My complete backup strategy and workflow.
The one question I never want to ask myself as a photographer and filmmaker is if the images I've created are backed up and secure.
I never want to ask because I never want to have to explain to someone why I no longer have the images they paid me to create.
Losing images is one of those things you don't think will happen to you until it does. A card is corrupted, files are unintentionally written over, or forgotten in the fury of things on set — simple mistakes that can be avoided altogether if a proper workflow is in place.
So, based on the 3-2-1 Method, here's my proven data management and backup strategy to ensure no image is ever lost from the moment it's captured, through editing, and eventually put into long-term storage.
Image capture.
The success of my backup strategy starts well before any images are captured.
Because for it to work properly, every step of the process has to be mapped out. There should be no question of where data is currently or what needs to happen next.
The key is creating a redundant copy as quickly as possible.
The best way to create a redundant copy is to capture images onto two cards if the camera has dual card slots. This way, two copies are saved simultaneously, and if anything happens to one card, you have another mirrored copy.
But not all cameras have dual card slots, so here's how to manage data captured onto a single card.
Multiple SD Cards.
I prefer to capture images across multiple cards rather than a single card for a whole shoot.
One card is a single point of failure, and everything would be lost if anything happened to that card.
I'm using the 128 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro card for video work.
128 GB is enough for a little over an hour of 4K footage, which is as much as I'd want on any one card.
For photos, I use the 64 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro cards, which hold about 2,000 photos.
Of course, smaller shoots may all fit on a single card, but anything more significant gets split across multiple.
Having multiple cards means parts of the day are captured on each. This way, the rest aren't affected if anything happens to one of them. The worst-case scenario is having to reshoot a segment of the day if it ever comes to it, which it never should, given what I do next.
On-set Data Check.
While it may seem like more of a hassle, the benefit of shooting to smaller cards is that you have to swap them out more frequently.
It's an opportunity to put the card into a laptop and check to make sure everything looks good.
This way, I can see the images on a larger screen and check for anything I may want to adjust, or, for whatever reason, and however unlikely, the card got corrupted, we can reshoot it right away.
I also do this throughout a shoot before changing a setup or moving to a new location, not only when a card is full.
On-set Backup.
At this point, there's only one copy of the data.
So, after I confirm everything looks good during the data check I'll duplicate the card to an external hard drive to create two copies.
Then the card gets a bit of tape put over it and placed in my Pelican Card Case to make sure it's not written over until I'm back in the studio and have data across multiple hard drives.
Editing workflow.
Once a shoot is wrapped and I'm back in the studio, I copy the data to three hard drives.
One drive will be my Live Work, a second will be my Live Backup, and a third will be my Backup Drive.
Depending on the size of the project these drives could be dedicated to the project itself or saved with multiple projects.
Live Work Drive.
The Live Work Drive is for anything being actively worked on. The assets and their Premiere Pro projects or Lightroom Catalogs all live here.
Live Backup Drive.
The Live Backup Drive duplicates the work on the Live Work Drive and is backed up daily. This way, the worst that can happen is that I have to redo a day's worth of work.
Backup Drive.
The Backup Drive maintains clean copies of each asset in case anything should happen to the other two drives. No work happens on this drive.
I remove the tape and clear the cards only after the data is copied onto these three drives.
Long-term storage.
After a project is over and the files are delivered, I'll prepare and store the data in long-term storage.
Data Cleanup.
While I'm particular about file structure and management, project files can still get a bit messy during editing. So, once everything is done, I'll go through and clean up any file names, delete unused files, and generally tidy things up so things are clean if I, or someone else, ever need to get back into a project.
It also helps reduce the file size as it goes into long-term storage. Yes, hard drives are "cheap," but there's simply no reason to pay to save things you'll never need again.
Archiving.
The data cleanup work happens on the Live Work Drive, as it's the most current version. Then, to archive a project, I copy the cleaned up files and folders to three places. Two Archive Drives and Google Cloud.
Archive Drives.
The Archive Drives have identical copies of the final project and all used files. One stays with me in the studio, while the other is off-site. I rotate these drives as new projects are added.
Google Cloud.
The same final project files are also copied to Google Cloud Archive each quarter.
Archive is their cheapest storage tier, meant for infrequent to never-needed retrieval. This is an off-site backup I'll hopefully never have to touch, but I sleep well knowing it's there in case anything happens to the physical drives I keep.
After the files have been copied to the Archive Drives and Google Cloud, I can remove them from the Live Work, Live Backup, and Backup Drives to make room for new projects.
As you see, the point is always to have multiple copies in multiple places so no one thing can wipe out your data.
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