Tips to Keep Huge RAW Files Safe

 

• Smart Previews in Lightroom
• Faster Memory Cards
• An Appropriate Way to Share RAW Images
• Convert to Lossy-Compressed DNG file

Let’s take a detailed look at the methods that can help you to manage huge RAW files:

• Smart Previews in Lightroom:

Almost every professional photographer uses Lightroom in their day to day life. In Lightroom, use Smart Preview as this helps the editor to remotely access the photos without storage device. This gives the output in the smaller file size and prevents adding up cache to the storage space. Once the edits have been made and if the final image is processed, sync the Smart Preview to your original library of images and your edits will automatically be updated to the original source image.

• Faster Memory Cards:

Always choose a memory card with a higher bitrate. Why?

• Higher bitrate means the memory card can capture all the major advanced photo formats with ease
• Higher bitrate provides fast access to these huge RAW files and keeps the images corruption free as there will be no risk of partial data loss

Compact flash cards, Secured Digital SD Cards and premium Lexar card should always be your priority when it comes choosing an SD card for your camera.

• An Appropriate Way to Share RAW Images:

Whenever you are sharing your RAW images to the client or sending it to an editor for retouching, make sure you use a well-known cloud platform as this allows the people to access the files on any device or system. Some of the reputative online photo sharing platforms are:

• Microsoft OneDrive
• Google Drive
• Photoshelter
• Dropbox
• iCloud Photo Library (Suggested only if you are sharing the RAW images to your another device and not to any other person)

Another major advantage of using a cloud platform is the editor can save different types of version of the same photo on various platforms. This gives them a quick access to the previous version of the images if anything goes sideways while editing.

However, if you have lost your RAW images due to corruption, formatted your storage device, having an inaccessible memory card or any other photo loss scenario, it is advised to use a professional photo recovery tool. SFWare Data Recovery tool is an award-winning software that can recover more than 300 image formats from your HDD, SSD, Memory cards and every other major storage device.

• Convert to Lossy-Compressed DNG File:

Usually photographers convert RAW images to JPG for saving storage space. But, the most appropriate way to save storage space and not to lose the quality or exposure of the image is to convert these RAW files to lossy-compressed DNG file format. DNG (Digital Negative RAW) file format is Adobe’s format. This was introduced due to the lack of editing software’s for RAW images. Converting RAW images to DNG makes it easy for editors to edit the photos and loses only minor image quality which is undetected.

Hence, these are few effective tips to manage your RAW images and simultaneously save your storage space. Hope this informative write-up has given you some insights on managing your RAW images.