photographers: best way to import photos from digital camera on MBP?

[Makisupa Policeman]

This is what I do on my iMac. Photos is set to keep everything, and the 2 TB SSD that the .photoslibrary sits on just lives behind the Mac and gets backed up by Time Machine onto another drive (and 1x/month onto another drive kept offsite).

I sprung for a reasonably fast SSD (Crucial X9) and it works incredibly smoothly. I used to use a slower drive which would bog down from time to time. Worth spending a little extra on this IMO.

Definitely the way to go with a desktop setup. If you have an iMac/Mini/Studio there’s no real reason to max out on internal storage when you can connect a fast external SSD and expand your storage for way cheaper!

The Crucial X9 is a good choice. Never had issues with those drives. And afaik the speed of the X9 is the maximum that TB4/USB 3.1 can make use of for one of these “ready out of the box” disks, so there’s not much point in getting one with a R/W faster than 1050MB/s.

Not sure about the new TB5 standard though, as far as what speeds are available.

 

[AppleMango]

Hi guys,

I want to give some more details because I realise I'm losing the plot a little bit and struggle to find the right way. I appreciate all your answers and insights!

My setup:
- 14" MBP M4 Pro (2024) with 1TB.
- 11" IPP M4 (2024) with 256 GB.
- iPhone 14 Pro with 256GB.
- iCloud 2TB
- 2x LaCie Rugged 4TB
- Fuji x100 camera

Current workflow and status:
- iPad and iPhone use iCloud Photos, MBP downloads originals.
- 1x/week TimeMachine Backup to onsite LaCie#1, 1x/month rotate disks on-/offsite and backup to LaCie#2.
- Fuji SD into MBP, copy to Desktop, format SD on Fuji (@Alameda 🙌 sounds like I'm doing quite right there, ty!)

Problems:
- After starting photography a couple of months ago, I accumulated RAWs and JPEGs on MBP, leading to running out of internal storage now. I'm synching my Desktop to iCloud, hence I created a Fuji Photography folder on Desktop and moved my Fuji content into there, as an online backup.
- I also realise that besides the TimeMachine-backups I have no other offline backup from the Photos app content.

Questions:
I love the idea of a "desktop setup" with an external storage expansion, mentioned by @Alameda, @ignatius345 or @Makisupa Policeman. But at the moment I don't have that. I also love the idea of a NAS and create my own network-backup-file-thingy (apologies, I have no idea about these things).

1. How do I keep going forward? Shall I get 2 more LaCie Rugged 4TB and use these for manual backups from the Fuji Photography folder + Photos app?
2. Shall I get an external SSD (which are expensive, for example if I look at Lacie)? What brand, I feel like going down an absolute rabbit hole. But then I use this as extension at home but wouldn't have my stuff available if I'm travelling, right?
3. Is it time for NAS? But that's definitely more expensive and also maybe not the right personal environment at the moment, as there might be moving involved in some time and so probably different circumstances and more space, etc.
4. Can I bridge the current situation somehow? Is there a nice middle ground?



I really appreciate your answers and look forward to some input, especially from @Alameda and @Makisupa Policeman - thanks for your detailed answers before.

Bw

 

[Makisupa Policeman]

Hi guys,

I want to give some more details because I realise I'm losing the plot a little bit and struggle to find the right way. I appreciate all your answers and insights!

My setup:
- 14" MBP M4 Pro (2024) with 1TB.
- 11" IPP M4 (2024) with 256 GB.
- iPhone 14 Pro with 256GB.
- iCloud 2TB
- 2x LaCie Rugged 4TB
- Fuji x100 camera

Current workflow and status:
- iPad and iPhone use iCloud Photos, MBP downloads originals.
- 1x/week TimeMachine Backup to onsite LaCie#1, 1x/month rotate disks on-/offsite and backup to LaCie#2.
- Fuji SD into MBP, copy to Desktop, format SD on Fuji (@Alameda 🙌 sounds like I'm doing quite right there, ty!)

Problems:
- After starting photography a couple of months ago, I accumulated RAWs and JPEGs on MBP, leading to running out of internal storage now. I'm synching my Desktop to iCloud, hence I created a Fuji Photography folder on Desktop and moved my Fuji content into there, as an online backup.
- I also realise that besides the TimeMachine-backups I have no other offline backup from the Photos app content.

