I use a "disintegrated" method, as opposed to "integrated". 🙂 First, like Chris I treat all images in groups I call "rolls", as indeed the arrangement began with film. I used to number rolls serially, as BW147, or CN147, or CT147 depending on the type of film, and then of course the individual frames are numbered on the film strip. I still treat a logical group of digital files as a "roll" and renumber the files accordingly... but I changed to date-oriented numbering back in 1993, then with film. A group of pics shot or finished today would have a "roll number" of 120111 and the tenth image would be 120111-10.
I use a shareware program called GraphicConverter on the Mac for further minor editing the TIFFs outputted by the RAW processor, into JPEGs of upload size, which all go into the same folder for easy browsing. GC also has a Browser feature like PS, so this is where I poke around to scan what I have and pick something to upload, and of course it's displayed in file-name order, which also means chronological order due to my naming convention.
But this still doesn't address that lost feeling where I need more data to zero in on the roll or image I'm looking for. This is solved with a database program (FileMaker for Mac) which has full freedom to design your own solution or modify a template from the group of samples supplied with the program. I modified one... It references the roll number, frame format, number of images in the roll, and a text block with freeform description of the subjects. On another form is tech data with the gear, related notes, and processing notes.
Another form has info about enlargements made, prints given, shows, etc. With this, the subject commentary has the "keywords" and I can search both on this and any entries in any other fields in the same search.
This works well for me, but it arose out of many years of record-keeping on 4x6 file cards! I have used CaptureOne for RAW processing, but have moved to Lightroom. I do not let Lightroom "import" files from the camera or SD card... I do that manually with the Mac Finder with a card reader, and place each cardful into a folder as a "roll" which I put with other roll folders. This is the point where I name the folder with the roll number and rename all the files inside it. Then I'll crank up Lightroom and open ("import") that folder-ful right where I put it, process the pics to TIFF which are saved to a subfolder in its "roll" folder. An easy organization that helps me find stuff pretty quickly... Because my use of Lightroom is recent and tentative, I have not let it be essential for file mangement; the Finder is fine for that.
