Am I Out of Control? Are you?

[Nicole]

Keywording is god awful I mean, it's the most useful thing if you can get it setup and use it, but getting it to that point... a nightmare (not that I'm speaking from experience or anything lol)

[maxharvard]

I've said it before and i'll say it again.

The easiest way i've found is:

Main folder (Date:Location:What i took pictures of)

3 sub folders
- Raw images (never edited, always uncut and unPP'd)
- Good ones i keep after editing from RAW
- Internet Versions (resized and watermarked)

That easy.

[sk66]

I've found that the best way for me it to manually sort when I first download the pictures. I've created folders for genre (i.e. city, flower, architecture etc) I then manually download the photos to the appropriate folder. I then import/ update collections in lightroom and do basic keywording then. Lightroom will automatically sort pictures by keyword, date etc in the pictures exif data. My only concern is a slight dependence on lightrooms ability to read and use exif, but many programs can now.

[JodyGall]

Haha! I just looked. My pictures folder has 54.1GB and 26,894 files.

I have everything separated in folders by year, then month for my pics (then down to separate folders for different big events throughout the month). Then for my work, I do the same thing....year, then by the shoot.

[rediguana]

I've got about 15k in Lightroom, and a few thousand sitting in iPhoto. I'm aiming to merge them into Lightroom. Have them all structured yyyy/yyyy-mm-dd/yyyymmdd-hhmmss which at least keeps the files all ordered together nicely. Have a lot to review and delete, panoramas to produce and dump original files, and keyword them. Once keyworded I will pick a 'theme' e.g. birds and then have a good solid review and see what I can delete.

[windrider86]

Every so often I put them on a disk and label the disk. I keep the ones I have left on the pc in different folders, to be cropped and printed and then the printed ones are in subdivisions of landscape, portraits, animals, or artsy fartsy.
Otherwise my pc would be so bogged down
Then I have alittle book that i keep all my disks in and all o fhtme are labeled

[Saralonde]

From the length of this thread, looks like a lot of people are in the same boat!

I used to keep everything, but now I force myself to be harsh about deleting shots. If I'm unsure about 2 or more similar shots, I'll put them side by side on my screen and delete my least favorite. The only thing I have trouble deleting are pics of family.

Now if I would only remember to back them all up...

[Ozscot]

Originally Posted by vandergus

I delete pictures liberally...and still have more pictures than I want. If you keep everything, the truly special pictures get lost in a sea of mediocre pictures that weren't quite bad enough to get rid of. In my opinion, if a picture doesn't elicit some sort of emotion from me, it's just as bad as a shot that's completely blurred or out of focus. To often we delete the latter when I think we should just get rid of both. If you have ten shots of your dog in ten slightly different poses, pick the best one and delete the rest.

So I'd say go through your pictures and pick out all the really good stuff (and of course the crummy but entirely necessary shot of your kid's/grandkid's/dog's first birthday), and get rid of all the rest, or at least store it in a separate location. You'll feel so much better.

Absolutely true Vandergus - good advice! I have an 80gb hard drive on my lap top and realised last week I was down to 1gb free space - I ruthlessly went through my pictures and deleted all those that I liked but didn't quite make me say 'Wow'.....I now have about 30gb free space

Oz

[OsmosisStudios]

Only 45GB?

Ive almost half-filled a 250GB Harddrive.

[jocelynaz]

Glad to know I"m not alone with this! LOL! I too have been one who keeps every photo. It's only been in the last couple of weeks that I realized I didn't need ALL of my shots. So I started to slowly go through my files and delete those I didn't want or need. Fortunately, I only started this hobby in April, so I don't have nearly as many files as some of you have. Good thing I realized this sooner than later, eh?

A couple of months ago I came across a thread here on DPS on organizing files. From that thread (can't remember where it is now), I decided on the following format. It has worked wonderfully for me so far. Although, if I ever get into business with photography, I would probably have to tweak my system a bit. But I'll cross that bridge when I come it.

My system is somewhat similar to maxharvard. I've created 3 main folders in my photos directory:

Originals - photos downloaded from camera. I sort pictures by yyyy_mm. Then I have subfolders within these folders by date: yyyymmdd

Modified - any photos I modify I save here with "(mod)" added to the filename (ie: DSC_1220 (mod).jpg). For big events I modify with tons of pictures, I will create a subfolder specific for that event. Otherwise, no other subfolders are created.

Web - any photos for the web or email I save here with "(web)" added to the filename. Same as Modified with regards to subfolders.

HTH give some ideas with organizing. I'm always wanting to learn and grow, so I totally would appreciate and welcome other ideas!

~ Jocelyn