File Storage - RAW and JPG?

[Cyberman]

Like many people I use the 'RAW + JPG' mode on my camera.
I edit my RAW files (CR2 files from my EOS2) using Elements which then gives me a Photoshop file, PSD.
The JPG tends to get replaced by the result of the file editing, and it's the JPG that I upload to Flickr or elsewhere.
So I guess that's all pretty normal.

My question is this which files do people store locally?
Do you keep the original RAW, the photoshop file and the JPG? Or do you delete the JPG once you used it as it can be created again from the RAW/Photoshop files.

I am trying to get some sort of manageable concept in place as I am amassing a high number of files!

[Riggers]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I use Lightroom which takes all the pain out of this. I shoot only in Raw and import into LR (into an imports folder by date) where I then flag / rate. Lightroom makes it really easy to then file the keepers in an appropriate folder and delete the rest.

I then have some publish settings for the various places I publish e.g. Flickr. When I post to Flickr LR publishes it directly to there without saving a jpeg on my hard drive. If I need a jpeg on my hard drive for any reason I have another publish setting which can do that as and when required but I usually don't bother keeping jpegs as I can fire one out of LR any time I want.

So I just have to back up the folder where the original raw files are stored along with the LR database.

If I need to do any editing in Photoshop I just select the file in LR, right click, and 'Edit it Photoshop'. PS then saves back a TIFF alongside the original CR2 in the LR database so I now unflag (but keep) the original raw file. So mostly I just have the original RAW file along with all the develop history in LR and in some cases I may have done some editing in PS so will have an additional version as a TIFF.

[colin C]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I only shoot in RAW. Therefore I process in Canon DPP and save the processed RAW files and then further process into Jpegs for working files. Anything a bit special will be processed as Tiff's.

RAW files and working files are kept separately on different hard drives for safety.

[DeeGee]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

Only shoot Raw and store them. If I have worked on the file and really like the jpeg resulting then that gets stored too. I have two small (1tb or less)hard drives and back up to each (about once monthly)

I recently had a large backup drive fail completely. So I think I will go the route of having more smaller backup drives and just buy new for extra storage as new technology means that they hardly break the bank or are enormous in size if you know what I mean.

[AlexR!]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I only shoot Raw (as an aside I never understood the point of Raw+JPEG outside of the specialised requirements of a wedding/commercial photographer, but that's a discussion that has raged across many another thread). I upload the images in Elements, which creates a folder on my hard drive for each day, and I view them in Organiser. Any that I want to keep I'll produce a JPEG of - I work on the theory that if I can't be bothered to do at least that level of processing it is telling me I don't need to keep it at all. I'll save off 'final' JPEGs at various stages or alternatives (mono etc), which are saved in the same upload folder as the Raws. I very rarely save the PSD although logic tells me I probably should; I just know I'm unlikely to go back and do significant re-edits, any later minor tinkers I do to the JPEG and the additional cost of size is disproportionate to the benefit. Organiser stacks all these variants together so I only see one thumbnail per shot in the catalogue, but I can expand the view easily. The only variants that I don't hold in Organiser are lower resolution images for the web, which I regard as ephemeral.
So, in summary, I hold the Raw and at least one JPEG for every shot, in the same folder.
My whole hard drive gets auto backed up in Apple's Time Capsule at regular intervals throughout the day. Additionally I do an Elements Catalogue backup to a separate hard drive every month or so, and every year I cut the previous year's images to DVD. That reminds me, I must do that.
Hope that helps, but I caveat the above by saying it is a flow line that just sort of works for me; I'm wary of recommending it to anyone else.

[Les McLean]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

Just shoot in RAW, then sort through the images using photo mechanic, tagging the ones I want to work on, send them to PS, do all the edits on individual images prior to saving them as unsharpened tiffs, which are stored on a separate drive, and backed up daily to another drive.

Having an unsharpened tiff means I can select the amount of sharpening for individual tiffs depending upon jpg output.