Questions:
I love the idea of a "desktop setup" with an external storage expansion, mentioned by @Alameda, @ignatius345 or @Makisupa Policeman. But at the moment I don't have that. I also love the idea of a NAS and create my own network-backup-file-thingy (apologies, I have no idea about these things).

1. How do I keep going forward? Shall I get 2 more LaCie Rugged 4TB and use these for manual backups from the Fuji Photography folder + Photos app?
2. Shall I get an external SSD (which are expensive, for example if I look at Lacie)? What brand, I feel like going down an absolute rabbit hole. But then I use this as extension at home but wouldn't have my stuff available if I'm travelling, right?
3. Is it time for NAS? But that's definitely more expensive and also maybe not the right personal environment at the moment, as there might be moving involved in some time and so probably different circumstances and more space, etc.
4. Can I bridge the current situation somehow? Is there a nice middle ground?



I really appreciate your answers and look forward to some input, especially from @Alameda and @Makisupa Policeman - thanks for your detailed answers before.

Bw

It’s funny but I’m faced with a similar storage dilemma because I take a ton of pictures with my phone, take video at the max quality, and shoot RAW with my DSLR, so very soon my MBP’s 1TB of storage is going to be full.

Having more than a couple rotating disks for storage/backup is going to get to be time consuming and probably make it easier to forget to do your backups regularly. It’s kind of that way for me right now with a storage drive + TM/CCC backups. Everyone is different, but personally I want a backup system that is set and forget, because if backups aren’t current they’re often useless anyway.

I also considered going the NAS route but after doing a lot of research I’ve read that it doesn’t necessarily play nice with Apple’s proprietary file system, especially those darn package files like photos and music.

My solution—at least for the near future —is that I’m going to be setting up a headless Mac Mini as a home server, with an SSD attached for storage expansion, and an array of HDDs for backup.

I’m sure I could get a NAS system to work and I’m not an expert in this stuff so there’s probably things I’m overlooking. But to me having everything just be in the Apple ecosystem seems pretty seamless, and also fairly easy for someone like me without a ton of computer knowledge to set up.

 

[Alameda]

Hi guys,

I want to give some more details because I realise I'm losing the plot a little bit and struggle to find the right way. I appreciate all your answers and insights!

My setup:
- 14" MBP M4 Pro (2024) with 1TB.
- 11" IPP M4 (2024) with 256 GB.
- iPhone 14 Pro with 256GB.
- iCloud 2TB
- 2x LaCie Rugged 4TB
- Fuji x100 camera

Current workflow and status:
- iPad and iPhone use iCloud Photos, MBP downloads originals.
- 1x/week TimeMachine Backup to onsite LaCie#1, 1x/month rotate disks on-/offsite and backup to LaCie#2.
- Fuji SD into MBP, copy to Desktop, format SD on Fuji (@Alameda 🙌 sounds like I'm doing quite right there, ty!)

Problems:
- After starting photography a couple of months ago, I accumulated RAWs and JPEGs on MBP, leading to running out of internal storage now. I'm synching my Desktop to iCloud, hence I created a Fuji Photography folder on Desktop and moved my Fuji content into there, as an online backup.
- I also realise that besides the TimeMachine-backups I have no other offline backup from the Photos app content.

Questions:
I love the idea of a "desktop setup" with an external storage expansion, mentioned by @Alameda, @ignatius345 or @Makisupa Policeman. But at the moment I don't have that. I also love the idea of a NAS and create my own network-backup-file-thingy (apologies, I have no idea about these things).

1. How do I keep going forward? Shall I get 2 more LaCie Rugged 4TB and use these for manual backups from the Fuji Photography folder + Photos app?
2. Shall I get an external SSD (which are expensive, for example if I look at Lacie)? What brand, I feel like going down an absolute rabbit hole. But then I use this as extension at home but wouldn't have my stuff available if I'm travelling, right?
3. Is it time for NAS? But that's definitely more expensive and also maybe not the right personal environment at the moment, as there might be moving involved in some time and so probably different circumstances and more space, etc.
4. Can I bridge the current situation somehow? Is there a nice middle ground?



