How do you store your photos?

Lightroom by default imports them into folders by date, so I have a yearly folder, with the date subfolders underneath. I have a fast SSD for this years raws (and last years, Ive been lazy and haven't moved due to not shooting much this year)
and a slower, larger raid for other years.
upload_2017-12-24_10-40-45.png

You then have Collections which you create, I use vague headings
upload_2017-12-24_10-42-31.png
 
Which then have sub collections underneath them, such as
upload_2017-12-24_10-43-19.png

Use keywords on import and you've a number of ways of finding your images. Usually you know they year/event so it's wizz through the relevant collection in the library module.
Or you can look by date under folder, or you can use the meta data search in Library module to search, keywords, camera used, lens, all sorts.
If you add locations with mapping, you can evcen seach by location
 
Then any I export use the same folder structure as my collections, which makes it really easy to find anything.

I have a ssd D: for just the catalogue and cache
E: is a large raid disk with a Folder called Raw with all the raw images underneath, never look at this, thats lightrooms job.
on E: is also a folder called digipics, which has all the exported images, others I've scanned from film etc.
F: is another SSD for this years raws
 
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ianp5a said:
You have a choice of :
NAS with disk/s. Ready to go. Just plug it in.
NAS without disk/s. Add your own.
NAS with single or multiple disk bays. Add more later.
NAS with a noisy fan. Or no fan, silent.
NAS that have fast or slower data transfer.

I have 2 WD Mycloud NAS devices. Both single disk, ready to go and silent. No fan and sleep mode. They might have slower data transfer, but for backup, there is no hurry. They will shut down to cold when it's all done.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking of a Multiple disk system. Needs to be redundant and accessible on line. I need to store additional data along with my photos.
 
Byker28i said:
Which then have sub collections underneath them, such as
View attachment 116845

Use keywords on import and you've a number of ways of finding your images. Usually you know they year/event so it's wizz through the relevant collection in the library module.
Or you can look by date under folder, or you can use the meta data search in Library module to search, keywords, camera used, lens, all sorts.
If you add locations with mapping, you can evcen seach by location
Click to expand...

I need to sort my file structure out. Currently it's year, date. Need to add sub folders [emoji106]
 
ian5pa said:
You have a choice of :
NAS with disk/s. Ready to go. Just plug it in.
NAS without disk/s. Add your own.
NAS with single or multiple disk bays. Add more later.
NAS with a noisy fan. Or no fan, silent.
NAS that have fast or slower data transfer.
Click to expand...

I have 2 WD Mycloud NAS devices. Both single disk, ready to go and silent. No fan and sleep mode. They might have slower data transfer, but for backup, there is no hurry. They will shut down to cold when it's all done.
Phil-1 said:
I'm thinking of a Multiple disk system. Needs to be redundant and accessible on line. I need to store additional data along with my photos.
Click to expand...

I use a HP miniserver, they have offers on regularly for around £120 and you can get a 3 year next day warranty on it for £30 extra. Not had one fail yet and I have a 2 year old and 4 year old one. They have 4 3.5" drive bays and room for a full size CD, so a 5th hard drive :D but you need to add the hard drives into the cost. I run a small SSD for OS and 4 or 5 hard drives raided.
They've no raid card so you can add one then decide what OS, or run as a software raid. There are a number of free Nas type products, but I run Windows OS on both because of other apps also running on them. (cctv etc).

Ones on my desk next to the PC, the other is in the Office cabin in the garden.
 
Byker28i said:
Most of my images I just get from Lightroom. I think the library module is one of it's strongest and underrated features.
Click to expand...
Just seen a series of YouTube videos on lighreoom flagging rating storage and importing. Possibly the most useful hour I've watched on YouTube. With more to view. Will get the link later on.
 
Back up on 2 separate drives...... and also a copy on onedrive
 
I use EyeFi cards that goes to android phone that post to the cloud (private) via Google drive within about 25-35 seconds of a batch of photos to be taken.

