Backing up your photos

Good file management is critical for digital photographers today (and in terms of managing slides and negatives, critical for film shooters too!). Thinking about organizing, keywording, and archiving your photos maybe isn't the most enjoyable part of photography, but it is something you should spend some time doing.

It is easy to rack up large numbers of digital photos today, do you have a reliable system to track what has been backed up, (you are backing up your photos aren't you??), where photos are, how to find that photo of little Johnny from Christmas 1984? The longer you wait to implement some sort of system for keeping track of these things, the easier it is to do.

Some things you need to consider:
1) How are you downloading your photos from your camera and verifying that they all downloaded ok?

2) How are you going to store your photos on your hard drive?

3) Along with question 2, are you keywording or labeling your photos in some way so you can find them?

4) How are you backing up your photos?

As my collection of photos continues to grow this is something I've had to spend some time thinking about. One resource I've gotten a lot of great information from is "The Dam Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers" by Peter Krogh. This is an excellent book that every photographer should read (it has also had a big impact on how I organize files of all types).

In the Dam Book, Peter Krogh outlines a simple "bucket" system for organizing and archiving your photos. Basically, you create a folder that represents a "bucket" which you then put your photos into. Once the bucket is full, it is archived onto write once media such as DVD's (preferably multiple copies) and you start a new "bucket". Files can be organized within each bucket in sub-folders. This is an incredibly easy system to implement and has given me more piece of mind about keeping my photos backed up (by the way, remember that your hard drive *will* fail someday!).

I'm using this system in conjunction with Adobe Lightroom to organize my photos. I'll probably be making some changes after just finishing reading the second edition of "The DAM book" but for now this is what I'm doing:

1. After a shoot, photos are downloaded from my memory card to the hard drive using Lightroom. The photos are backed up to a second hard drive during the download.

2. The photos are keyworded, ranked, and processed.

3. Each day, photos and other files are backed up to an external hard drive.

4. When a "bucket" fills up, I burn it to 2 DVD's, one copy stays at my house, the other copy is stored off-site.

This may seem excessive if you aren't backing up your photos, but why take the chance on losing a photo? Storage is cheap (and getting cheaper).

I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of "The Dam Book" and use the practices outlined in it to keep your photos organized, backed up, and archived.

Here is a link to the DAM book:

The DAM book.

Now go make sure your photos are backed up!

The role of camera position in photography

An important, and often overlooked, part of photography is camera placement. Once you have identified your subject, determined the light is right, etc. where do you take the shot from? For many, this will be at their eye level. But is this where you should normally be shooting from?

The height that you place the camera at can have a huge impact on your photo. The 3 photos below are all of the same scene taken with the same settings. The only difference is the height of the camera. The first was taken at eye level, the middle taken from a kneeling position and the third shot with the camera only a few inches off the ground.














You can see how the relationship between the plant in the foreground and the bluffs in the background changes as the camera position is lowered. In the photo on the far right, the distance between foreground and background is compressed and the lake in the center is largely hidden. The plant in the foreground is larger and more prominent with the lower camera position. So which camera placement is correct? Well that depends on the photograph you where trying to create. You shouldn't always shoot with the camera inches from the ground...just like you shouldn't always shoot with the camera at eye level. Next time you go out to take some photos and you notice yourself shooting from eye level stop and ask if that is really what you wanted to do and if that will give you the photo you are after. Always shooting from eye level is an easy habit to get into.

Another habit that can trap you with camera placement is always shooting at the height your tripod is set at. It is easy to walk up to a scene set your tripod up and just start shooting. Find your optimal camera position first, then put your camera on the tripod, that way you don't let the tripod dictate your shooting position.

Another thing to consider with regards to camera position is shooting in the horizontal or vertical orientation. It can be easy to get in the habit of always shooting with the camera in the horizontal position, but again this may not be the best. Some subjects just work better with a vertical camera position, things like trees for example may work better with a vertical shot rather than a horizontal shot. Changing the camera orientation can give a photo a completely different feeling.














The next time you are out taking some photos, pay attention to where you are placing the camera and if you are always shooting with the camera in the horizontal camera position. Try experimenting shooting with the camera at different heights and with the camera held both horizontal and vertical.

Welcome

For a long time now I've thought about writing some articles on photography, things I've learned that might help others along, equipment reviews, or just ramblings. So I've decided to get started! Stayed tuned, the first article will be coming up shortly!