Your wedding day, was the most INCREDIBLE, special, amazing day! Months and months spent planning and the photographs and moments we documented on that special day will become more and more important with each year that passes.
It is so easy to get super excited once you first receive your wedding gallery and check in to see the photographs daily, weekly, monthly, share them with friends and family, and then time passes and you still haven’t downloaded them!
It is so important that you take several backups of those precious moments and keep them safe!
With this day and age and having a million and one photographs on our phones and computers that we forget technology can sometimes not go in our favour and things can happen. It sometimes is just one of those things. Therefore it is really important that you have several copies of your wedding photographs, printed and/or digital.
I am responsible for backing up your photos for one year after your wedding day. As your wedding photographer I will backup the photographs the day of photographing your wedding, during the editing process and again once I have delivered you the photographs. They are stored in your secure, private online gallery. After that the responsibility lies with you!
So just to help, I have crated this blog post to give you the tips on how to backup your images safely.
COMPUTER or LAPTOP
I would recommend your first port of call is to head over to your online wedding gallery logging in with your password and downloading your photographs. These will download to your computer, likely into your Downloads Folder unless you have chosen a specific place you would like it saved.
Then you can make a further backup copy on your computer in a separate file elsewhere.
EXTERNAL HARD-DRIVES
Having an External Hard drive is one of the easiest ways to keep your images backed up and safe. I have a mix myself between external hard drives and SSD’s, which I use to back up all of my client images. I buy a new one each wedding season and these are kept in my office.
External Hard-drives are pretty inexpensive these days and they are super portable which make them perfect for you to use personal photos and of course your wedding photographs. You’re going to need a computer or a laptop to plug it into and once plugged in its so simple.
Backing up is simply a case of getting the files from where you have saved them on your computer and then copying them and pasting them into a folder on the external hard drive.
I would always recommend having two external hard-drives, especially for something as important as your wedding photographs.. incase the worst case scenario where to happen. So you can one to keep at home and one to keep elsewhere. Maybe the other could be stored at a parent or relatives house or in a fire-proof safe at home or even a safe deposit box. It seems extreme, but until you lose your photographs (touch wood it doesn’t happen!!) you really don’t realise how precious they are. I had this happen to me prior to being a professional photographer and my computer broke and I lost all my photographs from a trip of a lifetime that I had when I was 16. I know it sounds overly cautious to back up, but it will mean you are prepared for any outcome.
PRINTS and ALBUMS
In addition to the above, it is such a shame for your beautiful photographs and memories to collect a virtual dust and keep them on your computer where you can’t see them on a daily basis and a lovely reminder of your special day.
Getting photographs printed is such a lovely way to decorate your home with the personal touch and memory of your day with your closest family and friends. You can purchase your prints through your online gallery, or if your package included a License to Print you can purchase your own prints.
I also offer the most beautiful leather bound albums from Folio – they are so so gorgeous and come in a variety of sizes, fabrics and designs. If you would like some more information or to book in for a free album design meeting, please get in touch and we can chat about the next steps.
EXTENDED ONLINE GALLERY
Your wedding photographs are delivered to you in a beautiful, personalised online gallery which are you able to download your high-resolution photographs straight to your computer. This means you have the perfect online portal that acts as your very own online back up of your wedding photographs.
As your wedding photographer, I am only responsible to hold onto your wedding photographs for one year, however I do offer the option to extend your online gallery on a yearly basis. Giving you peace of mind that your wedding photographs are also safely backed up online.
If you would like more information about this, please get in touch at charlotte@charlottebryer-ash.com
.