Q&A - Mini-Boom

Q&A - Mini-Boom: "Quite a few people asked me about the small boom that was used for the key light in the photos of J.D. Roth.

Here's the skinny, in seven words: Cheap, travels well; I really like it.

Details, after the jump.
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Okay, here's he thing: It is not a boom at all. It's a reflector holder:


That said, it is a pretty slick little boom for speedlight folks. But officially, it is the LumoPro LP621 Reflector Holder, and it is $45. (But until the end of the August, there is an instant rebate that takes it down to $40.)

Note that the stand also shown above does not come with the boom -- you get the swivel head and the boom itself. It comes with the clamps to hold a reflector, which I will probably never ask it to do. So I pulled them off.

Here's why I like it as a boom. It extends to 66', but collapses to 30' for easy travel. The swivel head is ratcheted, which means it punches above its weight. It'll hold more than you'd expect.

Further, it has a stud on each end so in addition to hanging your speedlight out there (firmly) on one end, you can hang a counterweight on the other end with the included hook. I like to use a 2.5-lb free weight disc, which you can barely see at right.

One caveat: I do not recommend balancing this thing on top of a compact, 5-way stand. While I love them for speedlights, this would be asking too much of the stand. (The boom is sturdy, the compact stand combo is not.)

So you'll want to stick it onto just about any other standard-sized light stand and everything's cool. Remember to slide the boom on the fulcrum until your weight easily balances your flash naturally before locking down the clamp.

For good measure, I hand a camera bag on the stand itself, too.

But all-in-all, a very wallet-friendly solution for an over-the-top problem.
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:: Mini-Boom ::

New: Strobist Index

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Photographing Bands in Bars, Part 2 – Set Up

Photographing Bands in Bars, Part 2 – Set Up: "

A guest post by Music Photographer Rick Bennett.

Band photography in bars can be very challenging, but with a little bit of knowledge and planning you can make images that blow away the standard fan photo. In Part 1, I discussed equipment choices: cameras, lenses and flashes. In this article, I’ll describe how to set up just before the performance to get the best shots.

First and foremost, you need to attempt to assess the security of your gear before you pull anything out. No band photographs are worth losing a camera or lens or flash over. The bands I’ve tended to shoot have played in nice neighborhoods in well established bars with well behaved clientele. But I’m constantly on the alert because the clientele could change in a heartbeat. In some situations, I’ll leave flashes and camera bags unattended, but I’ll never walk away from my camera. A VAL (voice activated light stand) can certainly help keep an eye on your gear, but the best place for the bag with extra gear is with the band’s gear, usually close to the stage. Having it close to their things means they’re more likely to help keep an eye on it as well. That being said, I’ve never had a problem with gear walking off, but that is something you’ll have to assess at every gig.

I generally try to find a seat (if they have seats) near to the front of the audience, left of center from the audience’s perspective. If there is an obvious front-row of fans, I’ll put my “home base” behind them since a) those fans would be the most irritated by a blocked view, and b) their excitement can make great framing devices. I choose left-of center because most guitar players are right handed, and I prefer pictures where the body of the guitar is closer to the camera. I want to be off-center because it generally results in better images of singers if the microphone doesn’t cover the lower half of their face. But this is just a “home base” where I’ll come back to in order to change lenses or enjoy some of the music. This is not where you’ll park your camera the whole performance. More on that in Part 3. After you’ve determined your home base, try to introduce yourself to the band, if this wasn’t arranged ahead of time. Get their permission to shoot their performance–I can’t imagine they would be upset by it, but it helps to build rapport by asking.

If you’re going to use off-camera flash, you’ll need to determine placement based on the layout of the bar. My standard layout is to work with two flashes, one at the extreme left of the stage, and the other at the extreme right. See this light diagram as an example. But again, it all depends on what you’ve got available to you for clamping/securing/mounting a flash. If I’m going to clamp a flash to something that the bar owns (and isn’t as simple as a chair or table or steel pole) I’ll check with a bartender or sound-guy first. I’ll let them know I’m there to shoot the band, and ask permission to mount a flash on their light-bar, for example. No one has ever given me grief, but its good to get permission first–asking forgiveness is not a good way to build your reputation. After I’ve placed the flash, I point the flash at the far side of the stage–this way the closest performer is in the “feathered” light, where the furthest performer gets the most direct blast, but at a much greater distance.

