Keeping My Clients Images Safe // For Photographers

Keeping My Clients Images Safe // For Photographers

Keeping my clients images safe is of the utmost importance to me and also to my clients.  Because of this I do everything I can to ensure the safety of their images.  This means I have put into place fail safes in case of every horrible situation that could occur.  What happens if a card goes corrupt?  A hard drive fails?  Someone steals your drives?  Have you thought through these possibilities and done something to help cover yourself just in case?

First things first is that I shoot on cameras with dual slots so that every image is backed up onto a second card as I am shooting.  I use Pelican Cases to store my cards safely before and after being filled.  Images are also backed up onto a hard drive during and after the wedding before I head home.  Once the wedding is over and images are backed up onto a hard drive, the cards and drives are put into separate places in my car as well for the drive home.

My workflow for keeping my images safe after the wedding:
  • Once home I set the cards to download to my computer using PhotoMechanic.  All images are downloaded onto my editing hard drive and backed up onto my Raid Drive before I go to sleep.
  • While sleeping the images are backed up to my NAS system (located in a different area of the house), as well as stored online on Backblaze.
  • One set of cards is set aside to stay on my desk until images have been verified.
  • The next morning I view the images in order of time stamp to verify there are no gaps in the wedding day and all images are there.  I also verify the backups did indeed backup to their designated locations.
  • Favorite images are culled for sneak previews on social media, edited, posted and scheduled to post.
  • As soon as I can I go back through and cull out all of the images to be delivered to my client from my editing drive.  Final image are moved to a new folder and sent off to the editor.
  • After receiving images back from the editor final edits are hand applied by myself, exported at high resolution JPGS into a new folder and uploaded to my client where they are available for 6 weeks.
  • After this all final images are backed up onto my RAID, NAS and Backblaze.
  • Once images are verified backed up they are deleted off of my editing drive.
  • All RAW images that were delivered to my client are kept forever.
  • All RAW images that were NOT delivered to my client are deleted after one year.
Items that I use to ensure the safety of my clients images & links to where you can find them:
Also I thought I would share a peak into my file organizing system.  In my Pictures folder a folder is created for every year.  Within that one folder contains all of the images shot that year.  They are organized by date, clients names and event.

Example: Dirk and Rebecca got married on August 26th, 2012.
Folder name:: 08-26-16 – Dirk and Rebecca Wedding

Within that folder the file structure normally looks like this:
01_RAWS
02_Culled_Previews
03_Edited_Previews
04_Culled_All
05_HighRes_Edits
06_Blog_Vendor
07_Publication
08_Website

High Resolution images sent to clients are renamed simply with their names and event. Example: Dirk-Rebecca-Wedding_HighRes_01.jpg.  And images for blog are renamed as to best fit with the SEO tag I am targeting.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have fail safes for your clients images to ensure their safety.  You will never regret being overly cautious with their images.  But you will regret if a card goes corrupt, a hard drive fails or you somehow lose your images.  Create a system, create a workflow and stick to it to make sure you are doing everything in your power to keep them safe.

disclaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. 
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Rebecca Anne