How do you keep track of your photos?

[analogangler]

Having a bit of a dilemma here:

The Setup:

I have and continue to generate digital photos and analog photos.

I have been (poorly) keeping track of the analog photos with a spreadsheet list of rolls/time/place/keywords. Not elegant, but it mostly works.

Digital photos are saved to hard drive by year/month and occasionally event (i.e. a wedding).

Image editing typically in Photoshop but is only color balance/curves/dust removal.

The Problem:

I need a better way to keep track of everything, and need to do a better job archiving. I looked at Light Room 5 but it won't run on OS 10.6.8, which is as far as the Mac I have will go. It would run on my Win7 work laptop which I have with me most of the time anyway. I also looked at DarkTable but that won't run on said work laptop without a VM. I've contemplated Adobe Bridge but not looked into it fully yet. All of these seem to work best with photos already scanned...so not sure they solve the problem of keeping track of the film material.

The Question: Anyone else facing the same problem of tracking their digital and analog photos? Anyone come up with a solution they like? don't like?

Thanks in advance,

-Analog Angler

 

[johannielscom]

Digital images:

!! Make sure all your digital cameras are on the right date and time!

1) Annual top folder: '2015'

2) Monthly sub folders: '201501', '201502', etc.

3) Import all images through Lightroom into the month folders, tick 'sort by date'. Choose YYYMMDD format. Lightroom will put all files from a single day in a separate folder.

4) Set the images to change name upon import, choose Date prefix, choose YYYMMDD format. All images will have a date prefix.


All images now will be in a Year folder, in a Month folder, in a Day folder and will have a prefix with the day they were shot. I can always find any image by its name alone. If I want to post an image anywhere with a different name, I add the original file name in the comments for future reference.

Never lose an image like this.


For scanned images:

!! Write date on film cassette before bagging.
!! Copy date to film envelope when dropping off at lab.
Or choose to use scan date.

Steps 1 through 3 are identical but in step 3, set a specific folder with a name that also reflects image format and film used: '20150405_66KodakPortra160NC'.

Folders will have film format code '35', '66', '67' or '69' before the brand and type. Don't shoot 6x4.5 or it would have been '645' 😉
I fold all scanned film strips in a sheet of paper, tape it up and write the identical code on the outside. Add some additional info like 'wedding This and That'.
Never lose a negative either like this.


Step 4 is identical again and all your scanned images will have names like '20150405_66KodakPortra160NC_1.tif'


It's actually a lot simpler than it sounds and you can set it up pretty much totally automated.

See attached screen print.

When exporting, I choose the same name convention but add 'EXP_' to the beginning of the folder to indicate final export.
I might add a suffix to the export folder too, to indicate client or job name when there are multiple jobs on a day.

 

[johannielscom]

analogangler,

don't get hung up on LR5, see if you can find an older version of LR4 that will run on your Mac.

Benefits of LR5 over LR4 are little. And if you set the file structure up now, you can continue it when you purchase a new Mac.


I run all my folders on a NAS with two identical disks in it, RAID-1. The Lightroom Catalogs I keep local or Lightroom won't run, although I do copy them to the NAS regularly.

Knock on wood: I haven't lost a single file since 2003.

 

[Mcary]

All my digital image files both digital capture and film scans are save an external HD and back up to a second HD and online. At the beginning of each year I create a folder on HD/ in LR for the year example 2015 for this year. Within that I create a sub folder for each camera (example M8 and 4x5) Then when I add an image or series of images I'll give then a name that includes the location and the date example FBG-21Mar2015 or DC-15Jan2015. Now for specific projects such as trips or shoot with model I create specific founder example "EricaJ-Feb2015" And rename the digital files something like "EricaJ-21Feb2015 and the film scans something like Erica-HP5-21Feb2015.
Now it may seem a bit confusing but if someone says they want a print or file of say "Amber-5Feb2009-019" I know exactly where its at.

 

[analogangler]

Lr4, dates and scanning

Lr4, dates and scanning

Thank you for your responses.

I think I will seek out a copy of Lr4; and as you say I can keep my file structure the same irregardless and I don't think I need anything in Lr5.

The batch-renaming will be invaluable, so already looking forward to that.

Keeping track of the date of each roll has been a weakness on my part, so will have to do a better job of that. I currently mail my film in so I get about 2 weeks worth at a time back to sort through, and about 3-4 weeks after I've shot it by the time I get to it, so hard to remember though I can usually piece it together using digitals shot at the same time and my calendar.

I guess the biggest problem right now is that a lot of my film isn't scanned, and records are separate so I still have to search two places to find anything. Could be worse.

