A couple of months ago we installed a pogoplug unit, mainly to rationalise storage for our CD ripping services. This little device converts our many USB hard drives into shareable network attached storage (NAS). This has worked so well for backing up digital music files we've extended it to covering our image files.
The big differences between the two services are data volumes and client types. Ripping 1,000 CDs will create 100 Gbytes or more, while we can get 7,000 images onto a CD. We get work in from many clients per day for photo scanning, CD ripping is a much smaller number per month. However from time to time we have photo scanning clients who do generate large data files (one client last week had 300 35mm slides scanned into TIFFs, some 6 DVDs worth of data) and of course nobody wants their data to be lost.
So what we've done, and this may not be our final workflow, is to set up a folder on one Mac into which we drop copies of the image files just after we mail them back to clients. This rejoices in the ultra dull title of "Clients Out". I invested in a program called Chronsync which is a backup program. That monitors that folder and copies newly added sub-folders to a backup on a 1TB iOmega hard drive connected to our pogoplug. With minimal effort sent image files are now being backed up, and we all breathe an extra sigh of relief.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
One is a Loneley Number
Every photo is unique, of course, so why wouldn't you want a unique number for your scans?
For me it's been pretty obvious but it does take a bit of thinking about. Many clients want us to scan their images into several folders, each one given a meaningful title so they are easier to organise. Just suppose though at some point you want to change things around, for example you want to sort through your photos and send a folder of your kids photos over to Granny. This will probably pick images from each of those folders, and this is where the problem will arise if you don't have a unique numbering system.
With our approach each folder contains uniquely numbered images. You can copy any of those photos into a new folder without problems, you won't have to renumber five 01s, four 02s and nine 08s.
One small nightmare avoided. Unique photos with unique numbers.
For me it's been pretty obvious but it does take a bit of thinking about. Many clients want us to scan their images into several folders, each one given a meaningful title so they are easier to organise. Just suppose though at some point you want to change things around, for example you want to sort through your photos and send a folder of your kids photos over to Granny. This will probably pick images from each of those folders, and this is where the problem will arise if you don't have a unique numbering system.
With our approach each folder contains uniquely numbered images. You can copy any of those photos into a new folder without problems, you won't have to renumber five 01s, four 02s and nine 08s.
One small nightmare avoided. Unique photos with unique numbers.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Free Postage This Weekend
Having seen the weather forecast this weekend we thought we'd do something to try to brighten our spirits, so here it is - free postage. Yes, if you mail your photos / slides / negatives we'll scan them and return them to you at no cost.
That's it, free postage. You can save a significant sum, today our return post bill was nearly £100 so we expect a lot of clients to be happy next week. If you're thinking of getting a scanning project under way now's your chance, a small incentive to get you going.
Free postage - get those pictures off to us now.
That's it, free postage. You can save a significant sum, today our return post bill was nearly £100 so we expect a lot of clients to be happy next week. If you're thinking of getting a scanning project under way now's your chance, a small incentive to get you going.
Free postage - get those pictures off to us now.
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