jerryc41 wrote:
I shoot raw, process them in LR and then save them as JPEGS. I don't want to discard the original raw files, so I have been saving them in a separate folder labeled Raw. Why do I save the raw copies? I may want to go back and process them differently, and as software gets better, so do the results.
Not only does the software get better, you get better with practice. I find I can go back a few years and pick out something I did back then and improve on it significantly. Partly software, partly me.
jerryc41 wrote:
As I accumulate more raw images, I can see myself duplicating all my picture folders. Everything would have a JPEG folder and a raw counterpart. An alternative would be to keep the raw images in with the JPEGS. I know hard drives are getting larger and cheaper, but I don't want to have a room full of them.
How do you deal with storing JPEGS and raw files?
First of all, my folder structure is photos/[Year]/Subject/RAW. The raw files go into that folder. After processing, the selected jpgs go into the folder above that, i.e. photos/[Year]/Subject. So there is a folder with my images and an associated folder with the original raw files. When I back them up, I back up by folder so the raw subfolder goes with the images.
I don't have a room full of disks. I have 3 3TByte external drives to store my 1.5 TBytes of images (includes a lot of junk that is being weeded out as a winter project). One of the drives is connected to my desktop computer. One is stored in another part of the house. The third is stored off site (I have a barn a mile away).
About once a month I grab the off site disk and the elsewhere in the house disk and synchronize them with the disk on the desktop. The disks then get rotated: the desktop disk goes elsewhere, the elsewhere disk goes off site and the off site disk goes to the desktop. That way all the drives get similar usage for long term health.
At the rate I'm going, I would expect that 5-10 years from now I will need a 6-8 TByte disk. I'll get 3 of them and they will take over the function of the current disks. (By Moore's Law, it will probably take less than 5 years).
PS: Not only do the files get larger (more MPx in the newer cameras) but I do more Photoshop work. Saving PSD files takes up a lot of space. That will use storage at a faster rate than just increasing the number of pictures. But the external hard drives are increasing capacity and they will most likely keep up with that process as I get new ones.