How to organize my digital photos?

[teller80]

Right now mine are by year then by subcategories, there must be a dozen subcategories in that year (child 1, child 2, husband, me, cats, vacation, other major events...), but this is getting harder and harder to find pics. For instance, I know I have a picture of the Millennium at Cedar Point with a posted wait time of 5 hours, but was it in 2000? 2001? 2002? Ugh. I thought about just having folders of the major categories, but then I wouldn't know when they were taken, it would be like my parents box of photos. I would prefer them to be on my computer rather than uploading them to a site, and I would like a way to tag them with multiple tags. Any suggestions? thank you!

 

[Hockeyman]

I have my folders by year and then my sub folders by the date so for example if I know I went to the Magic Kingdom on 6-3-12 I can go into that folder (6-3-12 Magic Kingdom) and find what I am looking for. If I had just a Magic Kingdom folder it would be such a cluster mess of different trips and days and even multiple MK visits on the same trip. Now even if I take pictures at the resort on the same day I will put it in that same folder since I took it on that date. Also when I take the pics off my memory card I grab them all by date and put them into the folder and dont worry about if some are from certain places or others so that helps me out.

Its kind of hard to suggest the easiest way to someone else when one way to organize may not be the easiest way for someone else. Just have to find that right formula and stick with it.

 

[meanpc]

Photoshop Elements organizer is really good for tagging. So is Lightroom. Download the trials from Adobe.

 

[Renysmom]

I use to have them by year/ by month/ by subject but after shooting thousands of frames and having several years worth that became harder to find things so I tool the advise of Scott Kelby and changed it up and now it is by subject, by date.

WDW for instance is WDW/Park or resort name/Year.


It is so much easier to find what I am looking for since all the like subjects are together.

 

[photo_chick]

Everyone has a little bit different system for the actual folders. I have year folders and in each one of those I have a folder labeled by either the date I downloaded the card or the occasion. It works for me. I also use Lightroom and tag things by year and occasion when I import them. If it's a really great shot I flag it as well. I don't get too complicated anymore, I've lost my LR library file one too may times to spend that much time on it.

 

[SrisonS]

Like a couple of other people have mentioned, I have mine by Year/Date. If the pics from that date are of a special place/occasion, it'll be like "6-22-12 Epcot". I also do all of this within Lightroom, which is great for organization (and editing, btw).

In addition, I also tag all of my shots; even if just something simple (i.e. Magic Kingdom, Japan Pavilion, daughter's name.....). And doing this during import, or not long after, will definitely save you some headaches in the future. I'm actually currently going through tons of old pictures, just to tag them. Most of them were taken either before i got LR, or before I got into tagging everything. I also do frequent LR backups so that all my info (and time) is safe.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I'll also give a hearty endoresment for Lightroom.

I used to have things organized in folders year->event/location->sub-categories

My Disney directories would get simply ridiculous...

2011 -> Disney -> Summer Trip -> Magic Kingdom -> Adventureland

or

2011 -> Disney -> Halloween Trip -> Resorts -> Beach Club -> Cape May Cafe

You can imagine all the directories that led to under my Disney folder each year. Then, of course, you always have a few pictures that you just can't place. Say a picture on a Disney bus going from the Boardwalk to Epcot. Ok is it a resort picture, a transportation picture, or an Epcot picture?

I also started creating a "favorites" folder under each Disney trip, and would make a second copy of the really good photos I'd want to use in a PhotoBook.

My problem is that I can remember having a picture of something, but I can't remember which year or which trip it was from. When I was posting in some of the "show me" threads here on the Photography Boards, it was frustrating for me to remember having a picture of such-and-such, but not being able to find it.

I've started using Lightroom's geotagging feature to put all my pictures onto a world map. That way, when I remember having a picture in Epcot near the Japan Pavilion, I simply click on the map in that location and it shows me all the photos shot there. I've also been adding keywords to all my photos. (Places, people, significant subject matter.) It's been time consuming, but it's well worth the considerable effort to know I'll be able to find things easily in the future. (I'm making very slow headway. I'm only back to 2011, so far, in my updates of older photos.)

