When you are a photographer, this means your computer is overwhelmed with heavy graphics files, RAW images and PSD files. It is obvious that many photographers prefer Mac over Windows PCs, here’s a reddit thread with a good discussion on this topic. Not every photographer has 1TB of storage on his Mac. And that becomes a problem when your Mac turns into a troublemaker instead of being a sharp tool for quick and easy photo editing.
We analyzed the reasons and now have a list of actionable tips on how to improve your productivity and solve all these tech issues.
1. Store old data and files in iCloud. We all have old files that we think could be useful in the future. Whether it is a pack of Photoshop presets or educational videos, this data is dead weight that only takes up space. If deleting those files is not an option, we recommend you to store them in the cloud. This could free a noticeable amount of space on your HDD, so that you don’t have look for an external hard drive. Another advantage of this approach is that you can manage all your digital assets from any device of your ecosystem.
2. Clean up your Mac from duplicated files. We all make tens of shots of the same scene while trying to catch a perfect one. This turns into dealing with lots of duplicates on your hard drive. You may look through all your folders and delete duplicates manually or use an app designed for finding and deleting such files. More information can be found in this article from MacPaw. Believe us, you simply don’t need all those tens of shots with the same scene.
3. Clear the cache in your browser. Safari, as well as any other browser, generates temporary files and caches content so that your Mac could work with pages with heavy content easily and quickly. This feature, while designed with good intentions, can literally cut up to 10% of your HDD capacity. Without cached files, your Mac would work at the same level of productivity and nothing will change about your browsing experience. If you send photos to your clients as an attachment to email, be sure to delete email attachments from your email application.
4. If you have Time Capsule, then try transferring all the data you rarely use to this external storage. This is all about keeping only those files you frequently use on your hard drive. The less data you have on your Mac, the better performance you will experience. If you don’t have a Time Capsule, this guide how to choose the right storage for your media files.
5. Clean iTunes backups. In case you have an iPhone or an iPad, your iTunes will more likely to create numerous backups on your computer. Deleting those files will help you clean up some space for your current projects. However, be sure to have at least one backup of your devices just because keeping no data backups at all is as wrong as keeping lots of them.
6. The last tip is quite obvious. If your current project doesn’t include that much data, but you’re still out of disk space, try checking your Downloads folder. It can contain hundreds of large files and keeping them on your Mac is just a waste of space. Although this is the easiest way, it can help you free up gigabytes of space. In some cases it is crucial especially when you have a Mac with the smallest amount of disc space.
We hope that these actionable tips help you improve your productivity and eliminate any issues with your Mac while you’re working on the next big thing in the photography industry.