When shooting with two flashes, I generally set their triggers to different transmitter channels for the first set, and to the same channel for the second set. This gives me a wide variety of pictures–some with dramatic hard lighting, some with more balanced cross light.

Since I’m using manual flashes, I set my shutter speed to one click down from my max sync speed, which means I’m set to 1/160s. For the most part, this usually eliminates the stage lights, if any. I can always slow that down if I decide I want to let in more ambient or motion blur, but I start with 1/160s. Then I go to each of the positions of the band members, and if needed, place my hand about where their face would be, take a shot, chimp, repeat, until I determine the proper aperture for that performer. This ends up being pretty straight forward in a one-flash setting: the performer closest to the flash might be f/11, the next one might be f/8, then f/5.6 then f/4.8. I might write this down in a note pad, but usually I just get a feel for how “hot” the closest performer is, and knock the aperture down from there. If I can’t get enough light on the performer most distant from the flash, I’ll either increase the power on the flash or increase my ISO. I prefer to keep my flash power at 1/4 for fast recycle times, but that isn’t always possible because of the layout of the bar.

If you’re not using off-camera flash, I recommend setting your ISO to the highest setting you can tolerate based on the noise it produces, probably in the 800 to 3200 range. With my D60, I never went higher than 800 if I could help it. With my D5000, I can go all the way to 3200 with impunity. Next I’ll set the camera to spot metering, servo-continuous focusing, and aperture priority at the lowest setting for the lens. The D5000 (and other cameras I’m sure) can also enable “Auto ISO” where you specify the range of ISO that are acceptable (I’ll allow 200-3200) and the minimum shutter speed. The camera will then automatically boost your ISO as needed to match your given shutter speed. I’m still getting used to this feature, but I think it has the potential to really help in these kinds of situations. I’ll also set the camera to capture RAW+Basic JPEG. I save RAW and JPEG because the RAW files allow me to manipulate color balance better than JPEG, and the camera applies the best noise reduction to the JPEG.

To summarize, my camera settings generally look like this:

• Off Camera Flash: Manual mode, 1/160s, aperture depends on performer distance to flash, ISO 200-800 if possible to get flash power set to 1/4. Metering mode doesn’t matter since I’m in manual mode.


• Ambient Only: Aperture priority, smallest f-stop for lens, ISO high enough to get to 1/120s shutter speed, spot metering for close up shots, matrix metering for wide angle.

In part 3, I’ll cover shooting

Rick Bennett has been shooting bands in bars, at festivals, and on big stages for about a year. You can see more of his work on his blog, portfolio, or Flickr stream.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Photographing Bands in Bars, Part 2 – Set Up

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How to Photograph Bands in Bars – Equipment

How to Photograph Bands in Bars – Equipment: "

A guest post by Music Photographer Rick Bennett.

Some of my favorite photography subjects are musicians while they are performing. They tend to be having fun, they like the attention, and they’re challenging to capture well because of their environments. Capturing musicians in the wild can be tough and very rewarding.

Digital Photography School recently published 6 Tips for Budding Live Concert Photographers. One of the tips was to start out shooting friends’ bands in small clubs. I’m going to expand on that suggestion by writing a three part series on photographing bands in bars. In the first part, I’ll deal with equipment choices. In the second part, I’ll deal with set-up just prior to the performance. In the last, I’ll discuss shooting techniques.

The most obvious part of the equipment you’ll need is a camera, and your choice of camera can really make or break your final images. It should probably go without saying that a dSLR is almost certainly required, but there are some high end compacts that could fit the bill. At a minimum, the camera should either have a hot shoe or replaceable lenses. If the lenses aren’t replaceable, look for very fast built-in glass. It also needs the ability save images in RAW format since the color balance will likely be completely crazy from any stage lights. If you’re not familiar with RAW processing, its easy enough to convert your images to black and white, and those look cool too. Finally, your camera needs to give you the ability to choose your focus point and easily manually focus. Like I said, most standard dSLRs fit all of these requirements.

