So out of all that expensive photo
equipment you have...
I argue the most
valuable things are actually your images.
They can't be replaced... so today we're
going to be talking about backups, and
how to not lose your valuable images.
Hey everybody...
thanks for joining me here on
Adorama TV... don't forget to subscribe
down below.
There's all kinds of great
free photo content from Adorama and all
the other hosts there so I hope you'll
join us every week right here... but we're
here on Ask David Bergman...
which means I'm David Bergman,
and I'm answering your photography
questions today.
I've got a really good one from Jason R...
and he asks...
my question has to do with backing up
files... and perhaps I'm going about it all
wrong.
I currently searched my memory card for
files that have the .XMP extension to
denoting that they have been edited, and
then dragged the corresponding RAW files
to my backup drive, is there a more
efficient way to do my backups?
Thanks so much Jason...
yes there is a more efficient way...
now what it sounds to me like you're
doing... is you're actually working on your
images on the card that you shoot from
your camera.
I highly recommend against that..
that those cards are really kind of
volatile, and you just want to use them
to let the camera write to them when
you're shooting... then as soon as you're
done after a shoot... whenever you can...
as soon as possible, you want to get
those images off there.. copy them into
your computer, and work on them in your computer.
Don't touch them on the card if
possible, so once you're in the computer
I'm going to show you kind of how I
manage my images... and then how I back
them up.
Now I did a video earlier on
Ask David Bergman back when we were on
Instagram TV on my photo mechanic
workflow... and how I call through my
images and get down from thousands of
images into a really small amount that
makes it more manageable...
I'll put a link down below to that video but
the basic concept is that..
you want to like I said cull through, and
you want to instead of bringing all your
images into your raw processor...
which is Lightroom or I'm
using Capture One..
I used aperture for many years on
whatever program you use.
You don't want to bring every single
image into that program... so because it
just gets bogged down, and you're not
gonna edit that many files anyway.
So let me show you what I do here.
I have my, my screen open,
and what I will do is create a single folder.
So in this case from this particular
assignment right now...
I'm on tour with Luke Combs the country
singer... all year long..
and what I am doing is, I have to go
ahead and organize thousands and
thousands of images.
So I create a single folder from every
show in this case, this
was on October 26th in Sacramento,
so I named it with the date,
year-month-day...
so that they sort properly when I have
multiple folders,
and then Luke Combs and then the city...
so that's how I'm gonna go ahead and
organize this shoot.
Now first thing I do is I'm going to copy all
of my images into a single raw folder,
now again in that photo mechanic
workflow... I show you how I rename and
apply IPTC metadata.
I'm not going to do that now, but these files
have already been renamed.
These are raw files...
see our two files and this is every image
that I shot except for my remote cameras,
which I actually wind up
deleting 99% of those.
But for the most part...
this is everything I shot.
This is over 2500 images...
so that's a lot of files.
I don't want to bring those into
my raw convertor.
so what I will do is use photo mechanic
to go through those, and then the first
pass I'm gonna do... I'm just gonna keep
anything that's decent, anything that I
want to see again, anything that I want
to look at more closely.
I'm gonna do that as fast as I can,
in this case I got it down on my first pass
to 542 images, and I put those in my raw first edit
folder, that folder is now sort of my, my
better images, so if I ever need to go
back to those images, and find something,
I don't have to look at my entire raw
take again, I can just go to that raw
first edit, then I'm going to cull
through those raw first edit images
again, until I get to my raw finals.
Now in this case I'm down to 84 images, so
those 84 images are actually the ones
that I'm going to bring into my raw
convertor... Capture One in my case,
Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop,
whatever it is that you use, so that way I only have
to work on those images,
and then those files...
I'm then going to export JPEGs of...
depending on what I need them for, some
of them are going to go to management,
some of them are going to individual
band members... wherever they're going,
PR, the venue, people, whatever it is, I can
then export those... you can see right here,
I have a final sent to management folder,
and that has my JPEGs that I sent to the
management team..
and then I have to email... those are
ones that I sent to the band, and the
crew and and different kind of people there.
So everything is nice neat and
organized... at the end of the day the
whole point is that I have everything in
this one nice neat folder... so then that
one single folder is all I have to worry
about backing up.
I'm gonna take that entire folder,
and back it up, now let's
talk about backups...
that was your question to begin with,
I subscribe to the three to one backup
methodology...
What that means is...
three copies of any individual file two
separate devices and
one of them being off-site...
so let me explain what I mean..
three copies you
definitely want three copies to have a
back... be considered backed up... it's the
safest way to do it... just two is not
really enough... especially if you have two
of them physically close to each other,
or on the same hard drive, you know if
that hard drive dies, you're gonna lose
both of those.
Or if they're next to each
other, and there's a fire, flood, or theft,
then you're gonna lose both of those.
So you really need three copies to be
properly backed up, now you want two of
them on two separate devices for
exactly why I just mentioned.
If those hard drives..
if those two images are let's say on the
same hard drive on your internal hard
drive and your computer gets stolen...
well then both images are gone, so that
doesn't do you any good.
You want them in two separate physical
places and then
one of them should be off-site that
third one should be off-site..
so that if there is a fire, flood, or
something like that...
you know in your home, god forbid
that happened, then you still would have
everything off-site.
When I'm on tour right now...
it's a little tricky because
I'm on the road, but what I do is I carry
these little tiny bus powered hard
drives with me...
this is the, the Seaports Design Drive..
It's 2 TB it's bus powered, so I don't have
to plug it in it just goes USB C direct
native into my macbook pro...
and I have two of these with
me and I what I do is...
I can backup that one folder to both of
those hard drives separately, a lot of
people use raid systems,
and complicated things like
that... listen raid is great for video when
you need speed, and it certainly can be
good for a home, you know a big home,
small office backup system, but look I
just keep it simple.
I use the JBOD, just a bunch of drives,
I have two separate drives and I copy that
one folder to each of those drives,
then I also use PhotoShelter, which is an
online company...they've run my website
for many, many years, I'm a big fan of
theirs, and they also have archive
systems in place.
So I can access my... I can upload and then
access my RAW files and my JPEGs what I
do is I take just those final finals...
My best images, I don't want to
upload 2500 files to that, but just my
best images.
I put my RAW files in one folder,
I put my tone JPEGs in another,
that way when I'm on the road, if I got a
request for an image that I don't have
on my local Drive, I can pull down the
JPEG already... ready to go.
If I want to re-edit a photo, I can pull down the raw file.
I can also deliver to clients,
I have separate folders for all the band
members, where they can get their images
using the PhotoShelter system.
So at the end of the day the
bottom line is that I have copies on
site, and by the way these two drives
that I have.. when I... what I do is, when I
get back home, one of them stays in my
apartment in New York City.
The other one goes to an off-site storage
unit in the city.
So that it's physically in different place
from the copies that I
have here...
So I can always access everything here in
my apartment, and then
I can I have backups off site... so that's
how I manage my archive, if it sounds
complicated it's really not!
Once you get into your own system, look
your images are your most valuable asset,
they cannot be replaced...
your gear... hopefully it's insured, it would stink if
it got lost or stolen, but it can all be
replaced!
The images cannot!
So Jason thanks for the question...
that's how I do my backups,
I appreciate it! listen if you
have a photo question,
make sure you go to AskDavidBergman.com
there's a forum there, you can ask your
own questions, I'll pick the best ones to
answer right here in a future show.
Again don't forget subscribe to Adorama TV,
right here on YouTube.
I will see you back here on
Ask David Bergman... yes of
course next week!
Thanks so much.
Bye-bye.