Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
If your camera doesn't work with Aperture's tethered shooting, you can set up an
Automator folder action so that any file placed in the folder is imported into
Aperture. Then use your camera's software, such as Canon's EOS Utility, to control
the tethering session, setting it to save each image into that special folder.
Genius
Vaults and Backup
Your digital files are your film negatives, and to a working photographer, they're also your income.
Protecting these files is crucial! The first step to protecting your files is to figure out a backup strat-
egy, starting with where you store your photo library.
One of the most common causes of lost data is hard drive failure. Unfortunately, drives don't last
forever, and if your library's only on one drive, it's quite possible that you'll lose all your images at
some point. Rather than storing our libraries on a single drive, we use redundant arrays of inde-
pendent disk (RAID) storage devices for our primary photo library. RAID systems let you automati-
cally store your data to multiple hard drives at once, but the combined drives appear as one drive
to your computer.
When setting up a RAID system, we recommend buying drives from different manu-
facturers if possible, so that if a manufacturer has a bad run of drives, your drives
don't all fail together.
Note
Currently, we use Drobos from Data Robotics (see Figure 10.13), which are special cases with fast
interfaces (including FireWire 800 and eSATA) that automatically reconfigure their RAID settings as
you add or remove drives. Literally, you just add new drives or swap out old drives as you need
more storage, and the Drobo automatically reconfigures itself to provide efficient, protected data
storage. With the original Drobo, one drive can fail but your data will still be safe, and with newer
systems like the Drobo S, more drives can fail but your data will still be safe (assuming you're using
all the drive bays).
While keeping your images on a RAID array helps prevent image loss due to hard drive failure, it
won't protect you if there's a fire or some other natural disaster. The simplest way to protect your-
self in this case is to keep a second copy of your data at an off-site location. For example, perhaps
you buy a second Drobo that you keep in your house rather than your studio. Every so often, take
 
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