Organizing your digital photo collection

[vulturesrow]

As photographers, Im sure most of you have accumulated a large number of photos. This is probably further complicated by the fact that you probably have your base photo (esp if you shoot in RAW) and them your edits, your optimized for email/web, etc.

Im just trying to figure what sort of methods you guys use to organize your photos, how you store, what sort of naming conventions you use, etc.

Thanks,
Chris

Digital Photography School - Photography Forums - Search Forums

Let me google that for you

[dcclark]

Harsh, max, and really unnecessary. Chris is a new member and is asking a very useful question: he's surveying us to see how we organize photos.

Chris, welcome to DPS! This topic has been covered before, and you may find useful info by searching, but I'll tell you my basic plan (it's not the best way, maybe, but it's my best solution so far

I save all of my jpegs (I shoot jpeg almost always) in my own folder structure, organized by date. Within each dated folder, are subfolders for location (if I went to multiple places). Those files are typically only the best photos from each day, as I delete my photos mercilessly if they aren't up to my standards.

As for the files themselves, I typically edit them in Gimp and save them as XCF (equivalent to Photoshop's PSD), with many layers so that I can do and undo edits at will.

[Doug Pardee]

I'd recommend that you check out Peter Krogh's The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers (now in its 2nd edition).

Krogh surveys the various techniques and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each. He's very easy to read, too.

[RustySterling]

I'm very different from dcclark: I shoot exclusively with RAW and convert to jpg later in my workflow process. The reason for this is that the RAW image is my digital negative. And it does not matter what I do to it in a RAW processing program, I can always go back to what I originally see. in the RAW file.

After processing in my RAW converter, I can then tweak in PhotoShop or PaintShotPro -- whatever turns you on. In Adobe, after opening from Adobe Camera Raw, I can do lots of layer adjustments and individual layers with masks to process my final photo.

In my workflow, I use Adobe Bridge to create folders for a project and then create subfolders within that project folder to create separate folders for various stages of my post processing workflow as I process images.

For example, I'll save ACR processed photo to an ACR noted folder. From there, I will open photos, do my work in Adobe PhotoShop and save the PSD files and JPG files in yet other folder appropriately noted as either PDS or JPG -- depending upon the file to be saved. This makes it easy for me to find the shots I've already processed and that I'm considering to do more processing.

If you are going to do more post processing on a photo, then I suggest you save it in a format compatible with your processing software -- in my case it is Adobe PhotoShop CS 4, so I save a file in PSD format, which maintains my layer edits. If I want a jpg image, I do that after saving a file as a PSD. That way I save a unique file and maintain my editing file.

Everybody does it differently. So just find what works for you.

[vulturesrow]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

Digital Photography School - Photography Forums - Search Forums

Let me google that for you

Max,

I didnt search the forum archive, although I did back a few pages before I posted. My apologies. However, the "let me google that" response was wholly unneeded and unhelpful. You should think about displaying a little more civility towards someone posting for their first time in a discussion forum.

Everyone else,

Thank you for the suggestions. I will definitely take them into account. Do you use anything like Picasa for easy organization and/or cloud based storage? Thanks again.

[Grumby]

You're not alone. I've amassed thousands of images (and I NEVER delete them unless they are truly awful...). I have the most chaotic system in existence, with some on my laptop only, some on a USB external disk, some burned on archive CDs - I've got images from 2 different cameras, with their own naming conventions and numbering that is totally out of kilter with each other... in short - a steaming great mess

To try and get over the naming, I have found a neat little FREE tool called Faststone Image Viewer. Apart from anything else, the thing I like most is that it is free - no sorry - I already said that - I mean, it allows you to do batch updates to a whole bunch of images, doing things like resizing (to make thumbnail size copies), framing, adding watermark, and RENAMING your files using the date and time from the EXIF data of the image. The only thing is, it doesn't recognise Nikon RAW file format as an image with EXIF data - even though it knows it is an image file and shows the image. There is another freebie tool I've used called Exifer - which allows renaming using a whole variety of other stuff from the EXIF data, and also allows you to apply a time zone offset for when you go travelling and forget to reset the internal clock on the camera. Sadly, Exifer is no longer supported, and has a bit of a quirky interface too - but it's good to have as an extra in your toolbox.

I haven't figured out a great storage strategy yet - at least not one that I ever adhere to, so I'll be watching this post with interest myself

All the best,
Grumby.

PS - I am in no way afilliated with Faststone or Exifer - I just love FREE software (did I say that they are both free...?)

[BladeRunner714]

IMO, it's safest to use the native filing system of your computer - Microsoft Windows in my case - for physical file structure. That way you're not committed to a proprietary database that may be subject to corruption or obsolescence. I arrange mine in chronologically named folders. Then you can use a database program - I recommend Picasa 3, free from Google - to attach meaningful tags to the images. That will allow you to search and retrieve and develop logical views or albums without changing the underlying physical file structure.

[BladeRunner714]

Other posts reminded me - it's an excellent idea to rename the image files to be sure they all are unique. For example if you have two Canon digital cameras, you are likely to wind up with two files named IMG_0001, two more named IMG_0002 and so on. Use a renaming tool - I like one called Renamer - to at least add a prefix to identify the camera from which the image was downloaded. For example you could then have a XSi_0001 and G10_0001, XSi_0002 and G10_0002 and so on.

[spencer28n]

Even though your question is specifically about file management, I'll give you a quick run through of my workflow since there so closely related.
FYI- I'm using a Rebel XTi on my Macbook with Leopard.

Open up Lightroom 2, import under Pictures/ 2009/ DATE. Delete the horrible pictures, then delete anything I don't think is of value. The pictures I do like, I apply RAW adjustments in Lightroom. Then I export the best pictures from that day into PSD format under a PSD subfolder. After all the editing is done (photoshop CS4), I use Bridge to move the PSDs into folder labeled describing the pictures. Something like client/friend's name with a date or location. Eventually everything gets cycled onto my external 300GB, speaking of which I need to buy a second to back that one up. You can never get enough back ups!!

Hope that was helpful.

Spencer