Organizing photos [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

Master Mason

11-01-2006, 04:00 PM

Groucho had a good idea.

how do you organize your pictures.

I rename mine by the event and date if the event covers muliple days. And then keep similar events together in a seperate folder.

For example. I have a folder for each kids football game, each game folder is then put into the Master Football Folder.

So one games would be Kenny Football game 10-22-06 All pictures in that folder would have the same name, plus a number extention.

I do not rename my Raw files, but save those in a folder with the date taken. That way if/when I need them I can go to that date to find.

I have everything backed up to an external HD, and burned on CD's (really need to get a DVD burner, but I just spent this months camera money on a 430 flash). And pictures are also uploaded to smugmug account.

So how do you do it?

jann1033

11-01-2006, 04:11 PM

i have them by where i took them ( you can also map them on elements 5)then also by who/what/ events if they are if they were taken locally. (dates never really mean much to me.) tags for all that stuff and in my photoorganizer on the pc which someday will move to external hard drive storage ..

then i have them on dvd, right now by the date but i'm going to go through and add a list to what/where/ who they are ( same as in the pc) for each dvd since like i said august 10, 2006 means nothing to my brain.

with elements 5 you are supposed to be able to burn a dvd you can keep writing to so i may start burning them with my lightscribe inscribed with ie "flowers "and according to tags ie i have tons of sunsets, tons of flowers, each would be a dvd i could keep adding to

Master Mason

11-01-2006, 04:19 PM

The problem with the adding to, is it can only be read by the computer your using to add from. it would be worthless to put an open cd or DVD in a set top dvd player. It wouldn't be able to read it. At least that is how I understand it.

MarkBarbieri

11-01-2006, 05:47 PM

I have a folder for each year. Within each year I have a folder with the number and month name (01 - January, 02 - February, etc.). The number is their for sorting purposes. Within each month I either dump the photos directly or break them up into groups based on activity (WDW Trip, Erik's Birthday Party, etc.). Whether I use the subfolders depends on how many shots I have for the month. If I'm only keeping a few dozen, I don't bother. If I've got hundreds, I do bother.

I used to use some really cool software called iMatch (http://www.photools.com/). With it, I would categorize each photo by date, by location, by activity, and by subjects. The subjects categorization included people as well as notable objects. Each category was actually a hierarchy. Tagging the photos was a bit of a nuisance, but since most pictures in a shoot were the same date, location, and activity, that part was quick.

The cool thing about it was the ability to quickly retrieve odd sets of photos. I could quickly grab all pictures of my sons at beaches with sand castles or all pictures of a visiting family or all pictures with my sons and their grandmother or any weird adhoc group like that.

Because everything is a hierarchy and elements can appear in multiple hierarchies, it is even better. When I tag a picture with my niece, the photo shows up in groups with her, her family, relatives on my side of the family, relatives, or people (each being a superset of the other). I have a friend that I canoe with who is also a neighbor. When I tag a picture with him, the photo shows up both in my neighbors group and in my canoeing friends group.

The software is designed more for people with stock photos, but I found it great for personal photo organization. I also meant to create a feed into my screensaver so that when people were coming to visit, I could quickly customize the screen saver to show groups of photos that they would find interesting.

I finally quit using the software because I didn't have time to keep it up-to-date. I occasionally consider going back to it, but for my limited usage, it would be hard to justify the time tagging.

I like my current organization structure because it is simple. I am also planning on using Adobe Lightroom and it's searching facilities to do basic searches. My thought is that the future of searching will rely more and more and embedded tags rather than folder structures. For now, the folder structures combined with thumbnail previews get the job done.

Mellie0119

11-01-2006, 07:11 PM

I also have my photos stored by year, then month. Special Events get their own folder in the month folders. :) Simple to remember and use and makes it easy when backing up photos- I know exactly what month is the last one updated and can go from there.

LMarge

11-01-2006, 08:58 PM

Mine are on CD's and I need to get an external HD for storing just photos - any suggestions for size, etc? :confused3 On the pc they are in PSE4 sorted into "collections". Within each collection is a sub-folder for events. "Holidays" would be one collection. Within it there would be Christmas 06, Christmas 05, Easter 06, Halloween, etc. This is a pretty simple set up, but it works for me- because I scrapbook. My scrapbook style tends to be by events, birthdays, holidays, vacations, etc. I have random shots of the kids in a file just for that - Fav's of Steven, Fav's of Colleen, etc. Then when I'm ready I can scrap just that one picture, since it doesn't fall into an event. I hope that makes sense!!! :rolleyes: I have a feeling as I get further into this digital thing, that certain holidays will become their own "collection". Just haven't gotten that far, yet!!! :goodvibes

_chill_

11-02-2006, 06:34 AM

I keep my originals arranged by folder (i.e. 2006/WDW/May/Day 1, Day 2, etc.) I go through and clean out the obvious unusable images, and once I have 3-4G, I burn them immediately to a DVD for safe keeping (they're cheap storage, and I've had more than one HD crash and spent months recovering files) Then as I have time, I process the images (cropping, contrast, etc.) as needed. Those images are burned to DVDs for myself and family to play in their respective DVD players. I also have a folder I update on occassion called 'screen saver' that not only feeds my computer (and my work computer) for the screen saver, but I also copy the files to a memory chip and send it to my parents (I bought them a digital picture frame. When I send them a new chip, they send me the old one for new updates) :surfweb:

extreme8

11-02-2006, 07:56 AM

For the most part I just drop them in a folder named for the event where they were taken, but I also index them using ACDSee Pro.
I add keywords to each image so finding them later is much less of a hassle.
For example if I search for "kids, epcot, characters" it will show the pictures that have been tagged with those keywords - all of the pictures taken in epcot that include my kids and the characters.
I can narrow the search - "kids, epcot, mickey" - or make it more broad - "kids, characters, florida" - which would include all of WDW & Universal.
It will also let you burn your images to DVD and track which disk they're stored on. If I try and view one that isn't on the hard drive it will prompt me to insert the correct disk.
It takes some time upfront but it really simplifies things when you're searching for a particular image.

Very soon I'll be putting together a network attached RAID-5 storage array so I don't need to worry as much about disk space or data loss.

0bli0

11-04-2006, 04:41 AM

i have them all arranged in Apple Aperture in 2 separate libraries. one of which is dedicated to the sports i shoot (rugby, cricket, baseball, etc.). and the other library is fully of the rest of the photos that i shoot - family, places, etc. they are keyworded and i can search across all images for things like exif data, dates, keywords, etc.

Groucho

11-04-2006, 11:11 AM

Unfortunately, I'm horrible at organizing my photos. Generally, they go in folders organized by year. With my old Fuji PnS, it would reset the numbering every time you cleared the card, so I created folders named for the date I emptied the card onto the PC. The only organization is for photos that end up on one of my web sites.

I know that this is a terrible waste of good pictures that get hidden. What I'm like is to get everything organized and keep only the worthwhile pictures online, with the original (with original naming, etc) backed up onto a pair of DVDs.

I have some requirements, though:
I absolutely REFUSE to use a program that locks me in to using that program. For example, some programs may let you "tag" your photos or put them into little "albums" but that information is lost if you use any other program. That's not acceptable.
I want to be able to use my favorite-by-far photo viewer, Irfanview, to view everything.
I want it all to be quick and easy. No big, huge, bloated program.
I'd much prefer for it to be free, too!

The solution for tagging seems to be to use IPTC tagging, which doesn't modify the original JPG but can be searched. Irfanview lets you modify several at a time, but what I'd really like is the ability to add tags without destroying the existing ones. For example, for WDW photos, I want to select all of them and add the tags "Disney World". I can then add "Epcot" to the appropriate ones, maybe add my kid's name for one that he's in, etc.

There is a free Explorer add-on that has this functionality - but I fear that I cannot remember the name of it to save my life. (And I'm typing this from a parking lot with a sleeping kid in the backseat and waiting for my wife to finish her conference, so I can't check my home PC!) I played with it briefly but not enough to decide if I liked it or not. It also let you search by tag and put the pictures into a virtual "album" but you cannot flip through them with anything but its own slideshow. You can view with a normal viewer but navigating to other pictures keeps you in the original location.

Supposedly Adobe Bridge is good at tagging the photos, too, but I haven't played with that yet, either.

Maybe we need an industry-standard "album"file for photo viewing, like .m3u for MP3s.

The hardest part though, without a doubt, is actually tagging all the photos.

handicap18

11-04-2006, 05:05 PM

I use Window's Explorer. I don't rename any of my photo's unless they have been edited and then its usually with a letter at the end of the original file name. Each year goes into its own file listed numeritically. I don't renumber the files after each media card change or reformat. When I first went digital i would seperate them into different folders by month and everything, but I found it way to difficult and took way to much time to find different pictures.

This method probably takes the same amount of time as using different folders, but this works for me. This was also the same way I would seperate my pictures when I got them back after being developed. I would put them in the photo album in the order they were taken.

I've tried using different software for organizing photos but I never liked any of them. I found it to much trouble.