Though some flavor of LR sounds like the best/most recommended/most used option, I'm still listening if anyone else has another system they like.

Regards,

Analog Angler

 

[johannielscom]

Analog,

At least once a week I sit down to add the shoots I can recall to my calendar, anything that's of any importance or involves more than a few shots.

I use iCal on the Mac and iPhone, added benefit is that the calendar is stored in the cloud and can always be transferred to new devices.

Started doing that when I started to work as a photographer since I had to record some tax-related stuff in the calendar too anyway, travel expenses etc.
Any major shoot in the past 18 months I can retrace like that.


I need this kind of organisation or I will be lost pretty soon. I've been there a few times when I figured I wanted to organise less...😉

 

[Bill Clark]

Start with a Folder for year.

Then a folder for each month. I go "01 January" "02 February" and do for each month. I use the number first as then it gets sorted in correct order. If I didn't it would alpha sort and be incorrect order. Underneath each month I have folders for each event.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

To begin with, Lightroom is a terrible photo organizer. I use it for raw conversion, nothing more. It is painfully slow when you have too many photos in its database.

I organize and catalogue my digital photos like this:

For each photo shoot, I create a folder named with the subject and the date. Inside it is a folder called RAW, where I import raw files for the shoot. In Lightroom I choose the photos I want to edit, and I do so then export them to a folder called UNFINISHED, also in the shoot's folder. I open them in Photoshop to do more intensive editing (layers, dodging and burning, etc.). When a photo is done, I save it in another folder in the shoot's folder, called DONE. Some photos will stay in the Unfinished folder, if I decide while editing that I don't like them after all.

When all the photos from a shoot are done, I tranfer the folder with its three subfolders to my archive hard drive. I then use Microsoft Expression Media (formerly called iView Mediapro and now sold by Phase One under another name) to catalog them. I import the finished files, not the raw or unfinished ones into Expression Media.

This is a great database. Its fast, it uses the descriptions and keywords you can add in Photoshop and Lightroom, and it lets you store the files on any drive. It is expensive, but if you have a lot of photos and you need to find files fast (as I do when I sell one) it is worth it.

 

[rscheffler]

I pretty much follow the structure outlined by Johan in his first post.

I try to keep as much of my archiving system independent of reliance on any one app to find things. The YYYYMMDD folder and file naming structure makes a lot of sense, to me. For folders it's YYYYMMDD_name_of_event. For the files themselves, it's YYYYMMDD_xxxx with 'x' representing a four digit file number starting at 0001 for each day/job/event.

I'll add, coming from a photojournalism background, my habit has been to write a caption, even a generic one, including useful keywords and embedding it directly in each image file. Due to my background, the app of choice for this is Photo Mechanic. It's a fairly specialized tool primarily for importing/editing/culling images and applying metadata directly to the files (it's also very powerful for file naming based on file metadata, etc.) Anyway, with captions embedded in each image, doing a keyword search with Spotlight will pull up all relevant images. If it's a common word, then of course, I'll get a lot of hits, along with different file types. Photo Mechanic's search function uses Spotlight to do the same thing, but only results in image files, which are displayed in a contact sheet form. Keywords can be people's names, cities, countries, film type, lens, camera, etc.,

Generally this is what you'll be doing when cataloging with Lightroom too. The difference with Lightroom and my approach is that unless you tell it to, LR does not embed the metadata in the files themselves, rather, retains captions, keywords, etc. in a database that refers to the images. This is fine if you're only planning to work within LR, but if the database corrupts, etc., you'll potentially end up losing all of that metadata if it's not also embedded in the image files. For RAW files, my understanding is for DNGs, LR will embed directly in the file. But at least with my Canon CR2 files, it exports an XML sidecar file with all the metadata additions. This may somewhat limit ability to search from Spotlight, but should be OK if importing into another LR-like app down the road.

Something I don't like about LR is that it tends to bog down as the catalog expands in size. If you're going to use it to keep track of everything, I would suggest running a separate 'archive' catalog to which you will add everything, but only use to find images, and possibly export them. For image processing, I would suggest creating shoot specific catalogs, or one per week, or maybe month. I do it on a shoot specific basis. When done processing the images, I keep a copy of the catalog in the folder with the original RAW files and the exported Jpegs. I always export at least a set of Jpegs so that I have a processed set of images, should something happen and I can't get back at the RAWs and output them again (or if changing to new RAW conversion software down the road that is incompatible with LR's settings).

 

[Doug]

My organizational efforts started with film rolls many years ago, and I've kept the same basic method with digital files. It began with a 4x6 file card with notes about that roll... subject matter, where and when shot, how developed and printed, the gear used, any notes of special interest. I assigned a roll number to tie in these cards with the Print-File negative pages and any prints (neg number on the backs of prints).

