Solid-State Drive (SSD) Versus Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
If you ask most photographers, they’ll say you can never have enough storage. That’s because photographers want to keep most of their work, and not throw any usable images away. They’ll also want to have 2–3 backups of their work, making certain that their images are protected in the case of any unforeseen catastrophes, like drive failure or accidental damage. To address the challenges facing photographers today, there are some good HDD and SSD solutions to choose from.

HDD for Photography
HDDs are the most cost-effective way to store lots of files, since they are available in massive capacities (up to 18 TB in a single drive). Hard disk drives are also great for archiving because they are designed to store data reliably for extended periods of time.

SSD for Photography
Then, there are SSDs for photography that are pricier per TB than HDDs; however they transfer and access data faster. SSDs also have the advantage of being lightweight and durable while on the go.

As you fill up drives with your work, they become archives in themselves and you can organize and store them as you see fit. When you need more storage, you can simply buy more or erase existing storage to fit new work, or just keep your existing data as a physical backup of your work. Also, consider compiling all your “little” drives into one big drive for easy organization.

1.     Setting up the Camera and Capturing Images

The photographer’s workflow process begins with a quality digital camera. You have your choice between formats:

• Most photographers prefer to shoot in the RAW format. RAW images can be compressed or uncompressed and use all of the data captured by the camera’s sensor, so photos have a much higher file size than jpeg photos. RAW images must be edited and processed before they are ready for export, giving the photographer full control over exposure, color balance, resolution and more.
• The JPEG format is a compressed format that may not require any post-production work and is more common among casual photographers. Depending on your camera, you can determine in advance what color profile, compression, image resolution and white balance settings to use for the optimal results without post-production editing.
  

2.     Transfer Images to Your Smart Device or Laptop

There are several ways to transfer images to your smartphone, laptop or tablet:

• Connect the SD / microSD / CompactFlash / XQD / CFExpress card to your computer via a built-in card reader or by using a USB-enabled card reader connected to an available USB port or, connect your camera directly to your computer via an available USB port.
• Wi-Fi enabled cameras first write the image to an internal memory card, then can offload photos directly to a cloud server or Wi-Fi enabled storage device. Note: Digital cameras cannot take a photo without a memory card inserted.
• There are programs like Apple iPhoto®, Hedge®, Adobe Lightroom®, and Adobe Bridge® (among others) that can automate the process and help keep your files organized and tagged properly. These applications move data safely and provide logs that verify each file was successfully copied and not corrupted. They also (conveniently) resume if a transfer is interrupted. 
• Use an external portable drive or NAS array to backup and archive the photos you want to keep. Performing a backup of your work to a separate device is the best way to prevent loss or accidental deletion.
• Use your computer’s interface to move or copy desired files onto a connected storage device while deleting unwanted photos, this frees up space on the card to accommodate new photos. However, this method is not recommended as there is a potential risk of losing data. There is also always the option of upgrading your internal capacity so you don’t need to transfer files as often.

3.     Edit and Process Images

Once you have offloaded your images on to a device, it’s time for a quality review. Go through each photo and edit as necessary. Make color corrections, retouching, exposure fixes, and more in your favorite photo editing tool like Adobe Photoshop® or Lightroom.

Photo editing can be a time consuming process depending on what you want to correct in any given image. This step is crucial for separating good images from ones that you want to discard. If you don’t want to throw any images away, you can offload ‘rejects’ onto a portable drive for consideration later on.

4.     Organize, Backup and Archive

Once you have reviewed and edited your photos, you’ll want to sort through them, arranging them in folders, and giving them thoughtful filenames for easy retrieval later on. If you want to forego the tedious process of doing this manually, you have the option of using applications like Adobe Lightroom or Apple iPhoto which can automate a lot of the work.

Of course, you don’t want hundreds of photos taking up space on your computer and possibly slowing it down in the process, so creating an organized backup of your work is key to easily finding what you need later on.

Our backup rule is simple: 3-2-1. Three copies, two locations, and one copy to work from. Since your photography is your livelihood, having 2-3 backups in different locations will help make sure your images are preserved. Consider using several devices to hold different collections for easy access:

5.     Exporting Images

Whether you’re preparing images for the web or print, you’ll need a way to export them. There are several ways to do this:

• For print purposes, you can copy your final images to a thumb drive and SD card for easy mail or email delivery to a remote print studio. You can also burn them to a DVD or CD. Also, some vendors provide an FTP upload service for instant transfer delivery.
• Share your images on a personal cloud server and invite others to share, or if you have a lot of images, you can copy them to a portable drive for easy transport to a remote location.
• Web images are usually lighter in file size and can be emailed or uploaded electronically to a remote server. Whichever way you choose, be sure to make a backup of your work in case something goes wrong with the transfer, or the file is accidentally lost or erased.