I'll stick with my one folder per year in numeritical order.

Groucho

11-04-2006, 07:26 PM

I'm back home now, so I can report that the program I was referring to is PixVue (http://www.pixvue.com/). It exists primarily for image management and is not a standalone program, but integrated into Windows Explorer. (Which is one of the problems for me, as I use a third-party file manager which doesn't seem to play perfectly well with PixVue... but I haven't given up hope yet.) It sounds good and users seem very happy. Oh, and it's free - I'll generally exhaust every possible free avenue before paying, especially for something like this - often, free products actually work better than pay products as they're written for what actual users want them to do, rather than what looks good on a feature list or whatnot.

Anyway, PixVue actually uses "XMP" (which is apparently the next generation of IPTC?) to store the metadata used to organize the pictures.

boBQuincy

11-07-2006, 07:15 PM

DW and I have been organizing our images by year, month, and if necessary, day. For trips where we take a lot of photos, we set up a folder for the trip and subfolders for the days of the trip. We have *really* been taking a lot of photos and can come home with 6GB (each) to download.

We use BreezeBrowser for searching and this has worked ok but now there are just too many folders to search through for say, a certain image of Cinderella's Castle or yosemite Falls. We have outgrown our system and need a better way.

I am starting to use "keywords" for the images, in Adobe Bridge. It is fairly quick to select a group of images and tag them with a keyword like "castle" or "monorail". This allows Bridge to find all the tagged images by folder(s) or by the entire drive.
It is quick and also allows opening a selected image directly into Photoshop, which is what we use.

It's certainly not an inexpensive method but if you already have Photoshop and Bridge then everything you need is already there.

Groucho

11-07-2006, 07:38 PM

I believe that Adobe Bridge uses the same IPTC tagging system as most other JPG taggers, so it should be interoperable with Irfanview and Pixvue and digiKam and most others.

Groucho

11-08-2006, 03:59 PM

One other idea that might be worth considering (for the more tech-savvy) is using a web-based system to organize all your photos. Not something accessible from the internet (well, maybe if you wanted, but not necessarily), but a computer in your house running a basic web server setup - probably Apache and php and MySQL.

I'm thinking specifically of Gallery 2, but others might be comparable. There are some advantages - a central storing-house for all the photos, easily accessible from any computer in the house, thumbnails and different screen sizes are automatically created, easily searchable, organizing the photos is a breeze as is adding comments, etc.

Adding photos is easy as Gallery 2 has several different options, from just sucking up all the photos in a directory on the server to using a standalone program to easily transfer them. Getting them back out is not too tricky as you can use the shopping cart functionality - add the photos (or entire albums) you want to the "cart" then do a zip download, and it'll put all the pictures you wanted (the original, unresized versions) into a zip file for you.

The downsides are that the tags don't go into the original JPG (unlike IPTC taggers like Irfanview, Bridge, etc), it can potentially be more hassle getting the pictures out, and for slideshow-type viewing, it'll never touch Irfanview. (Though it does have a few slideshow options.)

Oh, and then there's the whole matter of having a system set up with Apache/php/MySQL. (They'll run on nearly any OS, but FreeBSD is my favorite for that kind of work.)

I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. But it seems like potentially a good setup.

You could also do it with a web host, if you get enough storage space, and just hide the albums that you don't want the public to see, or make them accessible only to certain users.

fitzperry

01-07-2007, 09:25 PM

Nevermind. Problem solved. :)

Lanshark

03-31-2007, 11:29 AM

I have several hundred digital images that I want to have prints made of. I'm trying to decide weather I should have them printed and organize them into albums myself or if I should have photobooks made. Has anyone else wrestled with this type of thing? I have only used Imagestation but don't know if that's the best place to have photobooks made. If I get the prints made I don't even know the best type of photo album to use to organize. It would probably take months to organize all of these photos.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Steve's Girl

03-31-2007, 12:26 PM

I have used both snapfish and shutterfly. I always have good intentions of organizing them into albums myself, but just don't seem to get around to it. I will usually have a book printed that summarizes the year and then may also print some smaller ones for special occasions (ie, Christmas, family event, etc.)

Pea-n-Me

04-01-2007, 01:41 PM

I do both, and yes, it's a struggle.

I always do an album of our trips right away. I've done various types of albums from standard ones to photobooks to scrapbooks. I've also ordered photo albums on DVD which are nice. I ordered one in the fall directly from Disney and that came out great, I love the music and there were Disney pictures in there as well. The photobook from Shutterfly was really nice. It took me a long time to make and organize (I think about 12 hrs), but it was well worth the effort - I added extra pages and had some technical difficulties with the website, so that's part of what took so long. I often shoot 1200-1500 pictures per trip so it takes a long time to go through them all and make the albums.

During the year, I also shoot a lot of everyday pictures. I try to regularly order prints online and throw them in a regular album. It's less important that it's perfect than getting them in there. I also have a small HP printer at home for one or two pictures here and there which is really convenient. For regular albums, I buy the ones they sell at WalMart which are maroon leather bound and have slots for 3 photos on each page with room to write notes which comes in handy. My kids love looking through them. I still have a lot of pictures I have to put into albums but at least if I can keep up with the present ones, I'm happy. HTH. Good luck.

JarettK

04-01-2007, 01:44 PM

I get photobooks made when mypublisher.com has really really good sales. (Like 50% off or more)

Other than that, Ill just have 4x6s made or print them myself, and keep them on hand until I want to make a specific scrapbook or album out of it.

Lanshark

04-01-2007, 03:59 PM

Thanks for the help. I'm embarrassed to say I've got about 5 years of pictures to get printed and organized. I've organized a couple of photobooks on imagestation but they're about $100 apiece with about 400 pictures in each one. I've got three partially done but am having a hard time pulling the trigger on that much money.

go cowboys

05-14-2007, 08:34 PM

I am really getting fired up about my new D80 but I have never used a computer program to store, edit and print the pics. Can anyone suggest a cheap (read as free) software program that I should use? I have heard that picasa is good and free but I would love more help.

Thanks

Groucho

05-15-2007, 02:46 PM

It depends on what you want to do. You don't need anything to "store" the photos, they just sit on your computer like any other file.

For editing, it depends how much you want to do... for free, I think your only choice for "serious" editing is Gimp.

I use Irfanview (free, I have it linked in my signature) for nearly all my photo stuff. It can do "basic" editing (colors, filters, cropping, resizing, add text, but not stuff like change background, clone out things you don't want, etc), it has good printing capabilities, and it can do a good job of adding comments, keywords, etc, and letting you search on them later. It's not the most user-friendly program in the world but it's not too tricky, and it's incredibly powerful for a small, free download.

gruZ

05-15-2007, 02:57 PM

I like Gimp as well - free and Photoshop-like

For organization, I like Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/#utm_source=en-us-more&utm_campaign=en-pic&utm_medium=et). It's a free Google program, that allows basic photo editing, uploading, e-mailing, etc. I use it mostly as a way to quickly find a picture I'm looking for.

I keep the pictures on my hard drive (and back-up drive) in a month / year filing system. In other words, in MY PICTURES, I have a 2006 folder, and then a 0106 folder - meaning all pictures taken from January of 06 are in this subdirectory. Picasa will keep your file structure, let you view thumbnails, and add keywords etc.

Whatever system works for you will be find - but make sure you have some sort of system - keeping all your pictures in one large folder will create huge headaches down the road.

LinkDIS

05-18-2007, 11:27 AM

I stopped using Picasa after discovered that it created many small info files on each of the folder it scans. There are several very good alternatives on the market. I checked and tried about 8-9 digital photo management tools. And after comparing PicaJet and Adobe PhotoShop Album decided that the first one is the suite to all of my requirements although I send several suggestions to its development team regarding built Flickr Uploader. Highly recommended.

MarkBarbieri

05-18-2007, 11:37 AM

It's not particularly cheap (until you consider the value of the time it saves you), but I recommend that you look at Adobe Lightroom. It's keywording and collections capabilities make it very good for organizing photos. It's a really good photo processor. It has good printing capabilities.

It is not, however, a photo editor. It's best if used in conjunction with an editor. The thing that I love about it is that it allows me to process a set of pictures much faster than I could with Photoshop alone. If you only take 100 pictures a year, it's a waste. If you take 1,000 shots a month, it's pretty easy to justify the expense.

go cowboys

05-18-2007, 12:18 PM

I stopped using Picasa after discovered that it created many small info files on each of the folder it scans.

I am not sure what you mean by this. Does it take a greater amount of hard drive space?:confused3

AndrewWG

05-18-2007, 02:17 PM

Master Mason

05-18-2007, 02:31 PM

Adobe bridge will do that, I am almost certain that Lightroom will as well.

But I think that Infranview will aslo do it for free, I am sure that there are many others as well.

I go by the file and naming system for mine.

if I shoot a baseball game I will call all the pics Kenny Baseball Game 4-30-07 -- ## for example, pretty easy to find that way.

