How this calculator works
Storage advice for photographers usually starts and ends with "RAW files are big." This instrument is camera-aware: it uses realistic average file sizes for popular bodies — a 45 MP Canon R5 writes very different files than a 24 MP Sony A7 III — and multiplies by your real frame counts, not a blogger's guess.
The per-session number tells you what card capacity you need with a safety margin. The yearly number is what to budget for drives. The 3-2-1 section turns it into a concrete shopping list: three copies, two media types, one offsite.
Typical RAW file sizes by resolution
| Sensor | Lossless RAW | Fine JPEG | Frames per 128 GB card |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 MP | ~22 MB | ~7 MB | ~5,800 |
| 24 MP | ~26 MB | ~8 MB | ~4,900 |
| 33 MP | ~35 MB | ~11 MB | ~3,600 |
| 45 MP | ~48 MB | ~15 MB | ~2,600 |
| 61 MP | ~62 MB | ~20 MB | ~2,000 |
| 100 MP | ~104 MB | ~32 MB | ~1,200 |
The 3-2-1 rule, sized for photographers
Drives don't fail on a schedule, and the one that dies is always the one holding an undelivered job. The 3-2-1 rule is the industry-standard defense:
- 3 copies of every file — the original plus two backups.
- 2 different media — e.g. SSD for the working set, spinning HDD for archive. Different technologies fail differently.
- 1 offsite — cloud storage or a drive that lives somewhere else. This is the copy that survives theft, fire and flood.
The calculator sizes all three copies from your yearly volume with 20% headroom, so a full season never forces an emergency drive purchase at retail prices.
Storage is a business cost — price it in
A wedding photographer generating 3 TB a year spends real money on capacity every season. That belongs in your rates, not your profit margin. Once you have your yearly number, feed it into theCost of Doing Business calculator along with the rest of your overhead.
Questions from the bench
How big is a RAW file?
It depends on resolution and compression. A 24 MP body produces lossless compressed RAWs around 25 MB; a 45 MP body around 45-55 MB; a 61 MP body over 60 MB. Uncompressed RAW can be nearly double. The calculator uses realistic per-camera averages for popular bodies.
What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?
Keep 3 copies of every image, on 2 different types of media, with 1 copy offsite. In practice: the working copy on your SSD, a second copy on an archive hard drive, and a third in cloud storage or on a drive stored at another location.
How many photos does a wedding produce?
A single shooter typically brings home 2,000-4,000 frames from a full wedding day. With a second shooter, 4,000-6,000 combined is common. Portrait sessions run 300-800 frames; events vary widely with duration.
Should I buy bigger cards or more cards?
Working photographers usually prefer several mid-size cards over one huge card: a failed 128 GB card loses part of a job, a failed 1 TB card can lose all of it. Dual-slot mirrored recording changes that math — then bigger cards are safer and simpler.
Do I really need to keep RAW files after delivery?
Most professionals archive RAWs for at least 1-3 years; many keep them forever. Clients come back for albums, prints and lost files, and re-edits need the originals. The calculator's yearly projection assumes you keep everything — it's the safe planning number.