One consideration that’s more difficult to determine is low noise at high ISO. Don’t be fooled by the specs on the box: 1600 ISO on a Nikon D5000 is not the same as 1600 ISO on an Olympus E-620. For example, in one review the noise in a D5000 JPG at 3200 ISO is about the same as the noise in an E-620 JPG at 800 ISO. That’s a two stop difference that can change a 1/30s blurry shot into a usable 1/120s. Check the available reviews to make sure you’re getting a camera with the best high ISO performance in your price range. High quality at high ISO means you’ll be able to boost the ISO close to the max, meaning faster shutter speeds to help stop motion when using ambient light.

Next, you have a choice when starting out: either use off-camera flash or use fast (f/2.8 or better) lenses. At the low end the price is about the same: a decent manual flash + triggers + mounts can be just under $200 while a “Nifty Fifty” or the Jive Thirty Five are also under $200. As with everything photography, the prices only go up. The choice of off-camera flash vs. fast glass is a tough one. Flash can work in most situations but there are some venues where placement of a remote flash can be very challenging or even prohibited. Conversely, an f/1.8 50mm or 35mm lens captures a lot of light but the short focal length means you’ll be right in the performers’ faces, and some bars (at least in my town) don’t even bother to light the performance area. I started with off-camera flash, then acquired the Jive Thirty Five, and I’ve used them both during performances to capture different moods.

The ideal lens is a bigger zoom: 70-200mm f/2.8. Its almost as fast as an f/1.8 but it allows you to back away from the performers a bit (or shoot a stage that you can’t access). But even that lens doesn’t solve all the lighting problems in a bar and I’ve found I still like to use off-camera flash for many bar stages. If you can’t afford an f/2.8 zoom, then any other zoom will do if you’re willing to use off camera flash. In most bars a 5.6 300mm lens won’t be able to shoot at less than 3200 ISO at 1/30s. That means a lot of motion blur and camera shake if you don’t use flash.

To go with flash, you probably will start with a lower cost full manual flash like the workhorse classic Vivitar 285HV. It gives you decent range of manual power settings, and a tilt-zoom head. My one complaint about the 285HV is that it doesn’t have a swivel head. In a bar with awkward mounting conditions, a swivel head can go a long way. So look for a flash that has manual power settings down to 1/32 and a zoom-tilt-swivel head. Some in this class have a built in optical slave, which might seem like a good way to save some money on the triggers, but it will likely just kill your batteries-the slaved flash will go off every time some other fan of the band takes a picture. Manual triggers (i.e. those that don’t support TTL metering) can be had for less than $50.

If you want to take it up a notch, you can go TTL (through the lens metering) with your off-camera flash. That is beyond the scope of this article, but it will allow you a better level of creative control from the camera, and it will cost significantly more as well.

When I’ve done off-camera flash in a bar, my preferred light stand is a VAL-voice activated light stand. They range in price, but frequently can be had for the price of a pint or two when you enlist a friend or relative to help you. With a VAL, you can have very focused light on a single performer without blasting the whole stage with light. And it is easy for a VAL to adapt to performers moving around a lot-a clamped flash can’t do that. My preferred VAL is my wife, and we quickly worked out elaborate hand signals so that I could tell her who to point the flash toward: one finger meant the first performer from the left, two fingers meant the second one, and so on. I know its complex, but you can probably figure out your own method of signaling the VAL. If you add a snoot to the flash, which keeps the beam narrowly focused, you can create dramatic lighting on a performer that looks a lot like a spot light.

If a VAL isn’t an option for you, you’ll need a way to secure the flash to something in the bar. You’ll likely need an umbrella swivel, or some other method of converting a hot shoe to a 1/4-20 bolt. Then you can clamp the flash pretty much anywhere. I’ve clamped flashes to pictures, light bars, chair backs, shelves, posts, and drop ceilings (the drop-ceiling scissor clamp is a must here!). If you can, scouting the location will help you know what kind of clamp you’ll need for ideal placement. In some venues, if the crowds are light, I’ve even used standard light stands. A super clamp or modified A-clamp will serve you well here.