Master Mason

05-18-2007, 02:34 PM

AndrewWG

05-18-2007, 03:00 PM

also, if you have a kid in school, you qualify for the edu discount at campus tech http://www.campustech.com Light room for $94

This is where I got CS2 as well, for about half price. My son uses it for his digital photo class, so I actually wasn't even cheating at all in this case.

Thats good to know. How about if she is in 2nd grade? I don't figure she will use high tech software for quite awhile. So far she is only up to Spongebob and Webkins. :sad2: We have awhile to wait!

I will look into Lightroom though. I don't want to have to re-name everything from the past but I am doing a similar naming thing as of a few months ago. Seems to work pretty well. With many many GB's of photos, I just want a program to do the search for me.

Thanks!

Andy

Master Mason

05-18-2007, 03:37 PM

Thats good to know. How about if she is in 2nd grade? I don't figure she will use high tech software for quite awhile. So far she is only up to Spongebob and Webkins. :sad2: We have awhile to wait!

I will look into Lightroom though. I don't want to have to re-name everything from the past but I am doing a similar naming thing as of a few months ago. Seems to work pretty well. With many many GB's of photos, I just want a program to do the search for me.

Thanks!

Andy

True, but have you taken a picture for her class?? Or of her in a school funtion? All they ask is their be a student.

AndrewWG

05-18-2007, 03:39 PM

True, but have you taken a picture for her class?? Or of her in a school funtion? All they ask is their be a student.

Many, many pics of school functions and stuff. Hmmm..... :woohoo:

Thanks again!

Andy

Groucho

05-18-2007, 04:25 PM

Ok, here is a question about organization. Is there a program that will create a database of sorts so that I could type in Disney and have it search all of my photos for Disney related photos? I realize that I would have to tell it keywords for each photo or group of photos so that it would know what to look for. I would like something that could pull up, for example, all Disney photos and could also pull a subset of the same photos up if I typed in Mickey or Donald etc.

Am I making sense? I don't want to have to search every darned folder manually to find pictures of the castle or something, I want a program to do it for me.

Andy
The best way to do this is with actually putting the information into the picture itself, not creating a separate database that's tied to just one program.

There's IPTC data that has ready-made fields for all sorts of, or the comment field in the EXIF data. I believe that most organizers will use one or both of these. Irfanview generally sticks stuff in IPTC, and you can edit many files at once with the Thumbnails part (similar to Adobe Bridge). This data is automatically grabbed when I upload my photos to my gallery, so you can search by any of the keywords.

Irfanview has a nice search functionality that can search all these fields, I think like to choose "view as thumbnails" which gives you thumbnail views of all the results, and you can view them full-size just as if they were the only files in the directory.

My gripe is that you can't (unless I just haven't figured out how) just add keywords with Irfanview Thumbnails, rather than edit and/or replace what's already there. What I'd really love is to be able to highlight all my trip photos, add an appropriate keyword, then mix and match other keywords. Adding them works fine in Irfanview, it just gets tricky if I want to, say, tag all "epcot" photos, all "mgm" photos, then tag photos with my son in them - the last tag will set all the tags the same, not add it to the rest.

I think you can do that with PixVue, but I haven't had any luck using that. I don't think Adobe Bridge can do it either, but I'm not positive - I tried it and ended up going back to Irfanview Thumbnails fairly quickly.

MarkBarbieri

05-18-2007, 05:01 PM

Lightroom also embeds keyword information in the photos. One of it's nice features is that you can create keyword hierarchies. You start with a general keyword and can then create keywords beneath it with more detail. For example, if I tag a photo with the keyword "Festival of the Lion King", it will also be tagged with "Animal Kingdom", "Walt Disney World", "Florida", "United States". If I add my nephew as a keyword, it'll inlcude "William Barbieri", "Michael Barbieri's Family", "Mark's Relatives", "Relatives".

That makes it really easy to add a large set of keywords quickly. Now I can pull up picture sets like "all pictures with my Brother's family taken in Florida."

The one big limitation that I haven't figured out how to overcome is "shared" keywords. For example, if a kid in the neighborhood is on my son's soccer team and in his first grade class, I'd like to see the same kid's name show up under "Bullfrogs (soccer team)", "Neighbors", "Friends", "Mrs. Patrick's First Grade Class." I could do that with iMatch, but not Lightroom.

If you want a program that is a pure play image organizer, I don't think you can beat iMatch (unless you drop tens of thousands on some serious stock photo management software). It's an incredible keywording program with more features than you can dream of. I used it for a while, but dropped it in favor of Lightroom. Lightroom is far inferior as an organizer, but it's good enough and it does many other things I need.

mabas9395

05-18-2007, 07:48 PM

The two best things I've done for my photography to help me out AFTER I have taken the picture is get a monitor calibrator and Adobe Lightroom!

go cowboys

05-18-2007, 07:55 PM

Just watched the lightroom video on the website and am totally impressed. I do not even think that I know enough to be as imoressed as I should be. It sounds like this is the most user friendly software and the student discount makes it not so bad to buy either. Thanks for that idea.

I also looked at irfanview, but not sure that it is as easy as lightroom. especially when you want to add a tag. Thanks for that comment as I have never thought of that aspect.

thanks to all who have replied.

KrazyPete

05-18-2007, 09:27 PM

I use Lightroom too but I got it before the price went up. I highly recommend it anyway. Here's a link to some videos that do a great job of giving you a brief overview of the major features:

NAPP: Lightroom Videos (http://www.photoshopuser.com/?page=lightroom/videos)

I've used Picasa and I didn't hate it. You may find that it does everything you need it to do. I'm not sure sure it will recognize your NEF files if you decide to shoot RAW. There may not be a free option that can do that.

Have you tried the "Picture Project" cd that came with your camera? I don't know how well it does at organizing the pictures but a well thought out directory structure may be all you really need for that. :confused3

photo_chick

05-18-2007, 09:47 PM

The two best things I've done for my photography to help me out AFTER I have taken the picture is get a monitor calibrator and Adobe Lightroom!

Same here. I love my Spyder amd I love Lightroom.

ChgoLaniteVal

07-09-2007, 08:01 PM

I need help with photos & clips. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0. I am willing to buy a better program (as long as it's not too expensive) because there is no easy way to recatalog stuff I had prior to owning that program (and now). I also want to know how, if possible, to get all of my movie clips in order-without breaks (like the old-fashioned videos) & get them to DVD. Thanks!!:surfweb:

jtdl

01-01-2008, 02:31 PM

rtphokie

01-02-2008, 10:01 AM

I'm looking for an easy photo management program. I've read that Photoshop Album, Ulead Explorer, and Jasc are some good ones but I'd like some reviews of what you are using. Thanks. Oh yeah, I am brand new at this!

I use Picassa, it's not perfect but it's about the best I've come across. The plugin which allows you to easily upload to SmugMug is really nice.

jtdl

01-02-2008, 03:03 PM

Thanks - I was beginning to think nobody on this board uses this type of program!! I'm thinking everyone can't be using the program that came with their camera - the one that came with my Canon seems pretty useless other than to organize them strictly by date taken. I'll see what I can find out about Picassa.

tiggerwannabe

01-02-2008, 03:27 PM

Creative Memories (http://www.creativememories.com/MainMenu/Our-products-and-services/Digital/Memory-Manager/Memory-Manager-2.0-CD)

tiggerwannabe

01-02-2008, 03:28 PM

double post

tiggerwannabe

01-02-2008, 03:30 PM

ahhhh!!! Triple post :faint:

alan

01-02-2008, 03:39 PM

Also, the Windows Live Photo Gallery is good - it stores any tags you add directly in the image files, so that they can be read by any program, and doesn't rely on a special, separate database file. The tags are also usable across operating systems.

Also, the tags can be searched by programs like Windows Live Search, so you can search for files with Great Aunt Maude in them...

Additionally, you can upload photos to flickr and Windows Live Spaces with it...

regards,
/alan

And, the price is right!

becca-becca

01-03-2008, 04:12 PM

I just save my photos into files labeled by the year and date of each set of pictures. I put this into My Pictures which I access through My Pictures or, if I am copying something, through Windows Explorer. Am I missing something by doing it this way? If I need to edit, I either upload to Snapfish or use an editing program and re-save it to my original folder.

Master Mason

01-03-2008, 04:25 PM

Photoshop Lightroom

MICKEY88

01-03-2008, 04:35 PM

I have 2 250 gig hard drives one internal and one external for photo storage,

I upload using windows explorer..
I have a folder system, such as model shoots, family stuff, WDW etc, within those folders I have sub folders with more specific names and dates, such as, for family stuff , I recently added 2 folders xmas 07 and new years eve 07, when I need a specific pic I have a pretty good idea where to look...

I also upload my pics to my 2 websites, for sharing and backup storage...

I also burn my pics to dvd, keeping similar folders on each, such as model shoots, on one dvd, family stuff n another, seperate disks for scenics etc...

the disks go into a metal storage box I bought at walmart, it has little numbered hanging files to hold the disks and an index to keep tabs of what is on each disk

once the pics are uploaded to the web, and burned to dvd, I then delete from the hard drive to free up space...

