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Buliding your own Photo Archive

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Table of Contens :

      1.)     Outlook
      2.)     Hardware
      3.)     Software
      4.)     Customizing
      5.)     Links
    

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1.) Outlook

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Murphy's Law ... Or Why NOW is the right moment

for buliding your own photo archive.

When did you check the air pressure of your tires last time ? Be honest, you don't even remember ! When did you visit the gas station last time ? Before the car runs out of fuel of course. Some things only come to our mind with a big bang when it's too late. And believe me, a flat tire is annoying but still something that can get fixed and after an hour or two you are up and running again. Now, think about your photo archive for a moment. Is it really safe ? "Of course, I have my important files .... mmmh .... Probably most of them on DVDs ...". I don't want to scare anybody, but it's time to think about some changes. The possibility of loosing the photographs of the honey-moon trip to Hawaii, the first steps of the daughter, or loosing a client - who will not recommend you any further - after you had to tell him, that the photographs you took for him are .... somehow not available any more.

As data storage and archiving is so essential for everybody maintaining a large photo archive, I will to go a bit more into detail on the Hard- and Software side of the business.

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2.) Hardware

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What do we need - Hardware wise ? This depends on three factors :

The *importance* of your data (Think for a moment on the consequences in case you would lose files).

The *amount* of data (Are we talking about 200 MB, 5 GB or 500 GB ?).

And last but not least the *organization* of your data (Does a "file card system" do the job ? You need a database ? With only the file names ? Or with meta-tags, thumbnails and keywords ? You handle everything form your laptop or do other people / colleagues / friends need access via the web?)

As usual, money plays also an important role. Professional storage and archiving solutions can cost thousands of Dollars, Euros, etc. But in most cases a decent investment will bring the maximum amount of safety that will make you sleep much better.

1.) The DVD solution

PROs:

* Cheap, as a DVD/CD-ROM drive exsists in all computers today.
* No additional hardware needed.
* Easily expandable. You buy more DVDs ...

CONs:

* Medium to low data security.
* Slow in handling, depending on the total amount of data to be managed.
* No easy and direct access to specific data.

Conclusion:

Copying data on DVDs is only practical and recommended, if the total amount of data is in the range of a few GB. In this case thumbnail files of the image data can be easily kept on disk and copying let's say 20 GB of images to a couple of DVDs is done within the hour. In any case one should go for some better quality archival quality DVDs which come with a scratch resistant gold coated surface. Now the first laptops are starting to be equipped with BluRay drives which offer 25 GB per disk. External drives are of course available for everybody who wants to "pimp his computer".

»  Archival Media - Just one example
»  Delkin BluRay - The inventor of the BluRay system.



2.) The External Hard Drive solution

PROs:

* Little investment in hardware.
* Easy to maintain.

CONs:

* Medium data security. A hard disk crash happens rarely, but if ....
* Limited capacity.

Conclusion:

Having an external hard drive to copy image files to, is a good solution for smaller to medium size archives as even 1 TB external drives are very interesting in price and offer a really "good value per MB". Buying more and more drives as the archive grows is not really the way to go for, as at some point we are back at the DVD-situation: "I know it must be somewhere here on one of those DVDs/disks ..." From the safety point of view only two drives, which allow mirroring of the data, can guarantee a sufficient data protection. It has to be kept in mind, that a certain persistence is the key in this scenario, as all data have to be copied to both disks on a regular basis. Keeping track on "which file is where ?" also requires some human input.

»  Western Digital BackUp Solutions

3.) The Smart Storage solution

PROs:

* Acceptable investment.
* High data security.
* Scalable capacity.

CONs:

* Not made for huge archives.

Conclusion:

A so called "Smart Storage Solution" which consists of a stack of hard drives that are operated as a RAID (which stands for Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Disks) system is elegant and easy to use. Connected to the local computer or laptop via USB or Firewire it offers a maximum data safety as data are always kept on several disks in a way that even the loss of one (or more) disk(s) still allows the data to be safe. Systems that allow Network Connection even make it simple to share the data between several computers with in the LAN. Common mid-range systems allow the use of 2,4 or 8 disks, which makes it possible to have several TB of data safe and sound.

»  Certon Systems
»  Western Digital BackUp Solutions
»  Data Robotics
»  Iomega StorCenter
»  Qnap NAS
»  Synology Cube Station


4.) The "I am lazy" solution

PROs:

* Minimal effort from the users side.
* Scalable capacity.

CONs:

            * Rather expensive.

Conclusion:

There are several companies out there offering mass storage on the web. While one has usually a few MB together with the e-mail account, or a little bit more with the web space, Online Backup Services offer typically 250 GB for something like 100 Dollar per year. Via a SSL connection one can up- and download ones data and has never to worry about crashing disks, etc. A fast broadband connection is of course essential in this case. If one has a real semi-professional system in mind in the near future but does need something "right now" for a short time, this solution can be a good one. I would compare this a little bit with buying a house versus renting an apartment.

