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Showing posts 26 - 39 of 39, (reverse)
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 01/14/2011 02:02:14 AM · #26
Originally posted by goinskiing:
Do this before the import, or does it toss all the pictures into one big folder, but organized within the library? (For LR3 anyways or A3 if someone knows)


Lr let's you import into one big folder or sort into dated folders, but either way I'd do the job of sorting *after* the import, that way when you sort/tag something you know you're done and you don't have another step to go.

(If that doesn't convince you, imagine sorting before, then importing it all in only to realize you sorted the wrong set of duplicates, or it didn't import the sorted folders correctly and you have to do it all again.)

Message edited by author 2011-01-14 02:02:48.
 01/14/2011 02:02:21 AM · #27
Originally posted by salmiakki:
Originally posted by goinskiing:
One of my major issues I forgot to bring up is the whole RAW+JPEG deal. I have sometimes shot in just RAW and sometimes just JPEG, but most have been RAW+JPEG and honestly, that's one of my biggest headaches because it just looks like a mess. Can Aperture recognize and somehow consolidate the RAW+JPEGs?


Yes, definitely you can bring both in and then the images are stacked, you can define how you want them, either the jpeg as master or the raw as master. Screen shot below is from the import menu. You also can select where you want the files to be stored, either in the aperture library or continuing to use the folder system. I tend to use the folder system rather than having everything in the library.



By continuing to use the existing foldering system, does that mean you are referencing (ie. the master is not in the library then) the photos instead?
 01/14/2011 03:07:07 AM · #28
Originally posted by goinskiing:
Originally posted by salmiakki:
Originally posted by goinskiing:
One of my major issues I forgot to bring up is the whole RAW+JPEG deal. I have sometimes shot in just RAW and sometimes just JPEG, but most have been RAW+JPEG and honestly, that's one of my biggest headaches because it just looks like a mess. Can Aperture recognize and somehow consolidate the RAW+JPEGs?


Yes, definitely you can bring both in and then the images are stacked, you can define how you want them, either the jpeg as master or the raw as master. Screen shot below is from the import menu. You also can select where you want the files to be stored, either in the aperture library or continuing to use the folder system. I tend to use the folder system rather than having everything in the library.



By continuing to use the existing foldering system, does that mean you are referencing (ie. the master is not in the library then) the photos instead?


Yes, that's right, it works better for my personal workflow. Just wanted to let you know that you can do it like that as well as using the Aperture library.
 01/14/2011 07:11:29 AM · #29
As I'm still tethered to a PC, I use Lightroom. My inventory has over 900,000 images in it and Lightroom is the only tool I've found that can handle the volume (and I've tried nearly everything available for the PC). For performance and organization, I have a separate catalog for each month (averaging about 12,000+ images a month).

The basic workflow is simple:
* LR reads the images from the card to my laptop's Pictures\My Pictures\YYYY\YYYY-MM-DD folder

* I rename them to YYMMDD-jobname-XXXX
(jobnames are hyphenated so that filenames won't get hosed on the Internet)

* I use a Netgear ReadyNAS as a primary backup

* On the NAS I have monthly folders named YYYY-MM(Mon) for sorting purposes

* Inside each monthly archive I have a job folder named YYMMDD-jobname

* In LR I'll make an initial flag and tag

* Next, I'll delete anything not worth keeping

* Then I'll manually copy the files to their appropriate archive folder

* I'll use LR to process and export my deliverables using the laptop files

* Then I'll manually break the link between LR and the local files
(I do this by renaming the Pictures\My Pictures\YYYY\YYYY-MM-DD to something else)

* The next time I try to find an image, LR tells me it's missing. Through the LR 'Find Missing Image' dialogue, I navigate out to the folder on my server where I moved the images, find the missing image, and click Ok - making sure the option to 'Find missing nearby photos' is checked. That re-links the images to the archive copies

* Since I use the same mapping on all my PCs, this means that I can copy my LR catalog to another PC and it will be able to find my images. (But, because LR uses a local database, if I make any changes on another PC, I have to manually synchronize my LR catalogs. The likelihood of this is rare, though, because after my initial processing, I have no reason to do anything on my laptop.)

