It’s so easy just to leave photos on your PC, but equally easy to back up to CD. Thing is, which do you trust most – the PC hard drive, or the CD? Neither? Aaaargh.
As a professional photographer, and particularly a wedding photographer, I have a bit more responsibility in that respect. Funnily enough, very few brides ask about that. Actually, none. Nobody has ever asked how I will back up their wedding photos. Perhaps they consider it their responsibility once they’ve bought a CD with their photos on, but in this globally-warmed, flood-prone country, it’s nice to know that if you wake up one morning and need to sail through your lounge to get your breakfast, your digitally-captured wedding memories will be safe and sound even if your PC is under water.
That’s why I back up all weddings to two hard drives and at least one disc – on the day. Not the following morning or a day or two later, but before I go home. I’ve had some late nights, because it ain’t the work of the moment. But this isn’t a complaint, it’s what you should get when you pay a ‘professional’, a little bit extra.
But how many people realise that CDs aren’t forever? They oxidise slowly but surely and one day may not cough up their data easily, or at all. There are scare stories that some cheapo discs last little more than a year. How true that is I’m not sure, but I don’t really want to find out, so I use discs made by people I’ve heard of, like HP and TDK. It’s no guarantee, but it’s a start.
How you handle and store them also helps. My kids store their CDs on their bedroom floor – the cases went missing a few minutes after they were opened. This does not happen in my studio! This link gives good general advice on how to make them last.
http://www.buskerdoo.com/html/articles/longer_lasting_CDs.html
Steve Holcroft Photography 