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4 Ways You Should Be Storing And Backing Up Your Photos If You Want To Do It Right

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If you’ve ever lost an entire catalog of images to hard drive failure, you probably know how important it is to properly and securely back up your data. If you haven’t run into such a speed bump just yet, congratulations, but just because it hasn’t been an issue in the past, doesn’t mean you’re not prone to a hard drive failure in the future. Losing your images can be devastating, especially if you shoot a lot of paid work. Thankfully, a little forethought and planning can help prevent such a catastrophe.

In the video below, Matt Granger talks about a few options photographers have when it comes to photo storage and backing up image files. Very important stuff! Here’s a quick list of 4 ways Granger backs up his data, then be sure to watch the video as he explains the process he uses both at home and when shooting on location.[Read More…]

Backup Workflow using BitTorrent Sync and Crashplan

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Backups! We all need them, we hardly make ‘em!

Over the years, as a digital artist, I have on occasion lost bodies of work. I lost them when building a new PC, I lost them when my drive crashed, fell, burnt, and I even lost them while watching in horror as I mistakenly said yes to “are you sure you want to format drive D”?.

Data keeps piling up, and to keep everything archived we need at least double the amount of drive space.

Luckily I don’t do animation anymore so my projects aren’t that super large anymore, but I have been photographing and editing work for a couple of years now and the data pile keeps growing. Next to that I kept running out of space locally, and kept buying new drives for my Drobo to accommodate my expanding archive. The problem with new drives to store your projects is that you need to copy your data over and over, you get sloppy, you forget projects, you ignore folders, and in the end you lost some precious pictures in the transfer process.

I’m a creative artist, and even though I have OCD tendencies, I get bored with tedious tasks and mistakes are easily made.  I needed a better backup plan to safeguard my body of work, without having to spend too much time on this task.

Now there are numerous ways to maintain a backup, but I’m going to share one that has been working for me the past few years, and makes me feel secure about my data.

here’s my hardware setup:

[Read More…]

How To Convert Scrap Flooring Into A Lens Drawer

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Over the last week or so, I moved into a brand new office. It used to be a print house, so the floor was tainted beyond repair. (we actually took some floor tiles off and they had ink on the bottom). So we covered the entire thing with laminate flooring. Now we had some tiles that we cut in the wrong lengths spare flooring ,which was great because I needed something to put my lenses in. And so was invented the laminate flooring lens drawer.

The idea is quite simple – place all my lenses in a drawer but still maintain some order and safety, and not have them roll onto each other. This really quick step by step tutorial will show you how it was done.

I was using a 5 drawer IKEA ALEX unit, but the same thing probably applies for every other drawer unit in the world.

[Read More…]

Synolocker ‘Service’ Demands 0.6 Bitcoin To Decrypt Your Photos

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Any system has its vulnerabilities. But as we get more and more connected, we sometimes expose ourselves to new threats that did not exist before. Many times on this site (and others) we recommended to backup your photos to a safe location. One of the more popular solutions is the Synology disk station.

k.salo at the Synology forums reports that his Disk station was hacked by a ransomeware, his files encrypted and that he is asked demanded to pay 0.6 bitcoins to restore the system.

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StreamNation Introduces Shutter, an iOS Photo App Offering Unlimited Cloud Storage for Free

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With how much of a push companies are making these days toward cloud-based storage, is it really a wonder that phones are still being sold with an infuriatingly small 16 gigabytes of space? When it comes to the actual cloud storage itself, we have to worry about the payments those storage services ask for as well; missing one could inevitably mean that we’d lose what we’d have stored for good. It’s a business model that I’m starting not to like, and I feel like it’s a poor way to ensure the safety of our backed up pictures.

StreamNation is a cloud-based service that’s deciding to do things a little differently; they’ve recently released Shutter, a camera app on iOS that promises us unlimited cloud storage for pictures absolutely free of charge. The app itself is simple: another point-and-shoot interface, but with a different method of storage.

[Read More…]

Build Your Own Inexpensive Transport Equipment Cases

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Basic tools and carpentry techniques can save you a lot of cash when protecting your valuable hardware! Like a lot of video producers on a budget I’m always looking for ways to save cash while moving forward with the realistic hardware needs of various projects. The recent purchase of a pair of vintage Colortran 2K Fresnel lights nudged me to seek some type of protective storage and transport case option that wasn’t insanely priced. These are big fixtures and they call for big cases.[Read More…]

PSA: Have Photos Backed Up On CDs? You May Wanna Move Them!

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To be honest, I have not backed up images on CDs for over 10 years now. But back in the days when a D70 RAW file was about 5MB it made sense. You could fit about 140 RAW photos on one CD. Or if you back up a few years earlier, photo labs would provide film scans on CDs, with the average size of 3MB per scan, a CD would hold over 200 photos.

Any why not? CDs were cheap, easily stored and cataloged and they would last forever. Right? Wrong. It turns out that the lifespan of CDs is not as long as everyone initially thought. And it also turns out that CDs are more susceptible to the elements than we thoughts. And your old photo collection stored on CDs and DVDs is probably dying s you read.

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Copying Large Video File Across Devices/Drives? This Is How To Make Sure You Don’t Goof Up

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Whether your are a professional photographer or an aspiring photo enthusiast a day will come, when you will need to transfer all your valuable multimedia materials from one storage location to another!

Obviously, a single copy & paste or drag & drop should do the trick! However, please be aware that any backup or data replication scheme is composed of two integral parts: copying and verification!

The fact that you see a complete file list after a quick, copy and paste operation does not ensure the data that you have copied from the source location to the target destination are not corrupted!

You may wonder why have I written this post in the first place? Well, as a matter of fact I have found myself in a position where I needed to send via air mail an USB stick with video material to one of the media agencies we collaborated with. The assignment came literally last minute, and the deadline was within 4 days.[Read More…]

Clever Way To Store Multiple Seamless Paper Backdrops

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One of the more annoying things to store is seamless paper backdrops. They are big, bulky and you can’t lay them on the flow because they will collapse over their own weight and great folds. This means that the best way to store a seamless paper is vertically.

If you have a long wall that is unused (as no studios probably have), you can stick em on the wall with something like this foam system. Here is a much cooler way tough.

Photographer Rob Grimm made a rope and dowel system that can store a few dozens of backdrops in a neat and orderly fashion. Check out his video below.[Read More…]

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