Curious what everyone else is doing with all the files that are generated by photography as a hobby/interest/profession. What’s your working setup, how do you share with others, and how are you backing things up?

  • @GamingChairModelOP
    2•1 year ago

    As OP, I should probably answer, too.

    Normal workflow is:

    1. Raw images import from SD card to network drive (physically on spinning hard drives in a NAS in my home).
    2. Lightroom catalog is on my laptop, where I actually do all processing and editing, using a network connection with the raw files stored on the NAS.
    3. Exports go to local folder on the laptop, to be shared however I share.

    Travel/offline workflow is:

    1. Raw images import from SD card to external SSD.
    2. Lightroom catalog is on my laptop, and I can do all editing there as part of the same catalog even when I don’t have access to my NAS (or when my connection is slow).
    3. When I get home, I manually copy the files from the hard drive to the network drive, and then update the library file location in Lightroom to point to the new location.

    My raw backup solution:

    1. Cron job backs up raw files daily to an external drive hooked up to my old always-on Mac Mini.
    2. Mac Mini syncs with a cloud backup service that charges per machine rather than per terabyte, so I can take advantage of the pricing that works out to be $8/month for about 8TB of data.

    My post-processed backup solution:

    1. All exported, post-processed pictures get copied to Google Photos, for all the functionality of cloud syncing/sharing, face recognition, etc.
    2. All photos taken directly on my cell phone are also automatically synced to Google Photos.

    Things I’m generally considering:

    • I’m always on the lookout for de-googling
    • I’m also all for making the workflow simpler/easier/more reliable between my files stored locally on the laptop, on the external SSD, and the main NAS storage drives.
    • I might switch the NAS storage to SSDs instead of hard drives, but that’s lots of money just for a little bit of extra speed.
    • I might want to switch my cloud backup to live cloud features instead of a cold backup, but I like the pricing I have with cold storage.
    • I’m wondering whether it’s possible to have an automated solution that always keeps the most recent 50GB of raws on my local laptop, maybe 500GB of raws on a networked SSD, and the rest of my files on networked hard drives, while seamlessly updating the older files to the slower locations. I’ll have to think on this some more.
      • @GamingChairModelOP
        5•1 year ago

        It’s an elaborate workaround for Backblaze’s pricing. What I was alluding to in my comment was that they charge $8/computer for backup, but without any limit to the amount of data they’ll sync. They won’t let you sync network drives, but they will let you sync external USB drives, so syncing a network drive to an external drive allows you to basically sync that external data to a cloud backup.

        That way I have 3-2-1: 3 copies, on at least 2 devices, on at least 1 remote location. For $8/month (but also, some up-front investment in physical stuff I had to buy).