ART Photo Organization (Raw vs. Edited vs. Show)

[Tzuma]

The ipad app thread got me thinking...

I only shoot as a hobby but thanks to OTAP, I've become obsessed with "good" photography, even if its just of my 8 month old. Using a D90 w/Tamron 17-50, thanks to OTAP recommendations.

As a result, I now not only have hundreds of pictures from minor events / milestones / random cute days, but am constantly going thru to edit every one of them.

I'm hitting a point where it's become daunting as to how to store all these pictures, and variations of such, especially to share with family and friends (ipod touch, ipad, facebook, web, etc).

I currently have "albums" (folders) for critical events (Family, the Baby, etc), sub-folders for the event (Jack's 1st Bday, whatever), and then within each sub-folder, additional folders for 'Edited' and 'Show' (best of the edited photos). Raw images are stored in the main subfolder.

Looking for a better way to manage this for storage and sanity. Do you delete the raw's you'll likely never use? Is there a better storage hierarchy?

At this point, the only reduction I make is a review of every photo and take the best of each similar shot for a single original stored copy (baby's are fast (tm) ). I then copy all remaining images for the "Edit" folder and go nuts from there.

Help?

 

[Marix]

I think you're over-complicating

If it's just your personal stuff, cull it in lightroom. I import everything, then quickly tag things as 0, 4 or 5 stars

0 for things to discard
4 for good shots
5 for great shots that I will spend more time on

Then show all 0's and delete from disk. No point keeping them imo. You just have to be more ruthless. And no need to have 10 versions of the same shot etc.

Then I edit the 4's and 5's and export as jpg. Store the raws along side on a larger hdd. Done

 

[tetsuo]

i store my personal photos like this (not that i have client photos but who knows maybe someday)

my pictures\2011\08-15 - description of event or photoshoot

if its a photoshoot of my kids, i try to keep it down to 5-10 keepers. if its an event like a birthday, i keep a lot more. i will edit them in lightroom, and export in jpg to email/upload/print. typically i don't bother keeping the jpg's on my hard drive though as i can always re-export them from the raw and lightroom adjustments.

 

[ok_computer]

i have 4 billion folders and none of them are organized except for the hockey stuff

most organized i get is any film stuff just has "film" in the folder name, but it's a bitch to find old stuff.

 

[ok_computer]

inside each folder i just have "RAW" and "EDIT" so i can at least find the stuff i already prepped for web

 

[VD]

I organize by:

Drive G for example..

G:\Raw\Name of Folder\Image-Custom-Name-####.cr2 (####'s are original file #)
and
G:\Post\Name of Folder\Image-Custom-Name-####.jpg



Seems to work for me.

 

[turbodude]

Work:
Photowork/Company/Year/20110814_Venue_Eventname/
Photowork/Company/Year/20110814_ProductName/
Photowork/CompanyOrAgency/Year/20110814_Modelname
Photowork/Weddings/Year/20110814_CouplesLastName

Personal:
Funwithfriends/20110814_WhateverWeDid

 

[Ty Webb]

i put all muh picz on mah desktarp!

 

[Tzuma]

I think you're over-complicating

If it's just your personal stuff, cull it in lightroom. I import everything, then quickly tag things as 0, 4 or 5 stars

0 for things to discard
4 for good shots
5 for great shots that I will spend more time on

Then show all 0's and delete from disk. No point keeping them imo. You just have to be more ruthless. And no need to have 10 versions of the same shot etc.

Then I edit the 4's and 5's and export as jpg. Store the raws along side on a larger hdd. Done

I hadn't even considered this (in part, because I didnt know LR had this functionality. Been using Gimp until I felt my pictures were worth using LR for...this and mass updates might be enough to force a shopping trip).

Thanks for the replies.