It’s hard to believe that we started our business from scratch and taught ourselves everything that we know! It hasn’t always been easy, but our couples make it all totally worth it! One of the things that I learned early on was that I needed an efficient way to store and backup our photos! I almost had to learn this the hard way! During one of our 1st weddings in 2013, I almost lost part of the wedding! At this time, I was using 8gb SD memory cards (face palm) and my card was full! I decided to transfer the photos from my memory card to my laptop during the reception. During the transfer, I lost focus and put the wrong card back into my camera! Then I formatted the card! I didn’t realize the mistake until later that night! I panicked! I was missing quite a few photos and had no idea if it was possible to get them back! Somewhere between crying on my desk and having a stroke, I went to Google and searched for ways to get back lost photos on a formatted card! Thankfully I came across a post and software that allowed me to restore the photos that I had deleted! I vowed that that would never happen again! That experience taught me a lot! As a wedding photographer, it’s a must that I know how to backup your wedding photos!

Step One: External Hard Drives

After a wedding or photo shoot, we bring all of the memory cards home. Even if it’s extra late at night, I will load all of the photos to my hard drive. I don’t format the memory cards until I know that the photos are safely on hard drives. Most times I’ve also edited the majority of the wedding before I format the cards! My favorite hard drives are by Seagate!

Step Two: Photo Mechanic

I am in love Photo Mechanic. It has easily become my new best friend! It makes culling images to easy! I create a folder for each couple or family on our hard drives. Inside of that photo, I have a folder for all of the photos. Then a folder for my culled images from Photo Mechanic. This allows me to go back later and delete the photos that I don’t end up using. A lot of times, we end up with photos where people are blinking, etc. We don’t want to keep those forever!

Step Three: Lightroom and Export

After I have finished editing each wedding or session, I create a folder for all of the edited photos. I also make a backup of this folder in a separate location! These are the photos that we deliver to our couples and families and use online! I’ve heard some photographers say that they delete them after a certain timeframe. I decided early on that I’d keep the final edits forever! External hard drives are cheap enough that we can buy a couple each year and be okay!