Guides/Photography
File encryption for photographers: RAW files, sealed
Photographers hold two kinds of sensitive files: client RAWs that aren't public yet and personal work that isn't for anyone. Elba seals a folder of either with AES-256-GCM.
Big folders are fine
Elba seals folders, not individual files, so a 200GB shoot folder is no different in principle from a 20MB one.
Backup story
Because the sealed folder is opaque bytes, cloud backup and cold-storage drives are both safe. Your backup provider never sees the images.
Questions people actually ask
- Does Lightroom work with a sealed folder?
- Not while sealed. Unseal (open the folder in Elba), work in Lightroom, then close Elba to reseal.
- Any performance impact?
- Encryption happens on close and decryption on open. While unsealed, the folder is a normal folder.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
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