Why not building your own RAID-system ? Many of us still have an unused PC at home. A few new disks, a network card and two, three more other things and one can built something oneself. Assuming that the knowledge hard- and software wise is there, there is nothing to say against this.

Professional Server and Storage solutions allow you to keep up to hundreds of TeraBytes protected. But NAS- (Network attached storage) and other mass storage systems are more likely to be found in huge data-centers and IT-companies and don't pay off as we are talking about at least a few thousand up to millions of Dollars, Euros, whatever you like to pay with.

Now it's time to look into the software side of the project. Depending on the size of the archive and the intended use there are a few points to be taken into account:

• Storage Solution only ?
• All-in One RAW converting, simple image manipulation AND archiving ?
• Local system ? Or assets reachable online for co-workers, clients ?
• All image data exist in one system ? Or offline media have to be included ?

New Filter panel for faster file selection. Customizable workspace. Image stacking, which is a smart way of keeping a group of similar images on top of each other while in a main overview. With one click this stack is "opened up" for further evaluation. Flat view of nested folders and contents. Enhanced previews and Improved support for XMP metadata. Centralized color settings.

Robust tools to handle large shoots. Import/export presets. Automatic conversion to DNG.

Multiple viewing options. Flexible organization of images. Manual thumbnail reordering. Easy file renaming. Single or group metadata stamping. Image versions without duplication. IPTC/EXIF/XMP metadata support. Metadata stamping on output. Keyword synchronization. Offline image management. Easy Library backup to CD/DVD. Simple keywording.

Easy-to-use white balance, exposure, and contrast controls. Simple yet powerful tone curve editor. Full Integration with Adobe Photoshop. Advanced hue, saturation, and luminance editing. Nondestructive editing. Fast zooming. Convenient before/after comparison mode. Finely tuned black-and-white conversions. Synchronized adjustments across multiple images. Explicit history tracking. Dust buster. Easy-to-use crop and straighten tools. Red-eye removal.

Fast, high-quality printing. Live preview of HTML or Flash based web galleries. Single-click web publishing. Sophisticated slide shows. Signature stamps, which allow you to include your personal business logo into the presentations.

Unlimited category-nesting levels. Fast photo indexing. Assign images to different categories using icon sets. Dynamic categories. Works with huge databases . Offline-archive organization. Hide private photos. Automated import process. Storage of image descriptions inside files (XMP, IPTC, EXIF). Batch EXIF, IPTC, XMP editor. Batch resize, batch convert, batch rename. Support for more than 60 image file formats. Support for video files. Powerful search. Manage images through several albums . View images as timeline. Sorting and grouping by any criterion. The missing links problem. Automatically responds to external file changes. Backup/Restore. Photo editor with Levels, Sharpen, Sepia, Red-Eye removal! . Safe images adjustments: JPEG lossless transformations, on-the-fly effects, and more.... RAW Conversions. Auto-Optimization of the images for email. Send your photo to a mobile phone. Creating an attractive photo gallery using templates. The best photo slideshow software with Hollywood effects. Export data as XML! Save photos to CD and DVD as a web-based photo-album. Digital Photo Burner and photo-gallery creator. Various Print! functions. Network support / Multi-user database access. Interface in your own language.

Depending on the requirements there are several options to be taken into account. Besides just serving as a secure storage solution, there are other possibilities: Even in the "Home Office" category there are NAS systems on the market that include web server capabilities. With sufficient space available and software that is already pre-installed it's no problem to built one's own stock-image database - integrated in the own website - running on the web server at home. And this without being a professional webmaster.

In some cases including a tape-drive might still be an interesting way of having a second copy of valuable data. Sony has the StorStation in the program. Worth having a closer look. 80 GB tapes are a good value for money solution. No matter which way one might chose, the only thing I can only repeat again and again: The moment to regret not having implemented any kind of backup solution in one's personal workflow is when the laptop with ALL the family photos e.g. died and everything is gone.

What will the client say, when after the wedding shot there are no photographs to be put in an album because the hard drive is not readable any more ? ...

»   Archival Media - Just one example
»   Delkin BluRay
»   Western Digital BackUp Solutions
»   Certon - smart RAID systems
»   Data Robotics - NAS system
»   Iomega StorCenter
»   Qnap NAS
»   Netgear Ready NAS
»   HP Server NAS
»   Synology Cube Station
»   Sony Stor - Professional Tape Drives
»   ImagePRO - Online Photo Gallery with unlimted storage space

»   Adobe Bridge - Digital Asset Management Software (Win, Mac)
»   Adobe Lightroom - Digital photo management, image database software (Win, Mac)
»   Canto Cumuls - Digital Asset Management Software (Win, Mac, Linux)
»   PicaJet - Digital photo management and image database software (Win)

»   Photoshelter - Online storefront and archive
»   Carbonite - Backup of your internal hard disk (Windows only, Mac beta version soon)
»   Amazon S3 - Store and retrieve any amount of data via the web
»   RapidoBackup - Professional Online Backup
»   StoragePipe - Complete and automated backup and recovery service.

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© 2010, Fauland Photography,
all rights reserved. 

  Last update: 18.05.2012.