Photo Organisation

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PhotoSnapper

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...as the title suggests I'm interested in how people organise there photos. Do people organise them into different photography types e.g. Black and White, Macro, Abstract or by month/year? The main reason I ask, is I'm trying to organize the monumental number of photos I seem to have accumulated over the years. Any ideas welcome.
 
PhotoSnapper said:
...as the title suggests I'm interested in how people organise there photos. Do people organise them into different photography types e.g. Black and White, Macro, Abstract or by month/year? The main reason I ask, is I'm trying to organize the monumental number of photos I seem to have accumulated over the years. Any ideas welcome.
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I watch this with great interest...
 
I organise mine thematically, using Lightroom, and adding collections and keywords. I can search for any image in my catalogue by just finding a particular keyword.

Online, I use Flickr to group my photos into sets - which are all individual photo shoots.
 
Lightroom does it all :)

Get it (think it's reduced atm), grab a bottle of wine, and sit down for an evening of cataloguing and keywording...
 
Master originals (raw files) are stored by date with each day having it's own folder and sequential 3 digit number (e.g. 20110601-001). The sequential number allows for more than one project on any given day and the whole structure is controlled during download from the camera using Nikon Transfer which copies the files into both working and backup directories on seperate drives (one of which is external).

Initially, the working files have the same directory structure and I manually rename the working folder to another using date and project name (e.g. 20110601-judo). Once editing is completed the working folder is backed up to another drive for storage but keeps the same name. The master raw files are also copies to a second backup drive for additional security.

I have both CS5 and Lightroom but don't use either for cataloguing.
 
I'll be watching this thread closely as well. Currently I have a "family" folder, followed by a year and then broken down into month folders. Mainly because I create a photobook of the kids growing up each year so it's easy to find.

I don't get a lot of time to do other types of photography, so I have just been stick shots into one folder with no organisation whatsoever!!!

Only just got lightroom, so not sure how to use it properly yet. Currently if I have multiple shots on a stick and I want them to go to different folders is this easy to do with lightroom? :thinking: So far, I cancel the import wizard when it comes up and transfer the files manually into the correct folders using windows explorer. I then have to import them into lightroom, which to me is a bit odd, would have thought lightroom, could just monitor activity of a selected folder and update accordingly - is it me just being stupid? :shrug:
 
I organise mine into folders of Months so I would have May - London Trip, May - Family Weekend, May - Safari Park etc...

I try tag and rate them all in Lightroom 3.4 as wel for good housekeeping :)
 
Another lightroom user here!

Photos are kept in main folder by year and then sub-folders by shoot. Photos are renamed by shoot and sequence number on import to Lightroom. I then use keywords to add tags and use smart folders to identify photos taken on a particular month, or containing a particular person, etc.
 
I had the same trouble then eventually came up with a system I have;

Year - such as 2011

Month - May for example

And then three folders named "RAW" "TIFF" and "JPEG"

and it's all nicely organised, I will have separate folders for special occasions such as travel or weddings as well but these aren't used in my workflow :)
 
Mine are all in Lightroom (folders are by year/yyymmdd) then from Lightroom they can be sorted however I want.

I've just fired up Bridge CS4 (which I never use, due to having Lightroom) and it looks like you can create collection, assign keywords and filter by pretty much any meta data, so my organisation process would work in bridge.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I've just fired up Bridge CS4 (which I never use, due to having Lightroom) and it looks like you can create collection, assign keywords and filter by pretty much any meta data, so my organisation process would work in bridge.
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I'm pretty sure that anything you can do in Lightroom can also be done in Bridge
 
Bristolian said:
I'm pretty sure that anything you can do in Lightroom can also be done in Bridge
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Funnily enough I read a blog post from killer lightroom tips today that pointed me to 100 ways lightroom is better than bridge. Link: http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom
I gave it a brief look but it mostly looks like configuration and customisation option are better in LR.
 
