Organizing Photos

[DierkHaasis]

Works the same in MediaPro* - you download your images from the card, create a metadata template with all the info applicable to [or most] of the photos, which is applied during download. Afterwards, during your culling process, you add or subtract metadata [except EXIF] as necessary. This can also be done on a batch of files, of course.

Adobe Bridge's downloader works the same, IIRC, as will probably all download facilities in image organising programs.

Noel, I wasn't and am not trying to convince you that your work-flow is wrong, it isn't. I use the same as my back-up as I mentioned in passing. I was just delineating the differences. Since the DAM way does not forego the old-fashioned directory structure method, its only drawback is that you have to invest in yet another program. Depending on your needs on other aspects of image management, Lightroom can be a good choice - several users claim to not need anything else anymore.

My personal work-flow has settled upon Downloader Pro->MediaPro->Capture NX->MediaPro. For compositing [incl. cloning/healing] Photoshop comes in at the end. All other programs, Lightzone, Lightroom, BreezeBrowser Pro and some more, are used for reference and very special tasks.



*Unfortunately it never worked for me, the downloader seems buggy [at least my contention about a bug was never questioned]. Since BreezeSystems' Downloader Pro v2 it doesn't matter as it now supports XMP/IPTC Core and legacy IIM.

[MathewLodge]

Originally Posted by Noel_Carboni

Sure, if you're willing to invest time in typing "Aunt Margaret", your son's name, and "Holy Cow" in - and similarly detailed info for EVERY SINGLE IMAGE YOU'VE TAKEN, then you may well get utility out of a more sophisticated data management system.
-Noel

Noel,

If you ever get into stock photography, then this is indeed what you have to do. You don't have to do it yourself, though -- plenty of offshore services in India and elsewhere who are now quite good at it and will even use your particular controlled vocabulary and "house style" for keywords.

LR is not a good choice for this at the moment, for reasons I have explained in another thread in the image management part of the Forum. I'd go with iView (or whatever MS is calling it now they bought it) or IMatch on the PC.n

I do recommend Controlled Vocabulary: your site for information on Keyword, Hierarchical Classification, Thesauri, Taxonomy and Subject Heading systems used to describe images in databases (Thesaurus, facet classification, hierarchy) for those who want to dig into this some more.

Mathew

[nowellwisch]

I am cataloging over 153,000 images. I'm moving from a 500 GB to a 750 GB Raid this weekend. I use Portfolio. Of all the programs I've found, it seems to do the best job. I have classified 25000+ images already and just finished 1975 tonight. The advantage it has is that you can resize the preview image file using something like ACDSee and make a small portable preview system that you can take with you to other computers.
Downsides are: YOU HAVE TO START AND STAY WITH ONE DRIVE LETTER. There is a way to change the path but it isn't easy or intuitive.

I retasked my archive drive as drive P for portfolio. It is a removeable drive that I take on the road and work on my files while traveling.

[Mike Keller]

Over the last six years of digital shooting, I've learned new lessons regularly about managing files the "wrong way." I'm sure I have mistakes yet to make, but this is pretty much my workflow.

First I have general categories of work I do regularly, and these have top level folder on my drive. When I shoot a new project, I move the images from the card to a new folder inside one of those folders. The newfolder has the date and a useful name, as in yymmdddancefest, and I use a free utility to rename all of the image files to a unique filename with a 3 or 4 digit increment, as in 2007dancefest_001.nef.

I use Bibble Pro as my raw converter, and it allows me to enter IPTC data which then is embedded in the resulting jps or tifs. I make sure that my name, contact info, copyright info, some description, and some keywords are added to all the shots. If it's all one event like a weekend of dance, it all gets one description and one set of keywords. You can select all images and add this info in one panel and it will be applied to all. You can do the same thing in Adobe Bridge. If I want to get more picky I can, for instance, select a series and type in additional info (the group name, the teacher's name, the style of dance).

Every image that you create and save needs to have a unique filename. This means that jpgs converted from the above raw files will be 2007dancefest_001.jpg etc. If I do other work, like shrink several for mailing to newspapers or optimizing for printing, if I want to keep and database those files, they get something added to the filename, like a p for print or pr for newspaper.

I use Extensis Portfolio for my database program and it will database all the images in the background if I wish. It captures the info from the IPTC data to add that to the database as descriptions and keywords, as well as using pathname info for keywords, so within my database I can search for photos.

When I archive material off my hard drive to DVD, after I've determined the DVD is good, it's a drag and drop operation to update the location of the images in Portfolio from my hard drive to the DVD. DVDs always get a yymmdd_hhmm name, which again guarantees that every DVD has a unique name. The DVDs are stored in slim cases on edge in rows in a file drawer right next to my desk (with a second set elsewhere) because storing disks on edge in jewel cases is the "best practice" for disk storage. If I need an image from file, I find it in Portfolio, pull the disk from the drawer and I'm in business.

Some folks prefer to keep their work on multiple hard drives, but I would still have a DVD backup because hard drives fail too.

[ChrisPerry]

I've made one change I've made recently that seems to have helped me dramatically.
First, I keep all files from a session together in the same subdirectory, by date then subject name, under a master year folder...2007/weddings/11_10 Robertson-Smith for example.
I keep the filenames the same from RAW all the way thru - IMG_5067 - for example, only the extension changes. If I need the original a simple windows search on "5067" will find all variants of the file.
Great so far.

As I edit files I've come to put a 1 or 2 letter prefix on the file name when I save from PS - like wIMG_5067 for web images. If I do up images from a portrait session I'll put a in front to signify artist's favorite for my sales guy to be able to identify my fave images. It's also helpful later on if I need to find good images for samples, etc.

The recent change I've made expands on that and has cut my print order time to practically nothing. When I edit I prefix the file by the SIZE of print the client wants, and count. J1 IMG_5067 would be 1 8x10. I2 IMG-5067 would be 2 5x7s, etc.
I have a directory on another drive from my data so I can drag and drop the files to be ordered (by default they'll copy, NOT move) and it's named Orders/11_17 Filmet (or H&H or Illuma depending on lab). Now with the preface letter all the 4x5 prints are together, all the 8x10 prints are together. Y signifies special sizes and Z multiple sizes of the same print ( z J1 I2 F3 IMG_5067 = 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 3 sheets wallets). They organize alphabetically all by themselves.
I use ROES to order prints and this way I can select ALL the F prints and done a single drag and drop and it's done - and no more mistakes, missing a print, etc.

Since the fully edited file is now identified, and so is it's crop, when the next order comes in and I search on "5067" all the files come up, including the F3 IMG 8056 - so I don't have to edit it again, or wonder if i did edit it, etc. And the unedited JPG is still there if I need it, as well as the RAW file.
Now when I open the 'prints to be ordered' folder