What is the best storage medium for photos? Where is the best place to store photos and videos?

The place on it will eventually run out anyway. Further, most photographers simply copy pictures from the camera to the hard drive of their computer, without even thinking about their further safety. But in vain ... Due to a simple shock of a laptop, a power surge, or simply a malfunction in the electronics, your entire photo archive can be lost literally in an instant. In this article, we will tell you how and where to store photos securely, and what storage system is best for your purposes.

In my photographic practice, an unpleasant situation has already happened twice, when the hard drive stopped working, and all the data on it was lost. This happened for the first time without visible reasons: one day the computer did not turn on. The second time I just dropped the laptop from a height of about half a meter. This turned out to be enough. A very unpleasant situation, but not fatal. Because in both cases, the most valuable data (and for a photographer, this is primarily a photo archive) I had copied to a separate medium. So the main rule safe storage data - you should always have up-to-date backup copies of files on a separate medium.

What media to choose for backup?

When the trees were big and the cameras were 6 megapixels, some photographers managed to burn their photo archives to DVDs and then just stack them. Now this approach may seem ridiculous: what kind of self-discipline and perseverance do you need to have in order not to forget to write down a couple of discs with photographs after each photo session? In addition, modern laptop models are increasingly supplied without a CD-ROM.

Today, hard drives are the most reliable yet affordable media.

Today, hard drives are the most reliable yet affordable media for storing photos. We will look at two ways to organize storage: using external hard drives and using hard drives inside your desktop computer. Let's start with external drives.

Storage system for photo travelers

For many photographers, a laptop has become the same creative tool as a camera: it accompanies its owner on trains around the city, on outdoor photo shoots, and on distant expeditions. The pictures taken are reviewed on the laptop, the most successful ones are selected, partially processed ... and, of course, the results of the shooting are stored. It is on him that the entire burden of responsibility for the filmed material falls. But even in the field, you can easily and easily apply data backup. The best solution for this is WD's My Passport and My Passport Ultra drives.

These compact and lightweight hard drives have capacities ranging from 500 GB to 2 TB, which is the current record for a device of this format (2.5” external drives). A fast USB 3.0 interface is used to connect to a computer (the previous version, USB 2.0, is also supported). The device does not need an outlet to power it, which allows you to work with it anywhere.

Now for the fun part: With the WD SmartWare Pro backup software that comes with My Passport Ultra, you can sync folders on your hard drive and on your drive. When the drive is connected to the computer in the background, all changes that have occurred to the folder on your laptop are automatically made into the backup copy: edited files are updated, newly created files are copied, deleted ones are erased. In addition, My Passport Ultra allows you to copy your files not only to the drive itself, but also to the Dropbox cloud service if you are connected to the Internet.

A simple solution for amateur photographers

Not all of us spend days and months on long trips. Someone prefers to return home every day and look at fresh photos, sitting in their favorite chair with a cup of coffee in front of a large monitor. In this case, a larger My Book external drive will suit you. It will stand at your place near your PC and delight not only with its strict design, but also with an impressive volume - up to 3TB! This drive also connects to your computer via a high-speed USB 3.0 interface and comes with free WD SmartWare automatic backup software. In addition, such a solution, to some extent, will be a more reliable storage for the archive, since it is less likely than mobile drives to face such troubles as falling or accidental bumps.

NAS for the whole family

All drives that we have considered so far had one common feature: USB interface. But if you have a local network at home (and after all, almost everyone now has a Wi-Fi router installed), then why not connect the computer to the drive using this very network? My Book Live is not equipped with USB, but with a Gigabit Ethernet network interface. This means that you can put it next to your router, connect them with a power cord (which, of course, is included in the kit) and access data remotely, for example, via Wi-Fi. Configuration using the included software is carried out automatically with just a couple of clicks, even a person who is far from network technologies can handle it. Five minutes - and all your home computers already “see” the drive, all members of your family can store their files on it, regardless of which operating system they use - MAC or Windows. Naturally, the network interface is not a hindrance to backup using WD SmartWare. It's also available with My Book Live: data from synced folders is saved automatically in the background when your computer is connected to your home network. What's more, you can use this drive as a centralized backup repository from multiple computers in the house, all data will be transferred within your local network.