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 also has a built in organizer, which I haven't taken full advantage of yet since I'm used to my old system and it works..

if I ever have the time I might integrate that into my system..

My2Girls66

01-15-2008, 04:17 PM

Is there anyway to automatically number photos in a folder? I'm trying to organize trip photos from 2 different cameras and my D50 which at the time was set to start numbering from 1 with every memory card change. I can't get my slideshow programs to keep them in the order I want(date and time). My programs like to number them 1,11,12,13....2,21,22,23. Its going to kill me to number each photo 1 by 1.

boBQuincy

01-15-2008, 05:25 PM

BreezeBrowser has an option to rename or renumber photos in a folder. There may be other ways but this is one I have used to get the photos to display in sequence.

mabas9395

01-15-2008, 06:44 PM

Use windows explorer. Select all the files you want to change at the same time, hit F2 to rename, type in your new name and hit enter. Your first file will have that name, all of your other filesfiles will have that name followed by a number, example: Disney Trip, Disney Trip (1), Disney Trip (2), Disney Trip (3),etc.

The photo software that came with your camera might also have a batch rename feature.

Or use this, its free: http://www.irfanview.com/

My2Girls66

01-15-2008, 08:09 PM

Thanks a bunch to both of you! I knew there had to be an easier way:)

Alztybrn

03-25-2008, 08:11 AM

I am looking to hear how everybody downloads/organizes their pics on their computers.

Presently I download everything to Picassa, then to Smugmug. But I want to do a bit more editing than Picassa provides, so...I have been playing around with PS Elements. Can I store my pics there before I send them to smugmug...or is it best to keep them in Picassa and use Elements for editing?

Since I downloaded the trial for Elements, I have noticed that when I download my pics, they end up in both elements as well as Picassa. So...are my pics being stored in both places (thus taking up double the space on my computer?)

Another thing I would like to do and have not figured out how to do it yet, is edit some of my pics, but still keep the original. I have not found how to do this yet in either program (especially Picassa...been using that longer). Another words, I want to "Save As" with the new, edited pic, but still have the original left in its original format.

Now that I have showed my complete "rookieness"...I am grateful for any and all suggestions!

jann1033

03-25-2008, 08:25 AM

i have elements 5 and can't really say i love the organizer, maybe because my computer stinks ( getting closer to my new one) but it crashes a lot( ihave a big catalog as well)
so now i just download, use the free raw image viewer( iorget now if it's adobe or microsoft) and that will open them into the editor, or if they aren't raw just go to open with in file and hit adobe editor...i just store mine in folders under "my pictures",( and backed up on disks) send selected ones to my zenfolio account, flickr or photobucket depending on what i plan to do with them

if you save as with a different name ( ie blah blah blah vs blah blah blah edited) and or save as a copy you should end up with 2 files..in elements there is a box you check when you save that says "copy" in the pop up box that comes up and asks what kind of file you want to save as ie jpg tiff , do you want to add to organizer etc. it's the first box that comes up when you click the close on a edited file. you can change the name there as well as make it a copy or what ever you want to do

to change the name just type in the additional part in the box with the file name but be careful you don't mess with the end part..i usually type it in after the image title but before the jpg( or whatever)
you have to highlight then click where you want to insert or the whole name goes away

TinksDH

03-25-2008, 08:39 AM

Since I downloaded the trial for Elements, I have noticed that when I download my pics, they end up in both elements as well as Picassa. So...are my pics being stored in both places (thus taking up double the space on my computer?)

Another thing I would like to do and have not figured out how to do it yet, is edit some of my pics, but still keep the original. I have not found how to do this yet in either program (especially Picassa...been using that longer). Another words, I want to "Save As" with the new, edited pic, but still have the original left in its original format.

Now that I have showed my complete "rookieness"...I am grateful for any and all suggestions!

Photoshop Elements has a cataloging feature which allows it to display your pictures in multiple ways. You first have to tell Elements where your pictures are - it then goes and catalogues all of them for you. Any time you bring a new image onto your PC, and you put it into a folder that you have Elements "watching", it adds it to the Elements catalogue but leaves the image in its original spot.

When you edit an image in Elements, and then save, it asks you if you want to save it as a "version". This means that the original image is left untouched, and the new one has all the edits. Now here's the powerful part of Elements - you can save that edited image to a different folder on your hard drive - or even a different drive altogether - yet Elements can display it in the browser right next to your original image as a "version". You may or may not find this advantageous.

You can also have Elements display your file tree, in which case you won't see different versions of the same image side-by-side with the original unless in fact you stored the version in the same folder.

The cataloging feature also has some drawbacks. If you move or delete folders or images outside of Elements, they become "disconnected" and Elements has to go and find them again. The organizer part of Elements only works well if you move, edit, delete, etc all of your images from within Elements. Otherwise it gets a little cumbersome.

I shoot RAW and use Photomechanic to import, rank, cull, sort, etc my RAW images. I then use Capture NX to convert and process my images. I mainly use Elements for those rare few things I can't do in NX (spot removal, clone, etc.). I am trying to use the Elements browser, but still trying to figure out how it fits into my workflow.

Master Mason

03-25-2008, 09:29 AM

A couple of things.

Your photos are not "stored" in any program, they are in a file of some sort on your computer, you may have a program that allows you to do that fileing or to organize them, but they are not "in" the program.

Second, as Jan mentions, you should be able in any program to hit save as and it will save it as a new name, leaving the old name. However, It is my strong suggestion that you do that immediately upon opening rather than after you have done your edits, this way your only working on the copy and have the original to go back to if you make a mistake somewhere along the line.

jann1033

03-25-2008, 09:39 AM

Photoshop Elements has a cataloging feature which allows it to display your pictures in multiple ways. You first have to tell Elements where your pictures are - it then goes and catalogues all of them for you. Any time you bring a new image onto your PC, and you put it into a folder that you have Elements "watching", it adds it to the Elements catalogue but leaves the image in its original spot.

When you edit an image in Elements, and then save, it asks you if you want to save it as a "version". This means that the original image is left untouched, and the new one has all the edits. Now here's the powerful part of Elements - you can save that edited image to a different folder on your hard drive - or even a different drive altogether - yet Elements can display it in the browser right next to your original image as a "version". You may or may not find this advantageous.

You can also have Elements display your file tree, in which case you won't see different versions of the same image side-by-side with the original unless in fact you stored the version in the same folder.

The cataloging feature also has some drawbacks. If you move or delete folders or images outside of Elements, they become "disconnected" and Elements has to go and find them again. The organizer part of Elements only works well if you move, edit, delete, etc all of your images from within Elements. Otherwise it gets a little cumbersome.

I shoot RAW and use Photomechanic to import, rank, cull, sort, etc my RAW images. I then use Capture NX to convert and process my images. I mainly use Elements for those rare few things I can't do in NX (spot removal, clone, etc.). I am trying to use the Elements browser, but still trying to figure out how it fits into my workflow.

you can use the version but that is really for saving different versions ie if you are editing something and are working on a project and want to save the steps. then you have them in steps so you can go to one and work on it,( like maybe you want to crop then go to black and white, rather than crop and add saturation, you can save a version just cropped and use that to build on later if you want. and you can stack them in the organizer.... other wise they are beside each other, which personally i find easier since as soon as i open the folder, they are all visible. long story short,saving in versions isn't needed to save a copy, particularly if you have just a finish copy and an original and just takes up space unless you are doing something complicated you might want to change later.

jann1033

03-25-2008, 09:52 AM

tessa

09-18-2008, 09:37 PM

So I am having a hard time organizing my photos. I use picasa, because I blog and love the blog upload feature. When I am uploading my new photos (which I do almost every day), how should I organize them? Group them by month, by day, what?

My son is 2 years old and right now I have a huge "2 years old" folder FULL of pictures.

help a rookie, please!

Thanks!

wenrob

09-18-2008, 11:43 PM

This is my system:
Jan-Dec2008 inside are the months:
(1)Jan-2008
(2)Feb-2008
etc. I put the numbers in front to keep them in proper order
inside of these are the days of the month in their original folders:
2008_01_01
I like to keep them this way rather then give them titles because 90% of the time I remember about when a picture I'm looking for is taken. It's simple but it's rare I can't find the picture I'm looking for in just a minute or so.
edited to add: I use plain old Windows for this.

deletedpenguin

09-19-2008, 12:38 AM

I leave it up to Lightroom, but generally archive by date_location_description

Enkil

09-19-2008, 06:30 AM

I am using a modified version of the subfolder system which I have just stolen from Wenrob (thanks !!!) which puts the year first then the month (2008 09, 2008 08, etc) Within that I have my files sorted by name, which is much more helpfull because I use a marvelous program created by fellow Nikonian Bill Claff called Dmove.exe.

