WEDDING HINTS & TIPS | HOW I KEEP YOUR WEDDING PHOTOS SAFE
How I Back Up Your Wedding Photos — My Process for Keeping Your Images Safe
One part of the wedding photography process that often gets overlooked — both by couples and sometimes even by photographers — is what happens after the photos are taken.
Specifically: how are your wedding photos backed up?
Making sure your images are safely stored in multiple locations is crucial. A good backup process can be the difference between peace of mind and disaster if something goes wrong.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through my full backup workflow — the steps I take to make sure your wedding photos are protected from start to finish, with everything backed up in at least four or five locations, just in case the worst ever did happen.
Backing Up Starts At The Wedding
Dual Card Slots – Why It Matters
On a wedding day, I use three professional Sony A1 cameras, and I always keep a fourth backup camera in the car — just in case one of my main cameras fails (it’s never happened, but I like to be prepared).
All of the cameras I use have dual card slots, and I shoot with simultaneous recording enabled. That means every single image I take is instantly written to two separate memory cards — giving me an immediate backup from the very first shot of the day.
I honestly find it surprising that some photographers still shoot weddings with single card slot cameras. With the technology we have now, it feels like an unnecessary risk — especially when you’re capturing something as important and unrepeatable as a wedding.
If a single card fails (and yes, cards can fail), that’s the entire day gone. With dual card recording, I’ve already got a safety net built in, so your images are protected from the moment they’re captured.
Once I’m Finished On The Wedding Day
As I mentioned earlier, every photo I take is recorded to two SD cards — thanks to the dual card slots in my cameras. So by the end of a typical wedding day, I’ll have six SD cards full of images (two per camera).
As I begin packing up my gear, I follow a routine that adds an extra layer of protection:
I remove the second card (Slot 2) from each of my three cameras and place them into a dedicated card wallet.
This card wallet is immediately stored in the glovebox of my car.
The first cards (Slot 1) remain in the cameras, which go back into my camera bag.
Why does this matter?
If I’m travelling a long distance back to my studio and I need to stop for food or a drink on the way, my camera bag always comes with me. So, if the worst were to happen — say, someone broke into my car — I would still have a full copy of the wedding images with me at all times.
It’s a small step that provides big peace of mind. From the moment I leave your wedding, your images are already backed up in two separate places, and physically separated to reduce the risk of total loss.
In The Studio On The Evening Of A Wedding Day
Step 1 - Copying The Wedding Images To Two SSD Drives
Once I’m home — after a quick hello to the wife, a tail wag from Rufus the dog, and a glance from Lily the cat — I head straight into the HQ Studio to start the first stage of backing up your wedding photos.
The process begins with ingesting all images via PhotoMechanic to two separate SSD drives.
The first copy goes onto a portable SSD, which becomes the working drive for the full edit, album designs, and any wedding photofilm.
The second copy is written to a separate SSD, which is used specifically for the next stage of backup.
Both SSD drives are stored securely in the studio. The working SSD is kept inside a fireproof and waterproof safewhen not in use, adding another layer of protection in case of unexpected damage to the space.
Step 2 – Creating Smart Preview Files & Cloud Backup
Using the second SSD copy, I create Smart Previews in Lightroom, which are then bundled into a zipped Lightroom catalogue and uploaded to a secure cloud storage provider.
This step is my off-site emergency backup — it exists purely for worst-case scenarios where every other copy (that’s four local copies!) is lost or destroyed.
Why Smart Previews and Not Full-Resolution Files?
The cameras I use (Sony A1s) produce large, high-resolution files — and depending on the length of the day and number of images captured, I can easily return home with 300–700 GB of data.
To upload all full-res files to the cloud would take 2–3 days of constant, uninterrupted uploading — which simply isn’t practical or reliable.
Instead, Lightroom’s Smart Previews give me a powerful backup alternative:
They shrink each image to around 2550 pixels on the longest edge (about 2–5 MB per image)
That’s more than enough resolution to edit and deliver final images to a couple
And most importantly — it makes a full upload possible within hours, not days
This cloud backup gives me a fifth copy of your wedding and ensures that, even in an extreme scenario, I could still deliver your wedding gallery using these files.
So while I’ve never had to use this cloud backup, I sleep better knowing it’s there — just in case.
Step 3 - Copies Kept In The Cars
As mentioned earlier, the moment I finish a wedding, I remove one SD card (Slot 1) from each camera and place it into a dedicated card wallet — this stays in my car during the journey home. The second SD card (Slot 2) stays inside each camera until I arrive at the HQ Studio.
Once I’m back, the images from Slot 2 are backed up to two separate SSD drives, and a cloud backup of Smart Previews is created.
After all of that is done, the Slot 2 SD cards — now a third physical copy of your wedding day — are placed into another card wallet and stored in my wife’s car, adding another layer of physical separation and security.
Within 12 Hours Of Your Wedding I Have FIVE Copies Of Your Wedding Images Mixing Offsite & Onsite Back-Ups
A copy of the images are in my car (slot 1 SD card).
A copy of the images are in my wife’s car (slot 2 SD card).
A copy of the images on a workings SSD drive kept in a fireproof and waterproof safe when not in use.
A copy of the images on a SSD raid drive in the HQ studio.
A copy of the images are saved in the cloud.
What Happens After Delivery Of Your Full Wedding Gallery?
Once your full wedding gallery has been delivered, that’s when I begin the process of removing temporary backups and creating final, long-term archive copies of your images.
At this point, all editing is complete, images are fully exported, and nothing is left to chance. Here’s what my archive system looks like for every wedding I deliver:
✅ Final .JPG files uploaded to my HQ client gallery system — this is the link I send to you, where you can view, download, and share your images.
✅ Final .JPG + RAW files uploaded to my online archive — a secure cloud-based backup in case anything ever needs retrieving.
✅ Final .JPG + RAW files stored on my HQ studio NAS drive — a local archive stored on a reliable multi-drive system in my office.
✅ Final .JPG + RAW files also backed up to a secure hard drive stored in a fireproof and waterproof safe, located in an external garage — giving physical separation from the studio in case of fire, flood, or theft.
This means your wedding images don’t just disappear once the gallery is delivered — they’re archived in four different places, both online and offline, to ensure your memories are protected long after the big day is over.
Wrapping It Up
So that’s my wedding photography backup process — from the moment I finish shooting your day to what happens after your final gallery is delivered.
The biggest takeaway?
You can never have too many copies of your wedding photos.
I’ve had more than a few fellow photographers tell me I go overboard with my backup systems — that it’s more than necessary. But honestly? I’d much rather be the one who over-prepares than the one who’s left explaining why something got lost.
Your wedding day only happens once. For me, protecting those memories isn’t optional — it’s part of the job.
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