Miss these Tech videos Chase use to do. All the Tech guys and Photographers at my University use to be obsessed with these videos Chase was really ahead of his time when it came to all this and using the best gear around the workflow seemed almost perfect big inspiration for a lot of us out there. I still to this day come back to these old videos of his.
+G.P. Jurisic Agreed. But you'll find most of it is still very very relevant today! The main concern with any data centric business is to ensure you have copies out of harms way. The saying goes, "It doesn't exist, unless it's in three different places" 5 years later, hard drives are cheaper than ever! No excuse for those in a professional/semi-professional environment :)
+DV7Dave one part is not so relevant - Aperture! There's probably a lot of people out there still using it but I suspect a lot of Aperture users are now Lightroom users (including me). Just thought I’d mention that. (-:
Thought the word "workflow" in my head and immediately had to come back to this video. It's almost like ASMR for photographers. Lol. Even the music brings back warm feels.
Spent 8 years in the military as a combat photographer. A lot of the steps are the same. We used PC in my shops, but for my own personal ventures, I use Mac. My experiences moved me from Photoshop to Lightroom, and I'm migrating from Lightroom to Aperture as I continue to learn and practice with Aperture 3 more and more. It's a brilliant and fully capable program.
Chase I used this video in one of my computing classes very recently at Harvard. Very relevant information, easy to digest. But the fact that you were Seattle based help as well lol.
We are small time wedding videographers, but we have been doing something similar with our data backups (just not ont that scale). We've learned a few new "tricks" from this video and we're optimizing our workflow now. Thank you Jarvis for the video! We've worked with probably a hundred different photographers and very few understand how important data redundancy is. You guys rock!!!
People seriously underestimate the need to backup and archive. Great video Chase. Another thing is - Backups are NOT archives! You still need to archive - as good as redundancy in the form of mirroring/replication is, it doesn't solve the fact that it will also mirror/replicate corrupt data..So be sure to keep archives as well!
Really cool video outlining a simple workflow used to manage and protect digital assets. Glad to see my workflow is not too dissimilar albeit on a slightly smaller scale.
Really informative and extremely well produced. Thanks! I shudder to think of the overall cost, but it's smart. Plus, think of the potential clients of his who'll see this video and be reassured that all his bases are meticulously covered. A really smart way to show his clients that the expensive location work he's doing is being taken seriously and professionally. Gotta hand it to Chase- making one video for the gearheads as well as potential clients and having it communicate differently to each set.
I am not a photographer but a guitarist and music producer and I have also to deal with a lot of data. I really liked this video. Chase Jarvis rocks!!! Very inspiring guy. Thanks a lot
This is without doubt one of , if not "the" best workflow videos ever. I watched it a bunch back when it first came out and id love a more modern version, as storage has changed, drives and equipment etc. Hey chase make a new one and to the ones that read this, have you any others you recommend, lets brain storm this. ! remember when we had to change all footage to proress and couldn't natively edit AVCHD without it being clunky, there must be a better more modern 2021 version. come on internets !
The best data storage backup setup I have found anywhere. I've researched this a lot and chase has the best setup. I will be stealing this setup idea haha. Especially the location laptop setup. Such a brilliant idea that I can't think of how it could be done better.
Thanks Chase and team! Another stonking great video. At first I was wondering what it had to do with anyone running smaller systems, but you guys dropped golden backup-wisdom nuggets that work with any sized operation.
@vishalalex Indexing was done through Apeture, when the data was first captured out on the field. The library is then transferred to the server. If a hard drive crashes, it won't matter because of the RAID array that's setup. The original Raw data is untouched since they work with referenced files. All edited versions are saved in a "Live Work" Partition on the server.
This is a awesome video and I think it can be applied for Graphic Designers as well. Even other types of professions with a lot of data, but scaled down. One thing I've learned in college as well (as a advertiser/graphic designer) is to back up, back up and back up. This video amplifies that and is very nicely done. Props!
you inspired me to buy a couple drives and set up some redundancy today in my home office/suite. Not near as redundant as this setup but a lot more mind easing than crossing my fingers and hoping one of the drives in my raid 0 external lacie 1TB doesn't ever die.
Nice to see someone who understands data redundancy. I keep my photos on a small Raid 5 SAN at home which rsync's offsite to a folder at my web host and I keep a copy of everything on my laptop, which wirelessly backups with TimeMachine to a USB disk attached to my Airport Extreme. I don't have near as much data, just my photos from my D700, but very similar redundancy.