In part two, I’ll discuss setting up your gear at the venue. Subscribe to dPS to be notified of future posts in this series.

Rick Bennett has been shooting bands in bars, at festivals, and on big stages for about a year. You can see more of his work on his blog, portfolio, or Flickr stream.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How to Photograph Bands in Bars – Equipment

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15 Must Have Photography Accessories Under $25*

15 Must Have Photography Accessories Under $25*: "

< p>A Guest post by Kat Landreth from Pare and Focus. *All prices and estimates in USD.

Photography can be an expensive hobby. Cameras cost a bundle and lenses for DSLRs often cost a lot more than the camera body. Once you come to grips with the money you spent on the bare necessities it can be daunting to think about spending another fortune on accessories.

The good news is there are plenty of photography accessories that costs less than $25 (US). I’ve put together 15 of my favorites, and they often cost a lot less than $25. But I don’t think of them as “cheap” or “budget” items. These are valuable tools I would want in my kit even if money was no object. The combination of value and low cost means they make great gifts too.

1. White Foam Core - At around $5 this is probably the least expensive lighting equipment you’ll ever own. The white surface can be used to bounce light into shadows, softening hard contrasty light. Or, place it between your subject and the light source to cast shadows where you want them. You can even place it behind your subject for a clean distraction free background. Buy just one from a craft store for a few dollars, or get a pack of 5 boards on amazon.com for about $15.

2. 18% Gray Card (AKA Medium Gray Card – Use your post processing time to get creative, not fixing basic exposure and white balance problems. A medium gray card helps you get it right “in camera” for just $10. An 18% gray card is designed to represent the average photographic scene by reflecting an average amount of light (18% give or take). Cameras are designed to reproduce average scenes, but not every scene in real life is average. Your camera can be fooled into under or over exposing pictures of very bright or very dark scenes. Using a gray card to set exposure will give you much more accurate results. You can also use an medium gray card to set a custom white balance for more consistent color in your photos.

3. Spray Bottle - The trick to shooting fresh and dewy spider webs, fruit, and flowers isn’t waking at the crack of dawn. It’s having a spray bottle handy. It might feel like “cheating” at first but when you see the results you won’t care anymore. You can’t argue with the price either. Fine mist spray bottles can be found for about one dollar.

4. Lens Pen - Leave the lens fluid and papers at home. The “pen” has a microfiber disk filled with dry lens cleaner on one end. The other end has a retractable brush. Dusting with the brush removes large particles of dust. Lightly rubbing the disk on your lens will remove smudges, fingerprints and spots. A half twist of the pen with the cap on cleans the disk. I swear by this thing. I bought one for a trip to dusty Africa and used it extensively. They’re easy to use, they work perfectly, and they’re pretty cheap (around $10). I can’t believe I didn’t have one before.

5. Cloth bag of rice/beans - If you can’t or don’t want to carry a tripod around, having a bag of rice can be the next best thing. Use it to prop up your camera or rest your lens anywhere. Keep the cloth bag empty when traveling to save space and weight. When you get to your destination buy some rice or beans and fill it up. When you’re done, either eat the rice/beans, or give them to someone in need. You can buy dedicated “beanbags” filled with plastic pellets for exactly this purpose starting at about $8.

6. Remote Shutter Release - Make tack sharp photos and no fuss self portraits for around $20. A remote shutter release lets you take the picture without touching the camera. This reduces motion blur caused by camera shake. Since the cord is a couple of feet long, it can make taking self portraits a little easier too. If you spend some time on Amazon you may even find a wireless remote shutter release that gives you even greater flexibility in the same price range. The camera’s self-timer is a less flexible but free option.

7. LED Flash Light - These things are multi tasking marvels. Experiment with light drawing and light painting at night. And while you’re out there in the dark, you can use it to see where you’re going. They’re not just for night photography though. LED lights can look pretty close to sunlight. If you’re shooting outside they can be an inexpensive stand in for an off camera flash. You can get a small LED Maglite for around $20.

