As professional photographers it’s vitally important we backup all our photos. After all, who knows when we might need them again… At Blü Studio, photo backup is something we do on a very regular basis. Our client photos are extremely important and deserve to be treated with the upmost respect. But aren’t your own photos just as important? Of course they are, and a question we often receive from our clients is “what’s the best way to safely store my photos?”.

Well, there are a few things you can do and the most suitable probably depends on how secure you want them to be. If you’re like us, you’ll want your photos to have the most security possible. So, let’s have a look at what you can do to preserve your personal memories for generations to come.

Backing up to a CD/DVD

One of the most basic forms of storage is the good old CD, or more likely these days, a DVD. In order to backup to a DVD your computer will need a DVD writer and special software, pretty much standard on most computers these days. If your computer doesn’t have a DVD writer you can pick one up for under $100. So are DVD’s a good form of backup? Well, we don’t think so. They’re a good medium for transferring files between computers etc. but other than that we wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re using a digital SLR and looking to store high resolution files you will not get all that many on a DVD. Depending on your camera’s resolution you will have space for maybe 200-400 photos, and that’s not many. Of course, you can use multiple DVD’s but unless you catalog them properly it can become confusing when trying to find a particular file later on.

There is also no data on how long a DVD lasts. We recommend that if you decide to use DVD’s for photo storage you make a fresh copy of them each year and store them somewhere safe, maybe even in multiple locations. If you only have one copy and it gets damaged you may not be able to access any of your files.

Backing up to an external hard drive

We recommend the Western Digital 2TB My Book Studio Edition II Hard Drivefor professional purposes or the Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition 2TBfor more casual users.

Western Digital also offer other great hard drive options such as the WD Passports. These are very small external hard drives that power themselves from your computer so you don’t need an additional power supply. They’re really great if you own a laptop and want to shoot on location. You can carry this small device in your bag and have access to your entire photo library. A drive like this can be used for backup and stored in another location such as a safety deposit box. In a situation like this you might have 2 drives. One that you use at home or in the studio on a regular basis and the other that is kept elsewhere. Maybe you might make your backup once a week so you’re not having to constantly visit the other location just to keep your files protected. This is probably a bit safer that the dual drive option but you still have to remember to make the backups yourself, it’s not automatic.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. What if there’s a fire or some other act of God? You’ll lose the whole drive(s) and everything on it! Well. yes, that’s very true, and so we need something else to make sure that our files are truly safe!…

Online photo backup

So this is the saviour. We’ve got our files backed up to DVD’s and we’ve also got copies on an external hard drive. Now we need to cement the security by uploading them to an online storage account. There are lots of services like this available but one of the best is a British company called Livedrive. Now, most other online storage companies simply offer file backup. Basically, at a predetermined time, the data on your computer will be backed up online. If you were to lose all your data, you can log into your online account to restore it to your computer.

Livedrive on the other hand acts like an actual hard drive. You can access your files, edit them, delete them, and add more just like you would do with your hard drive. However, this hard drive is online! There is a local copy on your computer too so you can access the files offline if you like. You can also access the files from any computer in the World at any time. No more lugging around external hard drives if you make a trip somewhere. Anything you add to the local copy of the drive will sync to the web next time you connect and you can sync with multiple computers. You can even upload your iTunes library to Livedrive and access your music anywhere, anytime!

So what does this mean for photographers? Well, with the Pro account which is only about $120 per year, you get unlimited storage. This means you can upload all your photos and files to an online “hard drive” which you can access at any time. What’s more, your data is backed up across multiple servers with military grade AES-256 security that encrypts all communication between your computer and the Livedrive servers. You will never lose your data, ever! Give Livedrive a try, they offer a 30 day free trial!

Summary

We’ve looked at a few options for storing and backing up your photo collection. Those precious images are just as important to you and your family as they are to the professional photographer. So, we recommend you purchase a good external hard drive, preferably something like a Western Digital My Book with RAID 1 configuration. It sets up in a moment and is not at all as complicated as it sounds. The software does everything for you. All you have to do is decide how you want to set the drive up as we mentioned above. Amazon is a great place for finding these drives and you can have a look through the links below. Once you have that set up you should also get yourself an online storage account. Livedrive is a great option as it operates like a hard drive. If you’re a Mac user and are familiar with MobileMe you’ll be aware of iDisk. Livedrive is the same idea but you get much more storage for about the same price. Once that’s set up you’re ready to go and can be at ease with the knowledge your data is safe.

I can still remember seeing my first slow motion waterfall picture and thinking “Wow, how do you do that???” Of course, I figured it out and now love taking pictures of waterfalls. There’s something about the silky flow of water over a beautiful rock that’s really quite enchanting. So how do you photograph a waterfall?

Well, first of all you have to decide how you want the final image to look. Do you want to simply freeze the action with the cascading water appearing as it naturally does? Or, do you want to make a more artistic shot with a “bridal veil” flow, simple and elegant? See the 2 examples below of Shannon Falls in Squamish, BC, photographed on separate occasions. The first one displays the slow motion effect that we will explore further in a moment. The second image is a more natural look where the turbulent water really captures the feeling of raw power and energy.

(left) Slow motion, bridal veil look (right) A more natural, as-is look

So let’s have a look at just how you can capture the slow motion effect of a waterfall…

Shutter Speed

If you want to freeze the action in your photograph, like the second example above, you must use a faster shutter speed. However, if you are going for the slow motion effect you must use a much slower shutter speed. By using the slower speed you are in effect creating motion blur for the water and this creates that silky look that we all love. For the best results you should probably use a shutter speed of around 1-5 seconds. Of course, every cascade is different. Volume of water and rate of flow can cause each waterfall picture to come out differently than the last one. You will more than likely need to experiment with shutter speed until you achieve the desired result.

Tripod

The key and secret to this whole effect is the use of a tripod. There is no humanly possible way you can shoot a slow motion waterfall by hand holding your camera. Sure, the water will still come out blurry but so will everything else in the frame, the rocks, trees and plants etc. The goal of this effect is to blur only the water but keep everything else in sharp focus.

You should also make use of a remote shutter release. This will add further stability to the capture as you will not be moving the camera at all when pressing the shutter button.

Filters

One of the biggest problems you will come across when slowing down the shutter speed is overexposure. Slowing the shutter speed of course causes the shutter to remain open for longer, thus letting in more light. Thankfully, there are ways to combat this issue through the use of filters. Polarizing and neutral density filters work very well. I would try the polarizing filter first. The filters will reduce the amount of light entering the lens and cut down greatly on any exposure issues. Cheaper filters tend to be constructed from thicker glass and will probably do a better job in this case than a higher end, more professional filter.

Of course, the other alternative is to take your photograph later in the evening or early in the morning when the natural light is much less extreme. Your photo won’t look dark, it will still appear as if it were taken during the middle of the day because the longer shutter speed is letting in a lot of light. An overcast day will help also.

Norvan Falls, Lynn Headwaters, North Vancouver

The effect also works well on fast flowing rivers too. The  images below were captured on rivers with lots of turbulent water. In the first image, the shutter speed was used to slow the water down by just a small amount. In the other two images the water is slowed down much more giving the effect of a cloud flowing downstream…