organising all your folders

phildaintith

phildaintith

Suspended / Banned
Messages
325
Name
phil
Edit My Images
No
Just curious how everyone organizes their folders. Its something i really should have started doing a long time ago but just looking through my external drives (over 4 tb worth) folders in folders with vaigue/ useless names in other folders, in more folders, some with a date, others without, some with descriptive names, others just titled for example 'peaks' (peak district)

Basically my 3 external drives are a big sloppy mess and dont even know where to begin! :bang:

I think its about time i started organizing myself a bit and just curious how you organize yours? how your folders are laid out, how you title your folders etc
 
D\Photos\year_month_Descriptive_title\
.......................................................\ORIGINAL\
.......................................................\DISPLAY\
.......................................................\UPLOAD\
.....................................................................Camera_Assigned_ID_derivative_suffix
 
I have recently organised all my files :D that was a fun afternoon :suspect:

Mine has a base folder that has categories (wildlife/flowers/long exposure/etc)

Take Long Exposure, that splits down further to Star Trails/Star Scape/Light Trails/Fire Works/Light Painting

Ten it breaks down further still to specific shooting sessions so take Fireworks that will then have Kenilworth Castle 2012/Burton Dassett 2012 etc

Having a RAW Preview add on makes my life a lot easier to file my images :D as even if its a RAW I can still see what it is :D
 
MWHCVT said:
I have recently organised all my files :D that was a fun afternoon :suspect:

Mine has a base folder that has categories (wildlife/flowers/long exposure/etc)

Take Long Exposure, that splits down further to Star Trails/Star Scape/Light Trails/Fire Works/Light Painting

Ten it breaks down further still to specific shooting sessions so take Fireworks that will then have Kenilworth Castle 2012/Burton Dassett 2012 etc

Having a RAW Preview add on makes my life a lot easier to file my images :D as even if its a RAW I can still see what it is :D
Click to expand...

I think its going to take more than an afternoon for me:D.

I was looking at something similar. Scenario for what you suggested, what happens if you shoot for example HERE at night with a light trail and you decide to also get a few trails in

Does it go in the landscape folder, light trails or star trails?

I know i seem like a pain but want to try and get a real solid structure before i start hahaha



The plan is to get another external drive Tomorow and then i can start from scratch with a proper folder structure in place
 
I use Lightroom's database with everything keyworded on import, so it doesn't really matter much how the folders are organised :)

FWIW, though, I just stick with a very simple directory hierarchy for digital files.

Photos/YYYY/MM/DD

Files are renamed in YYYYMMDD_xxx format by Lightroom on import, where xxx is a serial number starting from 001.

Film scans are kept in a separate directory

Scan/YYYY/MM/Fxx

where the date is the month that the film roll was developed. I figure it's pretty safe that I'll never shoot more than 99 rolls in one month. :thinking:

Each frame file is named YYYYMMDD_Fxx_xx where the last two digits are the frame number from the film or slide number when they returned from developing.

As with the digital stuff, it all gets at least basic keywords assigned on import.

This ensures that every frame I shoot gets a unique reference. If I have the file name, I can locate the original almost instantly in Lightroom. If the file has been renamed (which I don't do when I pass them to third parties) but I have the EXIF, I can usually locate the file by IPTC tags or EXIF date.

Edit: if I have none of these, then I can just search for likely keywords.
 
Last edited:
phildaintith said:
Does it go in the landscape folder, light trails or star trails?
Click to expand...

See, that's where keywords score. Using a file structure only, you can only place an image file in one directory at a time.

With keywords, they can be keyed to both terms, then you're free of the directory structure, which is a pretty crude tool for imparting metadata to your photos.
 
Pretty much as Musicman.

Folders are - Photos/Year/YYYYMMDD_job title

Files are culled for crap in Lightroom, then named in sequential order with a 4 digit serial - JTP_YYMMDD_0001 etc. (JTP being James Thomas Photo so there's less chance of a filename duplication when I send them to clients should they name files in a similar manner.

Relevant keywords added on import to Lightroom.

Easy to backup and point the Lightroom catalogue to the new location when a folder is archived.

And using Lightroom, there is no need to keep duplicate copies, or JPEGs which just waste space. Export as needed for each particular use, then delete as all your processing is saved.
 
Last edited:
phildaintith said:
Just curious how everyone organizes their folders. Its something i really should have started doing a long time ago but just looking through my external drives (over 4 tb worth) folders in folders with vaigue/ useless names in other folders, in more folders, some with a date, others without, some with descriptive names, others just titled for example 'peaks' (peak district)

Basically my 3 external drives are a big sloppy mess and dont even know where to begin! :bang:

I think its about time i started organizing myself a bit and just curious how you organize yours? how your folders are laid out, how you title your folders etc
Click to expand...