But all the advantages of My Book Live do not end there. A few more clicks and you can set up remote data access from mobile devices. Save pictures from your iPhone to your hard drive, or vice versa download a movie to your tablet from your hard drive - all this has become accessible and easy with the help of special applications for smartphones and tablets. WD2go and WDphotos applications allow you to access your hard drive not only from the local network, but also from the outside (if you have an Internet connection).

Well, if you have access to the Internet, then you can now access your files from any corner of the world using the WD 2go service: register web access in the device settings (you just need to specify your name and address Email), log in to the www.wd2go.com portal and view the contents of your archive via the Internet. So, for example, if you need some important files in the office, you can remotely access this drive and download everything.

It remains to be added that My Book Live is produced in exactly the same volumes as My Book - from 1 to 3 TB.

Dual Drive NAS for Professional Photographers

Three terabytes - to someone it will seem just a huge amount. But professional photographers can quickly fill even such a hard drive. They need a more serious model: My Book Live Duo. Its main difference from the usual My Book Live is that there are not one, but two hard drives inside. In this case, the possible storage capacity is from 4 to 8 terabytes.

It would seem that a trifle is just a doubled volume. But the use of two hard drives inside the drive allows you to approach data storage differently: if the owner of the device wants it, information can be written to disks in parallel (RAID 1). Yes, but the storage capacity will be reduced by half. But even if one of the disks fails, you will not lose important data. You can completely entrust the photo archive to such a network storage, even without saving it in the memory of your computer. The second difference with My Book Live Duo is the USB port, where you can plug in another drive to expand your storage capacity or create a restore point.

Another interesting feature of this model is the possibility of self-disassembly and replacement of hard drives inside. The memory ran out, they took out the full hard drives and put them on the shelf. And in their place we put new, empty ones.

For computer processing professionals

If your Mac has a Thunderbolt™ interface and speed is your top storage requirement, then My Book Thunderbolt™ Duo is for you. Like the My Book Live Duo, this drive has two hard drives inside and can be from 4TB to 8TB. But the use of a bi-directional Thunderbolt interface provides unmatched fast multitasking with video editing programs, 3D rendering and other "heavy" graphics programs. This 2-drive drive can be configured to work in the mode you need: RAID 0 for speed (fast Thunderbolt interface allows you to unleash the full potential of such an array), RAID 1 for data protection, or JBOD for drive-by-drive operation. Another useful feature of this device is that in Mac OS® X, the My Book Thunderbolt Duo drive can be made a bootable external device.

Self storage organization

If, for one reason or another, ready-made storage systems do not suit you, you can create a storage system yourself. For example, the most simple option Implementing a backup could be adding another hard drive to your desktop computer. Then it remains only to configure backup using certain software products. For example, when you import photos from a flash drive, Adobe Lightroom can create backups in the location you specify. Or you can simply sync multiple folders on your computer using the Sync Toy utility for Windows. You can also use the already mentioned WD Smartware Pro by purchasing it on the manufacturer's website. This program will independently track the latest changes in files on any disks installed in your PC.

It is important to choose the right hard drive that best suits your purposes. If it will only be used for backup, then one of the WD Green drives will be the best solution. This range has proven to be the quietest and coolest drives on the market. Other important features of the "green" series include an impressive volume (up to 3 TB) and an excellent price per gigabyte ratio. If you plan to install an operating system on the same hard drive or perform complex file processing directly from the disk (for example, video editing), then you need more speed. For these purposes, it is better to prefer another line - WD Black: these drives are speed and performance champions among PC models.

WD Red is built for NAS use

They are specially designed to work in small NAS (for home and small office): they support 24/7 operation, have low noise and power consumption, and are compatible with the vast majority of NAS

Summarize?