I really appreciate your answers and look forward to some input, especially from @Alameda and @Makisupa Policeman - thanks for your detailed answers before.

Bw

First, I don’t use iCloud or TimeMachine to backup my RAW photos, for a bunch of reasons I don’t think there good for the task.

Second, NAS does have a lot of disadvantages:
1 Expensive
2 Slow, unless you spend a lot more
3 Complicated
4 Your data is still onsite

SSDs seem to max out at 4TB. Mine are Thunderbolt, because that’s fastest, but you can use a usb interface and save quite a lot. You’d need to research exactly which USB version will give you peak speed with your computer model.

For the other part, backup, I’d consider BackBlaze. They offer unlimited personal backup for $99 a year. This seems affordable and effective. I might go with them at some point as well.

 

[ignatius345]

The Crucial X9 is a good choice. Never had issues with those drives.

Generally very happy with the speed and responsiveness, but I have occasionally had an issue where I come back to my iMac after it sleeping overnight and, while the drive is mounted still, there's a warning up about it having been removed without ejecting properly. Apparently the drive is unmounting and remounting again.



The Music and TV apps seem to be more tolerant of this disruption, but Photos freaks out and needs to shut down immediately.

This unmount/remount thing was happening more a few months ago, then went away, and then oddly happened again last night. Really unsure what the deal is.

 

[ignatius345]

Problems:
- After starting photography a couple of months ago, I accumulated RAWs and JPEGs on MBP, leading to running out of internal storage now.

This is your business, but if you've only been shooting a couple months and are filling up whole drives, is it possible some editing is in order? IMO editing (especially in the digital age of near-unlimited "film rolls") is a crucial aspect of photography. Also, regarding RAW files, they're pretty huge, and I personally only keep them for favorites that I'm likely to want to do deeper adjustments on.

Anyway, I know that's beyond the scope of what you asked, but I would consider it if you're planning to keep doing this for years to come. Might not be sustainable to keep multiple TB of image files every year.

 

[Alameda]

This is your business, but if you've only been shooting a couple months and are filling up whole drives, is it possible some editing is in order? IMO editing (especially in the digital age of near-unlimited "film rolls") is a crucial aspect of photography. Also, regarding RAW files, they're pretty huge, and I personally only keep them for favorites that I'm likely to want to do deeper adjustments on.

Anyway, I know that's beyond the scope of what you asked, but I would consider it if you're planning to keep doing this for years to come. Might not be sustainable to keep multiple TB of image files every year.

I frequently shoot 40 gigabytes or more every time I go out. It’s really easy to fill a 256 or 512GB internal drive.

And, yes, I could delete all my RAW photos except the keepers, but I don’t prefer to.

 

[ignatius345]

I frequently shoot 40 gigabytes or more every time I go out. It’s really easy to fill a 256 or 512GB internal drive.

And, yes, I could delete all my RAW photos except the keepers, but I don’t prefer to.

Well good luck then! You will eventually have to either make some choices on what to keep or start buying some big drives. Would recommend HDDs for deep storage and backup, unless you're made of money.

 

[Alameda]

Well good luck then! You will eventually have to either make some choices on what to keep or start buying some big drives. Would recommend HDDs for deep storage and backup, unless you're made of money.

What I do is common for a lot of photographers.

My 4TB drive holds, I think, 2023/2024/2025 and my NAS drive is around 11 TB and it goes back to 2013.

I could go and cull through 100,000 RAW photos and delete a bunch but it would take many full days. But I’m not saying that my way is the only way or the best way. I talk about this a lot online and I’m always open to improving what I do.

 

[Fishrrman]

alameda wrote:
"What I do is common for a lot of photographers."

Sounds like "digital hoarding" to me.
Some "culling" might be in order.

Other than that, buy large-capacity platter-based hard drives...

 

[Alameda]

alameda wrote:
"What I do is common for a lot of photographers."

Sounds like "digital hoarding" to me.
Some "culling" might be in order.

Other than that, buy large-capacity platter-based hard drives...

You’re welcome to share your wisdom.

I’ve been a photographer for a very long time and I don’t see any benefit in deleting some of my photos. No telling when I might want to revisit an old shoot and try out the new noise reduction tech on some of my photos.