8. Nikon (or similar) Lens Caps - I love my Canon, but they make the worst lens caps. Nikon caps are a lot easier to use. The pinchable area on the sides of the Nikon cap are at least twice as wide as the Canon caps. You can pinch from the center of a Nikon cap as well. This makes it easier to remove/replace the cap when a lens hood is in place. The easier it is to use the more likely I am to use it. The more I use the cap, the safer my lens is. They come in a variety of sizes (make sure you get the right size for your lens) and generally cost a few dollars.

9. A Flash Diffuser (or Wax Paper) - If you have to use the on-camera flash, you can at least soften its effects with a flash diffuser. These come in many styles but they all use a white translucent material to diffuse light. Want to try before you buy? Tape a ring of waxed paper around your pop up flash next time you use it. In principal this will do the same thing as a diffuser, though it’s not durable and certainly not professional looking. When you’re at home taking family snapshots it probably doesn’t matter if you look professional. But, fair warning, it might not be a good idea to let the bride catch you with wax paper on your camera at your next wedding gig.

10. Filter Wrench - If you have any screw on filters, one day, one of them will get stuck on your lens. It’s a sad but true fact of filter use. Filters often get stuck because the pressure from your fingers bends the filter a little when you try to unscrew them. Gripping harder to un-stick a stuck-on filter just makes it worse. A filter wrench distributes the pressure of your grip around the entire edge, gripping the filter tight without bending it. Get a filter wrench before you need one so you’re not tempted to force off a stuck-on filter and make it permanently stuck in the process. A set of two wrenches costs about $5.

11. Reflective Emergency Blanket and/or Circular Reflector - Both of these can be used to reflect light into shadows. The nice thing about the emergency blanket, aside from it being very cheap (a pack of four blankets costs a little over $5), is that the mylar it’s made of is waterproof. Throw it over your gear in a sudden downpour, or toss it on the dewey ground when you need to get low. Circular reflectors can’t pull triple duty like the emergency blanket, but they can still be had for under $25 and unlike the emergency blanket they can be held in place with one hand. Ideally, you would have both and at these prices that’s actually practical.

12. Bulb Blower - It’s important to blow off any large grains of sand and dirt before you wipe your camera or lens. You don’t want grains of sand to scratch your lens as you wipe it. A bulb blower delivers a powerful blast of clean air to blow away any dangerous particles. Skip the wimpy brush/blower combo they try to sell you in cleaning kits. The only thing they really do is shed bristled on your camera. Giottos makes a great bulb blower called the Rocket Blower for about $10.

13. Compact Backpacking Hand Towel - This is a must have if you shoot outside. An absorbent lightweight backpacking towel can whisk drops of water away before they become a problem. It’s also nice just to give your gear a quick wipe down at the end of the day to prevent dust and grime from accumulating. Keeping dust and dirt off the outside of your camera may even help keep it from getting inside your camera when you change lenses. These towels take up very little room and they’re worth every penny of the $10 they cost. *Note: I don’t use this for the front or rear element of the lens.

14. A Flickr Account - Use for archiving, getting feedback, showing off, and tracking your progress. A free account gets you 100MB of photo storage every calender month. For about $25 a year you get unlimited uploads and storage space which is awesome if you want to archive your digital photos. I really like Flickr for the community (which you get access to wether you go pro or not). Photographers start “groups” to share photos and discussions with other, like minded photogs.

Wether you want to ask questions, start a group or just have an online home for your photos Flickr’s got you covered.

15. Hot Shoe Mount Bubble Level- Keep your horizons straight even when hand-holding. It’s just a small bubble level that slips into your camera’s hot shoe. Not having to constantly straighten and crop your photos could easily be worth the $5 this bubble level costs.

These make great gifts! Is there a budding photographer in your life? A gift basket stuffed with a lens pen, compact hand towel, and bulb blower is perfect for a traveler. Are they shooting family events and holidays? Lighting accessories like reflectors, diffusors, and white foam core really come in handy for portraiture. Just bought their first DSLR? A basket with an 18% gray card, filter wrench, and remote shutter release is better than any cheap “get started kit” sold at the camera store.

I’m always looking for ways to do more with less. So, what are your favorite inexpensive photography accessories?

