Backups
What about that AI generated header image eh? Courtesy of Nano Banana 3. Anyway, back to business - Keeping a secure archive of images is essential, as from time to time I receive requests for pictures that were shot way back in time. I have a workflow which reflects the nature of the main part of my work - luckily I really don’t need to maintain copies of all the raw files that are shot as my output is transient and temporary in nature. It seems that there are people who have piles of huge hard drives full of raw files just in case, but it seems pointless to do given the fact that real estate imagery is used once, and discarded as soon as the property is sold. Anyway, firstly here are the details of the storage sytems I utilise:
Main SSD - A 2TB SSD.
Images - A 2TB SSD.
Time Machine - 5TB 7200rpm HDD.
External SSD - An easily removeable 1TB SSD for temporary files.
Dropbox Plus Account - 2TB online storage.
iCloud Account - 2TB online storage.
Mac Studio M2-Max with 1TB SSD.
WD MyCloud 2TB NAS Drive.
After each shoot, all raw files and any video footage are transferred to separate solid state drives (SSD) in folders dedicated to that particular client. Each set of files is put into a subfolder with the address as the folder name (e.g. “27 Acacia Crescent”). After culling any dud frames such as those where the flash didn’t fire or whatever, I export jpegs to a folder on my Mac Studio hard drive called “Working jpegs”so that my layering/blending process runs quickly. Doing this using the raw files takes way longer and uses more resources. Once I’ve done the processing, I leave the original raw images for about 2 weeks - just in case I need to revisit them to change the look of something. It’s rare though.
All the final, processed jpegs which have been straightened/cropped and named are exported out in 2 sizes: Full size files which are then stored on an external hard drive, and a Dropbox folder, and the client-sized files which go straight to another Dropbox folder. These client sized files can then be transferred to whoever needs them. These are cleared out every couple of weeks. If a client needs them in the future it’s a simple job to put them together again by resizing the full size pictures.
The working jpegs stored on my Mac get backed up automatically using the “Time Machine” app, so if something went wrong with my other full sized versions, I’d be able to restore them.
If I have a special job outside the real estate world, then I backup the raw files to my Dropbox account just in case.
Video footage files are initially stored on the main SSD, then after being edited using Adobe Premiere Pro and a final video is generated, I just leave the clips there. I’ll probably look to clear some of the old footage to free up space early this year. There’s 500GB of space being used by ancient video clips.
I used to hold a Google Drive account as well as Dropbox, but it seemed overkill to have 2 online storage accounts costing considerable amounts of money. I got rid of Google late last year. The ancient WD Mycloud NAS drive is used to store my Apple Photos library. One of the two RAID drives has failed recently, so I’ve had to order another 2TB drive to replace the malfunctioning unit. Failing spinning disks hasn’t been a problem for me in the past, but if you rely on them you need duplicates just in case. Anything with moving parts is susceptible to conking out eventually.
Hopefully, my current setup will prove to be sufficient until I close the doors.
