Archiving Digital Images?:confused:

[jenbob]

Okay, I have had my S2 for 4 months now and have ovewhelmed my 120gig external. Does anyone have any great insight on archiving these to disk? I have a DVD burner and it works well with the images but the camera automatically saves them as Tiff uncompressed and the Jpegs though seemingly being saved at 5 quality, when resaved are less than half their size. Is there something out there to streamline this process.

It is rather straight forward when I am archiving client jobs, but how does everyone else out there do this?

I have been using Extensis Portfolio 6 to view them and Photoshop 6 to edit.

Thought this might be a good discussion topic.

take care,
bob peak:confused: :confused:

[Tom V]

I often save my original tifs, RAWs, or JPGs and work on duplicates. When I get to a point where it is worth archiving files (as soon as I can for an important $hoot, or after I have done some work I don't feel like redoing) I copy them to a CD-R.

Before saving, I might delete some of the absolutely unneeded files, and sort the rest into folders (sub directories?) labeled ORIGINALS, WORKING FILES, FINAL, etc. On the occasion that I have to dig something out of the archives, I can retrieve the FINAL FILES (perhaps to resubmit to a magazine), modify my WORKING FILES to manipulate the graphic without entirely starting over and to maintain uniformity with the rest of the project (client may want dated material edited), or to the ORIGINAL files to start another project with the existing exposures.

I find CD-R media reliable (banish your Zip Drives!) , cheap at less than 50¢, and quick to burn on my LaCie 16x CD-RW Firewire+USB external drive. I use Toast Light software. I have an internal CD-R(W?) on my Mac, but it doesn't save the file modification dates with the files, and to me, that is important information.

I keep my CD-R archives in 200-disc Fellows brand binders. I buy the disks 100 or 200 at a time. For FedEx'ing CD-Rs around the country, I don't bother with space-hogging jewel cases, instead using 5" x 5" CD envelopes or sleeves . The only time I use a jewel case is for customers that constantly loose things, figuring that finding a jewel case in their disaster area (office) might be easier than finding a flat envelope.

I can compress the 35MB tif files with Stuffit (lossless) compression, but the time involved costs more than burning an extra disc, so I burn uncompressed ORIGINAL FILES. When I work on an image in Photoshop, I save it as a tif with LZW compression (lossless). Even layered files can be saved as tif files if you turn on advanced tif saving options.

I tend to leave a file in RGB mode, and not to sharpen until the file is ready to go to FINAL form. This way I can repurpose my WORKING FILES for output in different sizes or media (magazine, Fiery laser copier/printer, web, inkjet, large format, etc.)

[amazingthailand]

Because of the large size of the raw and tif files, archiving to DVD-R is what makes the most sense. I use a pioneer A-04 in a firewire enclosure (external), so I can move it about between my many computers. Plus I can take it on the road with me, as my laptop has builtin firewire.

The most difficult issue is having a good catalog system so I can find images at a later date. Canto's Cumulus is one good example of a catalog program. The only problem is that they do not support the fuji raw format, so you must catalog on the JPG file (for a thumbnail image). But that's not a problem as I always create a JPG from my raw files anyway.

Basically, I think you are on the right track with your DVD-R. I too use CD/DVD wallets, instead of jewel cases - great space saver.

If I need to send images to someone, I burn a CD-R and send that.

Wait until the next generation of cameras that produce even larger file sizes. Soon DVD's won't be big enough!

Regards,
Declan