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11/21/2008 05:33:39 PM · #1 |
I did a search to make sure this topic has not been covered before and could not find anything on it - amazingly!
I would like to know how you guys go about folder organization? I am still trying to figure out the best way for me to organize my folders on my computer and this is what I came up with so far (I use a Mac):
Main folder "My Pictures" (default), then I created a folder called "Andre", and then the sub-folders. The structure looks like this:
My Pictures - Andre - Travels - Year - Continent - Country
My Pictures - Andre - Studio - Date - Model Name
And so on and so forth.
What do you guys do? Any better way to keep track of things?
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11/21/2008 06:15:52 PM · #2 |
directory hierarchy
year/month/yearmonthday |
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11/21/2008 06:34:01 PM · #3 |
Images have their own partition -- F. PSP X2 photo downloader automatically creates a folder, YYYY-MM-DD, on that drive. To keep things manageable, at the end of each month, I do some clean up and move everything from the month into a new folder called YYYY-MM. So I might have something like:
F
--DPC
----2008-11-21
----2008-11-20
----2008-11-13
----2008-11-11
----2008-11-10
----2008-10
------2008-10-31
------2008-10-29
------[...]
----2008-09
----2008-08
[...]
Fascinating, huh?
Message edited by author 2008-11-21 18:35:16. |
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11/21/2008 06:52:19 PM · #4 |
So you guys don't manage the folders by topic? That sounds overwhelming in case I want to locate something specific.
Can you elaborate a little more on that? Your method may be faster than mine.
Andre
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11/21/2008 07:00:29 PM · #5 |
I used to organize by "topic" until I started having two or three topics per dump.
Under "My Photos," I have a Canon Dump folder. This is where I dump everything initially, chronologically. I have a 2008 folder that has it broken into months, and then days.
Then, when I work on something, I save it into a folder. For example, I have a dpc folder, and in it are more folders for each challenge. For stuff I do for other people, I have a KSP (Karma Shuford Photography) folder, and then it is saved by shoot (usually the person's last name). Other things have their own folders.
Probably clunky compared to others, but it works for me. :) |
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11/21/2008 07:28:23 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by forsubscriptionsonly:
So you guys don't manage the folders by topic? That sounds overwhelming in case I want to locate something specific.
Can you elaborate a little more on that? Your method may be faster than mine.
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Overwhelming, no. Tedious, yes. I wish I had time to categorize stuff. But I don't, and if I did, I'd probably obsess over the categories (should this go in "Portraits" or "Black and White" -- or both?).
For the most part, I have a rough idea of when I took stuff, and I view things by thumbnail -- in Windows, you can set folders to show you a grid of four thumbs of the folders contents, so that helps. But, yes, some searching around is usually in order. Also, I rarely go back more than a month looking for stuff to process. When I do revisit old stuff, it's usually to purge. |
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11/21/2008 08:14:45 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by bvy:
Originally posted by forsubscriptionsonly:
So you guys don't manage the folders by topic? That sounds overwhelming in case I want to locate something specific.
Can you elaborate a little more on that? Your method may be faster than mine.
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Overwhelming, no. Tedious, yes. I wish I had time to categorize stuff. But I don't, and if I did, I'd probably obsess over the categories (should this go in "Portraits" or "Black and White" -- or both?).
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Obsessing over categories is a problem for me as well.
Mine is like this
2008
...2008_01
.....2008_01_23
.....2008_01_24
...2008_02
.....2008_02_11
...
I use Lightroom to categorize. Every photo gets a keyword on import and then I will often go in an further refine the keywords. Keywords are your friend and with proper keywording it doesn't matter how you arrange the photos on the disk.
Message edited by author 2008-11-21 20:15:49. |
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11/21/2008 08:18:22 PM · #8 |
| My principle way of finding pictures is via key words. I do, however, have a whole slew of folders with rather generic titles (family, vacation, various places, etc) along with to "be filed" (by date), "projects" (by subject), and DPC entries. Works for me. |
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11/21/2008 10:51:55 PM · #9 |
| I organize by topic first, then date. For instance My Pictures-Family- then each name of my children-Lacrosse(or whatever the event might have been). I have a folder for landscapes, DPC, Portraits, etc. In each one I then organize by year. Seems to work well so far. |
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11/22/2008 03:26:10 AM · #10 |
My folders look like this in the 2008 folder:
1_name client or model_date
2_name client or model_date
etc.
works for me :) |
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11/22/2008 09:48:28 AM · #11 |
Very interesting to see the different ways people organize their work.
