I offer images to them on Disk 4 years after their wedding for a price, which is based on what they spent with me over all. If they buy them from there on the images are their responsibility to archive. If they buy the disk from the get go, I will continue to store the images for several years, depending on space. Yet, they are again now responsible for the archiving. I burn my images to disk, and have them stored on another hard drive, and I have them backed up with an independent storage company off site. Just in case my house were to burn or be destroyed in a tornado their images would be somewhere. I try to cover all the bases, but I do not offer forever storage.
It's always an excellent idea to have your images stored on either another storage facility or on a separate external hard drive. As you know because of today's technology as opposed to negatives years ago we have this capability, we should by all means utilize it to it's fullest. Everyone is different as to how long they should store images but we strongly believe at least a minimum of 5 years.
We typically hold onto wedding photographs at a minimum of 5 yrs. These are archived via DVDs (stored in a secure fire proof containers) and secured & private online storage for off-site redundancy. If they are less than 1 yr in addition to the DVD and online backups, they are stored on our NAS drives for quicker retrieval in case our clients need them at anytime. These photographs are extremely important to us as they are to all of our clients so we ensure they are safe at all times.
I let clients download high-resolution images starting as soon as I'm done processing them and they're uploaded to SmugMug (where I host galleries). I contractually promise to keep them for 6 months, but so far I haven't felt the need to delete them. I archive original RAW files + XMP sidecar files just in case I ever need to go back to them.
I keep all NEF originals and jpeg back-up images. Jpeg files are also stored off-site... but I like Paula's policy of offering all images on disk after 4 years... :-)
I download on external HD, and backup to another HD then burn original unedited versions on a CD and edited versions on a CD, and hold for up to 5 Years. I keep them all in a safe.
One thing like to do is I give them 2 copies of their wedding incase they lose one, they have another. When I decide to take their wedding pictures off my HD (hard drive), I let them know as a courtesy.
Have a wonderful day!!
I back up edited images only to an external HD and DVD as well as a server off-site. However, my contract states that I'm not responsible for keeping images (since most of my clients get the images on disc) and they are responsible for backing it up, making additional copies and transferring to new media as needed. You definitely need to decide what level of responsibility you will have for the storage of the images, how long you will make them available to clients, etc.
We keep 3 copies of the files, one on the main computer, and two mirrored copies on two additional external hard drives... I use a program (NTI SHADOW) that makes exact copies and updates everything at one time... We advise our couples that we keep the files for 1 year... however we actually NEVER get rid of the files.... We run the drives for a calendar year and then mark them and file them away in two different places... In the event a client wants any images we can simply get the drives out, hook 'em up and send the files to WHCC for printing... I used to do the DVD/DC thing.... but the discs go bad after 4-5 years... even with slow burn speeds and high quality discs
