Congratulations Alex Vincent, March 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Kitchen". Alex Vincent - #906 Yvonne Raaijmakers - #909 Peter Wingfield - #902 Here's what Alex has to say: Thank you for the award of Photographer of th ...
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People shoot and share billions of photographs daily. So, there's a need for durable storage mediums. There are different storage options for your images measured in Terabytes. If you've wondered, How many Photos can 1 TB hold? I've covered all you need to know about how many images 1TB stores.
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1 TB can hold photos ranging from 20,000 to 300,000. Ideally, it stores around 212,160 JPEG images at 14MP and a size of 4.2MB. It can also save 21,195 RAW images with an average size of 42MB and 14MP resolution.
Some photographers have found a 1TB to store as many as 700,000. Others could only store as few as 15 000 images. These contrasting numbers depend on the image size and the image quality. There are also three other hidden factors in play.
Taking two different shots of the same place doesn't mean they come in the same sizes by default. Even at the same exposure, some factors affect the file size from one photo to the other. The three major factors are:
The ISO of your camera refers to how sensitive the film is. As a result, there's an increase in noise as you increase your ISO settings. With this increase in noise, your images are more complex to compress. This change leads to an increase in the file size during compression.
There are almost a dozen formats to store your images. Yet, the most common is the RAW file format and JPEG. You can spot these two differences by looking for a few seconds. The size of your image depends on these formats.
This format results from compressing the original image, removing some of the details. So, it comes in a much smaller size than the original image. JPEGs are generally 2 to 6 times smaller than the original image.
A RAW file has a higher quality than JPEG by default. Generally, it is at least twice as larger as a JPEG. This difference results from the fact that a RAW file undergoes lossless compression. After compressing, a RAW file maintains the same quality as the original photo.
Your camera's resolution is the total number of pixels captured by your camera. It translates into the display quality and size of images. A MegaPixel is a million pixels stacked upon each other. It measures your camera resolution.
As a rule of thumb, the higher the MegaPixel, the greater the size of your image. Thus, the file size of a photo taken with a 6MP camera will be smaller than that of a 12 or 14-MP camera.
When choosing a memory card, you need to pay close attention to know which one is enough for you. Let’s dive into the storage card size that’s suitable for you, depending on what you do.
Choosing an ideal storage space depends on the type of project you’re working on. Here’s what I recommend based on your
There are several types of shots you can take as a real estate photographer. It could be an interior shot, commercial property photograph, and residential image. A standard listing shot should be at least 330 pixels wide and 220 pixels high.
Most real estate photos fall within the size of 10-50 MB, depending on the storage format. Thus, you should also factor in that you might need to take as many as 30 images per client. You’ll need at least 2TB to store images for a few years.
Most Landscape photos have an aspect ratio of 3:2. The aspect ratio of an image also translates into the number of pixels, affecting the image size. At this ratio, the ideal pixel number is 6000*4000, or 24MP.
This pixel number equals about 4.5 to 8.2 MB for a JPEG. The RAW files of the same image range from 52MB to 64.9 MB. Thus, a storage space of at least 2TB is the sweet spot for most landscape photographers.
A standard wedding photo has a pixel number of 20MP while shooting. However, after processing, the size of the JPEG is about 10MB. Most clients will request at least 50 shots, while some may need up to 400. Considering that, you’ll need a lot of storage space to store your work.
Most wedding photographers find at least 1TB of storage the sweet spot. You can store up to 100, 000 images, assuming that the least size for a photo is 10MB. Thus, if you mainly shoot wedding pictures, 1TB is enough for your storage needs.
There are several types of memory cards to choose from, depending on your storage needs. Let’s discuss the three main memory cards for photographers:
Compact flash card is common among photographers due to its fast processing speed. The standard size for this card is between the range of 8GB and to 512GB. Generally, it can store up to 14 222 RAWs and 142 222 JPEGs.
The SD card is photographers' most popular storage card. Although not as fast as the CF, the SD card also has rapid read processing. Depending on the terabyte, it offers a storage space between 2GB and 128TB.
This memory card is the smallest of its type. It fits perfectly into most cameras, both medium and small-sized. Besides, it offers storage space of up to 128TB, depending on the format.
The unit for measuring your memory card speed is MB/S. This determines the rate at which it reads or writes data on it. The speed of your memory cards varies depending on the type you choose. Here’s a table detailing that:
| Type of Memory Card | Speed |
|---|---|
| Compact Flash | Up to 167MB/S |
| Secure Digital | 2MB/S - 10MB/S |
| Secure Digital High Capacity | 10MB/S - 12.5MB/S |
| Secure Digital Extended Capacity | 10MB/S - 12.5MB/S |
| Secure Digital Ultra Capacity | Up to 985MB/S |
| Micros SD | Up to 12.5 MB/S |
You can calculate the number of images 1TB can hold in just a few steps. With knowledge of your camera's average image file size, you can estimate this value. Here’s a list of the average file size depending on the camera resolution:
A 1TB hard drive is enough for photos if your goal is to store many average-quality images. Most photographers find it sufficient to hold up to a decade's worth of pictures. So this storage option is not bad, considering the lifespan of most hard drives.
A 1GB drive can hold around 280 photos on a 12MP camera(at standard resolution settings). Thus, you can estimate that at 28 RAW images with a much larger file size. You can store upwards of 500 shots in a 1GB drive if you shoot with a 6MP camera or less.
Getting a quality storage medium is crucial for you as a photographer. A storage option such as a 1TB drive provides ample space to store thousands of images. Several other factors affect the image’s size, and i’ve covered them extensively above.