I do everything by date. Folders live in a sub-folder structure of year and month. All images are keyworded and titled/captioned. All image management is done based on keywords or exif data. I manage tens of thousands of images this way without problem.

TBH, as long as you're making good use of exif data and keywords within a decent application like Lightroom it won't matter what your folders are named. Personally I just like the logical layout a date format affords.
 
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Mine are meta-data organised all the way. I don't know where they are stored, well I do but I really couldn't care less. I let Aperture handle the physical file element all the way.

I've got Faces identified, I've got places identified, can view/sort/group make albums by any bit of exif information I'd like for any type of project.

In addition I add further keywords which again can be grouped on multiple levels i.e. nature can include all landscapes, animals, plants. Go down a level and select on animals and it can connect all animals like stork, wolf, red kite etc. Or choose an individual animal. Or combine with any of the other bits of data.

A tool like Lightroom or as I prefer Apple Aperture could be the best purchase ever. Apple's Aperture is only £45 from the App Store so the price should not stop you.
 
I give my photos to a girl like person and then they get sorted out and end up somewhere on a server or something.

Now and then i ask her to get one and she brings it.

Its not that hard hahahaha

:)
 
I useLightroom and store pictures by year/Month/Date - you need to number the months though - e.g. 1.January 2.February etc - or LR sorts the months alphabetically.
 
awp said:
I useLightroom and store pictures by year/Month/Date - you need to number the months though - e.g. 1.January 2.February etc - or LR sorts the months alphabetically.
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Aren't you duplicating what it can already do based upon existing information? I mean every photo has got a date. Just setup a smart album based upon that date and you never have to move a picture again :D Remove human error to avoid mistakes as well.

Just a thought :thumbs:
 
Not sure what you mean by duplicating - the pictures are imported into the correct folder from the CF card. Where's the duplication?
 
awp said:
Not sure what you mean by duplicating - the pictures are imported into the correct folder from the CF card. Where's the duplication?
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Duplication of functionality. The picture has already several dates, at its most basic level the date the file was written, but more usefully the meta-date held in EXIF.

Tools like Lightroom or Aperture use and make that data available real time, so organising it yourself in that order again duplicates functionality that is already there.

Pointless in my opinion.
 
Lightroom uses the date in the EXIF to put the picture in the correct folder. I don't see any problem in that at all.
 
I use Lightroom and store in Year and date+brief description. I also keyword including month and year and basic details - for instance if it is a flower I include common name, latin name (sometimes), colour, flowering/bud/etc close up or shrub/plant etc. Enough details so I can search for any image and pull out those that match almost instantly for instance "shrub flower blue May" would probably bring up, for me, all the ceanothus flowers in my catalogue. I find this very useful
 
awp said:
Lightroom uses the date in the EXIF to put the picture in the correct folder. I don't see any problem in that at all.
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No problems at all, duplication of information yes. But hey if it works then fine. As I stated before I have no interest where it is stored physically as the interface of the tool provides the organisational elements. The OS file system is a so last century :D And in the case of Apple Aperture with OS-X Media Browser it exposes all meta data and organisational elements from within the tool to any application anyway. Hence the physical files are stored out of sight in a bundle, not to be touched :thumbs:
 
I'm sure I've said this before but I use lightroom

Keywords are added at the import phase and during editing if I feel I need to add further.
I import into a year folder, by date, so I can search by folders easily and track by date if required - i.e. a match on a given date.
Collections and sub collections are further used. i.e. Rugby, then year, then event. The same photo can exist in many collections, so I'll possibly have the same photo in say Rugby, website, selling etc.
On top of all that in the Library module you can search by keyword, metadata etc.

Then - anything that's exported as jpeg, goes into a similar folder structure as the collections.

I have one very fast disk for just this years raw files, another for the cache and catalogue files, with the OS and apps running from a third. Two disks for the older year raw files, plus another for the exported jpegs. All backed up to external disks.

It doesn't take me very long to find stuff.

EDIT: as for date. I generally have sort by capture time set in the libray module (and hence through the program)
 
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