Since I don’t have the Baby Updates to do any more I have been thinking about something new I could write about. One of the things I get a fair amount of questions on is cameras and photography. Factor in that it is obviously something I personally enjoy (both doing and talking about), and you can see why I thought it would be a great subject. I have a bunch of ideas for some of the posts, which will probably get us going for a little while. But I also think it would be cool if there was some group participation as well. So if there is something you would like to see covered, or you have a question on a topic feel free to email me or post a comment and I will do my best to work it in. One thing I’m not sure I even have to mention is I am going to be talking about digital photography, not film. If you are still using a film camera then much of this will not apply. Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy the new feature. Now on with our first subject!
Picture Files and File Management
There are a lot of different things that we could call “the most important” when it comes to photography, but without the actual files we don’t have anything so I have decided to make that our first topic. When you take a picture your camera saves that as a file on your memory card. The typical format is what is called JPEG (pronounced: jay-peg) and uses the file extension of “.jpg“. Some more advanced cameras may use other formats, but this is by far the most common. That file is then transferred to your computer and read by a program allowing you to view it. So for all practical purposes that JPEG file IS your photo. Relating it to the old film days that file would be both the print and your negative, because after you transfer them to your computer and format your memory card there are no other copies. So you can see why good file management is very important.
So you have taken the picture and the file is now stored either in your cameras internal memory, or more likely on a removable memory card. The next step is to get them off that card, and on to your computer. Typically there are two ways to do this. One is to plug your camera in to your computer via the supplied cable. Not all cameras support this function, but if your camera doesn’t have a removable memory card then this is your only option. Sometimes this will launch some software that came with your camera to transfer the files, or maybe it just opens the folder for you to do it.
The second way, and the way that I recommend, is to take the memory card out of your camera and put it into your computers build in card reader. If your computer doesn’t have a built in card reader, you can get and external one for very cheap. Reason I recommend this way as opposed to transferring them via a cable connected to your camera is because it will be faster and have less chance of loosing your files using this more “direct” method.
In either case you will want to open the folder on the memory card that has your picture files on it. This is sometimes not always apparent and different cameras use different locations. Canon for example uses X:/DCIM/100/XXX.jpg. Meaning I will need to open my memory card, then open the DCIM folder, then open the 100 (it creates a new 101, 102, 103, etc for ever X number of files), and then I get to my picture files. From there I select all of the files by either highlighting them with the mouse or using the folder menu option of “Select All” and I drag them to their storage location on my computer. When I am done I put the memory card back into my camera, but I don’t format (delete the pictures) it until I have verified all my files have been copied to the computer. Once I am confident I have my copies stored safely on my computer only then do I format the memory card in my camera.
OK, now you have your files off the camera and on to your computer. That is a huge step, but it is only the first. From here it is important to have a long term plan for organizing and backing up your photo library. There are a lot of different ways to go about this and you can do whatever you feel fits best for you. The most important thing to be consistent and stay on top of it. It doesn’t matter if you take 1000+ photos a week or 10 a month, if you don’t have a consistent plan for keeping your library organized and backed up there will come a day you regret it.
First step is organization or where you are going to copy the picture files from your memory card to. This part is all about folders. Rather then a giant mess of 10,000 pictures in a folder named “Pictures” what I recommend is separating them out into several folders. Some people may elect to create a folder for the year, and then the month (/Pictures/2010/June/). Or maybe you want to separate them by the event (/Pictures/Adams Birthday/), or maybe even a combination of the two (/Pictures/2010/Adams Birthday/). Whatever you decide is fine as long as you are consistent about it and it makes sense to you. The last thing you want is to be searching around for hours for that family photo from Christmas 2001 and not have any idea where it might be. I personally keep my folders and photos organized by event as in my second example, but again you can do whatever fits best for you.
The next step is a sold backup strategy and in my opinion this is one of the most important step of all. Back in the day people had prints and negatives of their photos and they lasted a really long time. About your biggest concern with prints and negatives was some sort of catastrophic event like a house fire, or flood damage. And even then you might get lucky and only loose one or the other leaving you with at least something to work with. In the digital world of today that same catastrophic even can happen at any second and it will be so quiet and quick you will not even know it happened till it is to late. Unlike film and negatives in digital photography unless you make copies you generally only have one copy of your photo. If your hard drive fails, or your data becomes corrupt (both far easier and more common then you might think) you can loose everything in the blink of an eye. Luckily for us the answer is really simple – back up your stuff!
Just like the organization aspect from earlier there are several ways to back up your photos. Common options would be to copy them to a CD, DVD, use an external hard drive, or even upload them to an online storage service. Regardless of what method you choose the most important aspect is that you follow through and actually do it. You can have the best back up strategy in the world but if you don’t follow through and do it you might as well not made a plan at all.
Looking at the various options there is one clear winner in my opinion. CD’s and DVD’s are OK, but depending on your file size CD’s don’t really not hold that much and DVD’s can take a long time to fill. Looking at my current library it would take over 150 CD’s to back it up, and over 20 DVD’s. Also over time these disks can deteriorate and leave your data unreadable. So for me CD’s and DVD’s only really work well as a second backup option (yes I am paranoid enough to have a backup copy of my backup!). Online storage is another OK option but it can be expensive. Services like this charge a yearly fee and depending on the size of your library it can add up quickly. Plus you must have a decent high speed internet upload speed if you want to get your backup done in less then 10 hours! That leaves an external hard drive. These devices plug into your computer and behave just like another giant folder for you to put stuff in. Over the past several years the cost of this type of memory has dropped significantly and a 500GB drive that can hold thousands and thousands of pictures can be purchased for less then $75. A small price to pay for the piece of mind you get from having at least one extra copy of your photo library. My personal strategy is to create an exact copy of the Pictures folder on my computer on my external hard drive. Once a week I take any of the new folders I may have created from taking photos and copy them over to my external hard drive. This way at a minimum there are two copies of my photos, one on my computer, and another on my external hard drive.
There we have it, file management in a nutshell. In future articles I plan on going over what you can then do with these files since the point to taking all these pictures isn’t to just move them around afterwords. Things like the best software to work with and view your files, editing photos, and output idea such as online galleries, prints, and even books. I hope y’all found this at least a little helpful. If there are any questions or comments feel free to leave a response below or send me an email. See ya~
Related posts:
