Beginner Storage and post processing management

[SimonH]

I'm not new to photography, and am more of a hobbyist snapper than serious enthusiast - having said that I have accumulated over 25,000 images on my Mac (with at least 3x backups including a cloud backup!) Having just invested in a new Fuji X-S10 system I'm

I've always struggled though with the "best" way to manage these, especially since I've started paying more attention to post processing (which other than straightening) I've really only dabbled in over the last 12 months or so.

I realise everyone will have a a different approach, but wondering whether some ways of managing portfolios that are better (or more effective) than others? My approach is as follows:

I transfer images from my camera to my main computer SSD (an iMac) organising them usually by month (ie folder structure is for example 2020/01, 2020/02 2020/03 etc). For significant events (a holiday, family gathering/wedding etc) I create specific folder in the year folder e.g. 2020/Lanzarote.

As noted above, I back everything up, locally and in the cloud and I also transfer the best to my Flickr account both as a "backup" but also as a way to share.

As I've started to get into post processing more (I currently have Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018, Luminar 4 and more recently Capture One Express) I've been somewhat confused about whether the catalogues these applications create is a better way of managing all my photos by default, or whether they should just be used for the post work. I suppose what I'm asking is do I import everything into the catalogues and use that as my de facto photo management system or just use these applications for post processing work?

I'd be interested in peoples thoughts and what your approaches are.

Thanks

 

[welshwizard645]

I don't think there is a winning formula Simon, I keep changing my process. In terms of filing and naming I used to have folders for years but stopped that, and all I have is camera model -> subject and data -> RAW and camera jpeg. If I've edited the raw files two new subfolders are created - TIFFS and edited JPEGS.

All the clearly duff images are deleted on upload to main pc. Then images backed up to 2 x WD 4TB drives.

Once I am satisfied I am unlikely to more work - then I copy camera (and edited ) Jpegs to a smaller 1TB portable drive and create another folder with smaller jpegs (1200x1600) to save on the archive file on the computer and to help find the image if I decide to return to the image later.

Now that we are in lockdown I find my cameras are laying dormant so I am going back to the camera jpeg files and culling the 'nearlies' to liberate HDD space on my main computer.

I use a combination of File Explorer, Bridge 2021 and View NX-i (and Pentax PhotoLibrary) to organise the images. LR CC for raw editing, PS 2021 for finishing touches, with Nik Collection and Topaz DenoiseAI for refinement.

 

[SimonH]

Thanks for your thoughts Peter. I think one of the issues is being new(ish) to post processing I've looked at the catalogues as real copies of my files rather than a way the tool is picking them up and just displaying the original through a tool (the PP software). Now I've got some sort of process of my own about how I deal with my workflow, it's beginning to make sense. I just wondered if there was a "right" way, but accept there probably isn't - it's what works for you.
I too need to spend some time culling my nearlies (or rather my rubbish ones of which there are very many.... )