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How do you organize / catalogue your photos?
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:36 am    Post subject: How do you organize / catalogue your photos? Reply with quote
Right now, I how build up 50 GB worth of photos...It is getting chaotic and out of control. I still doing it the old fashion way of storing each photos in individual folders.

How do you do it? What is workflow (excluding post process)?

Thanks for the tips.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Both the software that I use (Breezebrowser and Lightroom) allow you to keyword your photos and comment them, and to make searches. Lightroom goes well further because it lets you create "collections" which are virtual folders that you can use to group your photos for different subjects without physically moving them from where they are stored. If you have a photo that shows your cat and was taken with a Nikkor 2/50 lens, you can add it to your "cats" folder and to your "Nikkor 2/50" folder as well, without duplicating the actual file.
That's how I handle my images, and it works perfectly for me.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
Both the software that I use (Breezebrowser and Lightroom) allow you to keyword your photos and comment them, and to make searches. Lightroom goes well further because it lets you create "collections" which are virtual folders that you can use to group your photos for different subjects without physically moving them from where they are stored. If you have a photo that shows your cat and was taken with a Nikkor 2/50 lens, you can add it to your "cats" folder and to your "Nikkor 2/50" folder as well, without duplicating the actual file.
That's how I handle my images, and it works perfectly for me.


So you don't just store all your photos into one single folder and then rely on cataloging to distinguish between them? I must start learning how to do that in PS Elements 8.

Thanks Orio.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I use Shotwell these days. I have it set to import photos into date folders by yyyy-mm I found the biggest thing was to force myself to adopt a strict Tagging regime for each set of photos I import. It's now become second nature for me and only takes a few minutes each time. It's made finding photos MUCH easier. If your software has the option, make sure it writes to tagging data into the Metadata of the image, so it will be there even if you change software.

On Windows I preferred Google Picassa desktop software over any other, for it's sheer simplicity and speed.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
stingOM wrote:

So you don't just store all your photos into one single folder and then rely on cataloging to distinguish between them? I must start learning how to do that in PS Elements 8.
Thanks Orio.


No, I download the files from cards using a small software called Downloader Pro, you can customize the way it stores files,
I make it create a folder with the year and one with the date, and I let it rename the files with the camera name,
in order to avoid accidental duplicates (and to immediately know what camera a file is from).
Example: if I take 20 photos today, 12 with a 5D and 8 with a 400D, the software download the files from the card in this folder/subfolder:
2011 > 2011-10-16
and inside the 2011-10-16 subfolder there will be 12 files named 5D_IMGxxxx.crw and 8 files named 400D_IMGxxxx.crw
and after doing that, downloader pro erases the files from the card and eject it from Windows.
I use downloader pro because I bought it time ago, but Lightroom can do the same, without the need to buy a dedicated software.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks Orio.
That's very help. Downloader Pro looks good:
http://www.photocult.de/dlpro-htm/Downloader.htm

Just found this shareware (free) which seems to do the same job:
http://www.alanlight.com/dim/Dim.htm


PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I use Aperture 3 to download the photos. As I download them, I have the software append the name of the lens used to the file name (I also store it in Aperture's metadata but that's not written to the raw file itself). I download to folders named “year/month subject”, e.g., “2011/10 Autumn” and “2011/10 Animals”. Further tagging and organizing within Aperture itself (without moving the original files), but I'm pretty lazy when it comes to that, but this gives me manageable sizes of directories.
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