In the 80's that transitioned to the Mac with a database program... I use FileMaker. Like the cards, each FM record is related to a specific roll of film. With digital files, I renumber all in batches, as if it's a roll of film but with much more flexibility on number of files in each batch. I use "A Better Finder Rename" to rename the files in each batch in the form of YYMMDD-NNN.DNG with automatic sequencing. I keep a computer folder for each batch, named something like YYNNDD LeicaM8 25Bio" for example.

I may at this point also use ExifChanger to correct the EXIF for the batch of files with accurate non-OEM lens info, copyright, etc., using the FileMaker data to identify the points of any mid-batch lens changes.

I use Lightroom only for processing, not organizing. I use the Mac Finder to create, name, and organize these folders. They then sort in date sequence, and all the info I'd ever need about these files is in the FileMaker database file, easy to search. Excel may be a substitute. Like... When was the last time I used my 50 Planar ZM? What about those photos years ago at the art gallery in Lahaina? How many shots have I made with the Hexar RF? This is a great personal history record very useful for someone like me with a poor memory!

Photos processed in Lightroom keep their names, of course, but with a .TIF extension, as I typically export full-resolution TIFFs to a TIFF files folder inside each related folder of original DNGs, ready for printing and scaling. To prepare uploads I use a shareware app called GraphicConverter, adding a bit of sharpening, a border, and saving as a scaled JPEG into one big source folder for uploads.

I expect with this and other potentially useful suggestions, you'll come up with something that works well for you.

 

[DNG]

I use a fairly straight forward system

I have 2 ways of naming main photo folders, and I use the First method now mostly, Making a YEAR main folder with a Subject.
Then each sub-folder has the YYYY/MM/DD Subject I shot, Camera/lens

I don't use Lr as a "cataloging" system.. my folders are my catalog with enough info to tell me what is inside.

Sample

Note. my File name duplicate the folder name in Bold/Underlined Pink to keep every file made equal in name, expect for the extension and sub-folder.

• My Photos
  • 2015 Macro (main subject heading)
    
    • 2015-03-24 Tulips-X-E2-XF35 + 4diop (has Original files, Coded red in Lr)
      • Lr TIFFs (These files have the same name as the main folder has) [Lr exported Tiffs, coded blue in Lr]
      • CC14 JPGs (These files have the same name as the main folder has) [has PSCC finsihed JPGS, coded green in Lr]
    • 2015-04-02 Roses at Apt Enterence-XE2 85mmf2
      • Lr TIFFs
      • CC14 JPGs

So I have 3 files when finished, each with the same name, but with 3 extensions. RAW/TIFF/JPG in 3 separate folders.

Or

• My Photos
  • Pioneer Park
    • 2009-6-25 Walk with My Son-XE2 N24mm
      • Lr TIFFs
      • CC14 JPGs
    • 2010-7-4 Trees and Leaves-XE2 XF35
      • Lr TIFFS
      • CC14 JPGs
    • 2011-7-23 Walk with family-XE2 XF35
      • Lr TIFFs
      • CC14 JPGs

 

[willie_901]

LR is a wonderful photo organizer.

I keep all my digital (raw and film scans) in LR. Negatives and transparencies are stored in sleeves in three-ring binders by year and roll number for that year.

For all digital originals I use the year/month/day system as many have described above for originals. I also use tags and metadata, especially with film scans.

I use the color labels to represent different stages of post-production. My use of flags and ratings is dynamic and only used or editing (selection). I also rely on keywords for organization (proofs, candidates, projects and series). With the image filtering function, applying tags and keywords is much less work than one might assume.

The work is organized using Collections. Collections organize active projects, inactive projects, completed series, series, series in production, web site galleries, submitted work, published work, work accepted in juried shows, etc, etc. The great thing about collections is their structure and organization is entirely up to you.

I do use two Catalogs... one for commercial and one for non-commercial work.

I have three current backups of my active LR Catalogs. I have two Catalog back ups that are one to three months old. I use a similar back up strategy for original raw files and film scans.

 

[bence8810]

As I only shoot Analog I don't know if this would work for both worlds - probably not as it'd be a lot of manual work.

But for analog only it's great! A site called filmtrackr.com which is free and run by the owners as a community project. It opens on my iPhone as a mobile site so I log every shot I take. It geo-tags the photos even.