Don't wait for the first negative data loss experience. Get smart about the idea of ​​backing up your files now. And then just choose the solution that suits you best. Fortunately, today there are devices on the market for every taste: from light and compact external drives with a USB interface and a convenient backup program to serious multi-drive drives that can be used both for storing photos and for processing. Choose the one that suits you! And we, in turn, in the very near future will tell you about several of the most successful models of drives, conduct their tests and describe in detail the entire setup process.

It would seem that DVD and CD media were quite recently a novelty, and even some samples of equipment are still equipped with drives for reading them. But thanks to high-speed Internet and cloud technologies, disks are beginning to become covered with a thick layer of dust. It became obvious that very soon the drives would disappear from the shelves of stores, in a few more years those that people had in stock would break down, and later they would generally be remembered as some kind of gramophones. Therefore, storing information on disks is quite dangerous if you look into the distant future.

by the most modern means storage today are phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers. Data is stored here on hard drives, newfangled solid state drives, flash drives, microSD, etc. But do not forget that the hard drive can also fail and often this is what happens. Carefully sorted memorable archives are lost along with the breakdown. SSD drives and flash drives lose data after a year or two if they are not used at all, so they are also not suitable for long-term storage.

How and where to store data

Duplicate information via the Internet to cloud storage. The most popular and reliable services are Yandex.Disk, Cloud@Mail, Google.Drive, etc. For example, the Mail company gives each of its users 100 gigabytes of storage space for any data, Yandex is slightly less - 10 gigabytes, expandable up to 20 , Google - 15 gigabytes. Nothing will happen to the data in cloud storage, but at the same time, each license agreement says that the service can be turned off without additional explanation of the reasons. In fact, companies usually care about their users. It is necessary to store here the most valuable and only having previously duplicated it.

If you don't trust electronics completely, print out the best photos and create homemade photo albums like in the good old days. Trust the printout to some serious one so that the quality is at the level. It is quite simple to test the quality of a photo card - put it on the window in sunny weather and hold it for a day or two. If the colors remain in good condition, then after 40 years they will be normal. If the photos did not pass the test and faded, then look elsewhere for.

Be sure to convert analog media to digital form, print undeveloped films, because in a few years hardly anyone will be able to do this. Films can be digitized using a tuner, a capture card, or in a specialized company. This procedure is not cheap, so if there are too many entries, choose the most valuable ones.

“What is the best way to store photos on a computer?” - I am often asked this question, and today I will tell you how I do it. After all, my archive of family and client photos with a volume of more than 500 GB requires order in storage, otherwise it will be difficult to quickly find the necessary photos and generally find them among tens of thousands of files :).

I have repeatedly observed a situation where folders with photos are stored on the computer and on the desktop, and piled up in a heap in the My Documents folder, and simply scattered across the hard drive in different places. Because these folders don't have a name to tell you what the photos are, finding the right photo often involves going through all the folders and opening the photos in them. For me it's just a nightmare! Everything, go to the description :)

First of all, I will clarify the approach I use to store archival materials, and these are not only photographs, but also family video archives and materials from seminars, trainings, etc.

The human brain can remember the details of a moment in life, if you specify the date and place when it happened. It's the same approach used by the wonderful Evernote note-taking app and by hypnotists (yes!) to get details from your subconscious mind. I use a specific date format and a description of the location or event type for the folder name. This allows me to quickly find photo folders for a specific date and refine them by description.

For example, I shoot relatives and friends at the birthday party of one of them on March 8 this year. The folder where I will store photos from this photo shoot, I will call it “2014.03.08 Birthday. Petya Ivanov.

More examples:

Examples are real, I just changed the name. I note that I used to call folders in Latin, but now I write in Cyrillic more often, this is not important.