About the Author: Kat Landreth runs a blog called Pare and Focus – it has simple, inexpensive tips to make digital photos look better. There are “in camera” tricks along side tutorials for the free image editor GIMP.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

15 Must Have Photography Accessories Under $25*

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Seven Tips for Winning Photo Contests

Seven Tips for Winning Photo Contests: "

Guest Post & Photo by Joe Farace – Follow Joe on Twitter

You can use two different approaches for entering photo contents: One method is to submit your favorite picture and you might even win but the odds are against you. I enjoy photographing this old farm near my home, but although I love this picture, I might not enter it into a photo contest and expect to win.

If you want to win any competition, ya’ gotta know the rules and make sure to follow them. If you don’t, an entry that stood a good chance of winning can easily get tossed out. Start by making sure your entry is properly classified. If you want to enter an equestrian picture, it won’t fit the auto category just because it has one horsepower. Be sure to follow the technical specifications for file upload size or print sizes too. Read the rules and read them again, this time looking at the fine print.

One popular misconception is that a winning photograph must be technically flawless. Not true. Your picture doesn’t have to be perfect but should be technically competent. Perfection alone won’t win any prizes. A picture may be so sharp that you can count a subject’s eyelashes but if their eyes show you haven’t connected with that person, the entry will hit the circular file faster than you can say “the lights are on, but nobody’s home. “

Great photographs force you to stop and take a second look and initial impact is what separates winners from “also rans” in any horse race. There will be lots of entries and some are going to be very good but you only have one chance to make the judges want a second look. Here are a few tips that might help you better in your next photo competition.

1. Don’t be a fair weather photographer. Often the best photographs are made under less than ideal conditions and are captured on dark, cloudy, rainy or snowy days, at dawn, sunset, or night. That doesn’t mean you should go out during a tornado but pick a time of year and day when other people are not around making photographs.

2. Make bold images. Create strong composition with simple lines that say speed and power or use a formal, symmetrical organization to create a quiet Zen-like mood. Use colors that by themselves could be the subject of the photograph.

3. Don’t just make a picture; make a statement! Photograph subjects you are passionate about, not just ones you think the judges will like. What they really want to so is that you care deeply about what you’re photographing.

4. Avoid eye-level camera placement. Climb a ladder, lamppost, or hill to find a dramatic camera angle. Lie on your stomach, use wide-angle lenses, and shoot up against the sky to simplify the background. Don’t be afraid to get yourself and your clothes dirty in pursuit of a prizewinner.

5. Get close to your subject. Use a macro lens, close-up filters, or a bellows to show an everyday object in a way that has not been depicted

before or at least not lately.

6. Carry a camera wherever you go. Vladimir Horowitz was one of the greatest piano virtuosos who ever lived, yet he practiced every day. Digital cameras give you the ability to make lots of images at little cost, so take advantage of this capability and shoot as much and often as you can. You never know when a great photo opportunity will pop up right in front of you.

7. Be organized. Analyze your work as a group of photographs not individually and one will clearly pop out as best. Use image browser software that lets you see lots of thumbnails at one time.

Whatever you do, don’t ask friends or family for their opinions about your photographs. Like Sally Fields said, “they like you, really like you.” and will tell you how great your work is (even if it might not be all that good.) Seek out people you trust but be prepared to hear that you are not the photographic genius your sister Kate thinks you are. Learn from those critiques and don’t keep making the same picture over and over again.

____

This post sponsored by WHCC – White House Custom Colour – Get Five Free 8×10 Prints From WHCC

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Backing Up and Saving Your Images: Part 1

Backing Up and Saving Your Images: Part 1: "

There are few photographers who can claim they haven’t at one time or another accidentally deleted an image or lost an important file, yet so many of us negate the need to back up our libraries. It could be due to laziness, lack of time, lack of knowledge or sheer denial that anything bad will happen that prevents us from doing the most obvious thing – photography 101 – always back up your work.

If you don’t create a separate catalogue of files externally and your computer crashes, laptop gets stolen or your memory card corrupts – you’ll only have yourself to blame, and who’s to say the monetary value as well as wasted time these losses can bring . However, don’t hang your head in shame just yet as incredibly, a survey carried out by software giant Symantec last year, discovered that only 34% of photographers regularly backed up images, despite the fact that apparently two out of three admit to loosing data.

