How do you manage your files during a shoot (wedding, fashion, outdoor)? What do you do with your memory cards?

1. Do you recycle them? Meaning, if its full, you download, reformat, and shoot again. If you download, where do you download them to? A computer? Epson P2000?

2. Or do you shoot with a bunch of memory cards, download them, but do not reformat the card until the all the files have been verified to be intact and backupped (spelling check) to an optical media or another drive?

3. How many times do you back up your files? Twice? Thrice? and to where...

4. How about edited files, how do you deal with them?

Share us your formulas. It would be interesting to know how other photographers manage their files. :Grin:

In my case, I often travel around and here’s my workflow:

-on field, my trusty P2000 is always with me.

oI carry 2x2Gb CF cards
oOnce one is full, dump it (with verification via menu setting) and use the other CF
oOnce the other CF is full, switch and format the just dumped files

-Since I shoot RAW, once I’m back home, I convert these RAW files to jpegs (low res only). The jpegs are really to ease viewing

-Select those that I want to save and delete the rest

-Organize files into folders enough for 1 CD-R. Note that both RAW and corresponding jpegs are included in this folder

-Burn to CD-Rs. Once done, I label these with specific catalog numbers. I fire up my Adobe Elements 3 to organize the files (this is why jpegs are included) and appropriately tag these including the same catalog number I labelled the CD-Rs.

-Once done, this is the time I delete the files from my P2000

-For edited files, I use the same process

-When I select files for another series in my photoblog or need a specific photo, I just search in Adobe Elements get the specific CD catalog number, look for that CD, and once the speficic files have been found, convert RAW to TIFF, 16-bit and post process

Notes:
-Ideally, I should have done multiple backups but haven’t. :Grin:… I just purchased a DVD writer the other day (its becoming cheap: External Samsung at P5,300, internal is much much cheaper) and will start to burn these files this week. Hopefully, I can convert around 300 CD-Rs to fewer DVD-Rs.

-Any recommendations for other softwares that can be used to organize photos?

-Especially for a RAW shooter, its really a tedious process but its worth it.


Let me know your workflows. Baka naman mas ma shorten o ma simplify ko yung sa akin.

Normally id shoot raw and during a shoot when needed i would either transfer to my powerbook or my archos..
when id need to view the files on my mac id either use PhotoMechanic (which is really fast) or AdobeBridge which takes a bit longer to load..
Id edit then transfer both RAW and EDITed files to my external 200GB seagate drive..
once the photos have been published or submitted to client id burn them onto DVDs.
2 copies.. one copy on a +dvdr and another on a -dvdr.. both different brands..
My shoot file folders are tagged with the date.. ex: [RAW] - 05.12.06 MAGAZINE subject..
i use a program called CDFinder (for Mac) which someone from Philmug suggested and it indexes the cds for a search, so when i need to re-call a file or a folder from a specific shoot it can tell me wat disc its on..
oh and i dont label my dvds with markers, just a piece of paper in with the cd in a sleeve all stored in airtight tupperware-type cases..
copy one stored in a different area from the 2nd one :)

pat, is there a specific reason why you burn to - and + DVD?

pat, is there a specific reason why you burn to - and + DVD?

well iv been reading online on how other digital photogs backup and there were a few comments on which format will last longer than the other etc.. (which nobody has actually come up with a valid concrete resolve on) i burn on 2 different brands too because if one spindle set for example is flawed then burning 2 copies from the same spindle means both copies are doomed.. :Grin: i have a feeling tho im being a little too paranoid with my backup workflow.. hehe :)

pat, well, being paranoid is sometimes a good thing, especially with ones treasures :p

I would rather be on the safe side than regret it later on. Good thinking Pat, I have just taken into practice burning dvd's from different spools. I burn 1 on a TDK DVD and another one in an iomega. ( maybe I should do the + - thing too)
I also back up files on an external Lacie HD. I dont delete files in HD until I have printed the wedding album...

and what about photo organizing software? do you use any of these?

adobe bridge and iview...

i use photo mechanic to download and quickly view and browse through photos, when organizing i use Bridge.. and its set to sidecar the cache files and not in a centralized place.. so when you burn it out on other media the color codes or star values are kept alongside the files :) same with raw files, you have the option to sidecar the .xmp so that changes you make with adobe raw are kept saved with the raw files :)

I'm a 300D Canon user. I currently am switching between the EX Zoombrowser and ACDSee Photo Manager and Photoshop CS when dealing w/ my files. On RAW, I'm toying w/ Bibble and Phase One.

EX Zoombrowser mostly used to DOWNLOAD the files from my CF. Parang nagustuhan ko kasi yung ability to throw files to different folders when the shot was made. Kaso this works only w/ the CF Card as the source - eh, sa Portable Storage Device ko (Nachus brand from Korea, I think), doesn't really "work" w/ EX Zoombrowser... up until now, di pa ako masaya sa pag pamamaraan ko ng transfer ng pics to my HD.

ACDSee PM - used to archive my pics. Mabilis mag basa kasi. I have PhotoMechanic installed too, pero di pa rin ako masyado nasiyahan sa performance ng Mechanic kasi in an XP Environment.

Photoshop CS - to edit the pics - hanap pa ako ng Photoshop Elements 3 - from what I'm seeing here, it can take care of archiving and editing.

But to answer the first question in this post - ginagawa ko on location - dump the files from my CF to my PSD (make 2 copies) and recycle the CF - isa pa lang kasi yung CF ko eh. :)

di pa ako nag seriously back-up ng pics from my PC (napupuno na ang HD ko!!!) - bibili pa ako ng DVD-RW Drive.

ditto Nino

In a shoot, personally use the CompactDrive PD70x to dump the RAW files when my CF card gets full. Right now I use 2 CFs for swapping between the CompactDrive and the 20D camera; a 256MB and 1GB. After around 2 minutes of dumping the 1GB card, I check for the confirmation on the status window if everything is successfully copied before erasing the contents in camera. Now would want an additional 1GB so I could shoot more in case the transfer to the CompactDrive doesn't happen successfully; batteries die and CF cards sometimes fail to transfer completely :Shock:

Back to the computer, and this workflow is still a work in progress. I manage first all the files within the CompactDrive by organizing them from multiple generic folders to a single one. Then I launch Adobe Lightroom (still in final beta) to automatically import and move the files to the Lightroom Library which resides in my LaCie external hard drive. This is where I plan to process all my files, whether from within Lightroom or for further tweaking in Photoshop. For the RAW files, I burn them on DVD with additional backup per disc.

Am also thinking of online archiving selected RAW files and processed files in JPEG. Any Flickr PRO users out there who have managed the same thing? Or is there a better online file hosting out there like Streamload or box.net offering archiving of large files?

How much are tape drive these days? They're still the safest way to back up... Optical medias (self burn medias) don't usually last more than 5 years according to Philips (inventor), TDK and Sony themselves.

I organize each shoot into their respective folders:

[date] Shoot_Name - files under this folder are files I do not wish to process. I keep them here for a period of time before purging them.

Under this folder, I have at most three sub-folders:

Selected - shots I will process (originals)
Print - shots I have processed for print purposes
Upload - shots I have processed for web purposes

I only have 1.5GB worth of CF space so most of the time I delete the "bad" shots immediately after taking them. I keep the sure ones and the question marks.

I use iView Media Pro to do the selections and I backup to three locations: external HDD, DVD-R media, and an online location via WebDAV (only the "selected" subfolder here as space is limited).