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11/16/2012 12:25:56 PM · #1 |
Ok -- it's pretty pitiful. I take a huge number of photos, and I never organize anything.
The only thing I can find are the things I take for DPC, because I can look at the date uploaded, go back in bridge, (because I organize by date taken) and find what I'm looking for.
So I'm trying to organize things in bridge.
I do want to continue folders by date, but I'm curious how you organize things. Do you create collections? Do you primarily do key words and sub key words?
For instance, I'm looking for two things: I took some pictures of my mother-in-law's horses, and she wants to use them for her holiday cards. And I just found out that there's a bird photography contest that has a deadline of today, and I need to go find all of my bird pictures.
How are your files organized, and how would you be searching for these things?
Thanks so much!! I'm actually looking forward to starting to get things under control. Finally! :D
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11/16/2012 12:38:48 PM · #2 |
I use lightroom, but i think a few of the things translate so:
I make a different catalog for each project and if its reference material, i use reference catalogs by year. Within the Catalog i folder Raw files, select files and from those, the heavy edits that actually go get photoshop work done. My labeling method for catalog folders is : 00-00-0000_NameOfEventorpersonsinvolved.
All of the work in progress sits in a "working folder" until its done and then i move it to an archival folder which gets mirrored on two drives.
I hope this is useful
Edit: wanted to point out that since i've mostly worked with Tifs, I've Dng'ed a majority of them to help better the search options and to save space. Metadata for all tiff's usually reflects atleast 2-3 keywords that identify the work and location
Message edited by author 2012-11-16 12:41:47. |
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11/16/2012 12:45:01 PM · #3 |
Also a Lightroom user. Different operating philosophy from Devinder, however. I keep *everything* in one catalog. this makes finding all photos related to "x" over multiple years a breeze.
I separate imported files by year and by date shot. All other sorting is done using keywords. |
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11/16/2012 12:47:32 PM · #4 |
| lightroom to organize and when you want to use Photoshop, right-click, "open in Photoshop"! |
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11/16/2012 01:49:57 PM · #5 |
Intelligent & purposeful use of keywords is not as easy as it might seem at first. And it's time-consuming, even if you figure out a way to batch-process. Too much work for me.
I decided on the portfolio approach. I post my favorite keepers to my portfolio online, right now that's here (like you). The download date is my first reference & usually all I need. The files on my computer are organized first by year, then by category/sub-category. Inside each category are folders by month/year. Inside each month/year folder are folders for day/month/year. Inside the day/month/year folder are camera folders and also a Keepers folder. I have worked out a file-naming protocol & I stick to it. The file name tells me what kind of file it is, its category folder tells me the subject. The only 'work' I have to do is if the day's shooting has resulted in a mix of categories, I have to take a little extra time to transfer the files to their proper location. Everything, up to 2 iterations, is automatically backed up to an external drive.
The trick is the online portfolio has to be setup to evolve. And it has to make it real easy for me to find what I want. I'm working on my DPC portfolio right now, it's in a state of transition. My approach to photography has changed so much recently that my old portfolio is no longer serving me that well. (Of course, setting up a portfolio to serve your customers is a completely different thing.)
In the end, I think if you set up a system that accommodates the way you think, you will most likely use it. Any system, if you stick to it, will most likely let you find what you want fairly quickly. I take a little extra time to save my PP in different files, according to what I'm doing. And I work at full resolution until the very last step so that if I have to go back to re-crop or re-size, I can do it easily.
Good luck in setting up your system, Wendy! I hope you can figure out something that won't disturb your existing system too much. Hope this helps a bit.
Message edited by author 2012-11-16 13:51:55. |
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11/16/2012 04:38:41 PM · #6 |
I like to organize things manually, partly because my equipment is always too old to run any fancy cataloging software, and I dislike programs which do things automatically (and sometimes in unexpected ways).
I make a folder for each year, with monthly folders inside and daily folders inside those (see folder hierarchy in image browser screenshot). Each monthly folder also has a folder for that month's edited files, and one for "Index Prints" (contact sheets) which I print to Acrobat PDF files. I also made up an Excel spreadsheet into which I've managed to enter each day's shooting info: number, location, short summary, and also save that as a PDF. Betweeen that and the image browser it makes it pretty quick to find the image(s) I'm seeking.