Dmove, and much more, can be found here - home.comcast.net/~nikond70/. I have a simple batch file which I use to instruct Dmove to transfer all of my files from compactflash to my hard drive, and in the process Dmove renames all my images according to exif data for date,time, and camera used, ex: 20080901_11004249_D200.JPG. Simple, easy, works for any camera, and makes it a breeze to find roughly where a desired image is among the several thousands I have shot this year.

wenrob

09-19-2008, 07:24 AM

I am using a modified version of the subfolder system which I have just stolen from Wenrob (thanks !!!) which puts the year first then the month (2008 09, 2008 08, etc)
LOL, you're welcome!

eeyorefanatic

09-19-2008, 08:16 AM

I do mine by year month - location

so my folders look like this:
2008 08 - Panama City Beach
2008 09 - Atlanta Zoo
2008 10 - WDW

jann1033

09-19-2008, 08:32 AM

i do mine by where i took them or occasion since dates mean nothing to me:lmao: ie toledo zoo 08

klmall

09-19-2008, 08:47 AM

I use Picasa2 also and organize by event but I also have some general folders with subfolders by specific dates: i.e. Family - Christmas 2007 - Baltimore. So I guess I use a combination of unique events and general categories.

Furgus

09-19-2008, 09:24 AM

Year_Month_Day_sequence#

npmommie

12-25-2008, 10:09 PM

How do you keep all your photos organized in your computer? How do you keep track of what you have saved to disc or external hard drive?
I used to just have mine all in dated folders, then I started giving the folders names and dates, and now I feel so disorganized, because it was easy to keep track of what I back up and what I didn't now it isn't unless I do it each time I put pictures in the computer, but I don't do that.
so give me your best storage organization tips.
thanks!

Chikabowa

12-25-2008, 10:31 PM

Lightroom - you can organize by date, keywords, events, etc. I love it!

Pea-n-Me

12-26-2008, 03:08 AM

There's a wide range of options depending on photography habits and technological skill level and experience. Some people here are very experienced and extremely tecnically savvy; others, well, aren't (but we're learning :lmao: ). I'm not sure where you lie.

It's important to back up in some manner because if you lose your photos off your hard drive they're not always easy to get back. Some people do "automatic back up" (ie to two separate places) when they download their pictures, some use online storage, some use portable hard drives (which can also fail) and/or discs, and some keep two sets of discs, storing one in a fireproof box, etc (though apparently basic discs may not last indefinitely, either). I'm not an expert in any of those arenas, but just to give you an idea, there are different ways to go about it.

I'm still feeling my way around, but basically I try to keep up with my photos as much as I can, as quickly as I can after I take them. They've gotten away from me before (and I've lost lots) so I'm trying to stay organized. I edit and upload my best to a SmugMug account, and also put them all to disc, which my husband organized into albums by date/event for me (via CD organizing albums). That's what's working for me at the moment, but it takes quite a bit of time and is easy to fall behind if I don't keep up with it.

If you normally take just a few pictures here and there, shoot in straight JPEG and edit minimally, then it's generally less complicated.

spinetnglr

12-26-2008, 06:37 AM

Organization is starting to become a problem for me too. It was ok while I was putting pictures in dated folders but if I am looking for a certain picture and dont know the date it was taken it takes a long time to find something. I want to try and devise a system that works for me but I dont really know where to start. I will be interested in watching this thread to see what others suggest and maybe from that I can work out something doable for me. I won a one year smugmug power account this month and just got that set up so I am going to start putting pictures there but that still doesnt get me organized :confused3

Groucho

12-26-2008, 07:02 AM

I've used CD/DVD cataloging programs for years. If I didn't, I'd really be in trouble! I burn a huge number of discs.

I used to use DiskBase (http://diskbase.learsy.com/), the author abandoned it so it's now freeware. There are countless other ones out there... try a few and see which one you like best. If you're lucky, it'll be a free one. ;)

If your main concern is making sure they're all backed up, you might do well with an online backup service like Mozy or Carbonite. They'll take care of that for you.

zackiedawg

12-26-2008, 07:44 AM

When I load my photos to my computer, I use Microsoft's photo uploader (which automatically triggers when you plug in a USB device or memory card to a USB input) to give the photos themselves a name based on subject and date. For example: Disney Dec08 001, Disney Dec08 002, etc. It's a batch uploader, so it names all the photos with the name you assign and adds sequential numbers to them.

You also choose what folder they load to - I have always been a user of MS Windows for a long time, and folders are just real easy for me to understand and work with - so I keep it simple and just use the Windows folders and subfolders to stay organized. For each new batch, I'll make a new folder (Disney Dec08, Disney Jul08, Wakodahatchee Nov08, Key West Mar08, etc). All the photos from that upload go into that folder. Then, I open a new subfolder called 'processed'. As I work on any photos and modify, crop, and process them, I save the new processed version to that subfolder. This ends up being the 'final' version folder that I would slideshow to friends and family, as it has been culled of any unneeded duplicates or bad photos. This has the added advantage of leaving all of my originals untouched, in case I ever want to go back and reprocess a photo or try a new technique on it.

Once a subject gets to be fairly common, and I end up with alot of folders on that topic, I'll grab all of the folders with the same subject (Disney, Cruises, etc.) and put them in a master folder. So I can click on photos/disney/disney dec08, for example, to get to the photos I took a few weeks ago.

I also use the subfolder system for places where I go often enough that individual folders for each trip would be a little too busy - I frequent a wetlands area for much of my bird and wildlife shooting, called Wakodahatchee. If I added a new folder for every trip out there, I'd have hundreds of subfolders. So instead, I have a master folder (Wakodahatchee), then subfolders separated by date ranges (Jan-Jun 08, Jul-Dec 08, etc). Each has a 'processed' folder within as well.

Having the larger folder topics is useful for 'stray' photos - let's say I took 5 shots of my Grandmother's xmas tree before going to Disney, and those 5 photos downloaded with the Disney pics. I can just drag those first 5 photos out of there, and put them in the 'Christmas' master folder, which is separated by subfolders for each year's Christmas.

Of course, once you've put all those photos in folders, and start to get alot of folders going, you can still use alternate photo organizing tools like Picasa to search and find photos to view for slideshows and such. Since all the photos are in a folder by subject and date, and all photos within are named by subject, date, and sequence, it makes it a breeze to find anything you need in seconds.

As for backing up - I don't move some photos to one drive, and others to another drive. I personally prefer to keep all my photos on a single drive, then backup that drive in its entirety to another mirrored drive, and also to an external drive...that way I've got 3 copies of my entire photo collection. Every so often, I'll burn some DVDs of my photos as another form of backup (not easy though when you've got 182GB of photos...takes alot of DVDs!). For those, I keep the previous burn, and just burn new DVDs of the most recent photos added. Once the DVDs get to 3 years old, I'll burn those contents again to a new DVD.

steery1

12-26-2008, 08:46 AM

I name my photo folders firstly the year the photo was taken. Then subfolers named either with the place or event .

For example-
Photos 2008 will have subfolders of......
Christophers Birthday 2008 or Victoria Park 2008 or Stevies 43rd Birthday 2008, Gerard and Lisannes Wedding 2008 etc, etc.......

Each photo will be named with the exact date taken.
ie the photos in the folder Stevies 43rd Birthday 2008 will each be named Stevies 43rd Birthday Aug 10th 2008 (1), (2) etc.

My Disney pics will have numerous subfolders ie....
Photos 2008 then subfolder......
Florida July 2008 then subfolders.....
Magic Kingdom 2008, Animal Kingdom 2008, Beach Club 2008, Universal Studios 2008
Maybe inside the Magic Kingdom 2008 subfolder I'll have another subfolder entitled Castle photos 2008
I find this way easiest and also not too difficult to retrieve certain photos should I need to. Having said that I dont take many pics in comparison to some guys on here so it may not work for everyone.

All my photos get backed up onto an external hard drive when I can be bothered and the complted jpg's get uploaded to Smugmug immediately they're done

Pea-n-Me

12-26-2008, 05:06 PM

zackiedawg

12-26-2008, 11:53 PM

I only shoot a handful of RAW, namely when I know I really want to post-process a photo like crazy (like shooting way underexposed to get a faster shutter speed in very dark conditions). In general, I shoot .jpg most of the time, as it fulfills my needs perfectly - I really do prefer to try to get the shot right as I shoot it and minimalize any need for post processing. I haven't noticed any difference between .jpg and RAW files for prints up to 16x24, which is about the largest I will print 99% of the time. And I've been able to notch sales and publications from .jpgs, so I just don't have too much need for RAW. Besides, I've surprised myself with how much you can post-process a high quality, super-low-compression jpg.

But, true that RAW files don't get picked up in my Microsoft photo uploader - I have to open the drive folder and drag them over to the hard drive. As for RAW editing, there are lots of aftermarket options you can consider buying that might do better conversions and be easier to work with, including batch processing...ACDC, Arcsoft, Bibble, Lightroom, and more.

I don't like to get into RAW vs JPG debates - they're both fine, and some folks like to use both methods. RAW ultimately has more flexibility to process, but takes up alot more space and is slower. For me personally, JPG works fine a majority of the time.

Thanks for mentioning the MS Photo Uploader's incompatibility with RAW...I failed to mention it.

