The importance of backing up your images

I recently had a client send a frantic email asking if I still had their photos from early last year.  She had experienced a hard drive crash and sadly lost most of her files. She did the right thing by contacting me and I was so glad she did. Even though my client agreement states I will keep client images for 6 months, I was behind in purging images and thankfully was able to tell my client I still had them.  I was so grateful that I was able to help my client in this small, but important way.  However, I know I won’t always be able to provide the lost images. 

When I work with clients, I stress the importance of backing up images immediately after they receive them. I make recommendations of how to make certain they will be able to access those precious images from our time together for years to come. Here are my suggestions for securing your images should a hard drive crash or other tragic event happen.

Consider an external hard drive. External hard drives are fairly inexpensive given how much storage they will be backing up and are very easy to set up.

Don’t trust social media. Of course we all have a slew of images on Facebook and Instagram, but how long will those businesses last? Of course, it’s hard to say (remember myspace).
Another thing to keep in mind is that when images are uploaded on social media, they often will lose some of the image resolution to make the file size smaller.  So if you are counting on the same quality image to be on social media, it likely won’t.

Research online back up solutions. I use a professional account for Dropbox and move images here as well. The company offers a free versions, but this offers only a small amount of storage. 

Print your favorites. Whether it’s an album, wall art or small prints, there’s so much joy in seeing your favorite images on a regular basis. And in a worse, case situation with your computer, you will have your top images elsewhere.

In a nutshell, I recommend diversifying your back up options. I would recommend doing all of the above but I know it can be overwhelming to back up all those files. Keep in mind that it’s never too late to start. Even if you start from here on out, that’s something.