Image browser:  Print layout/preview:  Sample Log page: 
I preserve originals on the camera card until the daily folders on the hard drive and the Log and Index Print PDFs have been backed up to CD/DVD. Usually the only images to which I add keywords are those submitted as stock. |
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11/16/2012 04:57:00 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by pixelpig:
Intelligent & purposeful use of keywords is not as easy as it might seem at first. And it's time-consuming, even if you figure out a way to batch-process. Too much work for me. |
Ditto! I tried (using Bridge) to tag batches and individual photos with keywords to make things easier to find - I even considered paying one of my kids to do them all, but that would have cost me a fortune (even at 25 cents an hour, which Riley refuses to accept). Ultimately I think I do what most people do: Name folders with dates and peoples names and/or events. First, I create a date folder for a batch of images I shot:
/Photos/2012/121116_MeDoingStupidStuff 121116 = YYMMDD (sorts better than MMDDYY)
I also create two subfolders in there: /DONE and /processed (don't ask about my inconsistent use of caps)
Then I dump all my RAW files in there and I do a batch rename on them to 121116_IMG_1234.CR2 e.g. - that way, they won't conflict with the same numbered images from the past if I ever put them together for some reason.
I put the processed finals into the /processed folder and dump the RAW files (including unused) into the /DONE folder. Processed files usually include a web size (121116_IMG_1234_sm.jpg) and full size (121116_IMG_1234.jpg).
As an aside- Every once in awhile, I just do a file search for *_sm*.jpg to scoop up all my web size images and I dump them all into a screensaver folder and/or put them on a card that I stick into the LCD photo frame in my living room. (I only search for ones newer than the newest file already on there). The frame has over 2k photos it randomly cycles through, representing 20+ years of family photos and other images.
/ramble |
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11/16/2012 05:30:49 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
... 121116 = YYMMDD (sorts better than MMDDYY) ... |
This is an important hint ΓΆ€” you folders will sort correctly by date, name, whatever ... though if you have folders from the 1900s (I do ...) and can afford the extra two characters it's even better to go YYYYMMDD (e.g. 19980214 or 20120214 for Valentine's day in 1998 and 2012 respectively). |
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11/16/2012 05:39:14 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
... 121116 = YYMMDD (sorts better than MMDDYY) ... |
This is an important hint ΓΆ€” you folders will sort correctly by date, name, whatever ... though if you have folders from the 1900s (I do ...) and can afford the extra two characters it's even better to go YYYYMMDD (e.g. 19980214 or 20120214 for Valentine's day in 1998 and 2012 respectively). |
Good points. I have folders for the 70's and on (701225_Christmas), so now I will have to plan on renaming them around the year 2069 to avoid conflicts. I am hoping I can do that while commuting on auto-pilot in my jet car. |
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11/16/2012 05:56:28 PM · #10 |
I'm not so worried about overlap as with the irregularity in sorting it introduces, with earlier folders sorting (as a block) after the newer ones ...
111031 (Hallowe'en last year)
121116 (today)
121231 (New Year's Eve)
980214 (Valentines Day fifteen years ago)
vs
19980214 (15 years ago)
20111031 (Last year)
20121116 (Today)
20121231 (Next month) |
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11/16/2012 06:11:17 PM · #11 |
| Ah, I gotcha. True enough. Mine are already in subfolders of the year (/2012, /1999, etc.) so I'm redundant enough there. :) |
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11/16/2012 06:24:00 PM · #12 |
| I've become so good at losing hard drives without backup I've found I can save a whole lot of time by not even naming the folders. |
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11/16/2012 10:18:40 PM · #13 |
| I create monthly folders like Nov12, then sub folders by subject or project. These all on external drive. Then on main drive, I create folders under my photos, called best of month/ year. Like best of March12. This is where I keep images that have been reduced in size for web. My best shots are all reduced copies and saved for web here. |
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11/17/2012 12:03:46 AM · #14 |
I just use keywords.
Like now, when I'm on vacation, I dump everything into a project labelled Aruba, and every photo gets tagged with a bunch of appropriate keywords. From there I rank all my photos with the star value system allowed in Aperture. Within that project if I ever need to find anything I just use Aperture's smart albums.
The projects in my library are organized in a semi-intelligent manner. I normally have cascading folders until you hit a project. I use albums to keep things together that otherwise wouldn't be grouped together. It's time consuming, but I can easily find any photo in my library.
t
Every so often I rip through my entire library and liberally hit the delete button. The other day I decided that I was going to cull my 10000 photos down to 7500. By doing so, you make it easier to find photos, plus you get rid of the chaff that you were reluctant to on the first passover when you first imported them.
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