Groucho

01-01-2009, 07:58 AM

Do you shoot in RAW? This doesn't work for my RAW files. Currently I have to edit my photos in Olympus Master and convert them to JPEG, then they automatically go back to my folders. Each of these RAW photos also is about 2MB, so every folder (of all pics) that used to fit on one disc now takes about three or more. I suppose I could delete some of them but that kind of defeats the purpose of shooting in RAW (ie they're often "fixable" or "re-editable), and besides that, the deleting process itself takes quite a while. As I said, currently this system is working, albeit slowly - I don't know if there's a better way. We aren't especially technically savvy here.
What I do with my RAWs is keep them all in folders of 1,000 pictures each. So I have a folder for each of the DSLRs and under that, a folder called "00001-01000", "01001-02000", etc. The raws all go in there. I process them in Lightroom and the outputs go in a similar folder structure (to make them easier to flip through using a standard photo viewer like Irfanview), and for specific topics, I create collections in Lightroom and output those photos in a small resolution (usually 1280x1024 max) and those are the ones I use most of the time. They're relatively small so they load quickly on any photo viewing devices that I have, and if I need something bigger, I can find the full-size one easily by looking for the one with the same time/datestamp.

Trying to organize RAWs the same way you organize the finished JPGs is probably an exercise in frustration, I think...

jann1033

01-01-2009, 10:27 AM

i haven't used lightroom for the organization area yet although i do keyword stuff to make it easier(if i do) later...i save all my stuff under a main folder that lets me know what it is ie "zoo" then a subfolder that describes it...ie "dec gorilla photos" , " 08 touch tank" what ever...numbers and dates mean nothing to me so i use as few as i can:rotfl: i am paranoid about saying my computer space so that is why i haven't used lightroom's yet...it's on my c drive although maybe i can use it and actually save them someplace else...(i need to do some lightroom book learnin'). i back up to dvd and save them all there as well. i haven't even looked at the vista photo stuff since i am happy with what i am doing

unintentionally funny walgreen commercial that says you don't need to keep your photos on your memory card, you can save them online....so i guess i could just keep buying memory cards and forget all of the above:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

handicap18

01-01-2009, 01:50 PM

I keep my digital image files the same way I kept my photo albums: In order I take the picture.

When I download my RAW files I use Nikon Transfer and have it set up to automatically to download to 2 different hard drives, 1 internal and 1 external. Each RAW file is then sorted by year and month taken.

Same thing for JPEG's. I have a file under My Pictures for each year. Within each year is each month. I don't change the file names so they are the same that the camera creates (until I get over 9,999, then I have the transfer software add a 1 at the beginning to make a 5 digit number to keep then in order).

If I edit any images they go in a seperate folder (still keeping the original in the original folder). For me this system works.

When I first went digital I would change the file names and had all kinds of folder, but I found it way to much work to eventually not only sort the images, but then to find them later. I then went to a 4 folder system under each year, but I was taking to many pictures. Doing it monthy makes the folder smaller. I can find an image just as fast as someone else can with using all those tags and what not. I don't like using Lightroom for that kind of thing, to me its extra work to get the same thing done. However, I will say that everyone has their system that works for them, so go with what YOU find the best.

SharonLovesMickey

01-01-2009, 03:24 PM

I store my photos by year-->month-->event

I backup all my photos and share them on www.smugmug.com

wdwwishes

01-01-2009, 04:56 PM

I'm a Mac user and use iPhoto. The photos are arranged into one main "photo library" as well as by events. You then give each event a name. You can also assign keywords and ratings to your photos. To search the photos you can do so by event name, keyword (s), rating or date. I find it a nice system. I do have a backup hard drive but still burn all of my photos to c.d.s

DisneydaveCT

01-01-2009, 08:41 PM

My system is similar to others on this thread.

I have folders for each year, followed by subject folders (a series of photos of one subject) or monthly folders (for everyday life photos). If I decide to keep the photos after reviewing them on the computer, I rename each photo with one or two words for the subject with the numerical date of the photo. For example, "SpaceshipEarth010109." If I save multiples of the same subject, shot on the same day, then I add a letter to the end...SpaceshipEarth010109a.

Part of the reason I name my files this way is that I use a commercial printing service, which also prints the name on the back of the photo. So if someone is looking at one of my photo albums and they want a copy of the print, it is easy for me to find it in one of my storage systems. I save copies on flash drives and on-line.

tubachick

01-01-2009, 08:59 PM

I keep various folders on the cpu with name date like many of the others here, I burn CD's of large events or trips, or Months if not one large event. I also back up on-line and on an external hard drive.

rileysmommy

01-02-2009, 06:23 AM

I have a folder listed for each year. 2007, 2008, etc.

Within each year's folder I have monthly folders. Jan, Feb, etc.

Within each month's folder I have folders with each event. In Dec's folder I have folders labeled Christmas morning, dance recital, decorating the tree, etc.

I try to remember to burn the monthly folder at the end of every month but I am really bad about it. I do need to go burn the 2008 folder right now. I keep all my photos on my EHD.

The only exception to this filing system is Disney. They get their own folder and their own CD's burned because there is just too many photos.

blackears

01-02-2009, 06:53 AM

I make a master folder for the year, another folder w/i the year folder for each month. My PSE 7 downloads according to the date, I just have to select w/ folder to put it in. If I need to remember something particular about that date, then I add it onto the date name (11-19-08-Kevin's Bday party) Pretty simple so far, now I just have to work on back-up to DVD...

KarenAylwood

01-02-2009, 08:31 AM

All of my folders are labelled as such: Year_Month_Date_Event

For example: 2008_12_25 Christmas or 2008_05_15 Mom's Visit (even though the pics went from the 15th to the 20th, I have the day as the start date).

That way I have it by date, but I also know what the event was just by looking at the folder.

I have them on my computer hard drive only when they are not backed up. When I get about 2 GB worth of pics, I backup. I burn them on a DVD, upload to smugmug and put on my external hard drive all at the same time. Then I delete from my computer (I don't have enough space to keep everything... I'm hovering at over 26GB worth of pics from the last two years!).

I put them on DVDs because they hold so much more. Each DVD is labelled 2008: Jan-November, or Disney: 2007 & 2008, etc.

I'd love to use Bridge to organize and put key words and such, but I just haven't had the time yet. I got my XSi in August and have been shooting too much to keep up! I'm just lucky I am diligent enough to back them up on a regular basis :)

qtzar

01-02-2009, 06:42 PM

I use Lightroom to import my shots in a folder structure of Year\MonthNumber\DayNumber so December 25th of 2008 would be in 2008\12\25. This import routine is an easy to select option in the lightroom import screen.

The folder structure is sitting on a 3 terabyte Network Attached Storage device which is setup in a RAID5 configuration which means if one of the disks in the array goes bad the pictures are safe and can be recovered once the bad disk is replaced.

When importing into Lightroom I attach keywords to the pictures to help make finding them faster. So if i need to find Christmas pictures from Disney I can do a search for 'WDW XMAS' and it will pull them all up.

Once the images are imported into Lightroom I'll examine all of them and give them ratings and delete any images which did not turn out good. There is no point in keeping bad images, they just take up disk space.

After rating the images I'll do a small bit of post processing on the 5 star images to make them as good as possible and then I'll export them in full quality into Flickr and export them a bit smaller into iPhoto so I can sync them to my iPhone.

Hope this little workflow helps.

PixieDust32

01-02-2009, 06:47 PM

Organized me???? Oh boy I don't think so. I do try.

PhotobearSam

01-03-2009, 09:55 PM

We just got a 1 TB external hard drive so I was wondering what way is best...Thanks for the suggestions.

Groucho

01-03-2009, 11:45 PM

i haven't used lightroom for the organization area yet although i do keyword stuff to make it easier(if i do) later...i save all my stuff under a main folder that lets me know what it is ie "zoo" then a subfolder that describes it...ie "dec gorilla photos" , " 08 touch tank" what ever...numbers and dates mean nothing to me so i use as few as i can:rotfl: i am paranoid about saying my computer space so that is why i haven't used lightroom's yet...it's on my c drive although maybe i can use it and actually save them someplace else...(i need to do some lightroom book learnin'). i back up to dvd and save them all there as well. i haven't even looked at the vista photo stuff since i am happy with what i am doing
What is it that you're worried about Lightroom saving? It leaves the photos wherever they are now, no need to more them around. The catalog will probably be on your C: drive (though you can put it anywhere you want), but it's relatively small - I've got almost 22,000 photos in mine and it's all of 254 megs. It does have a camera raw cache that's a gig... but hey, if you have the hard drive space, it's just going to waste if you don't use it. :)

ssanders79

01-05-2009, 07:21 AM

1. I offload the images from the memory card to my laptop using Bridge.
2. Tag the images using Bridge.
3. The images are saved in folders on my HDD. 1 folder per day. ie. 20090105.
3. When I get to about 3 GB I burn them to a DVDr.
4. I verify the images are burned and delete the files from the HDD.
5. The DVDr is put into a fireproof box.