Thanks for sharing!
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11/22/2008 12:34:06 PM · #12 |
1) I copy them off the card to a folder labeled with the date and a brief description of the session.
2) I create a subfolder of that called "potential", into which I move the images that I think I want to work with. The remainder are eventually deleted when I am clearing up hard drive space, and am sure I won't want them.
3)If they are RAW files, I will then create a subfolder of that for the shots converted to JPEG or TIFF. A final subfolder under that for the edited shots. I have 3 types of files in the edited folder:
*.pspsimage PaintShop Pro's native format, similar in nature to a Photoshop *.PSD. These are in-work images.
*.jpg or *.tif The final edit, except for final sharpening for print, which I do at the time of printing.
The final JPG or TIF resized to web size, I append the pixel dimension of the long edge to the filename in order to be able to tell from looking at the filenames which is the small version. (for instance: IMG_1041 720.jpg indicates an image that has a long edge of 720 pixels)
4) I maintain the filename from the camera the whole time in order to be able to easily find to the original out of the camera shot, if needed. |
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11/22/2008 12:40:48 PM · #13 |
I used to organize my photos in folders according to content, I would have a sports folder, a new york city folder, subfolders by neighborhood etc. This system began to consume almost all of the time I devoted to photography. Hours were spent maintaining this folder structure and keeping it up to date. I have now come to my senses.
Now I just download the files off my camera to folder with name like 10.24 NYC Street, which would contain a bunch of images from October 24th where I walked around the city. I started this system in July, and will cut the folder off at the year and start one for 2009.
I don't really have time to do any pro stuff, but If/When I do, I will create separate folder and do a client name/date naming folder system.
The beauty of this system is that I keyword all of my photos shortly after I download them with Aperture, which allows me to search for a specific set of images easily whenever I want to.
::Edit to fix grammar::
Message edited by author 2008-11-22 12:42:21. |
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11/22/2008 04:26:05 PM · #14 |
I use Lightroom to manage all my photos. I have separate catalogs for any "major category division," mainly to keep my keyword namespaces separate. I do a lot of event photography, and make separate catalogs for each event. I have one "catch-all" catalog for my general/personal shots.
Each shoot catalog is straightforward -- one top-level directory for the event, then a camera directory (for some events in which I had or used multiple cameras), then YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD directories.
My other catalogs are a little more complex, but in general I have a simply "topic" or purpose directory, with camera/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD underneath. The underlying directory structure really isn't that important to me (except when it comes to moving files between local and network storage, discussed next), since LR really abstracts all of that, unless you intentionally couple the folder view with how you sort through your images.
I store files initially on my local drives while I'm doing the bulk of my editing, and once I'm finished with my initial "disk intense" work, I transfer them to a NAS filer in my home office. Lightroom makes this all very easy, especially with the enhanced volume management in version 2. If I need to do lots of work on a set of photos again later, I'll usually bring a copy (COPY, not move) back to my laptop, point LR to it, then just erase the local copy when I'm done and point LR back to the NAS.
I use keywording in LR to find anything inside any category or general catalog. I don't like the new (version 2) keywording/filtering interface in LR very much, but I'm adapting. I found the version 1 layout much more intuitive and "less clicking" to find what I wanted, but I do appreciate the ability to combine filters in a uniform way... but I seldom seem to use it.
The only other special catalog I think is worth mentioning is my stock catalog. When I find shots I think are "stock worthy" in other catalogs, I export them by reference into a temporary catalog, and import that into my "stock" catalog. That way I can keep my stock keywording namespace completely separate from any other catalogs, as well as easily manage my different development settings for stock images in another catalog altogether. Which is one of the great things about LR catalogs -- multiple catalogs can point to the same originals and treat them entirely differently. (For this, of course, I do *not* use sidecar files -- I do *not* want my settings shared between catalogs).
ETA - Digital Asset Management for Photographers is supposed to be a great reference for these kinds of organizational topics... I bought a copy several months ago, but honestly haven't had time to start reading it yet... :(
Message edited by author 2008-11-22 16:35:46. |
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11/22/2008 07:25:36 PM · #15 |
Home Folder > Pictures >
â€Â¢ RAWoriginals
â€Â¢ Tiffs
â€Â¢ JPGs
hourly backups via Time Machine to Time Capsule.
Searches (via Aperture, Bridge, Spotlight or Finder) by either keyword(s), date, format -what have you.
Message edited by author 2008-11-22 19:26:31. |
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