I start by giving the roll a 4digit ID (0001-9999) which I'll never outrun perhaps - I am on roll 0115 now.
Then I choose the camera from a dropdown list which I programmed earlier / lens / select the film / ISO / Negative size and number of frames.
The good thing is I get a map with all my photos so I can easily find which roll was shot at a certain location etc. It also provides all kinds of reports such as ISO / Aperture / Speed so I can check what sort of properties I shoot with during a period of time.

Of course it being analog, I also need to write the 4 digit ID on the negative sleeves but that's the end of it. I also periodically get an extract in Excel with all data in case the site should ever sink for some reason.

Ben

 

[analogangler]

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks again all - and sorry for the hiatus.

Current plan of attack:

- Downloaded trial of Lightroom 4, will play for free for 30 days and then decide on that
- Will probably also use it to re-name the image files with something along the lines of your suggestions - YYYYMMDD-Topic or similar
- Film Trackr is one possibility for the analog stuff, but also has me thinking I may be able to create a form to input roll data into the spreadsheet I already have going.
- Will use an editor (not sure which) to put more exif data into the photos and scans I have to make searching easier and platform independent

And will go from there. Feeling better about my approach though.

Thanks Again!

 

[robert blu]

I am a big fan of LR since the first version. In my folder structure I divide by years, month dividing by camera files or scans files, each divided by month. So I have for example 2015, digital, Jan-feb-march.-april or 2015-scans-jan-feb-march-etc...
A little discipline for keyword is a must, do not forget that computers are very useful but a little "stupid" : if your keyword is family it will be more difficult to find pictures key worded as families 🙂
robert

 

[dct]

Thanks again all - and sorry for the hiatus.

Current plan of attack:

- Downloaded trial of Lightroom 4, will play for free for 30 days and then decide on that
- Will probably also use it to re-name the image files with something along the lines of your suggestions - YYYYMMDD-Topic or similar
- Film Trackr is one possibility for the analog stuff, but also has me thinking I may be able to create a form to input roll data into the spreadsheet I already have going.
- Will use an editor (not sure which) to put more exif data into the photos and scans I have to make searching easier and platform independent

And will go from there. Feeling better about my approach though.

Thanks Again!

(highlighted your keywords for reference in my comment)

Very good suggestions until now. I'm also addicted to a mixed workflow (digital and analog in parallel) and my filing system is just files in folders named by date and topic too.

For my old analog stuff which wasn't yet scanned, I did a bulk scanning via a sponsor of this site years ago.
To keep new (and old) scanned images in sync with the digital ones, I add basic EXIF data (creation time, camera make etc) with ExifTool as engine and GUI for exiftool as comfortable Windows interface.
Regarding the catalogue of my images, I use a similar spreadsheet approach as depicted above. I did just reuse the old roll# system for my film roll administration to session# for a set of digital shots.

 

[johannielscom]

To begin with, Lightroom is a terrible photo organizer. I use it for raw conversion, nothing more. It is painfully slow when you have too many photos in its database.

terrible photo organiser yes, but I feel my own m.o. is sufficient for photo organising, no need for software once you have a file structure.
Slow? There must be something else going on with your machine, I run very structured catalogs with 1500+ files in them effortlessly, only thing that slows me down is the access time to my NAS.

I organize and catalogue my digital photos like this:

For each photo shoot, I create a folder named with the subject and the date. Inside it is a folder called RAW, where I import raw files for the shoot. In Lightroom I choose the photos I want to edit, and I do so then export them to a folder called UNFINISHED, also in the shoot's folder. I open them in Photoshop to do more intensive editing (layers, dodging and burning, etc.). When a photo is done, I save it in another folder in the shoot's folder, called DONE. Some photos will stay in the Unfinished folder, if I decide while editing that I don't like them after all.

That's not very practical. Why create a subfolder called RAW when you can import all RAW files into the folder itself and then create the other folders? Also, Lightroom export finalises edits, which you cannot undo in Photoshop. Why not right-click the image in the Lightroom Develop screen, choose 'Edit in Photoshop' and open it in Photoshop right away? Lightroom will open a copy of the file as a TIFF and not apply its export settings. Much easier and possibly slightly better image quality once you have the file in Photoshop. Dodging and burning I can perfectly do in Lightroom. I never use layers. In Photoshop I clone dust and hairline scratches out from scanning in Photoshop, whenever Lightroom doesn't cut it.

When all the photos from a shoot are done, I tranfer the folder with its three subfolders to my archive hard drive. I then use Microsoft Expression Media (formerly called iView Mediapro and now sold by Phase One under another name) to catalog them. I import the finished files, not the raw or unfinished ones into Expression Media.