Just to let you know your not alone all my drives are a mess,most folder just labeled photos for sorting,like you got to get on top of it.

:help:
 
First folder is "photographs".
Inside that is years, say "2011", "2012", "2013" etc.
Inside that is months, January through to December.
Inside each months folder is "[date] - [description]". For example: 13th - Jude & Lila park.
Inside that is "raw", "original", "edited" and "web".
 
Last edited:
Main folder is called photography, subfolder raw/nef. Inside that I have the locations, followed by folders of raws, edited tiffs and web prints.

I dont worry about the year because you can sort by that within windows.
 
You'e not alone. I've set up and used a few folder 'systems' over the last 10 years or so, but I'm not good at sticking to them, and have a tendency to just dump images off the cards onto a HDD with a generic label, until I get round to organising them properly. Trouble is, I don't often do it, and end up with a bit of a mess.

I'm thinking about getting Lightroom and spending the time to set up the cataloguing, but I suspect that this may just be a case of trying to justify purchasing something that is really far too expensive for me!
 
One of the best purchases I made was Lightroom. And then the biggest 'jump' (for want of a better word) I made was to trust lightroom to catalogue my images correctly.

All my images now go into Photos/Lightroom/YYYY/MM/DD. To be honest though I never look through the folders as I make sure that everything is keyworded on import that means a simple search from within lightroom will find the relevant images. The main difference that makes is that the pictures of my kids at a wedding last week at Loch Tay only exist once on my hard drive but will be found by searching; 'kids', 'wedding' or 'Loch Tay'.

Like I said it was a big jump initially but I wouldn't go back to organising by folders now.
 
Sectionate said:
I break it all down by location, and if revisited, then year.

Works well for me tbh.
Click to expand...

Me too. So it's stuff like "Italy - September 2013", "New York - March 2010" etc.
I then have a few separate folders for random photos that don't deserve a whole folder to themselves.

These folders sit within a higher level "to sort" folder until I've had a chance to go through them and delete the duffers/duplicates. (No real need to do this, other than I'd forget which ones I'd done).

I recently got Lightroom, but haven't got round to importing and tagging the files yet as frankly the size of the task terrifies me.
 
phildaintith said:
dont even know where to begin! :bang:
Click to expand...

I'm not telling you to give up or forget it. Just keep it in mind.

Leave your hardware alone, leave the computer alone, leave the hard drives alone, forget looking at your folders on your operating system. Forget the computers, forget your mess on the hard drives.

Take a pen and a big pad of paper, one of those A4 would do. Go out somewhere, bar, pub, go for a walk in the woods, over the hills, wherever you feel relaxed.

Just take your time, relax, and jog down your ideas of how you want to arrange your folders. Just play around, write down names of folders, where they should be, cross them off if they don't seems to suit you, rewrite folder names.

It would be a lot better than trying to create folders on the computer, only to struggle with correcting any mistakes.

When you've sketched out your ideas on paper, names of folders and sub-folders, where they would be under the root, and all that, you'll find it easier to start creating your folders on the computer.
 
Last edited:
I try to keep it very simple. I dont keyword in Lightroom and dont keep them by date. Everything gets loaded into Lightroom by folder ID

So on the PC its:

Base folder "Photographs"

Inside that base folder "Converted Lightroom"

saved as Tiff in individual ID Folders e.g Ospreys

Anything that then gets processed further (e.g. cropping etc) goes into another base folder "Converted Lightroom Finished TIFF No Sharpening." again by individual Folder ID.

Anything for my website goes into a "Website" base folder with individual ID folders inside.

A long way from perfect but it works for me. Perhaps I will need to look at it again as the volums of pics gets greater.
 
Last edited:
Llamaman said:
Me too. So it's stuff like "Italy - September 2013", "New York - March 2010" etc.
I then have a few separate folders for random photos that don't deserve a whole folder to themselves.

These folders sit within a higher level "to sort" folder until I've had a chance to go through them and delete the duffers/duplicates. (No real need to do this, other than I'd forget which ones I'd done).

I recently got Lightroom, but haven't got round to importing and tagging the files yet as frankly the size of the task terrifies me.
Click to expand...

Same, I cannot be arsed with the Lightroom setup, although I am sure if I sat down and did it properly I would like it.

My folders go: Photos>Surrey>Location>Date

I do also break it down into holidays, old unit photos, films, urban exploring, landscapes etc.

