In photography, as in life, the little things can be more important than they seem. Take your SD card, for example. SD cards are certainly tiny, but your digital photography would go nowhere without them. When cameras went digital, SD cards (aka memory cards) took the place of film. These wafer-thin cards, sometimes even smaller than a postage stamp, do the vital job of storing the images you capture so that you can upload, edit, and develop them into gorgeous works of art to grace your walls or wow your online followers.
It can be easy to overlook the proper care and feeding of your SD card, but once it starts malfunctioning, you won't be able to ignore it. That's why I began a couple of simple practices that help keep my SD cards in working order: before using a new SD card for the first time, I format it in my camera, and after every shoot, I download and save my images in Lightroom and then use the in-camera formatting function to make sure my SD card is clean, clear, and ready to go. It's an automatic part of my workflow, and I strongly recommend that you make it part of yours, too. Let's talk about why -- and about how to do it properly.
Detects Potential Problems
Yes, new SD cards are supposed to be pre-formatted and compatible with your camera. As it turns out, some cards may be more compatible than others. When you get a new card, you need to format it in the camera, making sure that your camera can work with it. While rare, it also sometimes happens that a brand-new card is not functioning as it is supposed to. Formatting wil discover that. I know of at least one case where a photographer traveled halfway around the world, took stunning photos, and later discovered that half of them were unreadable. All because of a new card that was bad. Formatting your SD card before its first use will detect issues like that and spare you from a similar disappointment.
Prevents File Corruption
You're probably familiar with the process of using the delete function on your camera. Who among us has not taken a photo with the lens cap on, or completely failed to focus an image, and wanted to remove the evidence from the memory card as quickly as possible? While deleting individual images on your camera does remove them from being viewable, you're not actually removing the data completely. You're simply telling the camera that the space is available to be overwritten with new files. The same is true if you download images to your computer and select the "erase after import" option. Over time, this can lead to fragmented data and potentially corrupt files. Formatting wipes the card clean and establishes a fresh file system, significantly reducing the risk of corruption.
Optimizes Card Performance
Each camera writes data to memory cards in a specific way. When you format the card in your camera, you can be certain that you have the ideal file structure for that camera. This optimization ensures faster write speeds and more reliable performance during shooting. Using a card formatted in another device or simply deleting files can lead to slower performance.
Checks for card health
When your camera is formatting the card, it checks to make sure the card is still working properly. Formatting your card in your camera is prone to revealing anything that might have gone awry inside of it. Cards do not last forever. Regularly formatting them in your camera gives you the best assurance of discovering when your card is going bad. A card that is going bad may corrupt your photo files and make them unusable.
Avoids "Card Not Recognized" Errors
Have you ever inserted your SD card only to have your camera display a "Card Error" message? It's frustrating -- and, if you're out and about with your camera and don't have another SD card with you, it can mean that you won't be doing any more photographing that day. Often when your camera can't read the SD card, it's because the card has been used across multiple devices without proper formatting. By formatting in-camera after each shoot, you maintain compatibility with your specific camera model.
Prevents Accidental Deletion of Important Images
Formatting after each shoot -- once you've safely downloaded your images -- establishes a clean workflow, and it helps ensure that you always have enough memory to capture the images you want to. If you store multiple shoots on your SD card at a time, it's possible that you will get the dreaded "memory card full" error. When that happens, you're faced with the choice of quitting photography for the day or deleting older images. In your haste to not miss the moment, and given that in this case you'll be forced to review older images on a fairly small screen, the likelihood that you'll delete images you wanted to keep is high. If you establish a routine of transferring your images to your computer after every shoot and then wiping the card, you won't face this dilemma, and you'll never have to worry about accidentally shooting over images you haven't yet saved to a more permanent location. If the card is formatted, you know with certainty that everything on it has been backed up.
Creates a Fresh Start for Each Project
For me, this is both of practical benefit and mental benefit. Starting each new photography session with a freshly formatted card is like beginning with a clean canvas. I never have to wonder if I have enough space for the images I want to capture -- unless I really go wild, which is why carrying an extra SD card or two is always advisable. It helps me compartmentalize my work, too, so I'm fully focused on what's in front of me. And once I'm back at my computer and ready to create a catalog of the images from a particular shoot in Lightroom, it's easy to simply transfer all the images on the card. I don't have to pay attention to make sure I'm not mingling images from more than one photography outing. All the images on the card are from one shoot. I can set it, forget it, and go make myself a cup of coffee while my camera and computer converse.
(As a side benefit, because I run my workflow the way that I do, I never have a hard time finding an image from a particular shoot when I want to go back later on to edit images to share digitally or turn into stunning prints. Formatting the SD card is just one small step of the workflow that has never failed me. If you'd like to know more about that, we cover it in depth in all of our photo editing courses, and particularly in Photo Editing 1. But I digress...)
How to Format Your SD Card Properly
1. Download all images to your computer
2. Back up those images (ideally in multiple locations)
3. Insert the card into your camera
4. Navigate to the format option in your camera's menu
5. Confirm the format operation
6. Label the card as empty if you use multiple cards
I can't stress this enough: formatting permanently erases all data on your card. Never format until you're absolutely certain you've backed up your images.
By making in-camera formatting a regular part of your photography workflow, you'll ensure more reliable performance and reduce the likelihood of losing images to corruption. It's a simple habit that takes just seconds but can save you countless hours of frustration and potential heartbreak from lost images.
