Photo Storage

2147272853_dae60713a9.jpg

I’m still hard at work finishing up a NZ national computing course, hence the lack of recent blog activity. In the mist of an eventful past few weeks, I’ve sorted a solution to something which has been on my mind for quite some time, a reliable active photo storage system complete with a backup.

The Hardware

I now have a thee tiered system which incorporate Lightroom as the image management tool. The system is made up by three pieces of hardware. The MacBook Pro, Seagate Freeagent 250GB USB drive, and LaCie Porsche 250GB Firewire 400 drive.

The System

My active 2008 library is stored on the MacBook Pro’s internal HDD. Previous years folders (2006 & 2007) are sitting on the Seagate Freeagent 250GB USB drive. When 2009 comes around, the 2008 folder will be archived on the Seagate drive, on a continuous cycle.

Both the active 2008 library and the archived images get backed up onto another 250GB drive, the LaCie Porsche Firewire 400.

I’m relatively happy with how the system shapes out. I have my current years worth of images on hand wherever I am with the MacBook Pro and access to older archived images is provided by the very portable Seagate Freeagent USB drive. While backups are hosted on the reliable LaCie Porsche drive at Firewire 400 speeds for snappy regular backup sessions.

Comments

  1. #1

    adrian → www.navitronic.co.uk

    you don’t have redundant backups?

  2. #2

    Mike → www.theoompa.com

    @adrian: It’s not very often that people do. Well at least I don’t see it often. Hard drive space, while cheaper than other forms of storage, is still expensive.

  3. #3

    Umair Ata

    I am also searching for an external hard drive but cant make up my mind which one to buy. Any suggestions Glenn? How about Western Digital?

  4. #4

    Sam → web.mac.com/theblacktree

    @Umair Ata
    I know I am not Glenn, but I just bought a Western Digital Hard Drive and it was a brilliant purchase. I won’t go into detail! Reliable and rather quiet. :)

  5. #5

    rmaspero → www.rmaspero.com

    Hi Glenn,
    Do you have any backups of your previous years photos any where els other then the Seagate? Is Lightroom that flexible as to what drive you put your photo’s on, I read it keeps a cache of the photos so you van see a smaller version of the image in your library?

  6. #6

    kenneth → seoxys.com

    @Umair Ata: LaCie is def the best hard drive brand you can get… they’re quite a bit more expensive than the rest, but I always buy with them nonetheless…

  7. #7

    Mary

    I am speaking from experience when I say that you need to be a little less attached to your old photos. I’ve been taking photos for 25 years and part of the process is deciding what to keep/print and what to put in the bin. If you are interested in working professionally, the ability to select and work with your best shots is an invaluable skill.

    Save your best shots from each set, any that _you_ really like, those with sentimental value, and a few that represent your growth as a photographer. For me, I initially was saving about 5-10% of what I shot but now it is more like 2-3%. These are the shots I use when compiling my portfolio and talking about ideas with new clients. By keeping 250GB of photos for each year, you are going to make it much more difficult to manage your portfolio as time goes on. Relying on ’star ratings’ and metadata while keeping everything isn’t really the same as purging those old photos. While it is true that lightroom is nothing more than an sqllite DB, but if the archive DB is ever lost/corrupted and all you are able to recover is 100,000 images, it will be a real PIA to sort them again. If a photo has a low rating or is ‘deselected’ in lightroom, then you really don’t need it in a permanent archive. I would also encourage you to purchase a large format binder and print/mount your best work every 6-12 months. They don’t need to be particularly expensive books, I use a simple spiral binding, 11 x 17, and 35-50 black pages with white mats. While I initially started making them as coffee table books to show family, friends and non-commercial clients, I’ve actually found them rewarding to look at myself.

  8. #8

    Glenn Wolsey → www.glennwolsey.com

    Umair Ata. Western Digital or Seagate look to be great options.

    rmaspero. As stated above, both the active and archive get backed up onto the LaCie drive. Each year has its own Lightroom catalog.

  9. #9

    Glenn Wolsey → www.glennwolsey.com

    Mary. Storage is cheap now, I don’t mind keeping around 10-15k images per year. At the moment, it’s totally manageable.

    I’ll take your advice on the albums. Will get started on that later this year.

  10. #10

    Arnold

    Damnit, still no Lightroom review?

  11. #11

    Calvin Chu → www.calvinchu.net

    Interesting photo storage setup you got going Glennn. Usually for me I just deal with the current year’s worth of photos on my internal HDD and keep all the photos I like in .jpg after post. When I’m done with the RAWs I just throw them onto my external drive from time to time and gets left alone in a drawer.

Your Comment