Why does the date come at the beginning of the file, and why is it important?
At the beginning of the file name, I write the year through the dot, then the month and then the day of the date when the shooting was taking place, because this allows you to automatically sort in ascending order of the date. It is very comfortable. For clarity, see the photo of the final structure for storing photos one chapter below.

Separately, about storing photos from big trips / trips

When we go on big trips, then, of course, we bring many photographs in addition to impressions. I usually store photos on the day of shooting inside their shared folder and specify the location (as in the example below) or event, here good example from a trip to France (photos are in Facebook):

If the shooting dates fall on New Year, then I save them in the year when the survey was started, i.e., as in the example above, in 2012.

What does the final structure for storing photos look like?

There is a common folder "!!!Photo" with folders by years, and inside each year there are already folders with photos.

What do you do with freshly taken or decommissioned photos?

If you're parsing or retouching your photos after you've taken them, I recommend creating a folder where you save all your new photos. As you process them, you will transfer them to a folder for storing photos.

This allows you to always know that the photos are either in the archive or in the folder for processing, and not somewhere else on the computer. An important point - name the folder immediately correctly, i.e. in the “date - event” format, so that the folders are immediately sorted by date.

And what to do with photos on a mobile phone?

Now, for many, a phone with its advanced camera is actually a pocket camera. This is convenient when you can take something useful and not very useful :), and we often leave photos on the phone without sorting them out or copying them to the computer in the first folder that comes across.

I also sometimes shoot with my phone, but I adhere to the following rules with photos on it:

• If these are photos from a meeting or some event that I save in the file structure (for example, a work project or attending a conference), I write off the photo in a folder dedicated to this event. The principle of the folder name is the same - the "date-event" format.
• If these are photos “for myself”, I save them in an archive with photos, add an indication to the name that they are from a mobile phone, for example, “2014.03.23 Home (mobile)”.
• Some number of operational desired photos stored on my phone and I always have a fresh backup in case I lose my phone. I delete all unnecessary photos on it.

And how can I bring order to my chaos now?

To put things in order, you need to make a little effort and take the following steps:

1. First of all - create a structure to store your photos.

If you already have a lot of folders with photos, you can at least put them in one folder to start, so as not to search all over the disk. In the future, as you search or desire, rename the folders and transfer them to your structure.

1. Fold new photos already in the correct place.

I also want to remind you once again that your photo archive should be backed up so that if you lose files, you will not lose memory in the form of photos. Pay attention to this, do not put it off until later and do not hope for a chance! I personally went through this twice already ( the second time - already without consequences) and I know how painful it is to lose the only pictures that can no longer be replenished, your relatives, loved ones and friends. Take care of your insurance in the IT world.

If you have questions or comments about the article - let me know.

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After much trial and error, I came to the same overall structure, each day of shooting in a separate folder, in the title, first the date, then the explanation. To parse the blockages, I used total commander, with batch renaming of files by creation date. I am currently using Adobe Lightroom. The fact is that in this program, tags and geographic coordinates can be assigned to each photo. And in the end, if I just need to find photos of a person, without reference to a nearby event, I simply indicate Vasya Pupkin, and the program shows me all the photos with this person that are in my catalog. You can also search for any assigned tag or place. In addition, the program perfectly implements the functions of collecting photos in a collection, without their physical movement, both manual and automatic, according to the specified parameters. So Adobe Lightroom is not only photo processing, but also a very powerful tool for organizing your photos.

Gregory, thank you for sharing your experience!

I agree with you about the capabilities of Adobe Lightroom, although I don’t use it for processing. I had the experience of cataloging photos with different programs many years ago, and as a result, the current option turned out to be the most convenient.

I am now registering tags in iptc (though not in all years) for searching by keywords(tags) + I don’t depend on the Lightroom database, you need to backup it periodically and have Adobe Lightroom itself (I’m talking about the licensed version).

And the advantage of such a structure (“date - event”) is that I use it in other folders, uniformity in data management is more comfortable for me to work with.