[MX5]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I just shoot in RAW. So that's what is saved. I use a Network Storage device (which currently contains 2 3TB drives ... but because it's RAID it is only 'seen' as 3TB of store (decreasing over time as snapshots are taken every night). It has two slots free at the moment. This has portable drive(s) attached which become a second backup. Another network drive provides a tertiary backup. My original primary backup expired (with that OMG clicking noise!!) about 2 weeks after the NAS was fully up and running ... Phew. So hard drives can and do fail ... more often than people think.

A root folder contains the processed files organised by date (well the place I visited), but this time containing JPEGs and sometimes TIFFs).

The NAS's backup facility is used as is SyncToy.

Finally there's the spectre of 'Digital image preservation' and should we convert Canon RAW to DNG in case Canon RAW ceases to be in the future. Again this is something that concerns digital archives (Public Record office et al). Titter not it is very real, I created many documents in Lotus Manuscript (a nice word processor) in years gone by ... but you try finding fully functional support for it these days (stands by as someone says use X, Y or Z).

All a bit OTT but a) what value do you place on your images and b) it's what my sermons to customers say

[ST-EOS]

File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I currently use the Raw plus Jpg approach and have done so since I started using a Canon DSLR (50D).
I like others here use a year-date-place folder filing system for my images. Where the year is the high level folder with each date folder as a child to the year parent.
I too use LR for the majority of my edits, exporting to PS to resize, add a small border and my signature prior to posting an image on line.
However my new year resolution is to just shoot Raw. I have two reasons for making this change:-
1. Space saving on my digital storage, 2 internal 1TB intl. HDD's plus a 1 TB extl. HDD which is used as a second backup location the first being one of the intl. drives.
2. I now have sufficient confidence that I can in PP create a usable jpg if and when required.

Given time my intention is to review this years images to delete all un edited jpg's, saving just the Raw files and any edited jpg/tiffs.
I also intend to be more judicious when importing future images using a two stage review process using image rating to identify keepers and potential keepers; culling the rubbish (the majority) after a second look at the potential keepers. Hopefully this will meet my requirements and become a useful workflow.
I should really look at the export potential within Lightroom which; I haven't yet as O don't post a great number of images on line.

[Stan]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I shoot RAW + jpeg but only use those for viewing om the screen to review whether to keep or ditch - I dont use DPP and convert all my RAW files to DNG as CS3 wont read RAW#s produced by the 7D. I process the DNG and save as a high quality jpeg and then I nhave an action which then resizes the jpeg to 900 px on the longest side - the latter being the ones i upload to flickr and also to my tablet as a portable photo album. So for each processed shot i have the RAW, full sized jpeg and the 900 px version, which are stored on a 2 tb external hard drive with a similar one for back up

Stan

[jonesgj]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I always keep the original raw file in my data reception area, which is archived regularly and subject to disaster recovery backup in between.

Once processed various versions of PSD (Photoshop files) are archived elsewhere.

I use Photoshop CS6 so Adobe Camera Raw, for RAW processing, CS6 Bridge for viewing and sorting and of course Photoshop for the rest of the workflow.

Hope this helps

Graydon

[Muscat]

Re: File Storage - RAW and JPG?

I only shoot RAW and after a session I download all images to the D drive of my PC, i use a folder naming structure that works for me, mainly the top level is the year then sub folders are subject such as Family, Dickens World, BWC etc. and under these sub folders I have a date folder for the images.

Once download I import everything into Lightroom where I add keywords so that I can more easily locate an image. I then use Lightroom to view each image and simply delete (using the remove from disk option) those images that are rubbish and will never be processed.

Most of my PP is done in Lightroom but if I want to do something that can't be done in LR I edit the image in CS6 and then save the edit back into LR as a TIFF file. If I am in the middle of an edit or think that I may want to produce a varient of the image I will save the TIFF with all layers intact until I am confident that I will not want any more changes at which point I flatten the image and save only the TIFF file. I don't save jpg files as I create them from either CS6 or mostly LR when i want one. What is stored are the RAW files, the LR adjustment files and any TIFF files that I have created.

I will then back up the data on my D drive to another internal drive (both are 3Tb drives) and once that has completed I back up the data to external drives.