Since starting to import using Lightroom, my actually directory structure doesn't go below one subdirectory. 2012 -> Disney Summer Trip, for example.

 

[1Grumpy9]

I organize my photos by topic (i.e. Hockey, Nascar, Disney, Concerts) and then I go into a subfolder of specific hockey teams or Nascar races. With the Disney I go into year folders because I don't get to go every year. I then go a little deeper in the subfolders (especially for hockey) for month and then another folder for dates.

My best example of my folder structure is:

• My Photos
  
  [*]Hockey
  ​
  [*]11-12 Season
  ​
  [*]Hershey​
  [*]October​
  [*]Oct 31​

 

[nvtsallo]

Everyone has a little bit different system for the actual folders. I have year folders and in each one of those I have a folder labeled by either the date I downloaded the card or the occasion. It works for me. I also use Lightroom and tag things by year and occasion when I import them. If it's a really great shot I flag it as well. I don't get too complicated anymore, I've lost my LR library file one too may times to spend that much time on it.

I agree. I had my library in iphoto and when I went back to windows PS Elements. Both had issues if the library becomes corrupt. I found importing by date taken works then anything older than 6 months goes to months set inside year folders. Those go on my server. More importantly if you have a good backup system all can be recoverable. I have a server doing twice a day check points then going to rotating backup drives one onsite and one offsite. Finally I have an online backup with versioning so if I lost or deleted a picture or library I can restore any version of it that was backed up. Sorry if that is long but I learned the hard way a long time ago and lost a lot of pics. You can PM me and I can give more details.

 

[meanpc]

I copy the files off the camera into a folder structure by year and month. Then I import into Elements and tag the whole batch with a general tag like "Disney".

Then, I go through, picture by picture in full screen mode in Elements. Every time I see a keeper, I hit '1', which gives the photo a star rating of 1. I batch delete all of the photos with no star. Then I export all of the starred photos to my Flickr pro account.

I used to keep too many pictures, but I found it was too much of the same shot and made it harder to enjoy any of them were my keeper percentage is probably around 30the percent, but I'm merciless. When shooting without flash, I'll usually fire off tons of shots then pick the best one later.

The geotagging in lightroom is awesome. The current version of Elements doesnt have it, but does have a really awesome face recognition tagging system that can even work hand in hand with your facebook friends list, if that's your bag.

Bottom line though, back up. I like to keep two copies onsite and one copy offsite at all times. Flickr is way safer than any hard drive I can buy.

 

[hamellr]

Photoshop Elements organizer is really good for tagging. So is Lightroom. Download the trials from Adobe.

I deal with this via work all the time, where we have 1million+ photos from various shoots. One of these pieces of software is the way to go, along with Tagging of the photos with keywords. But, I still sort out photos with the following structure, just in case my photo database goes bad:

Places
Products
Family
Animals
Misc
Macros
Flowers

So under places I have it sorted by Country, then sub-divided into States/Providences. Under each State I have the City Level, THEN I put in the date of the photo shoot (two digit year first,) with a generalization of the subject matter.

So I'll have:
USA/California/Anaheim/111101 - Nightmare Haunted Mansion
USA/California/Anaheim/111101 - Disney Main Street
USA/California/Anaheim/111101 - Tomorrowland

Family will look like:
Family/Birthdays/Uncle Bob/120105 - 56th Birthday
Family/Weddings/Matt and Evelyn Last Name/100606 - Before Ceremony
Family/Weddings/Matt and Evelyn Last Name/100606 - Ceremony
Family/Weddings/Matt and Evelyn Last Name/100606 - Bridal Party
Family/Weddings/Matt and Evelyn Last Name/100606 - Full Family
Family/Weddings/Matt and Evelyn Last Name/100606 - Reception

 

[wbeem]

I use Aperture, but also have Lightroom. Both are excellent tools for organization.