This is a great database. Its fast, it uses the descriptions and keywords you can add in Photoshop and Lightroom, and it lets you store the files on any drive. It is expensive, but if you have a lot of photos and you need to find files fast (as I do when I sell one) it is worth it.

Since I did not agree with you on the first claim of Lightroom being slow, I see no need to spend big money on a platform-dependant piece of catalog software that uses keywords and descriptions that come from Lightroom to begin with.

In Lightroom I can set the EXIF data, descriptions and keywords as I please. In reality, I find it highly illogical to search for my images using descriptions and keywords because I either have to develop a keyword convention or remember descriptions before I can search by them.


My shoots are in my calendar and my files are in folders with dates in the names. At any given moment in the future can I switch my whole workflow from Mac to Microsoft or Linux or whathaveyou without losing track of any image.
I don't think it can get any simpler.

 

[tstermitz]

Lots of good ideas. I'm quite dependent on Lightroom for my workflow. A couple other programs like Photo Mechanic can do similar kinds of tagging, captioning and organization. I use plenty of other LR features, and rarely need Photoshop or external B&W conversion programs.

Lightroom is very fast on my Macbook Pro laptop, because I put the LR catalog on the SSD (along with all the system and application files), while the photos reside on the 2nd internal hard-drive. I frequently copy a backup of the catalog to the hard drive, and backup everything at least once a week to my external drive.

I make sure to export the metadata and tags to the files, to protect against the catalog getting corrupted.

I mostly use geographic organization for my top folders (Continent - Country - State - Region), but also dedicate a few high-level to topics that come up frequently: People, Birds (for all my bird photos), Events.

I make sure that I only move files and folders around WITHIN the Lightroom interface so the catalog doesn't get confused. That, also means that in the event of a complete catalog crash, I have some hope of finding my files.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

terrible photo organiser yes, but I feel my own m.o. is sufficient for photo organising, no need for software once you have a file structure.
Slow? There must be something else going on with your machine, I run very structured catalogs with 1500+ files in them effortlessly, only thing that slows me down is the access time to my NAS.



That's not very practical. Why create a subfolder called RAW when you can import all RAW files into the folder itself and then create the other folders? Also, Lightroom export finalises edits, which you cannot undo in Photoshop. Why not right-click the image in the Lightroom Develop screen, choose 'Edit in Photoshop' and open it in Photoshop right away? Lightroom will open a copy of the file as a TIFF and not apply its export settings. Much easier and possibly slightly better image quality once you have the file in Photoshop. Dodging and burning I can perfectly do in Lightroom. I never use layers. In Photoshop I clone dust and hairline scratches out from scanning in Photoshop, whenever Lightroom doesn't cut it.



Since I did not agree with you on the first claim of Lightroom being slow, I see no need to spend big money on a platform-dependant piece of catalog software that uses keywords and descriptions that come from Lightroom to begin with.

In Lightroom I can set the EXIF data, descriptions and keywords as I please. In reality, I find it highly illogical to search for my images using descriptions and keywords because I either have to develop a keyword convention or remember descriptions before I can search by them.


My shoots are in my calendar and my files are in folders with dates in the names. At any given moment in the future can I switch my whole workflow from Mac to Microsoft or Linux or whathaveyou without losing track of any image.
I don't think it can get any simpler.

I am a professional, and for the numbers of images I deal with, LR just doesn't do what I need. Media Pro is a far more reliable and flexible image database and it is available for mac and windows.

I could not live without Photoshop. Lightroom just is not appropriate for preparing work for publication. It doesn't have the graphic design functions and the CMYK colorspace functions I use professionally. I prefer dodging and burning with layers; it is more precise and more controllable.

I'm happy LR works for you, but we really are working in different worlds with different requirements.

Another issue for me is that I keep my work on multiple hard drives, all copies of each other, some kept off-site in case my house burns down or gets burglarized. The folder structure I use. and the database I use, makes keeping my very paranoid archiving system much easier. I can't afford to lose my life's work.

 

[johannielscom]

Chris, I work as aprofessional too and my amount of files and file keeping system makes Lightroom a real asset. I'm not contesting your opinion on Lightroom but wanted to stress that it is your opinion, while others can have reached different conclusions.

I never dodge and burn in layers (fail to see the necessity in general) and do not print in CMYK myself. When I need to deliver my work in CMYK, I usePhotoshop to convert the Lightroom-exported image to CMYK and so far, my (professional or other) clients have never complained.

All of this is quite beside the point with regard to an image filing system, that the OP inquired about... 😉

My NAS is a RAID-1 machine with hot-swappable drives, I can switch a drive and store it off-site easily to save my live's work from harm. Lightroom does not affect or impair that at all, nor would the Microsoft Media software.