My method is not ideal as I only have immediate access to the most recent files on my laptop, but I am OK with that.

anut4disney

01-05-2009, 08:18 AM

Organized me???? Oh boy I don't think so. I do try.

:worship: Bless you I thought I was the only one. :lmao:

ALittleDisneyFan

01-05-2009, 01:46 PM

When I upload mine to the computer I date the file names and then stick them into the designated Month folder. Once the year is done I stick all the monthly folders into 1 year folder.

princess-lola

01-07-2009, 01:09 AM

After I get my photos downloaded on the computer, I edit them if needed, then I put them in their correct file.
I have five folders: dogs doing cute stuff, birds, outside photos, everything else and holiday photographs. I'll probably make more folders one day; but for now that system is working fine for me. :)

npmommie

01-07-2009, 01:22 AM

thanks for all the great suggestions! I reorganized my pics into yearly folders, and subfolders by the month.
I still have to get organized with backing up to cd. I also have Picasa, but I don't know if this qualifies as online storage? i like it though because i can browse thru my pics and see them all.
i may look into smug mug

rtphokie

01-07-2009, 08:15 AM

http://picasa.google.com/images/logo.jpg
download (http://picasa.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=picassa)

I copy photos off CF cards onto my PC using picassa. Delete the duds, edit the good ones, organize them by folder, tag the ones I want to upload and then upload them straight to SmugMug all from Picassa.

The thing I like about Picassa is that it doesn't maintain much of a database of it's own. It organizes things by folder just like your PC does. I used Adobe Lightroom's predecessor (I forget the name, it was much cheaper and much less feature right) and it maintained it's own database rather than move files around by folder. When that database got corrupted (and it did, a lot), all the organization work I'd done was lost. If you move around photos outside of the program, it would really confuse it.

Picassa is simple and as effective because of that simplicity.

Ellen aka Snow White

01-09-2009, 07:43 AM

Can someone help me know if I have my facts straight?
Picasa organizes pixs on your computer and also stores online?
however Picasa is not unlimited storage?
Smugmug is online storage only - unlimited with paid plan?

I am looking a new program to help me organize my photos - right now I use pictureproject and I hate it! I'm still a newby to digital and I don't do much with editing - but I am trying to learn more. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!
TIA
Ellen

sixbits8

03-10-2009, 01:02 PM

Is anybody aware of any software that will help me organize all of my digital pictures? I have pictures from 3 different cameras and I need to get them is some kind of order. I take a look at them, get overwhelmed, then get a headache! I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks!

Master Mason

03-10-2009, 01:44 PM

WeLoveNemo

03-10-2009, 03:54 PM

I have to agree -- Lightroom. I actually bought a laptop and Lightroom at the same time so I had a clean slate. I moved all the photos from all the sources on my desktop over on discs. Scott Kelby's LR book had some great suggestions for organizing the photos.

princess.chell

11-28-2009, 11:48 PM

I've gotten to the point where I've begun to have issues with organizing my photos. I just have too many, not that that is ever a problem, and can't come up with a way to organize them all so I'm searching for what I want forever. I hardly ever save over the original because I like to go back a few months later and play with it some more. Maybe that's weird but I dunno, it keeps me entertained at 1am when I can't sleep. =) So I was wondering how you guys keep yourselves organized? Any tips on keeping an ever growing library organized?

IndyShutterbug

11-29-2009, 01:13 AM

I use Adobe Lightroom 2, and it helps me stay on top of things. My workflow is as follows:

-via card reader import into external drive and label folder as event

-import the above folder into lightroom and leave the location the same(option to import and move to lightroom maintained folder is another option). If all photos from the import were from a common setting, I can import with WB/Tone/Crop presets and really save time.

-Then I make all my necessary changes and export keepers to a sub folder in the original folder. I label this folder "Keepers".

-If a few of the keepers are good enough, I will keep them in Lightroom. Otherwise, I remove all of the above photos from Lightroom to keep it snappy.

Once a month, I do a backup to a external hd that I store at work. I prefer Lightroom, but there are other options out there as well. I really like the integration that LR allows with popular software titles like onone software and topaz adjust.

Hope this helps....

Jason

ssanders79

11-29-2009, 07:12 AM

This is why I got lightroom. Then I started to shoot RAW.

wenrob

11-29-2009, 09:47 AM

MarkBarbieri

11-29-2009, 09:58 AM

I use Lightroom. It works well for me. I used to use I-Match. It's much more powerful than Lightroom, but I like the integrated workflow I get with Lightroom.

If you want to get serious about managing your pictures, you might want to get the tutorial video "The Luminous Landscape Guide to Asset Management - Where The #%*! Are My Pictures? (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/wamp.shtml)"

handicap18

11-29-2009, 10:06 AM

I use Light Room but I don't use it to organize, lol, it messes up my system. I'm sure had I started out with LR it would be another story. I do use it to import to the system I created.

It goes something like this:
Jan-Dec 2009>
Jan 2009>
Jan 1, 2009

So in each yearly folder there are monthly folders and in those there are folders by day for that month. I have two sets of these folders "Jan-Dec 2009 unedited" and then just "Jan-Dec 2009" (and so on) that I transfer my completed, converted photos into the appropriate folder. I never, ever save over the originals and it's a good thing to as things aren't always as pretty as I thought they were a year ago.:lmao: This takes a lot of space so I keep these folders on two EHDs and burn them to DVD as well. Some people prefer to give their folders titles like "Christmas 07" or "So and so bday 08" but for me that just muddies things up. While I can't remember someone's name most of the time for whatever reason I can go right to the date of the pics I'm looking for 90% of the time.:confused3

This is pretty much what I do, except I don't break it down as far as days within each month.

I also break mine down between RAW and JPEG, each kepted in order that they were taken (I never change the file name). I kept my photos in my photo albums this way when I was shooting film.

I also don't like the "Christmas 07" or "So and so bday 08" either. It too screws things up for me. At least when stored on my computer. I do categorize the folders on my online gallery this way, but I find that is much different as many other people are also viewing the photos it makes it easier to break it down like that on-line.

mrodgers

11-29-2009, 12:10 PM

I use lightroom.

I organize by folder structure first. I just use year and quarter as I am not a professional so don't need to organize each individual event. Nor do I have enough to organize that much. Year and quarter is all I need.

My folder structure:

/Photos to sort
/Photos/year/quarter

I move from the camera to /Photos to sort. I then quickly sort through them and toss the scraps. I then use a batch renamer and tag the beginning of the file names with the date. I then move the keepers over to the main /Photos/year/quarter folder.

Move into Lightroom, I import the new files. I will then give them all keywords so I can search later if I want to find something.

princess.chell

11-30-2009, 05:33 PM

disneyboy2003

11-30-2009, 06:11 PM

Thanks for the advice everyone!
I didn't even know I could use Lightroom to do so. I've been using it for color correcting and the like. Now I've just got to figure out how to use Lightroom for this too. =)

Yes, Lightroom's "Library" module is where you organize all your photos. If all you're doing is color corrections in Lightroom, then it sounds like you're going straight to the "Develop" module once you open up Lightroom, and completely bypassing the "Library" module.

Lightroom gives you several different ways of organizing your photos, and you don't have to choose just 1 way of organizing. You can actually use a combination of ways to organize your photos.

Physically, all my photos are organized into different folders and different hard drives. Lightroom shows these different folders and different hard drives on the left panel. For each photo, you also can do 1 or more of the following:

flag as "pick" or "reject"
give a rating, from 1 to 5 stars
assign a color label (red, yellow, green, blue, purple, etc)
add the photo into a "collection" (ex. "favorite photos of cars")

The power of doing all this is that later on, you can find photos very easily that meet certain criteria. When you press the "\" key, the "Library Filter" bar appears at the top. Let's say you want to find all your "4- or 5-star" photos that also had a "blue" color label (perhaps you assigned "blue" to all photos of your children, for example). That's where you use enter these criteria in the "Library Filter" bar, and all photos that meet those criteria pop up almost instantly...regardless of what folders they came from! That's the power of Lightroom.

There are 2 particular books about Lightroom that I really liked. One is by Martin Evening, and the other is by Scott Kelby. Both give lots of color pictures and examples. I think Scott Kelby's book is a bit easier to read, but Martin Evening's book can be very handy as a reference. Both books go into detail about how to use Lightroom's "Library" module for organizing your photos.

Hope that helps! Let us know if it works out for you. :)

jann1033

11-30-2009, 09:47 PM

http://www.mulita.com/blog/?p=42
this might help...i find the lightroom help to have a wealth of info. if you have the time to look at it all:)

princess.chell

12-13-2009, 10:52 PM

disneyboy2003

12-14-2009, 05:58 AM

Thank you soooo much for the advice! After some trial and error and playing around and thinking through it, I've figured out how to use Lightroom for organizing my photos. I have fallen in love with importing and how to rename it. For me, putting event titles in helps me remember what everything is because I can't ever remember what happened on what day when hahah.

