Archiving photos

[Z0l]

Hi there

i'd like to ask for some opinions what is the best way to archive and handle your photos. I've recently bought an EOS 400d, and the space-hungry RAW files are starting to fill up my harddrive. I've been using Aperture for some time, but i switched to Ligthroom recently (it's faster and it's library is easier to maintain). The solution i'm using right now is, that i have a shared iPhoto directory on my computer (i'm using it with my girlfriend, and she'd also like to access the photos) and i'm using those libraries in both iPhoto and Lightroom, and i do the archiving either from iPhoto or using an external dvd writer software, i backup to dvds. Any suggestions welcome :)

[Triglav]

Archiving and backups..two items that can be discussed forever.

Here goes my way of doing things: After loading the pics from camera to computer, I open them in Adobe Bridge and the first thing I do (this is important for archiving and finding your pics back) is adding keywords, dates, name of photographer and description. You can do that in bulk so it doesn't matter if you do it for 10 or 100 pics that you shot in one series. After that I delete the ones I don't like. Btw, my camera software (Canon) makes a directory for the date that the pics are shot. So I have a dir structure in dateformat.

Then every once a week I back up to my external harddrive. And, I use ACDSee for that, I burn them on DVD and create a picture disk. That way I have the thumbs on my pc (less space) and if I want to use that pic for some reason, I know on what DVD it is.

[speednut]

A few suggestions...

I've gone back to recover lost data only to find the backup media unreadable by multiple drives. Consider paying extra for CD/DVD backup media made for data archival. An example of this would be the Delkin Gold discs (http://www.delkin.com/products/archivalgold/index.html), but other manufacturers are now making gold archival media too.
Consider off-site backup storage. Always backup two copies of each DVD archive. This can be as simple as keeping a duplicate copy in a locked drawer at your office (assuming you don't work from home), at a local relative or friend's house, or a safe deposit box.

Backup when you've reached 4.7GB of data or in 2 weeks (time duration is up to you), whichever comes first. Determine your pain threshold for lost data. :confused: