Organizing and Archiving Digital Photos

Course details

As your digital photo collection grows, it becomes more important to organize and back up your work. Add in a long-term archiving strategy and you can ensure your photos will be accessible to future generations. In this course, photographer Derrick Story teaches the concepts and techniques behind efficient photo management and archival. First he compares photo storage philosophies and techniques. He then shows how to create an ultralight backup system for travel, using memory cards, mobile devices, and cloud-based services like Dropbox and iCloud. Next, learn how to organize and back up photos stored on a laptop or desktop using popular apps such as Adobe Lightroom and Photos for macOS. Finally, review archiving strategies for storing photos for decades and tips for preserving printed snapshots.

Topics include:
Preserving digital media
Transferring images to your computer
Creating an ultralight backup system for travel
Sending images from cameras to mobile devices
Internal vs. external hard drives
Organizing photos in managed vs. referenced catalogs
Archiving images from older hard drives
Integrating cloud services
Making prints
Digitizing snapshots

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome

1. Introduction to Data Protection

02 - The value of preserving personal media in the digital age
03 - HDD vs. SSD vs. Cloud
04 - The 3-2-1 philosophy for backing up images
05 - Whenever possible, automate
06 - The importance of testing your system

2. Ultralight Travel Backup

07 - Memory cards - The more the merrier
08 - Dual card slots in cameras
09 - Sending images from cameras to mobile devices
10 - Card readers for mobile devices and laptops
11 - Dropbox and Google Photos for mobile
12 - Lightroom mobile and Creative Cloud
13 - Photos for iOS and iCloud
14 - Clever work-arounds for mobile storage

3. Laptops and Desktops

15 - Freeing up space on your computer's internal drive
16 - A look at desktop external hard drives
17 - RAID 0 vs. RAID 1
18 - Options for portable SSD drives
19 - Backup options with Adobe Lightroom
20 - An approach for Capture One Pro users
21 - Tapping iCloud via Photos for macOS
22 - Managed catalogs vs. referenced catalogs
23 - Creating a Finder-based system for organizing

4. Archiving Strategies for Home and Office

24 - The difference between backing up and archiving
25 - Mortality rate for hard drives ten years old or more
26 - Strategies for prolonging the health of older hard drives
27 - Considerations for transferring content from older hard drives
28 - Naming conventions for your image folders
29 - Using search and browsers to find images
30 - Second location hard drives
31 - Integrating robust cloud services into your data safety net

5. Additional Things to Consider

32 - Making inkjet prints of your best work
33 - Helping family members protect their data as well
34 - Digitizing snapshots and archiving them
35 - What, if anything, should you delete
36 - Who are these people

Conclusion

37 - Goodbye and next steps

Organizing and Archiving Digital Photos

Authors

Derrick Story