Accidentally deleted your photos? Don't panic. Here's how to get them back (probably).
The best apps for data recovery from memory cards, testing fisheye lenses, and a bittersweet Pulitzer win.
It happens to the best of us at some point. You go to review a shoot, and the files just aren’t there. It happened to me just last week when I accidentally deleted a handful of photos I meant to keep.
If you just had that stomach-drop moment, the good news is that your photos are probably still there — even if you formatted the card. So there’s a good chance you can recover them.
Here’s what to do.
Stop using the card. As in, now. This is the single most important step, and while it might sound obvious, it really matters. When you delete a file, the camera just marks that space as “empty.” But if you keep using the card, the data will get overwritten, which makes it immeasurably harder — often impossible — to recover. If you’re using an SD card, sliding the physical lock switch on the side is a very useful precaution.
Scan it before you buy anything. All the good data recovery apps let you scan the card for free. You only pay for a license once you actually see the thumbnail and confirm your photo is recoverable. So don’t buy a license until you know you can recover what you need.
I’ve tried pretty much all of the best data recovery apps over the years, and these are the ones I’d recommend:
Stellar Photo Recovery (My Go-To): This is the one I usually reach for first. It’s a solid all-around performer, handles RAW files well, and just gets the job done without unnecessary fuss. And, importantly, it lets you see the thumbnails and select specific images to recover.
EaseUS (Straightforward): If you want a dead-simple, clear interface, this is it. The price is reasonable, though their website is a bit cluttered with popups. It also has one of the best free thresholds.
DiskDrill (Heavy Duty): This is the most powerful app on the list. It works incredibly well and does a lot more than recovering data from memory cards. I don’t love its habit of installing some always-on background monitoring services on your computer to keep your drives healthy, but the data recovery is very effective.
PhotoRec (The Free Alternative): I’ve used this for years, and it’s saved me more than a few times. But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s completely free, rock-solid reliable, and you can’t beat the price, but there are a couple of catches. For one, it’s a command-line app. For another, there are no thumbnail previews, so it’s an all-or-nothing process.
So next time your photos look like they’re lost, there’s still a good chance that you can recover them pretty quickly and easily.
What I’ve Been Working On
I’ve posted several pieces on shooting with the Fujifilm GFX100RF medium-format camera. More to come this week, including my full hands-on review.
I’ve been testing out the Viltrox Vintage V2 flash on a Fujifilm X100VI. It’s a tiny, retro-styled external flash. While it doesn’t push out high-power light, even a little pop can still come in very handy in creative ways.
Yesterday, I explored the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art with a fisheye lens as part of my ongoing efforts to find the best fisheye options for Nikon Z cameras.
Wide Angle
New ultra-high-res view of the sun. The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission has transmitted its widest high-resolution view of the Sun to date, a mosaic of 200 individual images captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI).
Bittersweet. Former Washington Post Photographer Jahi Chikwendiu has won a Pulitzer for Feature Photography for his photographs taken for two stories about a young couple, Tanner and Shay Martin, who struggled with Tanner’s terminal colon cancer while Shay carried their daughter. Emphasis on “former” — in a brutal cut, the Post fired all of their staff photographers recently.
World Press Photo selected its Photo of the Year. It’s Separated by ICE by Miami Herald photographer Carol Guzy.
Getting back into shooting film? The Darkroom has tested the best 200 ISO color negative film stocks and ranked them. The top two aren’t surprises, but some others were new to me.
New Artemis II photos released. NASA has released a massive archive of images from the recent Artemis II mission around the Moon. They haven’t been culled, so there’s a lot of duplication and similars; here are some of the best ones. The Atlantic has an even better selection (but it’s paywalled).
Apple is piling on new AI-powered photo features, with new Extend, Enhance, and Reframe. The Extend is probably the most notable, and it sounds a lot like the recent efforts to extend the frame of the Wizard of Oz screening at The Sphere in Las Vegas by fabricating new imagery to extend the frame beyond what was actually filmed. Probably not something I’d use, but I can appreciate the appeal.
Fun to Know: The first digital camera was the size of a toaster
In 1975, a 24-year-old Kodak engineer named Steven Sasson invented the world’s first self-contained digital camera. It weighed 8 pounds, shot at 0.01 megapixels (that is, 100 pixels by 100 pixels), and took 23 seconds to record a single black-and-white image onto a standard Philips audiocassette tape. Kodak management buried the tech because they feared it would cannibalize film sales. You can see the contraption here.