Once back home I usually review the photos on google drive via the PC and delete/keep stuff as necessary.

It's fairly seamless, just needs a bit of configuration to setup less than 30 minutes.
 
Meeten said:
This is interesting.
Can you share some more information?
Click to expand...

Sure its a fairly easy process nowadays as originally I needed to use third party apps to do it. Now that Google has released Google drive sync for android (not sure if it exists for iPhone), it's a case of installing drive sync, select the Keenai (eyefi) folder for syncing and when it is updated Google sync will then send to cloud.

Photo flow is :

Eyefi Sd card > android phone > Google drive

Some cameras have built in WiFi so I guess you would add the folder for that camera sync application to the Google Drive sync folders and voila out on the field cloud saving.

Google drive default is to only transfer if WiFi network is detected to save mobile bill so turn this off if you want instant syncing while out and about (assuming of course your bandwidth allowance is upto the task).

More advanced you can "move" files between the devices and cloud to keep space free from phone / memory card etc but I'm using a 64gb sd on phone so can wait until I get back to do some house keeping. Rather have the multiple copies in case one of the transfers are corrupt, not that it has ever happened.

edited to add:

Sorry just to qualify - installing google drive on your phone is not enough. You also need to install google drive sync that allows you to back up specific folders on your phone. This is the application that replaced the need to use third party applications making the entire process a lot simpler.
 
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From the phone there are other backup options besides Google. If you don't want to be dependent on Google or any big business, install the Nextcloud app. And sign up for any host with Nextcloud sync. There are lots of them. Search or the Nextcloud website can help you pick one you like. Most have a Free option up to say 5Gb. And 1 or 2 quid per month if you want more space. But the real advantage is, you can switch to any other Nextcloud host at any time. They are all compatible. You are not stuck with one. They are your files. On your host. Nextcloud is just the software you use. You can even backup calendars and contacts from your phone.
https://nextcloud.com/
 
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Following a photo shoot I copy all RAW images to local disk then copy that folder to my NAS. The NAS is then synced with B2 backblaze. Only then do I wipe the memory cards.
I Edit from the local disk (SSD) and following the edit I convert all to high res JPG and another conversion for gallery's
These are then saved to NAS and again to Backblaze cloud, The RAW on Backblaze is then removed and my local SSD wiped, ready for the next.
Sounds a lot of messing about but it is all seemless.
 
I have a RAID NAS device as my primary backup and then cloud backup to Google Drive
 
I'm fairly paranoid here and use an external hard drive, this is then backed upto in full resolution to back blaze and Google Photos and quite a few of the important photos are printed off as well. Storage in the scheme of things is relatively cheap so feels like its worth having several options these days
 
Phil-1 said:
I need to sort my file structure out. Currently it's year, date. Need to add sub folders [emoji106]
Click to expand...

Im not certain you do need to do anything drastic. Use a simple date based file structure and use keywords, metadata, collections and smart collections for organisation.

For folder structure I use similar method as Byker, year at the top level with older years moved to my NAS, then month folder, then day folders with the shoot description appended (this means that there may be more than one folder per day), then the files themselves renamed as yyyy-mm-dd-hhmmss-original filename. Only issue is that lightroom mobile imports the pictures without renaming, so i either have to remember to rename or keep them as they are.
I also move the 'best of' to a subfolder in each day called 'picks'.

I wold advise staying away from using subjects as a folder type. E.g you have an 'cars' and 'family' folder, you have a picture of your brother next to a car, does it go in the cars or family folder - or worse, both?
Now if you used keywords, just keyword 'brother', 'car' etc and everything is easily searchable.
 
I have a raspberrypi running Samba in my detacted garage which is sync'd from my desktop or laptop, I also backup to a usb portable drive.
My desktop also backs up to an internal drive as well.

I run dlna on the raspberrypi so can look at any picture on my TV at any time.
 
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