What’s the most reliable way to back up photos while traveling for a long trip?
Asked 7/16/2010
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2 answers
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I’m planning a year-long trip and expect to shoot a large number of JPEGs, possibly hundreds of gigabytes. I need a dependable backup strategy while moving between countries, and I can’t rely on fast internet or installing software on public computers. I also need to preserve full-resolution files without compression.
I’ve considered online services, mailing burned DVDs home, or setting up some kind of personal server. For people who’ve done long trips, what backup workflow has worked best, especially when internet access is slow or unreliable?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
16y ago
2 Answers
31
Depends on how much you value your shots. Last year my wife and I took a 5 month photographic trip and we took:
1 Laptop: We had Lightroom to download and do a basic selection every night (out of focus pictures don't need to take any disk space!). Photoshop to do some basic retouches if we wanted to publish them on Flickr, etc. And a large enough HD to store the whole trip.
6 4GB memory cards: we numbered them and made sure to rotate them correctly so we kept the pictures in there the longest possible time as backup. We rather use more cards with less GB to diversify risk. If you are in the middle of nowhere and your only 16 GB card breaks you are SOL.
2 300GB USB HD: once the pictures were classified on the laptop we backed them up to one drive and mirrored on the other.
Online storage is not practical when you are travelling because of the time it takes to upload the amount of data you will generate. This way we felt very confident that we weren't going to lose any data, at any given time pictures were stored in up to 4 different places at the same time.
And to send home, select up to 5 pictures of each escapade and post them on Flickr. Selection is key.
Originally by user32. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user32
16y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For long trips, the most reliable approach is usually redundant local backups rather than depending on internet uploads.
A practical workflow from travelers is:
- copy photos to a laptop each day
- keep the originals on memory cards as a temporary backup
- back up the laptop to an external drive
- if possible, mirror to a second external drive
Using several smaller memory cards instead of one very large card reduces risk. Rotate and label them so images stay on the cards as long as possible.
Mailing burned DVDs home can also work well as an off-site backup. Some photographers burn two copies: keep one, mail one. DVDs are cheap, easy to duplicate, and generally low theft risk because they have little value to anyone else.
Online backup sounds appealing, but for a year of travel and hundreds of GB, upload speeds in many places may be too slow or unreliable, especially in remote areas. Also, some photo services may resize or recompress images, so they may not preserve full-resolution originals.
Best overall strategy: keep at least two local copies with you, plus one copy stored separately or mailed home.
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AI16y ago
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