* Another way to synchronize different catalogs is by exporting a folder as a catalog, then importing that new catalog into another catalog.

------------------------------

Since I only shoot jpg, I cannot tell you how LR can handle reconciling your RAW+jpg issue (but I'd be surprised if it can't).

It did take a fair amount of time to back-fill my inventory, mainly because I was importing off the server instead of importing local files. However, considering the volumes I'm dealing with, I can't complain - especially after all the other alternatives I tried could barely handle 2-3 thousand images.

Message edited by author 2011-01-14 07:15:34.
 01/14/2011 02:13:11 PM · #30
Thanks, Skip -- that was useful.

01/14/2011 02:35:10 PM · #31
So after hours of getting things ready, reading reviews, I moved ALL my pictures and movies on to my 1TB drives, bought aperture 3 from the Mac app store, and left the computer importing all day while I'm at school. I've decided to go the consolidated library route on the Mac because ill be sticking with the Mac for a long while. It's going to take some up front work, but so far aperture has some really cool features. I'm loving the smart searches and smart albums, pretty neat stuff. I'll keep you updated. Thanks for everyones input.
 01/14/2011 02:36:48 PM · #32
On a similar theme, I also need some advice. My Lightroom catalogue is a mess. My basic workflow is to import photos from card by dragging and dropping to a yy-mm-dd folder. Open LR, import photos from disk. As my laptop hard drive fills, move photos from C Drive to E Drive, and then ultimately to external hard drive. I have been very slack in tagging - less than 5% of my photos are tagged, and I haven't explored collections at all. When I logged onto my computer last week, LR had lost most of the photos - not showing them as missing, just showing the folders as not containing anything. Because the folder structure in the library is such a mess, with the bar on the left hand side showing the same folders in all drives, and seemingly all over the place.

My gut instinct is to delete the lot and start again, beginning the tagging process properly. Best idea?
 01/14/2011 03:16:16 PM · #33
Originally posted by SaraR:
On a similar theme, I also need some advice. My Lightroom catalogue is a mess. My basic workflow is to import photos from card by dragging and dropping to a yy-mm-dd folder. Open LR, import photos from disk. As my laptop hard drive fills, move photos from C Drive to E Drive, and then ultimately to external hard drive. I have been very slack in tagging - less than 5% of my photos are tagged, and I haven't explored collections at all. When I logged onto my computer last week, LR had lost most of the photos - not showing them as missing, just showing the folders as not containing anything. Because the folder structure in the library is such a mess, with the bar on the left hand side showing the same folders in all drives, and seemingly all over the place.

My gut instinct is to delete the lot and start again, beginning the tagging process properly. Best idea?

yes, start over.

but, first, get your folders organized. i know what i described a few posts back might not work for everyone, but it has worked solid and consistently for me. i have shot an average of 600 jobs a year the past seven years and an average of nearly 150,000 images a year - and i can almost instantly find almost any image i'm looking for, mainly because of the way everything is organized.

if you have any particular questions, post here or feel free to pm me.

Originally posted by larry:
Thanks, Skip -- that was useful.

you're welcome!
 01/14/2011 04:00:50 PM · #34
I'm really enjoying the discussion here, I think a lot of us are overwhelmed with the size of our libraries and it can be bit daunting. Keep the ideas coming.

Thanks for wisdom Skip.
 01/14/2011 04:13:25 PM · #35
Originally posted by Skip:
.... i have shot an average of 600 jobs a year the past seven years and an average of nearly 150,000 images a year...

Dang! Take a day off, man! Your finger is going to fall off! ;-D
 01/14/2011 04:44:22 PM · #36
Originally posted by dtremain:
My aunt was a bit of a pack rat, and she had her basement stacked floor to ceiling with her bargains. This taught me a valuable life lesson. "If you can't find it, you ain't got it."

My mom's your aunt? What up, cuz?!
 01/14/2011 05:35:27 PM · #37
I had a similar issue too, I was using a Windows PC and a Macbook. Anyway I put the whole lot on to an external hard drive. Then plugged it in to my Mac, opened lightroom and imported it all. It automatically sorted folders using the exif data, eliminated duplicates and generally sorted everything just how I wanted it.