There is method to my madness
 
Bit of a mix at the moment, images improted from the camera via (Canon's) DPP are stored by date, images in Aperture are stored by subject.

Will be moving to Lightroom in a month or so and need to decide on date or keywording.
 
I have a folder called My Own Pictures, to differentiate it from any other pics on my system. In that folder I have folders for the different cameras I have/have had. Folders are named YYYY-MM-DD-Subject-Location. All files are put into date order by default, and I can also do a search by subject too.

It may not be as presice as using keywords, but I'm wary of getting locked into the Adobe catalog system totally, or relying upon it too much. Catalog's can get corrupted, and who knows what Adobe have planned for Lightroom in the future. Not scaremongering, just being aware of the things they have done recently.

Have a system in place that can work without the Lightroom Catalog, just in case.

For those that use Lightroom more than me, does keywording change the metadata of the file, or does it only apply keywords to files on export? :shrug: I've tried adding keywords to the Metadata in Lightroom, and it doesn't show up in Bridge on the same files. :thinking: :shrug:
 
I don't :bonk: and if I could give one piece of advice it would be to have a dedicated workflow.

I have 3 external drives obtained over time and they are a complete mess. I have copies of copies of copies.

Keep meaning to sort them but never get around to it.

Cheers.
 
I run my folder structure based on date as most events are booked or schedule around a date. The Image raw file is then re-named based on the date and time. I also use the Key tagging to create any smart collections. For photos shoots I have a different catalog as I don't all mix up.

Lightroom
- 2013
- 01-January
- 2013 - January 01
- 2013-01-01-14:23:22.CR2
 
Interesting read, keep it coming :) I need to do this drastically, always put it off
 
I used to use lightroom but never paid much attention to its organisational aspect because I never fully understood it (the organisation aspect, that is) - in an effort to get that little bit more organised, does anyone have any suggested reading for helping me understand it better and get the most from it?
 
i've been speaking to a friend who has helped me out a little with a folder structure,

completed work & unfinished (unedited) which split into identical categories

landscape, portraits, night, stock, urbex,

my landscape one then splits into

mountains, coastal, forests & fields
my stock one just splits into product shoots and people/gestures

No doubt it will change slightly but its a starting point... and i will eventually rename all my final folders with a proper title and date such as mam tor sunrise 10/10/13 or smarties 10/10/13
 
toadstool said:
I used to use lightroom but never paid much attention to its organisational aspect because I never fully understood it (the organisation aspect, that is) - in an effort to get that little bit more organised, does anyone have any suggested reading for helping me understand it better and get the most from it?
Click to expand...

It's pretty straightforward. The structure mimics the structure you import from your HD. You can then move files and folders within Lightroom and it will move them on your HD. If you move files or folders on your HD, they will stay where they were in Lightroom, but you will have to point it to the new location to update it before you can work on them again.

Keywords work like they do anywhere else, add them to the files either individually or in bulk, then you can search your entire library (or sections of it).
 
Thanks, James that does help a bit. I need to just open it up again and have a look!

edit - so once all the photos are sorted via lightroom on my hd, would I just make a backup of that folder on my external back up drive?
 
Last edited:
toadstool said:
I used to use lightroom but never paid much attention to its organisational aspect because I never fully understood it (the organisation aspect, that is) - in an effort to get that little bit more organised, does anyone have any suggested reading for helping me understand it better and get the most from it?
Click to expand...

The most comprehensive and efficient use of Lightroom and the Catalog system is by a chap called Jared Platt. I watched it as part of an online webcast called the Ultimate Lightroom Workflow on Creativelive. There may be somewhere online which also details his workflow and organisational ideas. He also uses his own presets to speed up the editing process. He also showed how and why you would make your own presets.

If I was using Lightroom as part of a business, or was regularly dealing with thousands of images at a time, I would try and follow some, if not all of what he teaches. I don't need that level of organisation though. :)
 
toadstool said:
Thanks, James that does help a bit. I need to just open it up again and have a look!

edit - so once all the photos are sorted via lightroom on my hd, would I just make a backup of that folder on my external back up drive?
Click to expand...

You need to back up your raw files (assuming you're working with raws) so just copy the folder from your HD to an external, and/or whatever other storage you like.

You also need to back up your Lightroom catalogue. This will be in a folder called "Lightroom" and called something like, "Lightroom 4 catalog.lrcat" this file is Lightroom's brain, it tells it where all the files are, and stores all of your keywords and processing that you have done.

