The Photographer’s Nightmare

Author: Debbie Grignani, 2BrightSparks Pte Ltd.

Download PDF version [opens new window]

With digital cameras being more affordable today, digital photography has become easily assessable and increasingly inviting for the novice and hobby photographer. Many however do not backup their images and risk loosing their most precious digital assets. In a Harris Interactive Poll 39% of home users stated they would most regret loosing their photos, the highest single concern for data-loss.

Photographers are now able to take as many photos as they want, then pick out the best ones for editing before distributing them or printing them. The beauty of this is that the cost of printing the photos as hard copies is kept to a minimum.

Photography is a challenging and rewarding creative activity and people take photos for many different reasons. Photos conjure up memories of that special occasion – weddings, a newborn baby, graduations, and birthdays. Photos also record images for marketing purposes and other work related tasks. In any case, photos that are captured at a particular moment are irreplaceable. Besides being a rewarding hobby, professional photographers pay their bills with the fees they demand by capturing great images for their clients. From industrial photography, to portraiture and fashion, the digital image is a part of our lives.

Backing Up Your Photographs

Photographers used to be justifiably concerned about losing their photos and negatives. The keen photographer’s solution was to buy a film cabinet to keep their precious media and photos dry from humidity. When people switched to digital photography, many of the practical headaches that were a part of the photographer’s life disappeared.

Digital images do, however, still need to be protected, but in different ways to film stock. Photos are not safe from disaster when stored on computers. Disk malfunctions, viruses, or even theft are far more common than many digital photographer’s appreciate. Although photography can bring a great deal of pleasure, losing all your photos in an instant is very upsetting. All those hours of capturing the perfect pose or landscape are lost forever when you least expect it, and in the case of the professional photographer, they will need to reschedule additional shoots, the time and efforts for which they will not be paid for.

Backing up your photos may be a tedious and pain staking job using Windows Explorer or the inflexible and limited onboard backup feature in Windows XP or Vista, but it needn’t be. With the right software you can prevent your treasured photos from being lost with the click of a button.

The Photographer’s Friend

2BrightSparks Pte Ltd offers two versions of their backup and synchronization software which are perfect for amateur and professional photographers alike: SyncBack Freeware and SyncBackSE commercial software. With SyncBack and SyncBackSE, you will be able to create scheduled profiles so that your photos can automatically be backed up every day or every couple of weeks, depending on how often you transfer photos from your camera to your computer. You will be able to backup to external storage devices like USB memory sticks, external hard drives and CDs. It is also advisable to store these external storage devices at a separate location from your computer so that in the event of a fire or robbery, you will still have copies of your image files.

SyncBack offers basic yet effective backup and synchronization solutions for the individual who needs a software to simply backup their photos and other data files. SyncBackSE offers many additional features, which includes the ability to copy open/locked files (great for professional and serious amateur photographers), Fast Backup, Smart Synchronization, greater security, improved compression technology, and higher performance FTP, just to name a few.

Do yourself a favor and save yourself heartache. Backup your digital photos and image files today.

For more information and guidance about backing up read The Backup Guide.