iPhoto

It's been said the best camera is the one you have with you. For iPhone owners, the camera is always one swipe away. While this can be an excellent way to document people, places and events, images pile up quickly on an iOS device. Just like any other important data, it's critical to back up irreplaceable photos before something goes wrong.

There are many ways to transfer photos from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to a computer or cloud backup. Choosing one or more solutions and using them often will ensure that your images are safely stored. iCloud is a native iOS solution, which comes with 5GB free storage. There are also third-party iOS apps that will back up photos, and several methods to transfer pictures to a computer. Here are the top five ways to back up iOS photos:

iPhoto makes it possible to tweak and modify the appearance of photos without permanently changing the original image files. The export function provides several options to control how photos are exported from the iPhoto library. Photos can be exported in their original state or with any modifications that were added by editing in iPhoto.

To start, open the event or album that contains the photos you wish to export. Photos can be selected by clicking a thumbnail. When selected, thumbnails will have a yellow border. To select multiple photos click while holding the shift or command key. All photos can be selected at once using select all (command-A).

When it comes to smartphone photos taken and posted on popular sharing site Flickr, Apple just surpassed itself again. The iPhone 4S has flown up the ranks to beat the iPhone 3G as the second most popular device to snap photos with on Flickr. This kicks the iPhone 3GS down to third and the Android HTC EVO 4G into fourth place.

The reigning champion of mobile phone image uploads? The iPhone 4 retains its lead in the segment, blowing away the competition. In fact, when it comes to overall camera statistics on Flickr the iPhone 4 also comes in first place, ahead of several digital SLR models. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Nikon D90 follow in second and third place respectively, with the Canon EOS Rebel T2i and Canon EOS 7D following behind.

Sometimes backing up the iPhone in iTunes during a sync takes a while. According to Apple, now there's a new way to speed up the process.

Backup times can suffer when there are a large number of photos or videos on the Camera Roll. To speed up your iPhone backup the media files must be imported to your computer, removed from the camera roll, and re-synced to the iPhone.