guia x

I was wondering what you guys do to organize your photos. I am trying to organzine my photos and would like to see if there is a better way. What do you guys do going from the camera to your computer? What naming conventions you guys have and how are your folders structured? What do you guys do to back it up? Basically, I'm trying to figure out an easy way to download my pictures from my camera, rename them somehow (or don't), arrange them in a nice organized folder structure, then back it up somehow. I just ordered Lightroom and would like to prepare everything before it gets here.

Billiam

If you're going to have Lightroom at your disposal, then the world is pretty much your oyster as far as organization and naming goes. To get an idea of what's possible, take a look at the setup and import sections of the Lightroom 1.0 preview over at Digital Outback Photo.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/artofraw...say.html#setup

Mizouse

i just make a folder for the year and then a subfolder for the date the pictures were taken that year

and then i back up my images onto "stone age" DVDRs

srika

I'm not the most organized person but I do have a method in place for organizing my pics. Also, I don't shoot in RAW since I have not yet had the need (probably more importantly, because I haven't bought any huge CF cards yet - I just haven't had the need). And, that makes my process simpler.

I use 4 stages of pictures:

1) original
2) resized and oriented
3) what I usually call a "pub" directory i.e. publish (the good ones)
4) Lightroom exported files.

I drag about 30-40 files into Lightroom at a time for PP - I love how Lightroom is so fast with that. Once I export, I move those into the "pub" directory to replace those files. I also use many temporary directories in the process since I have to do a batch resize first (usually to 1797x1198, which has been sort of my "working" resolution). I have 3 hard drives where I have these saved and also on DVDs.

I have been using this naming convention for a while now and it has met my needs. It's not 100% standardized but again, it meets my needs.

Here is a screenshot.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7...mageorgiw0.gif

similar to 'zouse.

Mizouse

you take a ton of pictures

guia x

Yes, I am hoping Lightroom will help me have a more organized workflow. Thanks for the link. It is quite helpful. I think the file stucture they have is pretty logical. I will probably use the same structure unless someone else points out a much better structure.


That's how I started when I got my first digital camera. Then I got the XTi and having two cameras started to get messy really quick. The filenames were starting to clash so I decided to start renaming them and breaking the folders out by subject (family, friends, vehicles, etc.) instead of date. I'm still not happy with the way it is. Thinking about backing it up just makes me cringe. I think I have to go back to a date driven structure and start using keywords in Lightroom. I just need to figure out a very logical structure. The link that Billiam posted showed a pretty logical structure especially for backing up. So I will probably use that. I have to start backing my stuff up. I will use the "stone age" method as well (or even CD-Rs as I have plenty of those lying around) but I do have a couple external hard drives that my dad gave me from his work at my disposal.

Mizouse

i case you didnt know the reason why i quoted "stone age" was cause i was referencing to this thread
https://acurazine.com/forums/console-computer-gaming-13/cd-r-dvd-r-replaced-usb-flash-memory-358354/

Mizouse

yea i have an XTi and a SD400 but i dont really use teh SD as much as the XTi, the SD i just use at parties and whatnot, so i havent ran into any issues and if i do, i usually make a 2 folders of the same date but one says its from the XTi the other saying from the SD

srika

btw I recently picked up an external HD enclosure with a 320gb SATA drive (for around $110 total) and it has been marvelous. I now have all my pics I have ever taken, always with me - it's so great to have them available anywhere. I'll sometimes get some request like hey do you have so-and-so picture from so-and-so event and before I'd have to be like, I'll have to get back to you, I need to check. I would have to do some digging at home, since I don't have all the pics online. Now, I can be like blam, here you go.

guia x

I just started shooting completely in RAW. I use to do JPG + RAW because I was not comfortable in my post processing yet but it just started getting too much of a mess. I was not happy with the JPG quality anyway and always had to PP so I dropped the JPG now that I have an idea on what I'm doing. I could not be any happier that I did.

Thanks for the tips. I will definitely take it into consideration. I am doing something similar right now. I have a RAW folder and a Post Process folder for each category. After I edit the photos from the RAW folder, I save them in the Post Process folder. I haven't started using Lightroom yet so my process will change for sure once I get it. Anyway, in the end, my file structure will probably be a mix of peoples' methods on this thread.

srika

Hmm.. you make me want to try out RAW. I guess the issue I have is that each file will be like 13MB. I would basically need a 8GB card to get the same number of pics I get on a 1GB card now. But I think I may try a few out for fun next time, to see what options there are. It's unchartered territory - maybe I don't know what I'm missing.

guia x

I use a 2GB card and I normally don't fill it up. Then again, I don't shoot as much as you. But I do have two extra 2GB cards. You should definitely try RAW. If you compare a RAW file to the same JPG file you will see the difference and know how much detail you are missing. You just don't get the convenience of JPGs like printing it out right away.

So how does that external HD work? How do you show people the pix from the HD without a computer?

srika

yeah I will check it out..

no you do need a computer to use the drive - its external USB - what I meant was someone might IM me and ask for a pic, then I can pull it up and send it to em.