Amazon Photos: I have Elements 12 and file all my photos in Catalog using tif format. I want to use Amazon as one of my backups. I tried to upload several thousand photos (Amazon is...

bohleber Loc: southern Indiana

I have Elements 12 and file all my photos in Catalog using tif format. I want to use Amazon as one of my backups. I tried to upload several thousand photos (Amazon is unlimited for Prime members, which I am) and they do process tiff, but it would literally take DAYS. Is there some way to temporarily change to jpeg format for the upload and then change back to tif?

thx, Don

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

In a word, NO. A lot of the information in a TIFF file will be removed in the process of making a JPG, and there's no way to reconstruct it from the JPG file.

You've discovered the downside of cloud storage - slow data transfer. If you're just putting a few pictures out there it works fine, but what's available to consumers (at consumer prices) is NOT made for routine transfers of hundreds of gigabytes. It's what customers discover when they sign up for one of the online "backup" services that claim to work constantly in the background to keep a copy of all your computer files in the cloud. It can take weeks for the first backup to be completed, and if you ever need to restore your hard drive after a catastrophe of some sort, it can take weeks to get all the data back.

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

wrangler5 wrote:

In a word, NO. A lot of the information in a TIFF... (show quote)

Baby steps - "journey of a thousand miles..."

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

bohleber wrote:

...Is there some way to temporarily change to jpeg format for the upload and then change back to tif?...

No.

Well, actually yes you can do that.... BUT once an image has been reduced from a 16 bit TIF to an 8 bit JPEG, a lot of the original data is gone and there's no getting it back.

So, while it can be done... no, it wouldn't be a very good idea. You'd be basically throwing away a lot of the quality from your images, with no way to ever retrieve it.

If the images are "finished" it might not matter very much. But if you ever want to do additional editing work on an image, it will be much better to do so with a 16 bit TIF than an 8 bit JPEG.

And if you're shooting RAW, your original are what you should be saving and protecting.... not the files made from them.

I don't know why you are using Amazon Photos.... but there may be another, better place to upload your photos. Or if you are doing a backup, you might be better just getting an external drive to save images to, and running a backup once a week or so, depending upon how much you shoot and process. Or you could use Amazon but only upload your best "keepers".

MikeT9

I fell for Amazon Primes cloud storage. Ages to load and difficult, I found, to use. To cap it all they’re changing the arrangement and will be making a hefty charge for something which was free. Maybe ok for a few but for anything else in my opinion.

hawleyrw Loc: Dayton, OH

Wrangler 5 is right, can’t do it without loss. Personally I use the paid Google service (2TB $99). This way I can format the data the way I want and not purely chronologically like the others have with both free services by Google and Amazon. I format my data in another way. Plus it allows me to upload video also without any extra charges. I pretty much don’t worry about the speed, as all set a few thousand photos to copy and go to bed. But the time I get up they’re done. It was just a smaller set of photos (like 30) it’s done just a few seconds it was just a smaller set of photos (like 30) it’s done just a few seconds. With that much storage, I also keep my entire music collection Up there

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

bohleber wrote:

I have Elements 12 and file all my photos in Catalog using tif format. I want to use Amazon as one of my backups. I tried to upload several thousand photos (Amazon is unlimited for Prime members, which I am) and they do process tiff, but it would literally take DAYS. Is there some way to temporarily change to jpeg format for the upload and then change back to tif?

thx, Don

Taking days isn't unusual. I've read here many times about the lengthy upload times of backup services. On the plus side, once it's done, it's done.

I experienced the same thing a few years ago when I backed up seven folders of data to external drives. It took over an hour, but now that it's done, daily updating now takes just a minute or two.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Part of the problem you are running into has to do with the way most non-fiber Internet services are provided. Your download and upload speeds can vary greatly. You might have a 50 by 5 package which means 50 megabit download and only 5 megabit upload. They do that to save on bandwidth since upload is typically more of a continuous stream. And, most people are doing download 99 percent of the time and it's a short stream for a web page and then they are just viewing it. So while you think you have a fast Internet connection, it is only fast in one direction.

Ron Dial Loc: Cuenca, Ecuador

NO. Tiff is an uncompressed format. JPEG is a lossy format.

chapjohn Loc: Tigard, Oregon

Amazon Photos takes time to upload images. However, it is a good backup place. While images are uploading you can let it continue and use your computer for other things at the same time.

JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

wrangler5 wrote:

In a word, NO. A lot of the information in a TIFF... (show quote)

Two thoughts here...download speeds are much faster than upload speeds so restoring your photos will not take as long as backing them up and...some online backup services will send you a hard drive to which you backup your photos and send the drive back to them. Your first backup is MUCH faster this way. I subscribed to one service and calculated that my initial backup would take 3 months. I cancelled the service.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Of course it depends on your upload speed, and the initial “seeding” of the cloud can take quite awhile, but after that, you’re just uploading changes and additions. Also, since the seeding is occurring as a background task, who cares if it takes a week? As was mentioned, download speeds are substantially higher than uploads, so in the event of a data loss, the time to recover your data will be much faster than the upload, BUT that should be your last resort - you should have a local backup copy of important data, using the cloud for DR (disaster recovery). Also as has been mentioned, some services will send you a HD to return with your data for the initial seeding, and will provide your data on a HD in the event of the need to download the entire data. Finically, you may be able to temporarily up your internet speed for a month or so to do the upload. Many cities now have Gbit internet access available to consumers. I’m using 200 Mb down/ 50Mb up (usually benchmarks about 240/60), and I recently uploaded ~300GB to Amazon S3 storage overnight.

nhastings Loc: Telluride, CO

Back-up hard drives are relatively inexpensive. Personally I would rather carry around my photos and have instant access than to send them off to "never-never land" where who knows what may happen to them. Maybe the Russians will steal them.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

bohleber wrote:

I have Elements 12 and file all my photos in Catalog using tif format. I want to use Amazon as one of my backups. I tried to upload several thousand photos (Amazon is unlimited for Prime members, which I am) and they do process tiff, but it would literally take DAYS. Is there some way to temporarily change to jpeg format for the upload and then change back to tif?

thx, Don

Yes and no. While you might be able to convert a jpeg back to a .tif file, it will not be the same TIFF file you started with and you will lose all the benefits of your original TIFF file. By the way, how did you create the Tiff files in the first place? Hopefully from the original raw files, and not from a SOOC jpeg.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

nhastings wrote:

Back-up hard drives are relatively inexpensive. Personally I would rather carry around my photos and have instant access than to send them off to "never-never land" where who knows what may happen to them. Maybe the Russians will steal them.

Yep, those Russians are just dying to see your photos (and that $80 HD is worth exactly what you paid for it).