How many RAW pictures can I burn onto a 700mb disc?

Question

I just photographed a wedding and want to send the finished work to my friends (whose wedding I photographed) through the post.

I did consider emailing them but I have almost 300 images and my computer can be a pain, I thought about using a memory stick, but, as I didn't get paid for this I don't really want to spend money on something I'm just going to send to my friends.

Looking on eBay it appears that rewritable CDs can hold about 700mb, I used about 35GB on the day but have now processed them in Lightroom 4.4 and weeded out about 60% so I'm not sure what that does to the file sizes. I just don't want to fork out on CDs to discover I need to buy more. My calculations suggest that I'd need to buy something like 25 CDs, but maths isn't my strongpoint.

What would you do? Is using CDs just a terrible idea? I'm open to suggestions as I'm extremely ignorant in this area.

Answer 1

You have all the information needed to answer this yourself. All we can do is guess!



Copy all the files you wish to send into a single folder. Use Windows to tell you the total size of all the files in the folder.

A CD RW will hold around 700MB

A DVD RW will hold around 4GB



So lets say your folder contains 2.5GB of files they will all fit with room to spare on a DVD RW but you will need 4 CD RW's

Answer 2

1. I'd put them on DVDs.

2. I'd make 2 sets of DVDs. One set of the RAW photos and a second set with only the processed, ready-for-printing photos. Most people don't have the software to view RAW photos let alone process them but it would be good for the couple to have an archived set of them "just in case". A DVD or two of just the processed, print-ready photos will allow them select any photo printing shop, "real" or online, to print the photos they want to add to their Wedding Book.

Answer 3

Use DVDs. 40% of 35 is 14gb. DVDs can store 4.7. You might get by with three. Make sure your computer has a DVD burner.



The file sizes output by Lightroom are controlled by the original size and how much you compressed them if they're jpegs or resized them.

Answer 4

1

Answer 5

As your friends may not be able to view the raw files without a specific converter program, you're better off saving the final images after post processing as best qualtiy jpgs.



Then you should be able to fit a fair few onto a DVD (these hold far more than a CD)

Answer 6

If you processed the remaining 40% would they not now be jpegs? Jpegs take up a lot less space than RAW files If you put the remaining 40% into a folder then right click on it and go to properties it will tell you the total file size and you might be able to get them on a CD. As for spending money would you not like to give your friends a present? I am a keen amateur and I helped photograph a wedding of a friend and I got the photos enlarged and I put them in a wedding album that cost £15 in a sale in Paperchase.