Saving Grace

A few months ago, I started backing up my photos in a way that I never have before: the uncompressed PSD files in their own folder under the parent folder of the client. 

The file also contains the original SD files as well as all edited photos, under different files whether they are watermarked (for digital display) or un-watermarked (for printing). 

From the wedding I shot last month, this is the file hierarchy: 

I started saving the .psd files right before compressing the image ("flattening" all the layers) in case I need to access the files again, without having to remember all the steps I took to edit. (And since most of what I do when I edit is the same, that wouldn't really be hard to do in a pinch.)

I have found that saving the files in this way has saved me some time, even though it takes up more room on my backup drive. I strongly urge other photographers to do the same.