Oh yeah one other thing. I really dig the graphics and animation associated. What tools were you using to produce those? I'd be interested in reading up on that. Thanks.
Great overview of a well thought out system. One thing that didn't add up was that the off site back up for their 64TB server was an 8TB system. Can anyone explain what they're actually off-siting on that 8TB G-Drive?
Great setup, thanks for sharing! One question, when you fly commercial with all that (awesome) gear & data how much do you check, how much do you ship and how much to you carry on? Do you insure your checked & shipped gear for more once you have the data on it? OK, that was two questions. Thanks, Joe
@pkendall09 I can see two reasons: 1) They take thousands of RAW photos during a photo shoot and in previous vids Chase showed dozens of 32GB CF cards. Keeping all that data on separate cards can get confusing and potentially troublesome. 2) They also record RED format videos on some shoots, the bit rate is insane! They probably need multiple external hard drives just to house all that data on location. 32GB of Red camera footage is like 16 mins.
Only if you ever hit the share button then it is indexed by google and anyone can see it because the file is added to a public folder in your drive (whether you know it or not)
Very informative. How many 2T G drives are stored off site & for how long? Do they eventually overwrite the drives for use again...or is drive cost included in client fees? CRAZY!
Chase, you need to do a DVD of the whole process. From beginning to end, the process of taking the picture to archiving, which includes the workflow through Aperture. For instance, do you save the files to the hard drive and open in Aperture, or have the files in aperture library only? Then, how do you name these files? Give an example. Then, how to save, how to do this process.
@vishalalex The data is saved on the server. Now this is an assumption for their setup, but this is how my office works: Similar to an ftp check-in/check-out setup, if machine A checks out a file, machine B won't be able to do so at the same time. Once machine A checks the file back in, changes to the data are saved back onto the server. That way, machine B will be able to check out the file and see machine A's edits.
i realy like the workflow video but still got a question... How are you working with aperture and do you use it as a editing tool ? greets from holland!
Do you create an Aperture library for each project? How/where do you store the library? I work with Lightroom and thinking about storing an LRCAT along side the raw files it references, with a new catalog for each project. Recommendations?
Chase, are your referenced files on the editor's computers and drives, or do they stay on the server, or both? And how'd you come up with the workflow? Trial and error? or are you just a genius haha
When working on files from the server on the Mac Pros in the office are you doing that over any special setup? iSCSI, Fibre Channel, etc. Are you mounting it NFS, local volume, or something else? Thanks.
Did you mention where/how you back up your "live view" edits? I must have missed it because I cant imagine you wouldn't save the final product as much as..... and I got to that part of the video just now haha!
Amazing video - I really liked it and I have to admit than I'm a backup freak, too. Every raw clip that is important to me like performances or meetings I safed on a pc and on a hard disk! :) But one question: which editing software do you use - I recently bought myself final cut express which seems to be a fantastic software. Is final cut pro used in the states or from what I've more avid media composer. What do you use and why? Thank you so much, Philippe
@phototristan I couldn't either, so I got both! They each have some unique features the other doesn't that makes it hard not to own both. I'm sure I'll eventually get to a point where I use one more than another.
Hey dude, I use LR like you. I find that it's easiest when you have a separate catalog for each project. I store the LRCAT in a project folder along with the working files on the desktop. Then, when I'm done with the files and have exported them, I drag the working files, exported jpegs, and the LRC to an external drive. I hope that helps. - Rodger
I know that this is probably already referenced in the comments below, but since this is an old video... I'm curious how long you keep clients files? When working with a small amount of redundant storage, as I do, It's difficult for me to maintain backups of completed projects.
I don't think money is an issue and it's not that you are going to get 64TB on a shoot I was simply suggesting it for quicker movement back to the shop so that while the photo team is still on location the shop team can be working on the RAWs from the previous day to get ahead in the game. Skydrive (from microsoft) comes with 7GB and there are a million and 3 ways to get free 20 or 30 GB upgrades to that
@marloon88 we can always recreate the offsite data with the data from the server. Nessie has to team up with the cloverfield monster and take down both locations simultaneously. If this happens, we've got bigger problems than data storage!
Miss these Tech videos Chase use to do. All the Tech guys and Photographers at my University use to be obsessed with these videos Chase was really ahead of his time when it came to all this and using the best gear around the workflow seemed almost perfect big inspiration for a lot of us out there. I still to this day come back to these old videos of his.
