Tips for Managing Your Raw Files

Hi everyone, I am professional nature and travel photographer, Ian Plant. Even if you're just a photo enthusiast, you probably have a lot of raw photo files, especially if you do wildlife or travel photography. I often get asked the question, How do you manage all of your raw files? And how do you store all of those files? Also, a lot of people want to know if I spend time cataloging and keywording my raw files. Regarding management of my raw files, my answer is a bit simple, and it might surprise you. The truth is, I really don't put much effort into management of my raw files. Usually, when I get back from a photo trip, I organize my raw files into folders sorted by geography, and I process the best files. But most of my raw files don't see any action. I don't make much of an effort to delete any files for two reasons: One, my personal tastes change over time, so I don't want to delete something that I might later decide is a good image. And two, it just takes too much time to get through all of my raw files. So I end up keeping almost everything I shoot, even if some of it isn't very good. I also don't do any significant cataloging, rating, or keywording of my image files. Once again, it just takes up way too much time. If you don't have a huge amount of raw files, and you have a lot of spare time on your hands, or if you absolutely need to keyword, because you have lots of photo buyers looking for specific things, then by all means, go for it. But for the average photographer, even for pros like me, it's a whole lot of work without much tangible benefit. Just to be clear, if you want to do these things, I'm not saying you shouldn't. But a lot of photo enthusiasts who asked me these questions do so because some expert told them that they should be doing this stuff. In my opinion, it's just one of those things that you can do if you want. But if you'd rather not, there's no need to feel like you're missing out on something important. Of course, this means that you will, sooner or later, end up having so many raw files that you max out your computer storage. So here's what I do. I have several mass storage RAID devices where I keep all of my raw files. Right now, I'm using a pair of 10 terabyte devices with one backing up the other. Believe it or not, after 13 years as a professional photographer, I've just recently reached the 10 terabyte limit. Of course, the pace of my photography continues to accelerate. And the higher resolution cameras we have these days means larger raw files. So I'm sure that the next 10 terabytes will go a lot faster. So over time, my method of file and forget it, might get a bit pricey as mass digital storage isn't exactly cheap. But the expense is well worth it, in my opinion. I often go back and look at images in my digital dumpster. And I usually find a few diamonds in the rough that I had previously overlooked. So it's a good idea to keep your files, rather than deleting them because you don't initially think they're good enough. Also, I'd rather not spend a huge amount of time managing my raw files. So it makes more sense for me to pay a little extra to store the files, freeing up time for marketing and running my business, spending time with friends and family, and best of all, being out in the field, making even more photos. I'm Ian Plant. And thanks for watching.