In a bit of a mess

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simonblue

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I have allowed my library of photos to build up,now it's in a mess being spending last couple of night trying to sort it out, but I think it's going to take a couple of months,got about 40000 files to go thought.
Plus all my new work to get started on,I love to get out with my camera,but hate being in front of a computer,but it's got to done :(
 
40,000? Sounds like you need to bin some stuff. Is all of this stuff treasured, valued work, or are you keeping everything?
 
How do you catalogue them. I use Lightroom and a similar folder structure for exported images.
 
simonblue said:
I have allowed my library of photos to build up,now it's in a mess being spending last couple of night trying to sort it out, but I think it's going to take a couple of months,got about 40000 files to go thought.
Plus all my new work to get started on,I love to get out with my camera,but hate being in front of a computer,but it's got to done :(
Click to expand...

Going to start mine tomorrow,just thought today is the tomorrow i was going to start it on yesterday.
 
If you're using lightroom, import using relevant tags as you can search on the meta data in the library all ways.

Use the collections, I have collections within collection sets i.e. A main collection set Family, with Collection sets underneath by years, then collections by event, so it'll look something like

Family
.........2011
.........2012
.........2013
................Holiday
................school play



etc

Then I use a similar folder structure under Windows for exported images.
 
40,000 - if only, we're up to about 4tb worth now, duplicated over many disks, it's not easy and I know that the older stuff needs sorting but it's easier to justify that hard disk storage is not too expensive these days
 
colda said:
40,000 - if only, we're up to about 4tb worth now, duplicated over many disks, it's not easy and I know that the older stuff needs sorting but it's easier to justify that hard disk storage is not too expensive these days
Click to expand...

And with the price of memory cards,its so much cheaper to shoots theses days than over film :)
 
simonblue said:
And with the price of memory cards,its so much cheaper to shoots theses days than over film :)
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indeed, and digital storage takes up less space than slide boxes :)

the 'digital dark age' concept does concern me though, the idea that now everything is stored digitally and what if in years to come there is an issue/event that results in the ever growing storage of data becoming unfeasible, when the plug gets pulled there is a lot to be lost
 
colda said:
indeed, and digital storage takes up less space than slide boxes :)

the 'digital dark age' concept does concern me though, the idea that now everything is stored digitally and what if in years to come there is an issue/event that results in the ever growing storage of data becoming unfeasible, when the plug gets pulled there is a lot to be lost
Click to expand...

Start again?
 
WelshNoob said:
Start again?
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that wont help my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandkids to know what an awesome photographer i was! ;)
 
Convert your best work into binary and write it down, you'll need a big book though.
 
That's it! - and I'll start a new religion and get monks to do it for me :)
 
colda said:
that wont help my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandkids to know what an awesome photographer i was! ;)
Click to expand...
if they are anything like mine they wont get looked at they are more likely to just format the disk to use it for their own stuff!
 
Choose a rainy day when there's only something pointless and boring on the telly, like football, for instance, grit your teeth and junk 90% of it .... It takes time but it's worth it.

I went through my back catalogue recently (admittedly not as big as yours) and got rid of thousands of useless, never to be looked at again images. It's worth the effort ..... The "storage is cheap" argument just doesn't wash with me I'm afraid, because storing stuff which is never, ever, going to see the light of day again is pointless to me.

My most precious images are now backed up, stored on discs and, in some cases, printed in hard copy, to be preserved for posterity.
 
colda said:
the 'digital dark age' concept does concern me though, the idea that now everything is stored digitally and what if in years to come there is an issue/event that results in the ever growing storage of data becoming unfeasible
Click to expand...

I don't think it's if. More likely when.

Quicksnapper said:
because storing stuff which is never, ever, going to see the light of day again is pointless to me.
Click to expand...

Sounds like my shed!


Steve.
 
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Quicksnapper said:
Choose a rainy day when there's only something pointless and boring on the telly, like football, for instance, grit your teeth and junk 90% of it .... It takes time but it's worth it.

I went through my back catalogue recently (admittedly not as big as yours) and got rid of thousands of useless, never to be looked at again images. It's worth the effort ..... The "storage is cheap" argument just doesn't wash with me I'm afraid, because storing stuff which is never, ever, going to see the light of day again is pointless to me.

My most precious images are now backed up, stored on discs and, in some cases, printed in hard copy, to be preserved for posterity.
Click to expand...

Slowly getting though it,and dumping a lot as you say no sense in keeping the bad stuff :)
 
colda said:
indeed, and digital storage takes up less space than slide boxes :)

the 'digital dark age' concept does concern me though, the idea that now everything is stored digitally and what if in years to come there is an issue/event that results in the ever growing storage of data becoming unfeasible, when the plug gets pulled there is a lot to be lost
Click to expand...


So putting stuff in shoe boxes is more secure? :)

I'm not worried.
 
The "x' key in Lightroom is the solution :-)

I used to keep everything, even the blurry out of focus rubbish. Having a quick pass through and rejecting anything obviously bad photos makes a big difference.
 
i got to a point where i had about 15k in lightroom. I just loaded it up one evening and went through each folder deleting every other image and all the images bar 1 if there was a chain of say 8 or 9 that looked exactly the same. Cant say ive missed anything thats gone and could probable do it all again.

The trouble now is that since i shoot 95% film i have large file boxes filling up with negatives.
 
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quarter of a million + pics All edited and keepers.... Stored in folders as YEAR>MONTH>EVENTTITLE Whcih is unbelievably simple and easy to find anything :)
 
Did something similar last year when i started using lightroom, took a couple of weeks using lightroom here and there to get things organised. Few cups of coffee and eventually you will have everything sorted in a manner which you understand and can work with in your work-flow.
 
I guess if you start off labelling your pics then it is easy to keep track.
 
kbkeith said:
Did something similar last year when i started using lightroom, took a couple of weeks using lightroom here and there to get things organised. Few cups of coffee and eventually you will have everything sorted in a manner which you understand and can work with in your work-flow.
Click to expand...

Tea man myself, been thought a few cups but getting their :)
 
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