Feeling the love. 🙌🏼🙌🏼
You should do a updated version of this... Would be interesting to see the change in the last 5 years
+G.P. Jurisic Agreed. But you'll find most of it is still very very relevant today! The main concern with any data centric business is to ensure you have copies out of harms way.
The saying goes, "It doesn't exist, unless it's in three different places" 5 years later, hard drives are cheaper than ever! No excuse for those in a professional/semi-professional environment :)
+DV7Dave one part is not so relevant - Aperture! There's probably a lot of people out there still using it but I suspect a lot of Aperture users are now Lightroom users (including me). Just thought I’d mention that. (-:
+David Greenwell I wonder if they're still using it
+David Greenwell i still use aperture :D
Fine Art Aerial literally just scrolled tot he comments right now to comment the exact same thing haha
13 years later. Still absolutely relevant.
COULD you please UPDATE this video. Like this year!!!
Thought the word "workflow" in my head and immediately had to come back to this video. It's almost like ASMR for photographers. Lol. Even the music brings back warm feels.
Spent 8 years in the military as a combat photographer. A lot of the steps are the same. We used PC in my shops, but for my own personal ventures, I use Mac. My experiences moved me from Photoshop to Lightroom, and I'm migrating from Lightroom to Aperture as I continue to learn and practice with Aperture 3 more and more. It's a brilliant and fully capable program.
Chase I used this video in one of my computing classes very recently at Harvard. Very relevant information, easy to digest. But the fact that you were Seattle based help as well lol.
We are small time wedding videographers, but we have been doing something similar with our data backups (just not ont that scale). We've learned a few new "tricks" from this video and we're optimizing our workflow now. Thank you Jarvis for the video! We've worked with probably a hundred different photographers and very few understand how important data redundancy is. You guys rock!!!
I definitely didn't expect your workflow to be this in depth. Simply amazing.
People seriously underestimate the need to backup and archive. Great video Chase. Another thing is - Backups are NOT archives! You still need to archive - as good as redundancy in the form of mirroring/replication is, it doesn't solve the fact that it will also mirror/replicate corrupt data..So be sure to keep archives as well!
Really cool video outlining a simple workflow used to manage and protect digital assets. Glad to see my workflow is not too dissimilar albeit on a slightly smaller scale.
Really informative and extremely well produced. Thanks!
I shudder to think of the overall cost, but it's smart. Plus, think of the potential clients of his who'll see this video and be reassured that all his bases are meticulously covered. A really smart way to show his clients that the expensive location work he's doing is being taken seriously and professionally.
Gotta hand it to Chase- making one video for the gearheads as well as potential clients and having it communicate differently to each set.
Is there an update to this? I assume you're not using aperture anymore....
Thanks for sharing, it is always nice to see the work flow of the top industrial photographer. God bless you, and please more sharing.
If you still do photography, it would be great to do an update of this :)
Ask yourself it it sparks joy.
how brilliant is your back up! down load the video file on site, clean and ready to go. That saves so much time! freakin brilliant man!
Great behind the scenes video! I enjoy watching the way other people work. There's definitely a lot of golden nuggets of useful information there.
I am not a photographer but a guitarist and music producer and I have also to deal with a lot of data. I really liked this video. Chase Jarvis rocks!!! Very inspiring guy. Thanks a lot
So many security measures. Just amazing.
This is without doubt one of , if not "the" best workflow videos ever. I watched it a bunch back when it first came out and id love a more modern version, as storage has changed, drives and equipment etc. Hey chase make a new one and to the ones that read this, have you any others you recommend, lets brain storm this. ! remember when we had to change all footage to proress and couldn't natively edit AVCHD without it being clunky, there must be a better more modern 2021 version. come on internets !
The best data storage backup setup I have found anywhere. I've researched this a lot and chase has the best setup. I will be stealing this setup idea haha. Especially the location laptop setup. Such a brilliant idea that I can't think of how it could be done better.
yall are really doing it man this was a nice setup here
Thanks Chase and team! Another stonking great video. At first I was wondering what it had to do with anyone running smaller systems, but you guys dropped golden backup-wisdom nuggets that work with any sized operation.
@vishalalex
Indexing was done through Apeture, when the data was first captured out on the field. The library is then transferred to the server.
If a hard drive crashes, it won't matter because of the RAID array that's setup.
The original Raw data is untouched since they work with referenced files. All edited versions are saved in a "Live Work" Partition on the server.
