about photography, not computers

steve rosssxross@gmail.com

Presentation available on slideshare.net

image backup