RAW Storage

[HillCountryHoyt]

OK...up until recently, when I decided to take my photography to a new level, I shot in JPEG. I took a few classes and have read over and over again to shoot in RAW. So now I do...but I need help managing all the pics and the storage!

So a little background and insight into y processes and equipment might be in order. I am a Mac user (not that it matters too much) but I have a 2TB 27" iMac and a MacBook Air (also a iPad)...mainly because of the ease of use and interface. Also, I found the sharing of files (music, movies and photos) and the integration with APPLE TV for home entertainment to be easy. I also have a paid subscription to DropBox with 2TB of capacity on it. Why is that important? Because, due to my ignorance, I always thought that my data (whatever I sync'd) was stored in DropBox and not on a hard-drive(s) (Desktop or Laptop)...so my thinking was, I could use my Laptop and iPad to view images when I was on a photo shoot and use that devise to dump into DropBox where it was "stored" and I could later do some post production from my desktop. Well I was wrong. Really, I was storing the images and photos onto the device (Laptop's hard-drive) and it was then syncing to Dropbox so I could access from my Desktop for post production in Lightroom, etc... In other words, it create 2 copies. The one on the Hard Drive and the snyc'd copy.

Well, what I soon figured out after starting to shoot in RAW, that when I was shooting in JPEG, I never reached the Laptop's HD capacity...but when I started in RAW...I reached the memory capacity of the Laptop VERY QUICK! So now I am in a solution mode! Right now I am having a problem, because over Thanksgiving we spent the week at our Port A house and I took a LOT (over 2000) of pictures (of family, birds, landscape, etc...). When I went to dump them onto my Laptop's DropBox...I filled up the Hard Drive. So now I get a message from DropBox that is telling me it cannot sync until I free up some disk space. Problem is...I cannot erase the pictures from DropBox web-interface nor from my iMac, because when I do...I get an error message that says the files are currently in use from another devise (the Laptop). Big mess!

So...this leads me to the real question and advise seeking: What do some of the pros on here do to manage the pictures, memory and storage issues that shooting in RAW creates.

Also, when shooting there are a lot of pictures that do not go into "post". How do you manage and delete those pictures? In Lightroom? I use Lightroom, but it seems labor intensive to import all the pictures, then weed through them, to only work on a few. There has to be a better way? External HD? Lot's of memory cards?

Thank you in advance for any advise and help...also forgive me for the long read.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

External hard drive

[Bill M]

I haven't been using LR for very long so grain of salt on your part. I go through the photos on the card prior to import and exclude the culls, then format the card back in the camera (recommended here) and it works out great. IMO you would be better off with additional cards until you can go through them. I've never shot 2000 pics at once though. That would take awhile to go through.

I have redundancy built into my system with additional hard drives for backup. When I import to LR I send a copy of the RAW file to a third HD that is in my machine. I will delete the working RAW files from my working HD after I am satisfied with the final pics. If I do ever want to go back to the RAW, I can go that third drive and retrieve them. I normally clean that out every six months or so as well.

[HillCountryHoyt]

I haven't been using LR for very long so grain of salt on your part. I go through the photos on the card prior to import and exclude the culls, then format the card back in the camera (recommended here) and it works out great. IMO you would be better off with additional cards until you can go through them. I've never shot 2000 pics at once though. That would take awhile to go through.

I have redundancy built into my system with additional hard drives for backup. When I import to LR I send a copy of the RAW file to a third HD that is in my machine. I will delete the working RAW files from my working HD after I am satisfied with the final pics. If I do ever want to go back to the RAW, I can go that third drive and retrieve them. I normally clean that out every six months or so as well.

Thanks Bill!

[WyoBull]

Hillary, you can buy 2 TB external hard drives now for about 100 dollars if I remember. I just bought another one a few months ago at Sam's and it was pretty cheap.
I have been shooting RAW for years and one thing I will stress is that when you go through your photos when importing them in LR (I think you are a LR user if I remember right), it is really important to delete the ones that you really don't plan on using down the road. 2000 photos is a lot of photos and I would guess a smaller percentage of those are true keepers if you shoot like most of us.
Because memory is pretty cheap these days, a lot of people tend to shoot, shoot, shoot which is great but it is equally important to manage those photos on the other end. I delete a lot more photos than I keep and it really does help to no only keep the mass number of files in check but also makes individual files easier to find down the road, especially if you are using keywords in LR.

[HillCountryHoyt]

Thanks for all the responses...it truly helped! It has been a a lot of late night hours in front of a computer screen managing data and researching options and this is the equipment and system that I have come up with...

Managing System:
I created a Desktop folder for the current month...both for my Laptop and Desktop machines. This is where I will dump and review images before I import into LR. It is labeled with the YYYY-MM. Inside this folder I will create some key word "Event" folders. Labeled, "YYYY-MM-Event" Once I weed through the images, I don't want and erase, I will import the images into LR. At the end of the current month, I will move the folder(s) to a NAS External HD and create new DESKTOP dump/working folders for the upcoming month.

EQUIPMENT:
I purchased a 4TB NAS Hard Drive (WDMyCloud $179) and this is where the I house all the images (except the current month). I then have backed that up to another 4TB 3.0 HD (WD $149) connected to the MyCloud drive.

I also considering buying an Amazon Prime account ($99/year) for Cloud Storage. With the Prime account you get UNLIMITED photo/video storage (even in RAW).

On the WDMyCloud drive, I have spent hours combing through DropBox, my local drives, old computers, SD Cards, CF Cards, Shuttterfly, etc...and have created a "Depository" and "Catalog" of photos. Although none of images has a specific name other than the default camera given name, usually a number of some sort (ie..."Dad at Deer Camp" or "Morgan at Recital" or "Cooper's 1st Deer", etc...they are cataloged in folders by: Year, Month and Event.

Example:
2012
---2012_11
-----2012_11-Heart of Texas Bow Hunt
-----2012_11-Mustang Island Birds
-----2012_11-TTU v Texas

I feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shudders and this is a system that is pretty easy to maintain.

Thanks again for the help and the advice!

[HillCountryHoyt]

Hillary, you can buy 2 TB external hard drives now for about 100 dollars if I remember. I just bought another one a few months ago at Sam's and it was pretty cheap.
I have been shooting RAW for years and one thing I will stress is that when you go through your photos when importing them in LR (I think you are a LR user if I remember right), it is really important to delete the ones that you really don't plan on using down the road. 2000 photos is a lot of photos and I would guess a smaller percentage of those are true keepers if you shoot like most of us.
Because memory is pretty cheap these days, a lot of people tend to shoot, shoot, shoot which is great but it is equally important to manage those photos on the other end. I delete a lot more photos than I keep and it really does help to no only keep the mass number of files in check but also makes individual files easier to find down the road, especially if you are using keywords in LR.

Thank you for the help...but not sure "Hillary" is...

[WyoBull]

Hillary, that is a good workflow.

[HillCountryHoyt]

Hillary, that is a good workflow.

Funny...thanks again Wynona

[WyoBull]

Funny...thanks again Wynona

Hahaha! Frigging auto spell on my phone. That's what I get for not proofreading before hitting send! No offense intended.

[HillCountryHoyt]

Hahaha! Frigging auto spell on my phone. That's what I get for not proofreading before hitting send! No offense intended.

None taken!

[Hillary]

I'll look into that workflow