Thanks for the vid, great to see how it's done on the commercial level. Hopefully will have at least half the awesome someday.
One word: AWESOME!
True that. There are gear heads, and then true photographers out there with one old body, a couple of lenses and one hard drive. They get by.
Very good tips. Thank you Chase. Back up is always a nightmare for us, photographers!
You are the best Chase !! Ever!
Love it so professional.... my GOD !!! you guys ROCKS!!!!!
That is the textbook definition of foolproof backup
it's extremely interesting to see how pros work!
Thanks Chase! This video helped my workflow big time!
Nailed it!
Some really great info and background on your data workflow and backup strategy.
This is a awesome video and I think it can be applied for Graphic Designers as well. Even other types of professions with a lot of data, but scaled down. One thing I've learned in college as well (as a advertiser/graphic designer) is to back up, back up and back up. This video amplifies that and is very nicely done. Props!
Chase, you are the man. Awesome. Thank you, from Las Vegas.
you inspired me to buy a couple drives and set up some redundancy today in my home office/suite. Not near as redundant as this setup but a lot more mind easing than crossing my fingers and hoping one of the drives in my raid 0 external lacie 1TB doesn't ever die.
Love the depth of this video. I would love an update on how to do this with cloud and within the digital nomad scene.
Hey guy's this guy is A pro And thats how a PRO should work !!!
Great video chase and thank you for sharing all this info.
For some reason i watch this again and again.
great workflow！so many pro skills and equipments！thank you for sharing！！！
Love the Base Camp set up.
TALK ABOUT REDUNDENCY!!!....WOOOOW
Nice to see someone who understands data redundancy. I keep my photos on a small Raid 5 SAN at home which rsync's offsite to a folder at my web host and I keep a copy of everything on my laptop, which wirelessly backups with TimeMachine to a USB disk attached to my Airport Extreme. I don't have near as much data, just my photos from my D700, but very similar redundancy.
Oh yeah one other thing. I really dig the graphics and animation associated. What tools were you using to produce those? I'd be interested in reading up on that. Thanks.
Great overview of a well thought out system. One thing that didn't add up was that the off site back up for their 64TB server was an 8TB system. Can anyone explain what they're actually off-siting on that 8TB G-Drive?
Yes, this is it!
Great setup, thanks for sharing! One question, when you fly commercial with all that (awesome) gear & data how much do you check, how much do you ship and how much to you carry on? Do you insure your checked & shipped gear for more once you have the data on it? OK, that was two questions. Thanks, Joe
Thanks for this. I'm about to embark on a 2 month long shoot all over Europe. It's reassuring to see that it's not only me that is a backup fanatic :D
Great video. What laptop cases are you using out in the field to protect the drives and laptops? Thanks
@pkendall09
I can see two reasons:
1) They take thousands of RAW photos during a photo shoot and in previous vids Chase showed dozens of 32GB CF cards. Keeping all that data on separate cards can get confusing and potentially troublesome.
2) They also record RED format videos on some shoots, the bit rate is insane! They probably need multiple external hard drives just to house all that data on location. 32GB of Red camera footage is like 16 mins.
Only if you ever hit the share button then it is indexed by google and anyone can see it because the file is added to a public folder in your drive (whether you know it or not)
Mind = Blown
Want Chase's job so bad!
Awesome tips! Well done.
awesome! looks like i need to get that ds1010+ extension companion soon.
Simply Amazing!
Awesome! Nice set up! How do did you do the cool sketches showing the workflows? What software did you use?
Nice, thanx for sharing.
One question: did you copy it all to two drives and then board the same plane with both drives?
Very informative. How many 2T G drives are stored off site & for how long? Do they eventually overwrite the drives for use again...or is drive cost included in client fees? CRAZY!
Chase, you need to do a DVD of the whole process. From beginning to end, the process of taking the picture to archiving, which includes the workflow through Aperture. For instance, do you save the files to the hard drive and open in Aperture, or have the files in aperture library only? Then, how do you name these files? Give an example. Then, how to save, how to do this process.
Wow that's some serious studio equipment.
Chase Jarvis FTW!
Yea, an updated version would be nice since you guys have moved down to San Fran.
wow that briefcase setup is NUTS. I didn't even know you could get FW cables with ferrite cores.
@vishalalex
The data is saved on the server.
