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Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on orginizing files? As well as input on whether to keep orginals or not.
ALWAYS keep your originals, unless you have a very good reason not to! I can’t really think of any good reason not to, except for saving storage space. (Which is actually not a very good reason either. 🙂 )
I’m afraid I’m not a good example of how to organize files, @JamesStaddon is the one who is the model of perfection in that regard. 🙂
I’m quite sure he recommends organizing by date first, then subject. Something like this:
2016 > November > 2-Hay Ride
2016 > November > 6-Trip to PA State Capitol
2016 > November > 9-Joe’s 16th Birthday PartyAnd so on… I’ll let James give you all the details
I’ve thought a lot about file organization! I’d be curious what your current system is?
Yes, @buddingphotographer has explained in part how I do it. It should match the needs of each individual person. A good system will efficiently and intuitively incorporate longevity, maintainability, scalability, reliability and availability. A basic outline of my system in presented in Lesson 5.5 of the Foundations of Photography Course, and implementing a system specifically for a photographers’ needs is something I’d work with them on inside PRO via the PRO Q&A Forum.
And yes, do keep originals.
@JamesStaddon, do you mind explaining your method? Although I plan to take the course it will be a while and I don’t want to waste any good pictures by improperly storing files. =)
Basically for my method I edit my pictures on my SD card and then name the and move them to my flash drive by category. But I haven’t been keeping my originals up until now.
Just for fun, how does a system like this sound:
Name original files on the SD card and then move them to two flash drives(Double-backing), organized by category, and then if I want to use a picture for something I would edit it and put it in a separate place.(Maybe another flash drive or just the computer hard drive.
Thanks for all the imput, I want to get this figured out right before I am 20 years down the road in photography and have a huge mess of pictures on my hands.
The only thing I have against not editing my pictures right away is, for example, yesterday I had to impromptu design a calendar because York photo put on a sale. And yesterday was an extremely busy day with school, drivers ed, and church, but even so I was able to throw a calendar together after lunch. I don’t know what I would have done if I would have had to edit all 14 pictures!
Also for showing others my files I don’t know what to do about that.Thanks for all your help!
This is kind of what my plan is for now. Beginning in January, I will get three flashdrives, probably 8GB. Two of them will have my originals, and the other will have my edited ones. I will use a new set of flashdrives every year.
This is still a “rough daft” of a plan though so if you have any revising or edits let me know. =)
Thanks for all the tips @jamesstaddon and @buddingphotographer!@AustinVinar, I recommend getting your flashdrives online during Black Friday sales. You can keep an eye on flashdrive sales here:
http://dealnews.com/c297/Computers/Storage/USB-Flash-Drives/
Just don’t buy a no-name cheapo brand, stick with Sandisk, or Lexar, or possibly PNY. (In other words, don’t buy a pack of 10 colorful ones for $10, they’re not worth the price.)
Are you shooting in RAW? If you are, I think you’re being a little optimistic to buy only 8 GB drives. 🙂 I would go bigger if you find a good deal on a 16 or 32 GB drive.
Ok, if you’re shooting JPG, then you might not exceed 8GB in a year.
Let me warn you though, if you’re shooting snowflakes, you are going to accumulate a huge pile of photos fast! I have nearly 20GB of snowflake pictures from last year! (I shoot RAW)
OK. I would shoot raw but the only raw editor I have is Raw Therapee, and I don’t like my taste for it. Plus I rarely see any advantage in the Raw file than the jpeg.
So, for example, today I took about 30 snowflake pictures,(keepers) would you edit them all or only the ones you wanted to use immediately for posting or other reasons. And if then you wanted use any others, would you edit them when the need arises?
Here’s a shot from today just for fun.
Attachments:
I have taken up to 300 snowflake shots in one day, so I never get them all edited. I imagine that there are still shots that I have never edited, simply because they got lost in the clutter. 🙂 I generally pick a half-dozen or so that are really special, then edit and post them to Nature Friend Magazine. (and show them to my family)
Later on I hope to go through them again, and find some more that are worth editing and sharing.
Nice sharp picture there! Looks like it was already starting to melt… 🙂
That’s exciting to see you catching on to the snowflake photography! That’s better than any snowflake shot I have ever taken. 🙂
It’s also exciting to see you putting together an organization strategy!
I would recommend you go with portable hard drives. One hard drive that stores your originals and edited files, and a second one (the exact same size) to use as a backup. At your current rate, it would keep you going for years . . . but I have a feeling your current rate will speed up very quickly; the more you learn, the more time you’ll spend at it, and thus, the more pictures you’ll have. Plus hard drives are harder to lose, and you won’t have to be plugging in and unplugging thumbdrives all the time.
As a general rule to keep your pictures findable, never have more than 10-20 folders in a folder! This is why I do the Year > Month > Event strategy. It will be more than 20 years before there’s more than 20 folders in My Photos folder, there will never be more than 12 folders in each Year folder (one folder for each month), and I never shoot more than 20 events in one month. For you, based on subject or location, your structure will be different, but you will have to re-arrange every time any one folder grows to more than 20 folders.
- * It sounds like on the hard drive you will want two folders, one for Originals, another for Edited.
* In the Originals folder, I suggest you organize by photoshoot.
* I would rename all photos via batch re-name after moving them into the Originals folder.
* Then, after editing a picture, save it in the Edited folder organized by subject or location.
* Back up your main hard drive every so often….I normally do after I’ve done a lot of work on it.Those are a few tips for starters!
@jamesstaddon, Thank you SOOO much for those tips, that is exactly what I’ve been searching for. That information is pretty valuble to me as a photographer starting out. It sounds like an excellent system. Thanks!!
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