Pictures organization

[josaldan]

I have been wondering if you would like to share how do you organize your archives, I am stuck in to troubles since my previous PC hard drive got damaged and from there, even that all pictures were recovered we have pictures on different media, some duplicated, and other very old ones that does not even have a creation date....
Currently I am exploring the following tree:
Photos
--Portraits
----Family
-------date
----Birthdays
----travel
----other

--Landscape
----Place

Does any of you have a better idea on how to deal with this?... Mainly pictures are family pictures and a few landscapes I just started...
Regards..

Date and place.

Easiest way to do it.

[Algernonep]

Originally Posted by josaldan

Does any of you have a better idea on how to deal with this?... Mainly pictures are family pictures and a few landscapes I just started...
Regards..

Like Jim told me and a few other photographer on DPS, read the "DAM book" by Peter Krogh...
It's a great book on workflow and organizing your work!

[Nicole]

I'm with Max. I just do date actually.

I find a folder structure where you're separating things out into categories can get really messy really fast because what happens if you have a family portrait taken at a birthday party while you're traveling to Great Aunt Mable's house out of town? Which one of those folders does it fit into? Family? Birthday? Travel? That or you duplicate the file 3 times, but that's just taking extra space you don't need.

Given that some of your files don't have dates, that's not necessarily an ideal recommendation, but I'd probably still do date and then for ones you're not sure about, give those an "unsure" folder.

Then if you have a lot of pictures, invest in a program (free or otherwise) to manage your photos to make your life easier when it comes to finding them. Picasa is free and works pretty well, iPhoto on a Mac, Lightroom or Aperture if you want a more costly solution... Then tags will avoid the problem of needing all those separate folders.

Originally Posted by Nicole

I'm with Max. I just do date actually.

I find a folder structure where you're separating things out into categories can get really messy really fast because what happens if you have a family portrait taken at a birthday party while you're traveling to Great Aunt Mable's house out of town? Which one of those folders does it fit into? Family? Birthday? Travel? That or you duplicate the file 3 times, but that's just taking extra space you don't need.

Given that some of your files don't have dates, that's not necessarily an ideal recommendation, but I'd probably still do date and then for ones you're not sure about, give those an "unsure" folder.

Then if you have a lot of pictures, invest in a program (free or otherwise) to manage your photos to make your life easier when it comes to finding them. Picasa is free and works pretty well, iPhoto on a Mac, Lightroom or Aperture if you want a more costly solution... Then tags will avoid the problem of needing all those separate folders.

I add the place/what I was shooting, as a way to remind me of what I was doing/thinking that day.

Helps me organize so I don't have to click a million 1-10-2009 folders looking for one image.

~Eric

[Nicole]

Yeah, I fully agree that does make sense. I've tried it a few times and it doesn't work for me because I have a tendency not to do it consistently But also because I tend not to be shooting a million folders on the same day. Tends to be one for the day in most cases.

But better for you to do it that way if it does work for you and your style

Originally Posted by Nicole

Yeah, I fully agree that does make sense. I've tried it a few times and it doesn't work for me because I have a tendency not to do it consistently But also because I tend not to be shooting a million folders on the same day. Tends to be one for the day in most cases.

But better for you to do it that way if it does work for you and your style

My brain works really well with key words.

For example, I had to do a lot of speeches for my degrees and I never actually wrote a full speech, all my cue cards had a list of words or phrases that would jog my memory of what I wanted to say. I looked at the word and just started talking.

Never been really good at "pre-planning" anything. LOL.

~Eric

[Algernonep]

Read 'The DAM Book' by Peter Krogh...

[josaldan]

Thanks, actually I was struggling with those pictures that could fit in various categories....
My original idea was to keep a simple record tracking but as I have been finding more and more pictures that are not back-up I was trying to have something little more complex....
I have iPhoto, but I do not like that it duplicates pictures same thing with apperture... I will invest little time going back to date-place and "unsure"...
Thanks!...

[josaldan]

Originally Posted by Algernonep

Read 'The DAM Book' by Peter Krogh...

I will....