Professional photographers are demanding.
An eye for what is beautiful, and a desire to never stop at good enough. Demanding and impatient clients. Large files and strange file formats. SD-cards everywhere. Stuff forgotten on the drive of that old Macbook - wait, did you give that to your niese?
Where is that dusty old drive? Does it even work?
Removable drives like LaCie, Samsung, or Western Digital have been the fastest and cheapest way of storing your work. But at what point did you loose control? And why do you always desperately need files when you're travelling, with your drives hundreds of miles away?
Who owns Flickr now, anyway?
Many have tried to build SaaS-businesses around professional photographers, and most all have failed. Try a search on TechCrunch: it is like a graveyard for photography software and services. Do you want your most important work to be someone's business model? Can you live with the uncertainty of a price change - or worse - lock-in tactics?
Thousands of files an hour, hundreds of file formats.
Pro photographers produce large volumes. Many a software and service has broken down when faced with the harsh reality of a 10-hour long photo shoot.
The pain of backups.
It's so easy in theory. Make a backup copy. Drive it to your mother's house. Go get it, and update it with your latest work. Drive it back. Have dinner.
Show us someone who does this faultlessly. And btw: Grownups do not keep stuff at their mother's house.
Those subscription fees add up and never end
Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, Adobe, Flickr... those subscription fees add up, and when is the next price increase coming?
As simple as a removable drive.
Raaw shows up as a drive on your desktop. Simply copy or move files to it, and they will be safely stored in the cloud.
Raaw is just like any other drive - but infinitely more powerful.
- Infinite storage in the cloud.
- Works like any other drive and with all the software you ❤️ love
- Optimize storage costs by moving projects to cold storage when you no longer access them daily.
- Your data is perfectly safe - stored redundantly on at least three disks and across datacenters or even regions should you want so.
Raaw is easily integrated into your workflow - and works with all the software you already use like Lightroom, Capture One, PhotoMechanic and FotoStation.
Access all your files anywhere you go
Travel the world - access all your files from anywhere...
Your client calls while you're in an Uber? No problem - the app gives you instant access to your entire collection, and you can easily share files with anyone - no matter where you are. No more going back to the office to find that dusty old drive from 2012...
- Lightning-fast web interface optimized for high-resolution photos.
- Android and iPhone apps give you control wherever you are.
- Share previews, files, collections - and see who accessed them and when.
- Maybe we will build tools to optimize your client workflow?
Yes! Keep those RAW files!
Work the way you prefer: keep those RAW files and complete freedom.
- Supports virtually all image file formats.
- Doesn't stop at ultra-high resolution files.
- Lightning fast browsing, searching, and previews.
- Treats RAW+JPEG as one unit - so you can work faster.
- Your photos look great - image quality is our #1 priority.
- Burst mode? Don't worry, at cloud-scale you can store all the files in the world.
Open source and always free
The Raaw software is free open-source, and should you stop using it your data is just where you left it. No files are moved, converted, or locked down anywhere - as we said, Raaw is just like an external drive with superpowers.
- Your files are always yours - you own the cloud storage.
- No software license fees or subscriptions.
- Just copy your files back if you decide to stop using it (or connect some other new fancy software).
- Well, obviously, you have to pay the cloud provider for the storage space.
But _________________ works so well!
Raaw is not for everybody. If you are happy with Dropbox, Google, Flickr, Onedrive, Smugmug or whatever, that is perfectly fine. Go out there and spend your time getting those fine shots!
Raaw is for those of us that have discovered the limitations of those services, may they be technical or legal. Raaw is for those that crave a little bit extra control over their most precious assets.
- There is absolutely no lock-in. You have full control of all your files. Always.
- If you are afraid of screwdrivers and software updates, Raaw may not be for you. Raaw requires a bit of technical proficiency.
F.A.Q
Frequently Asked Questions
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Which cloud providers do Raaw work with?
Raaw is running on Microsoft Azure. You'll need an Azure subscription to start, and Raaw will install itself into that subscription. (We welcome contributors to the project to help make it available to other cloud providers.)
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What cloud resources to Raaw require?
Raaw is designed with an extreme focus on low operational costs. All compute-intensive operations are performed in short-lived containers instead of dedicated servers. In practice, the only cost you will have recurring monthly is the cost related to storing files, previews, and metadata. A key feature is that Raaw makes it easy to archive folders to cold storage to keep storage costs at a minimum.
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Does Raaw work on low-bandwidth connections?
You can access your data from any connection, even slow mobile networks. When transmitting files to Raaw, well, that is a good reason to get that fiber connection you always wanted. While it technically works with low-speed connections, a fast internet connection will dramatically improve your productivity and experience with Raaw. Also when starting Raaw, make sure you select a data center that is close to your primary location for the best experience.
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What does it cost to use Raaw?
- Raaw is free, open-source software. You can use it for free.
- You must pay Microsoft for storage and processing in the Azure cloud. Raaw is built to keep cloud costs as low as at all possible using cloud native and serverless technologies.
- You can optionally donate to keep the authors caffeinated, and we're working on finding some benefits for those that do (like automatic upgrades and maybe cool stickers and t-shirts).
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Can I truly store an unlimited amount of files in Raaw?
Yes. Using Raaw's archiving features, you can even reduce storage cost to a minimum.
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How do I upload files to Raaw?
Raaw provides a Disk on your Mac, so you can copy or move files to it using Finder or any other application. Once moved to the cloud, files do not take up any space on your computer. (There's also a wide range of other ways to upload, but more on that later.)
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How does it handle RAW files?
If you shoot RAW+JPEG, we use the JPEG for thumbnails and previews. Otherwise we'll extract the embedded preview from the RAW, or ultimately convert the RAW to create a preview. Raaw.cloud can save you money by moving all your RAW files to cold storage (offline), keeping your JPEGs readily available.
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What about social media?
Once files are uploaded, it is super easy to share files to any kind of social media network from your mobile phone.
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Can I share files with my clients, colleagues, and friends?
Yes, you can share a folder and all its files with anyone using a link or an email invite, or combine files from many folders into an album and share the album for more fine-grained control.
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Can I customize Raaw?
Certainly. Since it is open-source, you can change just about anything about Raaw. It is built for easy customizability. You can style it using HTML and CSS, and if you know how to code the possibilities are endless using our API, event model or changing the source itself.
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Where do I sign up?
We're not ready for prime time just yet, so you'll have to get on the waitlist. We'll let a few people in at a time.