When you get back from your vacation, outing, sporting event, or wherever else you were taking pictures, copy them to the computer and then burn them to a CD, DVD, or copy them to an external hard drive. This separate copy is your archival copy, the one you will revert to in the event something happens to the one you are working on or keeping in your computer. Things DO happen, hard drives DO crash, and no matter how careful you are, overwrites DO happen so make the copy first to be safe.

Now that you have a backup copy, you can work on your photos to your heart's content. Do not EVER EVER EVER work on your original files because if you make a mistake and over-write them or delete them, they are gone and you are not going to get it back. Don't you wish you had a backup??? I have worked on the original countless times, in my haste to get something done or out of plain laziness, and have been burned on this. This also applies to those cameras that shoot in RAW (such as .cr2 or .nef)...even though you can't destroy the original by editing it, you CAN delete the file or lose it to a hard drive crash so follow this advice.

When you are done working on your files in the computer (resizing for email, fixing minor problems, or doing any major photoshopping), I recommend you save that file (ie. DSC0000.jpg) with a unique name, such as DSC0000-1.jpg. The next time you make a change to the file name it DSC0000-2.jpg and so on so you can keep track of your edits. This way you can immediately tell the original from the retouched file, and you won't accidentally save over the original. Memory and storage are very inexpensive these days, so take a few extra minutes to insure your precious memories so you won't be heartbroken later.

questions? comments? make yourself heard! your feedback may even make it to the podcast...
direct link to the article.... http://www.themagicinpixels.com/articles/make-a-backup.aspx

---

Visit The Magic in Pixels.com.
View 1,000's of Disney Theme Park Photos, read articles, participate in the TMIP Disney Photo Forum, and purchase Disney Prints for your home or office.