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Nivad
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 08 22:19
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Some time ago I wondered what is the best way to keep track of your pictures...
I used to rename everysingle picture at first afterwards I tried photo organizers like picassa tagging and rating every single image. But I grew tired of all the work it is.
Now I simply use windows explorer. Creating a long tree where pictures are sorted in directories by, in this order, year-month-day(and when necessary an extra chronological number). See the picture:
Its rather easy and it doesn't take too much time, so after almost using this system for two years nowI don't think I will change.
But how do you guys(girls) organize yours mass of photographic files? What program do you use for it and does it satisfyyour needs?
Maybe this can be interesting or even helpful for some of you...
Grtz
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Coffeejunkie
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 08 22:34
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hey nivad!
thats funny, so many wants me that i reorganize my pictures.. i do it the same way as you do!
i have 2 folders: one for all original pictures (like they are comming from the camera) one for the postworked, then i have for every year one folder, and then i do for each time i empty my camera a numbr and where or what was the theme of the pictures...
so i find my pictures all the time! easy and not taking much time...
and of course i also burn them on a disc. just in case. 
greetz
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ortho158
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 08 22:50
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I do just like you, Nivad. I also tried Picasa, but I abandoned it (too much work).
Like Bunny, I used to burn to CD (or DVD), but I stopped doing it since I bought an external drive, where I backup (automatically) every day.
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A.Miguel Oliveira
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 08 22:59
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Just like you do, Nivad!
In a near future I'll try Adobe Lightroom 2.0.
Oh, Ortho, how do you do it automatically, I mean, your back-up to external drive? It "knows" what's new and doesn't repeat files? (sorry if it's a stupid question )
Greets everyone
Miguel
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Vidar S
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jun 08 23:29
Reply
I use ASDCee. It automaticly creates folders with the date of today, and then I add a name to the folder to describe the content. "oslo by night" etc. The camera is empitied after each photo trip.
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leilani
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 08 05:09 - Edited by: leilani
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all my photos are also on an external drive but that drive doesnt organize them.
I use lightroom to do that. Its actually really handy and has some interesting features.
click image for larger view
Keywords:
You can give photos keywords, you can do grouped keywords (i.e. <year>2001, 2002, etc) which makes it easier to search for exactly what youre looking for.
Ratings:
There is a star rating, you can do 5 stars for your best shots, 1 for bad shots etc.
Flag:
You can either flag certain photos for whatever reasons, and theres an X flag for rejected photos which makes it easier to go through 400 some imported photos, flag your rejects while you go through them and when youre done just hold ctrl+backspace and it will delete your rejected
metadata browser. The metadata portion of Lightroom logs the specifics of the photos. Size, file type, what camera was used, what lens, what aperture, iso etc etc. So its fun to see what camera you used the most or lens you used the most etc.
although mind you, it is organized ONLY in lightroom, it wont externally organize it for you but when you do keyword the files in lightroom i believe the keywords can carry over to another program or online (i.e. my keywords show up when i upload to flickr)
(i closed the link not sure why its linking the text)
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Coffeejunkie
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 08 08:14
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@leilani: lightroom is good for sure.
i have about 30'000 pictures i would have now to reorganize, i began with lightroom, but for that many pictures it is too much of work, so i gave up!
if you do the whole thing everytime when you empty your camera, then it is simple, just never wait to long for organizing
greetz
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ortho158
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 08 11:55
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To Miguel:
I use a Maxtor OneTouch4, of 500 GB (bought for less than 100€ a few months ago). The initial backup takes a certain time (a couple of hours, depending upon the files that you backup). Afterwards, it synchronizes nicely your backup with your original files, and it's only a matter of minutes. It also keeps an history of modified files: in other words, it remembers an old version of a file that you mofidied in the meantime, and you can recover that old version.
I am using the same external drive to backup files from my desktop and my laptop. The backups are automatically kept in different folders.
Very convenient.
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A.Miguel Oliveira
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 08 13:41
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Thanks, Ortho, for your info!
Then, maybe I must look for that hard external drive, as mine, as far as I know (will I be missing something from them?), haven't that facility! I own a Western Digital Elements 500Gb, 2 Iomega Desktop Hard Drive 500 Gb and one HP Personal Media Drive 320 Gb(this one came with my Desktop from Hp, as an extra buit-in hard drive that is also used as external, but I haven't used them yet; still to organize space for a new working space). I guess I must READ the instructions booklet to look for something similar to yours, who knows. Indeed, vey much convenient!
Thank you so much!
Greets,
Miguel
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A.Miguel Oliveira
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jun 08 17:18
Reply
Ortho, it's great, my Iomega also has that feature!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, again, if it weren't you I think I'd never realize that! Woophy at its best!!!!!! Thanks, A.!
Greets
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Klaas
Member
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# Posted: 13 Jul 08 23:54
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Now I get enough reasons and it's good to buy a Iomega external drive
I already wait a view months to take a decision and action .
greetings to all
Klaas
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Coffeejunkie
Member
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# Posted: 22 Aug 08 00:53
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mmh, since 2 weeks i have a new camera and i try to organieze my pictures different. i discovert that the way i used to do it works fine, but it is not always very handy.
so i work now to my used folders with the Bridge of the Phottoshop CS3. works very handy. you can give some words to each picture and you can star them. so you can find easely in ALL your folders for the same kind of picture, and you can finde the very good one easy too.
it is just a lot of work for the beginning, but if you are doing it all the time, then it is very handy
at least i try to make it from now one like this
greetz
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ray9
Member
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# Posted: 22 Aug 08 01:34 - Edited by: ray9
Reply
Hello all,
like you I save my memory card in a folder named with the main subjet of the shot and the month year (eg: Versailles 08 08 ) on an external HD : "working hd " then after a certain time I copy the folder on another hd to gain space on the first external HD and this second external HD is backuped by a third external HD .
Somebody said me it's less expensive to save on a HD against many DVD .......
But sometimes the HD crash and you need a backup .
It's possible also to install a soft to alert you when your HD loose quality and to permit to save before the end but it doesn't work with external HD (only for your internal HD)
The life cycle of a DVD is quite 5 years , and also the technology changes and you need to transfert your datas every 10 years.
Regards
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TGB
Member
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# Posted: 22 Aug 08 13:58
Reply
This is how I organise my collection.
I have two external HD's as well as the internal HD. On all three drives I create a Year folder which incorporates 12 Month folders which, each in turn, incorporates a Day folder.
After creating a new Day folder for the day on which I load my photos, on each drive, I use the Back-up feature in LIGHTROOM to import my photos directly from my card to both my internal and dedicated external HD. Done automatically.
The external HD holds all my photos as shot -straight from my card.
Once imported on my internal HD I use the bulk renumber and rename function on ACDSEE
to rename/renumber all the photos in the Day folder. For 2 x 2GB cards it takes about an hour, but usually much less than that.
When I work on a photo in Photoshop, I add an 'a' or 'b' etc to the file name to distinguish it from the 'as shot' photograph.
When I get around to it, usually once every month or so, I copy all the 'as shot' photographs (with the new name and file number from ACDSEE) onto my second HD leaving only those photographs that have been worked on in photoshop (and a lot more space) on my desktop HD.
The advantages to me is that I have one HD holding all my photos as shot with the filing protocol of the camera as file names, all the photograph which have been through Photoshop on my desktop HD ready for viewing and all the renamed/renumbered photographs on my 2nd HD accessible if I want an unvarnished copy.
It may sound complicated, but once set up its a very easy system to maintain.
Hope this is of interest.
Regards to all,
TGB
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