I also use the layout in folders by years, and in them by events-places. There is also a separate shared folder - before disassembling the photo and a folder with photo quotes (from the phone, sometimes I read something interesting and take a picture of the page). That's just an inconvenience - when I'm looking for a certain photo, let's say I know the year, but I don't remember the place - it's inconvenient to open and search all the folders. Maybe someone faced the same problem and there is a solution that you kindly write plain language for non-technicians :)

Inessa, thanks for your comment.

I sometimes also photograph interesting articles from paper publications and then sign the file as a brief idea for the article. And then these words (actually tags) are easy to find by a simple file search. I also name documents and dictaphone records and other files.

Another option is to use a program to tag an article for quick search, such as Evernote. I also actively use it for taking notes and joint work over projects.

Have you tried these methods?

Advice for those who already have a lot of footage, and the sorting process somehow started up - the Picasa program quite successfully copes with cataloging. Sort by years, events, and personalities. The photographs themselves remain in place.

Michael, good afternoon!

I missed your comment :(, I'm correcting it.

Creating a structure for storing information, photos in this example, not only makes it easy to find them, but also makes a backup copy.

Not everyone does this (before the first data loss), but those who make a backup copy of selective data (documents, photos, etc.) will appreciate this convenience and the elimination of the loss of forgotten photos.

Picasa is also handy for figuring out where photos are right now.

Greetings! This topic is very relevant, thanks for your description.

I have a question: Do you store photos and videos together or in addition to the folder !!! Photo is also !!! Video.

At first I sorted separately, but as I use it, I tend to think that it is more convenient to store photos and videos together. After all, it happens that you take a photo and they asked you to shoot a little video of some episode, and that’s all, for example, at some event on the same day, well, because of this, you won’t store photos in the photo folder and video in the video folder.

How do you like it??? I'm right?

Ivan, good afternoon.

I have not seen programs that will make a convenient search for photos in automatic mode. If you have thousands of files on your computer that do not have a description in the name, but only numbers, then the program will not be able to automatically put tags in any way. I have not come across programs for the home that can tag the picture very accurately. Google (Picas) has some developments in facial identification, yes.

Sergey, good afternoon!

I replied to you with a new message: (a week ago, correcting.

Thanks for the question.

Sergey, good afternoon!

I have a folder!!!Video, it contains video recordings made by an HD video camera. Because the size is large enough (almost 1TB, then for backup it is more convenient for the video from the HD camera to be stored separately).

If the video was filmed mobile phone along with many photos, then I allow it to be stored together with photos in the appropriate folder, that year I even used shortcuts for convenience, you can also make hard links to folders (for example, through the FAR file manager). In any case, I have no more than two points of information search.

I am in favor of using the most convenient and simple structure for storing information, and if it is more convenient to store photos and videos in one place - why not! Moreover, you shoot photos and videos with one camera, as I understand it.

Thanks for the question.

VERY IMPORTANT! I'm looking for a program that will automatically parse my PC and offer itself to put everything into folders. Further - lays out, adding tags (taken from creation dates, editing dates, file name, comments in the photo, type and my own, in the process of using the program, etc.). Further, a convenient search, I write "February" and it finds all the photos with this tag + adds photos from the Internet with the same tag to my photos. THIS program IS in nature. I used it and even remember how angry that she pumped up some pictures from the Internet for my searches. I then chased the place. Now the goal is a stuffed content combiner. To have a file cabinet of media, use files for projects, while not producing them and not doing everything MANUALLY. Everything that is described in the article is BAD. That's what a PC is for, to automate everything

Ivan, good afternoon.

I have not seen programs that will make a convenient search for photos in automatic mode. If you have thousands of files on your computer that do not have a description in the name, but only numbers, then the program will not be able to automatically put tags in any way. I have not come across programs for the home that can tag the picture very accurately. Google (Pikas) has some developments in facial identification, yes, but events, places and other details - no.

I add tags (keywords) to my IPTC photos and already find the right ones using them. This method works, as does the option of using a third-party program (for example, Lightroom).