So, as your files are moved around and archived over time, as long as you have the catalogue file you have your processed images. For example, if I have a bunch of raw files on an external HD, I could plug that into either my laptop or my desktop, and so long as I have the catalogue file on both computers, all my edits will show up. So no need to store finished JPEGs or TIFFs etc.

This of course only applies to edits in Lightroom. If you then export to Photoshop and do some more editing, you will need to keep that PSD, which should be fairly obvious. :thumbs:
 
redhed17 said:
He also uses his own presets to speed up the editing process. He also showed how and why you would make your own presets. If I was using Lightroom as part of a business, or was regularly dealing with thousands of images at a time, I would try and follow some, if not all of what he teaches. I don't need that level of organisation though. :)
Click to expand...

Keyword & metadata presets are very handy when you're importing. I have several keyword sets for ongoing projects, together with a 'plain vanilla' set that just makes sure I have my copyright and contact details in every RAW file.

I must admit that I design database systems for a living, so a lot of this is second nature to me :)
 
redhed17, thank you - I'll look at that! When I used lightroom, I had my own presets and have them now in pshop. I just remember LR being more intuitive - I'm not sure when or why I stopped using it!

James, I was about to ask that - previously, I'd do the initial edits in LR then export to PS should it need anything more.

I think this might be a case of needing to get in there, look and try it myself - I always learned better by being shown than by being told!

But, from what you've said, having that .lrcat file on whatever computer I'm using means, when I open a RAW file, it'll all be there. So all that will need to be saved and backed up are the raw files, the .lrcat file and my pshop files?

Sorry for the sort-of thread hijack! Hopefully this information will be helpful to others who are looking to get more out of LR too..
 
Musicman said:
Keyword & metadata presets are very handy when you're importing. I have several keyword sets for ongoing projects, together with a 'plain vanilla' set that just makes sure I have my copyright and contact details in every RAW file.
Click to expand...

That's something I want to look into, too.
 
toadstool said:
James, I was about to ask that - previously, I'd do the initial edits in LR then export to PS should it need anything more.
Click to expand...

That's what I do - well, not export as such. You can set up PS as your external editor, then just hit cmd+E (on Mac) and it opens the file in PS in whatever format you like. It will then stack the PSD with all the other versions of the file in LR and save the file in the same folder (unless you specify otherwise). All very neat.

toadstool said:
So all that will need to be saved and backed up are the raw files, the .lrcat file and my pshop files?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Okay - I've read a bit and would like to create different catalogs for different purposes. Because I lost the majority of my photos recently, I don't have many now so my first catalog is "pre-October 23rd 2013". From now, I'm thinking maybe a catalog a year because I don't shoot a vast amount (yet) - good idea?

So I've just done a shoot, got home and it'll require its own catalog. I import the raw files to the folder I'm going to save them in, open LR, create the catalog, import the photos from the folder, make the adjustments I need to all the files and then they need to be taken into photoshop. If I go to file - export as a catalog, this will save the changes I've just made to the .lrcat file and (once I've set it up to) open them in photoshop?

When the export window is open, what should be the "export location"? The associated catalog folder? Uncheck "put in subfolder"? Perhaps I should make my own thread :bonk: I think this is where I hit a brick wall with the catalog system previously - what to do once I'm on the export screen. I wasn't a member of anywhere to ask for help!

I really appreciate the help - like I mentioned, I learn better when I'm shown something and struggle when I'm just told something so it can take me a while to understand - I apologise for that and thank you for your patience (if there was a blushing/embarrassed smilie, it'd be here!)
 
Thats it going to have to load my Lightroom,its 4.1 and said it has a beta 5,hopefully it will do the job :)
 
Not sure I see the point in keeping multiple catalogs. :thinking:

Do you have a very good reason for break up your photo collection like that? (Unless you need to keep one set of photos 'private'? ;))

I have over 88,000 photos in the one catalog on my desktop Mac (a 2006 Mac Pro so no speed demon by modern standards) and it works fine. That's all the digital photo files (mostly RAW) that I've accumulated since early 2004, plus a bunch of scans of film going back to the early 80s. They've been in Lightroom since v1.0 back in Feb 2007 (actually a bit before that I was playing with the first public betas).

There are some significant disadvantages if you do go down the multi-catalog path; this article fairly reflects my thoughts on the topic

http://lightroomsolutions.com/articles/one-or-many-lightroom-catalogues/
 
No other reason than what I'd read suggested one catalog, once it reached a significant amount of photos, would seriously slow it down - the link you provided is interest in regards to that!

2683 photos as of now - keywording all of them is going to be... fun
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top