With that in mind we look at righting a wrong, in this four part series on backing up we will first give you some guidelines and suggestions to consider before, during and after you saving your files. The second part uncovers external hard drives; how to use them, how to choose one and who are the big players in the market. The third part assesses the emergence of online storage sites and the rise of backing up software. The final instalment will uncover ways in which you can retrieve lost or damaged files from your computer and memory cards. This may not be a lesson in creative, but it’s a lesson many of us photographers could learn from.

Preparation

The first thing you will need to do is create a folder of all the files, images and documents you want to save. Whilst most contemporary hard drive capacities will run into terabytes of space, online storage can be a costly venture. With that in mind it is advisable to back up all your work or all the files in this newly created folder to an external device, then cherry pick the most precious files from this folder and upload these to the online storage provider also. However be sure to research the options carefully and pick an affordable solution that is within your budget; as online backup can become very expensive in the long run as the fees have to be continuously paid or the content is erased. Read every letter of the small print before you sign up to make sure you are 100% comfortable with their policies. It is often best to use a service that encrypts your information before it leaves your computer and is thus dedicated to keeping your work private. What is more a site that promises not to compromise the integrity of your information by giving it an array of advertisers is one to definitely consider.

Make it part of your routine

There is limited benefit in backing up your files once or leaving it as a bi-annual chore. If you are a prolific photographer, you’ll be uploading images regularly and so backing these up should become a regular habit. Furthermore if you have a penchant for editing you may want to ensure your newly altered frames are saved in their latest version. If you simply don’t have the time or energy to be as prompt with storage, why not circle the same date in your calendar every month or the same day every week to back up thus minimising the amount you would lose in a crash.

Keep your eggs in separate baskets

Some photographers prefer to just use an external hard drive for backing up images as they are arguably more cost effective, for example £60 ($95) will buy you around 1TB of storage – more than most photographers will ever need. Whereas others declare an online storage company more reliable; the most secure way to protect your data is to use both, however as we’ve just realised – online storage can become costly. The external hard drive will act as an accessible bank of data, but if that crashes or is stolen you will find yourself in the same situation as if you hadn’t backed up in the first place, so keeping an offsite copy of your data as well could be a happy medium. Rather than purchasing one massive external hard drive, it is advisable to buy several smaller capacity ‘passport’ style hard drives or even USB pens, and saving your work in replica across these devices. As well as keeping a data bank in your house or office, why not ask someone you trust to hold on to the other in case your main unit is lost, stolen or damaged? How many you use is your decision just remember there is a fine balance between paranoia and being safe, it’s just a case of being comfortable with the level of protection you choose.

Getting the most byte for your buck

As with most things in life, there is a solution for every budget, but ultimately you get what you pay for. The more money you spend, generally the higher performance and security feature, capacity and faster transfer speed you can expect. As explained above, it is not unheard of to find a 1TB Hard Drive for around £60 on a shopping website such as Amazon, however the performance and features you get for this may not be able to compete with a prestige model offering a lower capacity from a more reputable firm. So in short, shop around and if possible read customer reviews from a variety of sources to ascertain its ‘real’ value for money. We will discover what features you will need to evaluate in Part Two of this backing-up trilogy, as well as explaining what specifications are good, great and excellent.

Keep it retro

As well as backing up online and using an external hard drive, there is the option to back up onto CDs, DVDs or now Blu-Ray Discs. This is perhaps one of the simplest operations to perform as users need only to click and drag files onto the disc’s folder or simply select ‘burn to CD’ depending on your operating system. There are several software packages available that are specifically designed to create a more straightforward workflow using this method, which we will discuss in part three. Furthermore, depending on which brand you purchase, CDs can often be quite cost effective. However due to the ‘open’ nature of the medium, discs can easily become scratched or damaged and thus your images corrupted. Whilst this is a worthy second or third string to your back-up bow, it is unadvisable to use this method as your sole backing-up solution.

Tags: Backing Up, Storage Devices

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Backing Up and Saving Your Images: Part 1

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