Unlike most of the suggestions here, I don't import based upon date. That information is in the metadata of the files so I can query on it at any time. Instead, I import to a library based upon subject (Travel, Portrait, Event, Product, etc.).

When I look for a photo, I think of what it's about (subject), not when I took it. I don't remember the date I took a photo of Jordan, but I know it was a portrait. So looking in my Portrait library and doing a keyword search on Jordan is a fast, simple way to find every shot I have of her - no matter which date I shot her.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I have a question for those of you that use Lightroom, other Adobe products, etc. to organize your photos. This is a sincere question and is not meant to incite a riot.

I organize my photos by hand in folders. Why? Because I've been in the PC industry professionally literally since its inception. I've seen developers come and go. Products too. Yes. Even big ones like Adobe. Remember Z-Soft (PC Paintbrush)? Software Publishing (Harvard Graphics and the like)? Zenographics? Arts and Letters?

I bet many of you don't remember companies and products like the ones I mentioned. The take away is that they were the cat's meow of their day during that part of the industry's timeline. They are GONE now. Gone gone. I don't anticipate Adobe following suit either but what if they do or decide photo organization isn't worth the development and support time anymore? How do you have enough confidence in your organizer to believe it will be around 15-20 years from now? I already have digital photos I'm dragging around taken 15-20 years ago taken with cameras from companies and processed with products that are long gone.

 

[photo_chick]

Wilson Flyer I too remember PC Paintbrush. How about Print Shop? I remember the world before Photoshop. And I have a closet full of antiquated software, and hardware, here. Remember Jaz Drives? Syquest? Even Zip drives? I have not only files created in software I can't open anymore but on media I cannot access. The one thing that I do know is that you constantly have to evolve when you're dealing with technology like this. Not just in how you manage your images but in how you archive them as well. I have zero confidence that Adobe will be around in twenty years. I mean, look at Macromedia.... no one thought Freehand would disappear but it did. You just can't know what the future will bring with this stuff.

I cannot fathom only using software for my library organization with no kind of file structure. I've had to rebuild my library a few times and I'd have been lost without that structure.

The good thing... we have some standards in file formats that are not software specific, like jpeg and tiff. RAW isn't standardized though, and that still sticks with me. It's not only different from each maker, but different with each camera. But hopefully we will have some warning if RAW is to go the way of the dinosaur otherwise I'm in a heap of trouble.

 

[wbeem]

I have a question for those of you that use Lightroom, other Adobe products, etc. to organize your photos. This is a sincere question and is not meant to incite a riot.

I organize my photos by hand in folders. Why? Because I've been in the PC industry professionally literally since its inception. I've seen developers come and go. Products too. Yes. Even big ones like Adobe. Remember Z-Soft (PC Paintbrush)? Software Publishing (Harvard Graphics and the like)? Zenographics? Arts and Letters?

I bet many of you don't remember companies and products like the ones I mentioned. The take away is that they were the cat's meow of their day during that part of the industry's timeline. They are GONE now. Gone gone. I don't anticipate Adobe following suit either but what if they do or decide photo organization isn't worth the development and support time anymore? How do you have enough confidence in your organizer to believe it will be around 15-20 years from now? I already have digital photos I'm dragging around taken 15-20 years ago taken with cameras from companies and processed with products that are long gone.

All true, but I have a different perspective on the same issue. Why would I waste my time making things harder on myself today due to fear about tomorrow? I could be dead tomorrow. Instead of screwing around with folder and being unable to search or organize by metadata, I use the products that are available today.

Having been in the IT business for 30 years, I've heard this complaint many times. Even so, I've never found a situation where we were unable to migrate from one solution to another and continue doing business.

Fear of the future is stifling today.