How do you organise your digital files?

L

Lucecul

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Edit My Images
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I was just wondering if people would share how there system is for digital images?

How many copies of the original do you keep an how do you store the finals ?

Thanks guys
 
In a very sloppy manner, I'm afraid. My images go back about 6 years, and are stored on various HHDs - internal with external backups - and sort of labelled in Windows folders. I probably have several copies of all of them, but that's fortuitous, and due to copying/backing up. I keep telling myself that I should get organised, but I can't honestly say when I'll actually get round to it. I'm not particularly patient, or good at organisational tasks, unfortunately. Should have got my daughter to do it when I was still living in South Africa. She's a scientist, and one of the most well organised people I know. Sit down, focus/concentrate, and emerge from task 4 hours later with everything done properly!
 
Lucecul said:
I was just wondering if people would share how there system is for digital images?
How many copies of the original do you keep an how do you store the finals ?
Thanks guys
Click to expand...

I dont do editing much but....

download images from camera to folder 1 - named 20/12/2009
backup folder1 to re-writable DVD labelled "originals"
move images to relevant folders eg OLD/ landscapes/river
edit and then save under new folder "NEW/scapes/rivers
backup again to DVD-R

but whatever system you use - store the Backup DVDs or FlashDrives off-site
 
Kept on at least two hard drives, sometimes three. Also two dvd copies - the dvds being of different brands. One of the dvd copies is kept in the garage - a separate building. I also print a fair few as well.
 
I'm a bit basic to be honest:

I have two folders on my desktop, one called my images (for personal stuff) and one called work images (you guessed it, for work).

I just create a folder for the shoot in the main work folder – pike fishing with Mr. X for example – and then manually drag the images in off the card. Then I import that folder into Lightroom so it adds it into the library and that's it, done.

All my work shoots are then stacked in the library pane on LR but I do add a prefix, which is an anacronym of the magazine the shot was for. That means I can find a shoot for a particular magazine easily.



For my personal stuff it's the same but in the library pane in LR I have a 'My Images' folder and then all personal folders are held within that.

I don't do date prefixes because I just find them messy to look at; providing everything is clearly labelled it's easy to find shots.

I should probably start making use of all the exif file handling in LR but to be honest, if I want to find a shot taken on a 12-24mm lens for example, can choose that option and LR narrows down my options.

I have an external HD that backs everything p so there are copies. That's about it. Works for me :)
 
I started by using a technique similar to Specialman's but then each directory was then stored under a deeper hierarchy than just private and work so I had family, friends, outings, weddings etc. Then I further had a directory inside family for each member etc This did not really work at all as I often had several people on an image.

SO

I converted the entire library to YEAR :: Date

but now I painstakingly tag every photo as part of the import with each person who is on it, where it was, film, lens (if film), type of occasion etc

I then have a hierarchy of people into families etc as smart folders, weddings, outings, xmas etc

I can now click on any person and see all their pictures.
I can click on the xmas folder and see all xmas pictures BUT I can further click on 2007 and only see those from that year.
I can click on weddings and see all weddings or on a sub folder and see a single wedding.
Using smart folders I can click on D200 and see all the images with that camera or 24-70 for that lens.
etc etc etc

I took a full day to sort it out originally but probably takes no more than an extra 5-10 minutes during each import session to tag them now but then they are done. I also makes backup easy as I can see which folders have not been done and I can archive individual shoots too.
 
Very badly indeed, I am pretty good to have the images on different hard drives and dvds, but the same image might be on the hard drives quite a few times. Does anyone know of a good quick program to find the copies of the same image so I can delete them ?
 
3 folders, 3 lightroom catalogs, work, magazine and personal. Lightroom does the rest pretty much, tag on import and use the normal lightroom date foldering system for each, while also backing up to similar folders on another drive.
 
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