Ask Your Photographer: Backup

Today we continues our series called “Ask Your Photographer”. These posts are designed to help in evaluating a professional photographer for any type of photo session or important event.

If you are trying to hire a photographer, what questions should you ask and what should you be looking for? There are some obvious things like looking at their portfolio of previous work, but what about some of the more technical aspects of professional photography?

The topic today is Backup. Backup can mean many different things, but ultimately gets down to a photographer’s preparation for dealing with unplanned problems that might happen during or after a photo session or event.

For example, what if their camera’s memory card runs out of space? What if the memory card fails? What if their camera has an electronic or mechanical failure? What if their camera’s battery runs out of charge suddenly? Do they have a contingency plan for dealing with unexpected issues? These are some of the topics we will deal with below:

Backup Memory Cards

When a photographer takes a shot on their camera, the resulting image is immediately written to an internal memory card for storage. If that card fails, your precious photos could be lost. While today’s memory cards are pretty resilient (especially CFExpress cards), they are not exempt from failure, and definitely not from filling up. With this in mind, here are two key questions you should ask your photographer about memory cards.

Do your cameras have dual memory card slots for real-time backup?

Many high-end mirrorless and DSLR cameras are equipped with dual memory card slots. These types of cameras can be configured so that when the primary image is being written to the first card, the camera is also writing a backup image to the second card. This is critical, because if either of the cards have a failure, there will be a copy of the images on the other card. This helps ensure that images are never lost. As for us, we only use high-end Nikon mirrorless cameras equipped with dual memory card slots. You can read about our cameras on our Current Gear page.

Do you bring extra memory cards to your sessions or events?

This should be a no-brainer but is definitely worth checking out. Even if a card doesn’t fail, it can still run out of space. Sometimes this can happen suddenly. All cameras attempt to estimate the number of remaining shots a card can hold, but this is just an estimate. Not every shot will take up the same amount of space. If there is a failure, or a card runs out of space, does the photographer bring spare cards for quick replacement? We always bring at least two spare cards to every session in addition to the two that are in the camera.

Backup Cameras

Do you bring a spare camera to your sessions or events?

Just like memory cards, cameras can also fail. This can be due to electronic or mechanical problems that appear without warning or as the result of a drop or other accident. If this happens to your photographer during a session or event, what is their contingency plan? Do they have a backup camera, or are they just out of luck? This is a very important thing to check out when evaluating a photographer. We bring a backup camera to EVERY session to make sure we are ready if things go awry. You can read about our cameras on our Current Gear page.

Backup Lenses

How many lenses do you bring to a session or event?

There are two reasons why this question matters. The first is that having multiple lenses available means that a photographer is better prepared for different conditions that may arise. No single lens is ideal for every situation.

The second is that while lenses may seem like simple tools, modern, high-end lenses can be every bit as complex as the cameras they attach to. They can have multiple glass elements, an aperture diaphragm, precision auto-focus motors, and internal vibration reduction. All this means that lenses can fail even without being dropped.

This is one I’ve personally experienced where suddenly a lens was no longer able to auto-focus because the motor stopped working. If this happens to your photographer during a session or event, what is their backup plan? Do they have another lens with them that can also be used? We bring at least four, modern, fast, high-end lenses to every session. These lenses give us a lot of flexibility to match the conditions at the location and provide us with multiple backup options if any of the lenses fail. You can read about our lenses on our Current Gear page.

Backup Storage

Do you backup our photos after they are downloaded from the memory card to your computer?

After a session or event, a photographer will most likely download all of the images from the shoot to the hard drive on a computer. It is critical that they also have some method for making a backup of these files in case their computer fails. A backup could be made to a local, external hard drive, or (preferably) to an online storage location or backup service.

Local Backup + Backblaze

We do both for our client’s precious photos. All images are backed up real-time to both a local external storage device and online using the Backblaze backup service. We do not receive any promotional consideration from Backblaze.

Backup Batteries

Do you bring extra batteries to your sessions or events?

Just like bringing extra memory cards, this should also be a no-brainer. The best modern cameras use a lot of power, and it seems like they chew threw batteries in no-time. Batteries can also run out of charge suddenly, with little warning, especially if they have been used a lot. Having several spares is essential for any session or event. As for us, we bring three extra batteries to every session in addition to the one in the camera. Each of these batteries can last for approximately 500 to 1000 shots depending on the conditions.

Backup Lighting

Do you bring external lighting to your sessions or events?

Some photographers proudly advertise themselves as a “Natural Light Photographer”. If this is truly the case, and they never use artificial lighting, what if the environment just doesn’t have enough natural light to take great shots? What do they do? Don’t get me wrong, I greatly prefer shooting with natural light whenever possible, but I also recognize that some situations just need extra light. It is for this reason, that we always bring external lighting gear to every session. My hope is that I can just leave it all in the car, but it is there if we need it.

So, there you go, some important questions to ask when evaluating a photographer. Have a question about any of this? Drop us a comment below or send a message using the contact menu above.

Want more information about our services, our gear, or want to book a session? Send us a note, and we’ll get back with you right away. Want to see more of our work? Check out the gallery or posts from our blog. We would love to work with you!