I don't do everything manually, I assign tags to many files at once, often it takes about 2-10 minutes per folder. For me, a PC is a tool, but not a means of automation (I have IT experience behind me and it is well known that order is usually automated, not chaos).

If you have even used it, then you probably remember the program, which you even got angry at. Share with us if you find it.

Perhaps you have worked with Picasa (judging by the behavior you describe) or Lightroom.

Hello, it's very actual question transferring photos and videos to the cloud, I have about 1tb of about the total volume, I chose filicr for this, it gives 1tb for free, but unfortunately there is no way to create a structure like you and me in folders, my structure is still broken by the season (autumn winter And so on) for example / 2015 / autumn / a trip to the country / and only the final folder remains in the cloud (a trip to the country) well, just a bunch of folders by name to eat

Grigory, I was looking at Flickr and Canon's storage, but in the first case, I just didn't like the lack of structure, although exif has date and time, but I like to store / backup because it's convenient for me, not for the tool.

In the second case, there were restrictions on files and then the service became paid.

I consider it important for reliability to store TWO copies of data in different places, the cloud can be one of them. The main thing is to synchronize your copies for their up-to-date state. I myself do not trust cloud solutions, I and my friends had a negative experience. But as solutions for backup - I'm considering.

If you already have an account in the mail.ru cloud with 1TB, then I would recommend it. I myself am looking at the Yandex disk, in which 1TB is like in the cloud from Microsoft for 2000 rubles.

Yandex disk is more flexible for me than the Microsoft solution, although in the second case you can also get a 1-year license for the MS Office package.

Thanks for sharing your photo storage system! I have pretty much the same approach.

And here's what's interesting. Is there any secret meaning in adding 3 exclamation points to the folder name? (!!!Video)

Alexandra, good afternoon.

In some article I touched on this point, apparently I forgot to clarify it here.

I put exclamation points so that the folder is above all when sorting by name. I always know that the photo folder on drive "D" is the top one. Two signs (!!) have a folder with a database of pictures and interesting photos, and one sign (!) has a folder with a database of useful materials.

This is an old habit from before the days of Windows. You can also use other characters as needed.

P.S. I found in which article there was a clarification about this - http://site/myself/25b5f4b59a06

Personally, I have developed the following method for myself:

http://rebus-x.livejournal.com/908.html

In short, the point is to develop something like "tags" yourself and write the whole thing with delimiters in the file name. You can’t imagine it easier (if you do not take into account the labor for distributing file names), when searching, there are solid advantages. Works great with folders.

I don't have too many photos, but I do the same with them. And this was invented in order to put the database of photo textures in order, with the aim of finding not only strictly defined ones, but also generally suitable for a particular case as quickly as possible. Perhaps someone will come in handy.

Roman, thanks for sharing the storage option.

I myself use IPTC tags for photos, but this is for photos from 2010 only. I use these tags to search by keywords.

Considering the volume of photos and their storage in raw and jpg (selected) formats, it will take a long time to rename them, which is not worth the time spent on it. After all, I can always quickly find the folder I need and in the thumbnail view mode (Irfanview or standard Windows tools) find the photo I need.

For documents, I use literate file names (close to your method) and storage in a structure that is convenient for me.

Have a nice week!

As an addition, I can offer a simple way to select and search for the most successful (significant) photographs. Inside each date and event folder, I create a folder with a conditional index!AAAAA in its name. In this folder, I place the most successful photos from the series and make a selection by transferring them from the main array.

Subsequently, to automatically select the most successful photos in the array of photos, I search by the key! AAAAA and copy the search results in any explorer to a new folder. The new folder eventually contains the best photos and is of no value, since the source files are stored in the array. For different search criteria, you can create folders with different conditional indexes in the names, for example, !BBBBB !ССССС and so on. The root of the photo archive contains a short text document with comments about the index values. Something like this. As a result, I get freedom from different cataloging programs that change over the years, as well as freedom from databases of different programs, the logic of which cannot always be understood and accepted.

