The Essential RAW File Backup & Storage System

Today, we’re going to talk about setting up the essential food photography backup and storage system, so you know you’re keeping your RAW files safe and accessible. Hit play below for the full video!

If you missed the first two parts of the Food Photography Foundations series, catch up here:

Part 1: What you need to get started in food photography
Part 2: RAW vs JPEG – why RAW files will change the game

In this video:

We’re talking all things backup & storage. Having a good system for keeping your food photography RAW files safe is essential. I’ll walk you through my system, including how I backup my images, the equipment I use, and my workflow.

The 3-2-1 Backup System

The 3-2-1 backup principle states that you should have 3 copies of your assets, which in this case are your RAW files. 2 copies locally, and 1 remotely, which would be your cloud backup.

This means you have more than 2 points of failure, so if one of your hard drives fails, you have another local copy, and if both of your local copies were destroyed in an event like a fire, you have a remote backup as well. You can set most of this up to work on autopilot so the manual work is minimal, and you know your files are safe.

Equipment

• Lacie external hard drive (I recommend having 2 hard drives, 1 for your working hard drive, and one as your second local backup)
• SD Cards 128gb (I recommend having 2)
• iDrive (my personal cloud backup)
• Backblaze
• AWS

Workflow: Tethering

1. Set up a folder on your working hard drive and name it. The naming conventions you choose to name your folders should be something that makes sense to you. 
2. Once you’ve got your final picks sorted, import them into your editing catalogue of choice, and organise them into a collection.
3. Make sure that this working drive is backed up, to create the second local copy of your files. There are a few different ways to do this depending on whether you are on a Mac or Windows, so find the best backup solution for you.
4. Set up a cloud backup system, to backup your working hard drive, to create your remote backup. I use iDrive for this, but there are many systems available so you can browse and pick one that works best for you.