Adobe Lightroom is very FTW!
 01/14/2011 06:37:25 PM · #38
I highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly, highly recommend Lightroom.

Did I say that I HIGHLY recommend Lightroom??

Its as good as photo organizing software gets and has very powerful image editing tools that makes most image editing, even tough stuff, a snap. I only use full Photoshop CS5 for unique situations and specialized needs now. And LR even makes getting into that and coming back easy as pie.

LR has literally cut my disk space use and image editing time to a fraction of what they used to be. LR image edits are stored in tiny, little .cab files that hardly take any disk space at all.

Compared to Skip I only have a paltry 75,000 images but LR handles them all without a burp. Mine are mostly a mix of .jpg, RAW(from two cameras) and .tif

Follow the suggestions below and:
1-You will have every picture you've ever taken
2-Be vastly better organized
3-Be able to EASILY sift through your 15-20K+ worth of images to find what you want in a flash
4-And probably be using less than 40% of the disk space you are right now.

Recommendations
Unfortunately, you are gonna have to bite the bullet and fix your mess by hand. I suggest you do that BEFORE you start importing everything into LR or whatever organizing software you chose. You will have to slog through your two catalogs and weed out the duplicates.

Start a brand new folder structure and move selected images into that. You'll thank yourself later for doing so.

Unless you have a specific reason to keep them, I recommend you don't include the +jpg images in your new structure when you already have a RAW. You should always edit the RAW files anyway and produce .jpg files from the edited images when needed.

I don't know how much post processing commitment you have in iPhoto but I recommend you only keep stuff you have a SERIOUS editing commitment to in iPhoto... then just move a copy of the unedited file to the new structure. You will do all post processing in the new software and eventually just archive the remaining iPhoto stuff.

Technically, through keywording alone, you can organize every photo within LR. You don't actually have to have pictures physically organized in any fashion at all on your computer.

However, you'd be stupid if you did not physically organize pictures in folders in a logical, sensible way on your hard disk. It makes the keywording process much, much faster and easier. And you can find pictures you want outside your organizer software. LR even allows you to move folders around on your HD later once you are organized.

I'm a landscape photographer so I physically organize my folder structure at the top level (after the highest level called 'Pictures') by category - flora, fauna, cityscapes, landscapes, etc. - then within each category by State, topic, sub-topic, location, etc. until I get to specific shoots where I create folders containing actual pictures. Only folders containing actual picture files have dates in their name. Each folder with pictures is named in this format: "MeaningfulnameYYYYMMDD". That physically organizes specific shoots for specific locations by date, newest down to oldest. I always find pictures by subject first, then year.

When done with all that physical organizing work then create a brand spanking shiny new catalog just inside your highest level 'picture' folder and import every dang picture ya got.

Now you move on to the most important part - keywording!!!!! :)

You go through each category, one by one, select all the pictures within it (it will be a lot) and assign that category to all the pictures within it. Then you go through each subcategory of each category and assign the sub-category name to all the pictures in that. Then you keep drilling down further and further into each group of pictures etc. etc. assigning more keywords as you go until you get down into the folders that have individual images and go through each of those to assign any unique keywords specific to those individual groups of photographs.

When you do all that you will be organized like you've never been organized before! You'll be able to find any picture or group of pictures anywhere, anytime no matter where they are instantly through keyword searches!

All you have to remember is that whenever you import more pictures into your catalog that you religiously keyword them as part of your normal work flow!

Its as simple as that. LOL!!!!!

Message edited by author 2011-01-14 18:43:12.
 01/14/2011 10:36:20 PM · #39
^ I think you're missing an important option in Lightroom regarding duplicates!

Stick EVERY photo in to one containing folder, it doesn't matter how much chaos is going in in those folders, Lightroom will organise it all upon import in to a nice new file structure.

IMportantly, tick the do not import duplicates box, and it will cleverly go through the EXIF of all those images and make sure the same image isn't imported twice, you can even make it so it only imports a RAW and not a jpg, or whatever.
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