For me, all my photos on my hard drive are organized into different folders that have both the name of event, city, and date. For example, "Christmas Tree Lighting, San Jose CA, 12-1-2009".

For a week-long Disney trip, I might create a parent folder entitled "Orlando FL, 12-2009". And then for each day of our trip, I'd have a separate sub-folder like "Magic Kingdom, 12-14-2009", and all our Magic Kingdom photos from that day would be in that folder. So at the end of a 7-day trip, I'll have 7 folders within the "Orlando FL" parent folder.

For me, it helps me organize all my photos on the hard drive itself, regardless of whether I use Lightroom, Aperture, or whatever program. In Lightroom, my crazy folder structure is reflected in the Folders tab in the Lightroom panel on the left.

Some people would also suggest that you rename all your photos when you import them, too. Who know what "IMG_2369.JPG" contains? Lightroom allows you to very easily rename your photos at the time of import, so that you can name your photos "20091214-Magic Kingdom 001.jpg", for example. If you're going to rename your photos like this to include the date, I think it's better to format the date as "yyyymmdd" (ie. 4-digit year, 2-digit month, 2-digit day) so that all your photos can easily be sorted by date.

Anyway, another question, do you guys keep your photos in Lightroom or do you export them out? I can't figure out which would be better...

Your photos are never physically in Lightroom. Lightroom is only a database / catalog of your photos. It only stores the information about your photos...not the photos themselves. If you wanted to share a photo with someone, you wouldn't be showing them your photo in Lightroom.

After you do all your post-processing / color correcting / developing in Lightroom, you will need to export your photo. Lightroom then creates a brand new JPEG image based on all the post-processing steps you've applied. It is this brand new JPEG image that you can then upload to Flickr, e-mail to friends & family, send to a photo place to make prints, etc.

Hope that helps! Glad you found the Library module AND found it useful! :)

disneyboy2003

12-14-2009, 06:53 AM

Anyway, another question, do you guys keep your photos in Lightroom or do you export them out? I can't figure out which would be better...

Sorry, 1 more thing...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but nothing actually gets done to your photo while you're in Lightroom. You can do all the developing / post-processing / corrections you want in Lightroom, but if you don't export your photo AND you go back outside of Lightroom to look at your photo, it should still look exactly the same, like nothing was done to it. You're just looking at the original, unretouched photo.

That's why you have to export your photo so that you'll get a brand new JPEG image shows off all your post-processing efforts.

Hope that helps! :)

scoot241

12-14-2009, 09:57 AM

Here's what I do...

Import RAW files from the XSi to my RAW folder using the Canon utility. The folder structure looks like this:

RAW
- year
- date

Then I open up Lightroom and synchronize the RAW folder.

When I have a finished product, I export from LR to my Digital Camera Pictures folder which is organized similarly.

Digital Camera Pictures
- year
- date or period of time (November 21 - December 1, these are mostly from the point and shoot)

scoot241

12-14-2009, 09:59 AM

Sorry, 1 more thing...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but nothing actually gets done to your photo while you're in Lightroom. You can do all the developing / post-processing / corrections you want in Lightroom, but if you don't export your photo AND you go back outside of Lightroom to look at your photo, it should still look exactly the same, like nothing was done to it. You're just looking at the original, unretouched photo.

That's why you have to export your photo so that you'll get a brand new JPEG image shows off all your post-processing efforts.

Hope that helps! :)

This is correct; it's called non-destructive editing. The Lightroom catalog keeps all your edits, but they won't show up in the original file.

Groucho

12-14-2009, 10:29 PM

The thing you have to get used to with Lightroom is to not worry about organizing your photos, in terms of folders on your hard drive and such, until after they've gone through the LR process. Keep your originals in one big nameless lump, and leave the disappointing photos there and only output the ones you want. You can then put those in whatever folders you like.

I have mine organized 1,000 at a time - I have a folder for each of my cameras then under there there are folders called "00001-01000", "01001-02000", etc.

Because I am usually way behind in processing the photos, I first put photos in a "process1", "process2", etc folder in the camera's folder. Once I'm done, I put them into the proper numbered folders and do a "show in Explorer" in Lightroom which will then update its database to the new location. It all works very well for me, organizationally-speaking.

princess.chell

12-15-2009, 09:49 PM

Ahhhh...okay I get it now. Hahah wow thanks so much everyone!
Good thing I've got winter break next week so I can go through and completely reorganize!
You guys are awesome! :worship:

mabas9395

02-18-2010, 06:49 PM

I've been a happy user of Lightroom since it came out. One of the things I really like about it is the way it helps me organize my photo files.

But now I'm starting to accumulate a bunch of video files from our various digital cameras and now that I have a beefier computer I'd like to digitize our camcorder tapes.

But even with the few files I already have, I've noticed that it's not nearly as easy find the clips I want and my video files are a big jumbled mess.

With as popular as in-camera video is (even more so now with video in dSLR's) you would assume that there are organizational programs like Lightroom but for video files. Maybe there are but I just haven't found them yet.

I'm not looking for a video editing program, I already have one of those that works fine for me (until I go high-def).

But I was wondering how other people on this board manage the growing problem of unorganized video files.

Thanks.

bonoriffic

02-19-2010, 12:48 PM

I have SD video taken from a point and shoot and HD video from a camcorder and my Canon T2i (whenever it arrives). Prior to Windows 7 the native AVCHD files weren't handled by Windows, but as they now are I use Windows Photo Gallery. It supports people tagging, description tags, and captions for video files. The easy to use calendar, tag, or folder views make it easy enough to sort through and get what I need. Also smugmug uploads can be taken care of directly through Photo Gallery with automatic AVCHD conversion to a smugmug friendly MP4 as well. It is free, easy, and eliminates the need to convert AVCHD (for me) to a temporary file that will get thrown away after upload.

MickeyMom2Boys

05-03-2010, 09:42 AM

Can anyone recommend a good and easy to use photo organizing software? I have Adobe Photoshop Album, which I really like, but they don't make it anymore. It looks like the features have been rolled into Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements, but from what I have read the interface is difficult. I need to find something for my Mom that will allow her to organize her pictures so that they are easy to find, do some minor editing (red eye, rotate, crop - nothing fancy), and easily print multiple sizes.

Thank you!!

Shutterbug

05-03-2010, 10:57 AM

Have you checked out Picasa? Its free

http://picasa.google.com/

Spaceace5150

09-07-2010, 12:24 PM

disneyboy2003

09-07-2010, 01:38 PM

Hi all!

I don't post very often, but love reading all the tips, advice, and knowledge on the board.

There are many on here that mention they love Lightroom, especially the organizing features. My question is, what does Lightroom do differently to organize photos? I am trying to get my photo library under control. I am a little nervous of Lightroom because the description from Adobe mentions it is for the professional or advanced amateur!

Does Photoshop Elements 8 include any organizational tools? If so, how does that compare?

Thanks for the help!

I've got Lightroom, so I can speak to its strengths. Unfortunately, I don't have Photoshop Elements 8, so someone else will have to chime in about PSE8.

Organizing photos is one of Lightroom's biggest strengths. In fact, it's got one entire module devoted strictly to organizing your library of photos (there are 5 modules in Lightroom).

In Lightroom, there are several different ways to organize your photos. You can use any one or a combination of these features to organize your photos:

place photos in different folders
place photos in different "collections"
apply keywords to photos & create a hierarchy of keywords (ex. Disney World > Magic Kingdom > Fantasyland > It's a Small World)
apply star ratings (ie. rate photos from 0-5 stars)
apply color labels (ie. label photos as "red", "blue", "green", etc). You might do this for different parts of your post-processing workflow, like blue = do some post-processing for these photos, yellow = these have been post-processed and are ready to be uploaded, green = these photos have been uploaded, etc.
choose "pick" or "reject" for photos

In Lightroom, "collections" are photos that have the same theme, but might be located in several different folders. For example, you might have a collection called "hot cars" which might contain the best-looking car photos that you've taken over the past several years. Even though these photos may be located in several different folders, you can "collect" them in a common collection. Lightroom makes it very easy to see these photos that are organized in one collection.

Once you've organized your photos, it's easy to access them later on. Let's say you want to find all Mickey Mouse photos that you've rated as 4 or 5 stars that were taken at Epcot between 2009 and 2010. You can enter these parameters into Lightroom, and you'll quickly be shown the photos that match your criteria.

If you have thousands and thousands of photos, then consider trying Lightroom to organize your photos. Plus, Lightroom does so much more than just organizing your photos. What I've described is just 1 of the 5 Lightroom modules. The other major thing I do in Lightroom is edit / post-process my photos in the "Develop" module.

There are other similar programs out there, such as Aperture, Bibble, etc.

I hear that PSE8 does have a good photo organizer, where you can organize photos into different albums and add keywords.

Both Lightroom and Photoshop Elements 8 have a free 30-day trial that you can download directly from the Adobe Web site. You can give both a try.

You can also go to your local bookstore and browse through some of the Lightroom and PSE8 books to read specifically about the topics of photo organization.

Hope that helps. :)