Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How big is your photo library?
- Thread starter dlegend
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have 36,186 photos loaded into Aperture right now. It's about 270GB altogether. This excludes many old photos I have archived on DVDs. All of my photos are backed up in triplicate on either DVDs or hard drives.
I started taking photos seriously less than a year ago (and I shoot mostly jpegs! 
) and I've got 7,113 photos totaling 19.8 gigs with external hard drives/DVDs as backup.
) and I've got 7,113 photos totaling 19.8 gigs with external hard drives/DVDs as backup.GotMyOrangeCrus
macrumors regular
I passed 5000 DVD Back Up's earlier this year and that doesn't include my film which easily makes up over 80% of my pictures. I honestly have no clue just how many pictures that entitles, I just know its far too many to count. My 4x5 film alone encompasses over 60 Light Impressions 4x5 Neg Boxes. Again its far too many pictures to even begin to count then again I have been shooting for well over 20 years.
Just out of interest, how do you find a particular picture again with so many to look through?
Erm judging from the amount of photos taken, I bet he is definitely making a living out of photography, the kind of photography jobs which I can think of that take such amount of photos are wedding photographers, model photographers or photography studios and maybe sports photographers.
2000 analog photos in 6 years with an SLR, some 100 scanned for public internet exposure.
6000 digital copies with my first digital P&S in 15 months, then 4000 with a Canon G9 in only 5 months, and now 1815 in 1.5 months with a 450D.
Around 14.000 pictures in 7 years, ergo 5 per day.
And three digital libraries worth 100GB.
Digital is definitely more space hungry in terms of GB, but not physical storage, as of yet. Maybe 13 years down the road.
6000 digital copies with my first digital P&S in 15 months, then 4000 with a Canon G9 in only 5 months, and now 1815 in 1.5 months with a 450D.
Around 14.000 pictures in 7 years, ergo 5 per day.
And three digital libraries worth 100GB.
Digital is definitely more space hungry in terms of GB, but not physical storage, as of yet. Maybe 13 years down the road.
GotMyOrangeCrus
macrumors regular
Through a very precise system of cataloging. For my film, I actually number my shoots and print proof sheets which go into binders. For my digital, I use Extensis portfolio and keep detailed listings of my shoots. Its really not as hard as it sounds. You just have to be precise with your system and keep at it even on the days where your feeling a bit lazy and dont feel like taking all of the proper steps.
GotMyOrangeCrus
macrumors regular
I shoot pictures for a living. I shoot mainly architecture these days but used to shoot product an recreational vehicles as well. Architecture is my real passion and thankfully I have enough clients now that I dont have to shoot anything else. I never cared for the other shoots like I did Architecture. Its important to note that a large percentage of my pictures are personal work. I would estimate that over 60-70% of my pictures are non commercial. Thats the great thing about Architectural photography, Lots of free time to shoot for yourself. I basically only shoot in Summer and Fall.
I think a lot of digital photographers today shoot too many pictures. I know people that have only been shooting a few years and they have literally hundreds of thousands of pictures. Its not how many pictures you take, its how many good pictures you can take. I think its because it doesn't cost them anything, they just shoot everything and that all important phase of being selective and waiting for that perfect picture just gets lost. They just shoot shoot shoot and edit once they are back on their computer. imo, something gets lost with that process.
My nephew started using digital last week in his photo class and the teacher actually told them to shoot as if it was film. They were only allowed to shoot 36 pictures for their assignment. I imagine that the reason behind this is exactly what I am talking about and I think its a great idea s it forces them to be more selective and not just shoot like mad cause they can. Very smart imo.
About 2500 here, and I've been shooting for a little over a year actively. As a amatuer not doing any paid work, I'm hyper meticulous over what I keep. I weed out any photos that aren't of any worth. I may take 100 shots with a model, and keep less than half.
GotMyOrangeCrus
macrumors regular
Thats a great idea and it will save you time and money in the long run. I usually toss out at least 50% of my digital work. Better to move on and shoot more pictures than waste time with the mediocre stuff. Its the quality that counts, not the quantity.
Digital, roughly 25,000 shots and 100GB consumed.
Film...probably another 15,000 shots ... and many shoeboxes consumed
-hh
Film...probably another 15,000 shots ... and many shoeboxes consumed
-hh
on iphoto i mainly have a consistent collection from 8th august 2008
the ones before that are somewhat more miscellaneous or not fully 'documented'
so basically since aug 2008
i have 20.6gb of photos - 5,349 photos
im just a graphic design student, with an interest in photography as a hobby
i dont know if its me but i think iphoto is starting to slow down on my unibody pro
also backed up on two different harddrives
the ones before that are somewhat more miscellaneous or not fully 'documented'
so basically since aug 2008
i have 20.6gb of photos - 5,349 photos
im just a graphic design student, with an interest in photography as a hobby
i dont know if its me but i think iphoto is starting to slow down on my unibody pro
also backed up on two different harddrives
At the moment, there's about 12,000 images (raw files)
and it's approximately taking up 230Gb
15.000 in iphoto library (35GB) and 5.000 someplace else (too lazy to check size)
so out of those 20k photos approx. 1.5k are self-portraits and 1k are portraits i did for work (with no clear plan => number)
now this redues the library to 'only' 17.5
digital makes it soo easy to shoot and store a huge amount of photographs ...
out of all those images i only show 185 publicly on my blog, another 200 all over the place and around 10k are in circulation in the friends&family circle.
hmm...
so out of those 20k photos approx. 1.5k are self-portraits and 1k are portraits i did for work (with no clear plan => number)
now this redues the library to 'only' 17.5
digital makes it soo easy to shoot and store a huge amount of photographs ...
out of all those images i only show 185 publicly on my blog, another 200 all over the place and around 10k are in circulation in the friends&family circle.
hmm...
That's great that you're able to support yourself doing something that you love.
On a serious note, what brand blank DVD or CDs do you recommend?
GotMyOrangeCrus
macrumors regular
I dont verify the media. I burn 2 discs per back-up, I use high quality discs, store them using archival materials and use really high quality Silica Gel Dehumidifiers in each box I store them in. I of course verify at the burn stage. Once that is done I no longer worry about it. I am sure there will come a day when I do verify to make sure the discs are keeping but it wont be for awhile. I have only had a handful of situations where a disc had gone bad and in each one of those cases the 2nd disc was fine and I simply made another backup. Its been 100% effective thus far.