Now this is an assumption for their setup, but this is how my office works:
Similar to an ftp check-in/check-out setup, if machine A checks out a file, machine B won't be able to do so at the same time. Once machine A checks the file back in, changes to the data are saved back onto the server. That way, machine B will be able to check out the file and see machine A's edits.
thank you for sharing this. very interesting stuff!
so so so so so useful. thanks a bumch!!
Truly epic.
@Shembroro they have those folders too, and then in the folders is the file with the name like you mentioned
Oh my gosh! This is so flipping cool! Chase I envy you sir!
i realy like the workflow video but still got a question...
How are you working with aperture and do you use it as a editing tool ?
greets from holland!
Do you create an Aperture library for each project? How/where do you store the library? I work with Lightroom and thinking about storing an LRCAT along side the raw files it references, with a new catalog for each project. Recommendations?
Chase, are your referenced files on the editor's computers and drives, or do they stay on the server, or both? And how'd you come up with the workflow? Trial and error? or are you just a genius haha
+Chase Jarvis - Thanks for the video. Do you guys still use Aperture today? Also, do you guys encrypt your backups or just leave it as-is? Thanks.
When working on files from the server on the Mac Pros in the office are you doing that over any special setup? iSCSI, Fibre Channel, etc. Are you mounting it NFS, local volume, or something else? Thanks.
@ColeFromRochester the ipads are used mainly during CJLive for monitoring twitter. At least thats what i've noticed.
I wonder what is the software they are using to make the illustrations looks nice.
Chase, looks like some of the footage from here was used in the 12 Tasty Photo & Video Tips. Were both videos already being planned at the time?
Awesome! I want this setup at home :)
Did you mention where/how you back up your "live view" edits? I must have missed it because I cant imagine you wouldn't save the final product as much as..... and I got to that part of the video just now haha!
Yep Premiere really rocks but the only thing it lacks and final cut has is Apple Prores 4:2:2. That compression f**king rock!!
Excellent info!
EXPLAINED TO THE LETTER....EXCELLENT !!
Amazing video - I really liked it and I have to admit than I'm a backup freak, too. Every raw clip that is important to me like performances or meetings I safed on a pc and on a hard disk! :)
But one question: which editing software do you use - I recently bought myself final cut express which seems to be a fantastic software. Is final cut pro used in the states or from what I've more avid media composer. What do you use and why?
Thank you so much,
Philippe
@phototristan I couldn't either, so I got both! They each have some unique features the other doesn't that makes it hard not to own both. I'm sure I'll eventually get to a point where I use one more than another.
thanks alot! great stuff and most of "us" forget about these things.
Hey dude, I use LR like you. I find that it's easiest when you have a separate catalog for each project. I store the LRCAT in a project folder along with the working files on the desktop. Then, when I'm done with the files and have exported them, I drag the working files, exported jpegs, and the LRC to an external drive.
I hope that helps. - Rodger
Quick Question Chase:
Do you keep your photos in RAW format or do you convert them to DNG for long term storage?
killer video! have you used final cut server yet? you could automate alotta this stuff :)
I know that this is probably already referenced in the comments below, but since this is an old video...
I'm curious how long you keep clients files?
When working with a small amount of redundant storage, as I do, It's difficult for me to maintain backups of completed projects.
"Road Warrior" update video plz! Also, what will you do in the post-Aperture world (haha pun)?
@Prophoto2403 It's "we're always on the wrong side of sunrise" by head like a kite (from their 2010 Album Dreams suspend night)
I don't think money is an issue and it's not that you are going to get 64TB on a shoot I was simply suggesting it for quicker movement back to the shop so that while the photo team is still on location the shop team can be working on the RAWs from the previous day to get ahead in the game. Skydrive (from microsoft) comes with 7GB and there are a million and 3 ways to get free 20 or 30 GB upgrades to that
@PatrickMascart @MiamiViceStyle the card reader is a SanDisk Extreme SDDRX4-CF-901. I have 3 of them myself.
@marloon88 we can always recreate the offsite data with the data from the server. Nessie has to team up with the cloverfield monster and take down both locations simultaneously. If this happens, we've got bigger problems than data storage!
I'm too many kinds of nerd: just wanted to say RESPECT on the Alex Goose instrumental! Love that guy! That is all.
That's some awesome hardware!! But, you guys are insane!! Lol... sounds like you guys get fire bombed a lot!
The meaning of professional: This.
I miss backing up on a Syquest 44. Thats when time stood stil to copy a 5 meg file...ahhh the good old days