Author Topic: Do you archive your RAW files? (Read 5308 times)

Holmes · « **on:** April 04, 2016, 20:09 »

I have always archived my RAW files as well as my uploaded JPEGS to a few hard drives. But I have been thinking if I really need to keep both since I cannot recall using my RAW files for anything after uploading as JPEGS.

Chichikov · « **Reply #1 on:** April 04, 2016, 23:15 »

I keep raw files, of course.
Before the digital era I kept the negatives too…
But I have seen a lot of people putting them in the trash and keeping only the prints.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #2 on:** April 04, 2016, 23:53 »

Quote from: Holmes on April 04, 2016, 20:09

I have always archived my RAW files as well as my uploaded JPEGS to a few hard drives. But I have been thinking if I really need to keep both since I cannot recall using my RAW files for anything after uploading as JPEGS.

I archived my images since I started taking pictures in 1999. Unfortunately it took a few years for me to 1) buy a camera that allows shooting in RAW and 2) actually shooting RAW.

I learned a lot about post processing in those years, so I have quite a few images that I processed years after a shot them because I never found them worth uploading before I knew how to process them. Also, I have a few images that I processed more than once, sometimes with two or three very different results at the end.

So not storing your RAW files and keeping them for easy access is throwing away money in my opinion.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 05, 2016, 01:06 »

I do keep them as I may want to revisit them with my "improved" processing abilities and advances in software I might also want to revisit to see if I missed something worth submitting inthe light of sales trends....whether this is that rational I'm not sure as I prefer to do new stuff rather than dwell on past failures

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #4 on:** April 05, 2016, 01:37 »

I keep them and a few times have gone back and reworked something from years earlier using improved processing techniques.
You would do well to keep at least the RAW files of images that you have uploaded, in case someone accuses you of stealing their work or demands that you prove you own an image. It has happened.

ricardoclick · « **Reply #5 on:** April 05, 2016, 01:43 »

They are also handy if you need to proof that an image is actually yours when one of your photos has been stolen

Alfa156Melb · « **Reply #6 on:** April 05, 2016, 04:55 »

I keep most of my RAW's but never jpegs.. once the jpeg has been uploaded or delivered to the client - they're deleted.

I mean if I ever need that jpeg again, i just export another copy from Lr.

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #7 on:** April 05, 2016, 05:31 »

I keep both RAW and Jpeg. Back them up into an external hard drive that goes in a safe. I'm also in the process up uploading around 3TB to Amazon Cloud Drive.

I always edit in RAW and storage is cheap these days so I archive just about everything.

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #8 on:** April 05, 2016, 05:36 »

Quote from: Alfa156Melb on April 05, 2016, 04:55

I keep most of my RAW's but never jpegs.. once the jpeg has been uploaded or delivered to the client - they're deleted.

I mean if I ever need that jpeg again, i just export another copy from Lr.

What happens if your RAW file gets corrupt? I've had quite a few problems with LR file corruption. The file gets a "!" icon and when you click it, it says something like "Lightroom cannot read this file".

noodle · « **Reply #9 on:** April 05, 2016, 06:10 »

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on April 05, 2016, 05:36

Quote from: Alfa156Melb on April 05, 2016, 04:55
I keep most of my RAW's but never jpegs.. once the jpeg has been uploaded or delivered to the client - they're deleted.

I mean if I ever need that jpeg again, i just export another copy from Lr.

What happens if your RAW file gets corrupt? I've had quite a few problems with LR file corruption. The file gets a "!" icon and when you click it, it says something like "Lightroom cannot read this file".

This is why it is beneficial to have duplicates on seperate storage systems

LDV81 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 05, 2016, 11:29 »

Quote from: noodle on April 05, 2016, 06:10

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on April 05, 2016, 05:36
Quote from: Alfa156Melb on April 05, 2016, 04:55
I keep most of my RAW's but never jpegs.. once the jpeg has been uploaded or delivered to the client - they're deleted.

I mean if I ever need that jpeg again, i just export another copy from Lr.

What happens if your RAW file gets corrupt? I've had quite a few problems with LR file corruption. The file gets a "!" icon and when you click it, it says something like "Lightroom cannot read this file".

This is why it is beneficial to have duplicates on seperate storage systems

When you sync the data, the corrupt file from the main storage overwrites the working files in the backups.
There is no good solution for this issue AFAIK, unless you keep many HDDs created at different points in time and don't overwrite them. It would be quite complicated and expensive, though.

RCerruti · « **Reply #11 on:** April 05, 2016, 12:13 »

Quote from: LDV81 on April 05, 2016, 11:29

Quote from: noodle on April 05, 2016, 06:10
Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on April 05, 2016, 05:36
Quote from: Alfa156Melb on April 05, 2016, 04:55
I keep most of my RAW's but never jpegs.. once the jpeg has been uploaded or delivered to the client - they're deleted.

I mean if I ever need that jpeg again, i just export another copy from Lr.

What happens if your RAW file gets corrupt? I've had quite a few problems with LR file corruption. The file gets a "!" icon and when you click it, it says something like "Lightroom cannot read this file".

This is why it is beneficial to have duplicates on seperate storage systems

When you sync the data, the corrupt file from the main storage overwrites the working files in the backups.
There is no good solution for this issue AFAIK, unless you keep many HDDs created at different points in time and don't overwrite them. It would be quite complicated and expensive, though.

I do have a solution: when I import the files from the card I immediately rename the files with name with an unambiguous name, using a batch. This batch also makes a copy of the just imported RAW files on a dedicated external HDD, which is not the ordinary backup HDD, so I have a copy of all my RAWs as they where just out of camera.
I also have a few files that Lightroom detects as corrupt, but they where taken before starting this further backup. Anyway Nikon Capture NX2 (r.i.p.) opens them without any problem.

LesHoward · « **Reply #12 on:** April 06, 2016, 10:59 »

My RAW files go back to the 1950s when I was a kid and I have family images that go back the better part of another century before that. We called them slides and negatives back then. The term 'RAW' is a child if the digital photo age born in the 1990s. Technology evolves but the concept of the original image remains.

I assume the technology we have today will evolve into something even better someday in the future. That allows us to take those old pictures and make them even better.

But only if you had the foresight to save the original!

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #13 on:** April 06, 2016, 11:09 »

Luckily I decided to shoot RAW from the day I started in 2004 and I have all those files duped on two hard drives. And I have gone back periodically to some of them to start processing from scratch.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #14 on:** April 06, 2016, 11:22 »

as a habit held from the film days , i shot with setting of RAW/jpeg at the initial stage when i switched to digital. but these days after so many years, i only shoot jpegs, and
unless it is an important shoot where i may not have much control, i go back to RAW/jpg
storing the RAW, like sean locke says.

but for micro, i just shoot jpg, as you already know the empirical exposures by now.
..
for obvious reasons, RAW takes up alot of storage, and many of the micro stuff don't need such backup... exp when it's all marijuana, apples, onion,etc.. on white

but if i am traveling , all my shots are set to RAW and jpg...
because it is unlikely i can reshoot... even if i could return to the same place.
..and raw is arquived.

compasiune11 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 19, 2016, 05:59 »

I always keep a back-up of my RAW files, you never know...

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Author Topic: Do you archive your RAW files? (Read 5308 times)

Holmes

Chichikov

MichaelJayFoto

Pauws99

BaldricksTrousers

ricardoclick

Alfa156Melb

PaulieWalnuts

PaulieWalnuts

noodle

LDV81

RCerruti

LesHoward

Sean Locke Photography

etudiante_rapide

compasiune11

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