Non-tedious Image Organization

[nightfly]

I'm finding my process of organization is keeping me from actually doing anything with my images. I need "image organization for artists".

The problem is that I love shooting, like developing, don't mind scanning too much but hate actually organizing.

I have developed a system that's basically follows my physical system, each set of neg goes in a sleeve, the sleeve gets labeled for the year and the roll. Simple enough. Any frame then has a unique id of year-roll-frame number. Theoretically this then translates to my computer file system, folders for each year, sub folders for each roll. Then I bring these into iView for tagging and organizing.

However what ends up happening is that I scan before I label and then end up with folders of unlabeled scans in a folder on my desktop called "scans_in" like "boy_walking.psd" that get backlogged and then I dread doing then labeling and never end up getting to iView to do the tagging.

There's got to be a better way. Anyone have a simple yet logical method. I've heard good thing about Picasa for things like this but they don't have a Mac version and I'm not a big iPhoto fan as I like my images organized in the file system outside of any apps database. Been tempted to run Picasa through VMFusion just to check it out.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

My originals are on CD, then imported into iPhoto, the the good ones are PhotoShopped and put in a folder for future use.

 

[rogue_designer]

I abandoned iPhoto early.

I use Bridge and a logical folder structure (similar to yours) now for daily tasks. Once in a while I use Extensis Portfolio to go through and add keywords and such, but that is becoming less and less. I also need to find a new tool.

 

[Tuolumne]

I use a folder structure like this:

Disk x: <My Photos> --> Explicit folder name ---> Explicit image name_nnn

Picasa, which doesn't run om Macs, will automatically organize them by date from the EXIF data.

I find that using explicit names that I can remember allows me to quickly find the photos again. Picasa does instantaneous search and find as you type a string intop its search box. So, for example, folders and photos from a shoot two weeks ago are labeled something like this:

Kiku Exhibit Bronx Botanical Garden - Nov 2008

/T

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Picasa does work with Mac OSX.

 

[Tuolumne]

Picasa does work with Mac OSX.

That's what I would use, then. It does masterful digital asset management, although no one ever talks about that feature.

/T

 

[rogue_designer]

I meant to mention.

I have my scans by: Binder number/Date/Page (if multiple)/Frame#

Each page has the raw scans, then I have a subfolder within each page labeled: ~selects
Those frequently have a name more like: manwithcane_lg.jpg or whatever. But they're still tied within the page that they came from (and duplicated, so I never overwrite the raw scan).

I can then do a search for, or within ~select folders to find final images more quickly.

 

[nightfly]

Picasa does work with Mac OSX.

Really? Can you point to the download?

Because here:

http://picasa.google.com/

All they have is a web uploader. Not the actual app which seems to be Windows only right now. There were/are rumors of them releasing a Mac version but I wasn't able to find anything beyond some rumors from January of 08.

Also if they are film scans, there is no EXIF data so it might not work as well but Picasa seems to be what I'm looking for.

 

[funkaoshi]

Each roll of film I develop I store in a folder called "Roll XX - Camera Name - Film Name - Date Processed". I label each image in that folder "Roll XX - Camera Name - Film Name - Date Processed - YYYY". XX is the roll number, so my first roll for the year is 1, and go up from there. YYYY is the shot number. The first shot on the first roll is 1, and I go up from there. I do all the batch renaming in iViewMedia Pro. I have one big iviewmedia catalog for each year.

I don't bother with specific labels or file names. If I want to look for a photo, I do it via iViewMedia Pro, looking at thumbnails, rather than futzing around in the file system.

I put my negatives into sleeves. I label each sleeve with the roll number and the date. If I want to look for a negative for a particular photo, I find out what roll its on, and then look for the frame on that sleeve. I don't bother trying to keep my negatives from a particular roll ordered in exact the same order their scans happen to be on the computer, though they generally are. Looking for photo 1234 on roll 24 isn't going to take long if you're just looking at one sleeve.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

nightfly:


I don't use Picasa, but I thought http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html would do what the OP wanted.

 

[rogue_designer]

I think that only works for web upload Jon. Not organizing local files.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Thank you both for putting me straight.

 

[Tuolumne]

Also if they are film scans, there is no EXIF data so it might not work as well but Picasa seems to be what I'm looking for.

This is correct. In which case you just have to be more careful with your naming conventions. Picasa will still index the files by folder name/image name/and Picasa internal label. So you get three chances to name it something that you can remember well enough to retrieve it later. Picasa also makes scanning a large collection by eyeball very easy. It's hard to loose images in Picasa unless you really work hard at it.

/T

 

[nightfly]

Now I really want Picasa. Google are you listening?

Guess I trudge on with my current system till Picasa for Mac appears. Just wanted something to do my work for me.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[Bnack]

how about aperture... I find that it's really fantastic for organization and archiving purposes if nothing else. I've heard aperture 2 was a definite improvement on the image editing part of the program as well.

 

[nightfly]

I thought about Aperture and Lightroom but since I already have Photoshop and I'm not dealing with RAW files (I scan into Photoshop using a TWAIN driver) it seems a little bit like overkill. I've also heard that both Aperture and Lightroom are sorta slow unless you have a Mac Pro with a ton of RAM. I'm working off a 2.5 mhz Macbook Pro with 4 gigs of RAM which should be adequate for just about anything but I'd consider Aperture or Lightroom if they could simplify my workflow.

Just not super excited to drop $200 or $300 to duplicate features I already have in Photoshop which seems to suck $200 a year out of me for upgrades as it is. It's a busienss expense (I do web development) but still...

 

[Sam N]

For scanned film shots, I keep a spreadsheet with data on every roll I shoot.

The fields include:
Roll #
Camera
Film
ISO rating used
Developing method
Date (approx.)
Location
Description
Notes

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I have 6 external hard drives that serve as my archives. I have thousands of photos, most scanned from 120 size negs with my Nikon 8000 scanner. To keep track of all this, I use iView Mediapro, which is now made by Microsoft under the name Expression Media. It gives you a visual catalog of thumbnails and screen-size images and keeps track of the physical location of each file. It also shows all EXIF data and file info you add in Photoshop (description, keywords, etc.) and it lets you create catalog sets to organize images according to subject without changing their location on the external drives.

Never keep any completed work on your computer....the drives in your computer WILL die eventually. Keep everything archived elsewhere and have backups of your backups. My 6 external drives have a copy of each stored offsite in case my apt. burns down or is burglarized.