After the holidays, as a rule, the number of photos noticeably increases. When the weather is fine, it's easier to find shooting opportunities, as well as the time and desire.

But what to do when you suddenly find that the phone's memory is already full, and there is not a single empty SD card for the camera. What to do? Of course backup. But, first sort your data.

How to store photos properly

You probably know the situation when you see an opportunity for a beautiful shot... but your phone suddenly runs out of space. And then you massively transfer everything to the computer's memory. Is this how it should look? How long will it take you to find a file that's hiding somewhere in your Phone Photos folder? That is why, before you start cleaning the storage medium, think about a simple and suitable method for yourself. file cataloging.

These methods will differ depending on the reason you are filming. You can take photographs solely for pleasure - to preserve memories, process them and print them for an album, as well as professionally or as part of a side job.

How to organize photos

It's time for specific tips to help you organize your .

File Cataloging

Photos for myself

In the first two cases, it is enough to divide the photos between the following folders: first the year (for example, “2018”), then the month (“August”), the day/event (for example, “Trip to Siberia”). Just remember that the folder needs to be given clear and precise names. One that will tell you exactly what is in the folder.

Do you keep photographs of documents? Or maybe receipts? It is worth having them in digital version. Originals burn out quickly or get lost at the least opportune moment. It's best to put them in separate folders. In the case of photographs of documents, it is not necessary to know the date taken, because this is often visible on the document or invoice. Just give the files specific names, for example, “Agreement - apartment” or “Monitor - check”.

In the case of photos that you edit and print, you may find it useful to separate photos before processing, after processing, for printing and printed. Should the latter be removed? In our opinion, it is better to save them in digital form - for reprinting, editing or sending, for example, by e-mail.

Photo for work

If photography is not only your hobby, but also your work, you need, first of all, the separation of both spheres. Photos taken for pleasure should be separated from work files. It is enough, therefore, to create two root folders: "Personal" and "Work", which are detailed in the internal structure.

The working folder is best classified in terms of customers or companies, as well as thematically. As a rule, it is easier to associate a photo with an order or with the person for whom it was taken than with the date of creation.

How to organize photos - sorting and deleting

Once you have developed your system, it's time to act. The first step is sorting, which means nothing more than ruthlessly deleting files that have no value. These are, first of all, blurry, unsuccessful or repeated frames.

Don't get attached to them - less is better. It's easier to browse through a catalog of dozens of photos. In the work of a photographer, it is normal that you take hundreds of pictures in the same scenery, so that later you can choose the most successful ones for processing.

It is worth applying this principle to your private collections as well. Save storage space. Why waste it on something you don't really need?

Why You Should Organize Your Photos

Developing an effective systematization of your existing collections will take you hours in the beginning, but will save you time in the long run. With a transparent system, it's easier to find what you're looking for. You will avoid inefficient "digging" in catalogs and stress due to the possible loss of an important image.

Where to store your photos

We've reached a place where it's time to discuss photo storage media.

Phone memory, memory card or computer hard drive

Pre-photos are saved in the phone/camera memory or on a memory card. Ultimately, however, they should be stored elsewhere.

On a computer hard drive? It's possible, but it's not the best best idea. The device may fail or be stolen. Of course, it is understandable that it is more convenient to view and edit them when they are immediately available from the disk level, however, it is worth storing them somewhere else.

Memory card? She's too small, so it's easy to lose your memories. Besides, if everything is put into the memory of the phone or camera, at some point ... the place for new photos will run out.

All of the above tools are only suitable for temporary storage of just taken photos. For permanent storage and archiving of images, an external hard drive or network drive is better suited.

External hard drive

An external hard drive has a number of advantages. First of all, it is small and does not require configuration. Just plug it into your computer's USB port and copy files. Photos take up a lot of space, so you need a drive that has a large capacity (minimum 1TB).

