My workflow in RAW file management >1 TB per year, storage and backup

[jackdevant]

Huge 40 MB RAW files from A7rII challenge previous storage and backup workflow schemas. Here is what I use currently. Nothing special, but it's simple and works well for me.

 

Background -- I'm a ballet photographer, shooting about 20-30 full length ballets around the world per year. My current run rate is about 2 TB of RAW photos per year. My main camera is Sony A7rII, average file size is abt 41 MB. I've used different scenarios, but currently using following one.

 

1. I import all photos from SD cards to Lightroom. My PC has super fast M.2 512 GB SSD storage and also 10 TB HDD. I keep my Lightroom catalogue and all previews on M.2 SSD and all RAW photos on 10 TB disk. I've tried also to import last "hot" shoot to SSD, but I did not encounter big performance increase, but added manual routines, moving later files to slower 10 TB drive.

 

2. All shoots are organised into collection sets and collections in lightroom, all photos are properly tagged during the import and additional specific tags are added later. So its easy to find everything later and track down to specific collection.

 

3. All photos on 10 TB HDD are backed up to Synology NAS, RAID 5 DiskStation (4 x 4 TB disks) fully automatically by Cloud Station Backup 4 software (Synology).

 

4. Selected directories from Synology NAS are backed up to Amazon Glacier for added off-site security. I use fully automatic Glacier Backup app for Synology.

This setup is fairly easy and automated. I do not have to copy directories from one storage device to another. Lightroom catalogue is also very simple. This method is good for photographers having photo archive less than 10 TB, which is maximum size of single HDD.