What to choose? If the drive should only serve you at home, you might want to consider the 3.5" model, which is larger, heavier and often requires additional power, but is cheaper and more spacious.

However, if more convenience and cable reduction are important to you, choose a 2.5” hard drive that can easily be used exclusively with USB port on the computer. The most worthy drives are based on USB 3.0 and above, due to faster data transfer and higher voltage, sufficient to power the media.

Photo NAS

If you have multiple devices that can connect to a Wi-Fi network, consider a network drive. This is a dedicated server that acts as your private cloud. You can upload files to it from your phone, tablet and camera (if they have Wi-Fi support).

One disc is enough for several family members - it is enough just to set which local network users can use its content and play their files. In this context, the appropriate cataloging of documents is even more important - thanks to it, everyone can easily find their data.

Some manufacturers implement their own solutions for organizing files. In QNAP devices, the Qfiling application itself can classify files according to the specified key, for example, photos by the date they were created. In addition, thanks to the Face Tag feature, the app will tag faces in photos.

File storage in the cloud

If you value wireless solutions, you might also consider the cloud. You have several well-known solutions to choose from, in free and paid versions. It all depends on how much space you need for your files. For example, in Microsoft Office 365, you get access to the OneDrive cloud.

How to transfer photos from your camera or phone to disk

It is enough to connect the smartphone to one of the USB ports of the computer. Don't forget to select the File Transfer option in the menu USB connection on your mobile device. Thus, you can transfer photos directly from the internal memory to the media. It also works for cameras. If you cannot copy the files, send them to your computer first, and only then to an external drive.

Transferring files to a NAS server is also easy. Enough to download special program manufacturer on Android or iOS - with its help you can get remote access to documents.

What about cameras that don't support wireless? There are two options: you can connect the camera with a USB cable to your computer, or you can use a memory card reader: external or built into the laptop.

How to back up photos

There is still the issue of backup. It is not for nothing that all people are divided into those who make a backup copy, and those who will start soon.

Why you need a backup

We suggest that if you are documenting memories, you are taking care to store them securely. Once upon a time, paper albums served for this. A few years ago, the corresponding medium was recognized ... a CD, which eventually lost their popularity. And only recently we have a choice among many many effective solutions in the field of storing your data.

However, with the development of technology, new threats have also appeared. You can lose photos and videos not only by accident, but also as a result of a failure or ransomware infection of the media. To avoid this situation, remember to always unplug your external drive after use.

Backup on an external drive

If you save your files on external media, you need another disk where you will periodically (for example, once a week, once a month) create backup copies of all files.

Backup to NAS

In the case of a network drive, this issue can be resolved in a more convenient way: by simply selecting a drive from the RAID array. After all, a NAS server can be equipped with more than 1 drive, and you can set up connections between individual media.

RAID means that the server has at least 2 internal hard drives and the contents of the first one are automatically copied to the other. Everything happens automatically, without your intervention - it is enough that you mount only two drives in the NAS and configure them accordingly.

You have many options to choose from, from RAID 1 to RAID 6, as well as specialized solutions such as select Synology SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) models. Thus, you can customize the backup method to suit your needs.

Cloud backup

Is the cloud suitable for backup? Obviously yes. Remember, however, that this is an external service that does not give one hundred percent certainty that it will be with it after some time. Here, too, there are failures or the provider may simply stop providing such services.

Remember that the cloud is not the only place where you will store your precious files.

Popular models of network drives

See what models of NAS servers and drives consumers are choosing, find the right one for you.

Most important points lives are captured not only in our memory, but also in family photographs. If you do not store your photos properly, you can irretrievably lose priceless shots. There are several options to save documents without damaging or losing them over the years.

Before it's too late, print undeveloped films, rewrite video cassettes on DVD discs, throw off the finished frames from the camera. Whatever type of photo storage you prefer, duplicate the most valuable pictures in several ways. Thus, you will be sure that the events dear to your heart will not be forgotten after a long time.