Storing/Naming/Filing your photos on PC

Ben:

Ben:

Suspended / Banned
Messages
960
Name
Ben
Edit My Images
Yes
Hey
I'm awaiting the delivery of a 50d :)
And thought I'd have a sort out/organise of all things photography related when I thought about how to store/name files on my laptop.
I'm sure a read a thread on here about this a month or so back.

Basically what methods do you guys use for storing your photos on a pc/laptop?
For example...
1 folder for each month?
1 big folder, the sub-folders for different shoots/locations/dates.
Do you rename all your photos so they are easily searchable?
1 folder for originals and another for edits? (again, monthly/location or what?)

Just trying to figure out what's best for organisation.
 
Hi,

I've often wondered about this myself and have tried different ways.

Personally, I have 1 main Photo Library folder inside which I've split out folder for Wildlife, Landscapes, Family, Sports etc. Within those they are all sorted by location and date.

I always back up the whole lot on 2 separate external drives. Overkill?, perhaps but from experience there is nothing worse than losing an image you hold in high regard.

Aside from choosing a file & folder layout though it is worth trying out Lighroom. You can tag images with information and key words and I believe you can also give them ratings too. This makes finding a single shot much easier. For example if you've tagged specific objects in landscape photos, things like architecture, rocks, trees etc then once everything is set up searching for rocks will show all of your photos that contain rocks, filtering everything else out. It can be handy although reviewing your existing library and tagging etc can take time.

Ultimately it's probably all down to your own personal preference really. Go with your instinct, if you automatically relate to dates or locations then arrange them that way.

Just a thought...
 
Last edited:
Adobe Lightroom sorts its all out for me, but it puts them in Year>Date folders inside My Pictures.
I then export the watermarked edits to a single Jpg folder which also contains a non watermarked folder too.

All backed up on server, 2 external HD's and an internal HD.
 
Ben: said:
Do you rename all your photos so they are easily searchable?
Click to expand...

Use Lightroom, or another DAM application, and give your images meaningful keywords. Then it doesn't matter what they're called or what their physical location is - it's dead easy to find anything.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.
I'm going to use the EOS software to upload images to a main folder with a DATED sub-folder. Then use a suitable Prefix (something other than 'IMG') which is added to each image uploaded at 1 time. So either a location, subject or whatever.
Woo!
Thanks :)
 
My Pictures>Year>Month>Event. I tend to be able to remember roughly when something hapenned, so can find what I'm after reasonably quickly.
 
I need to get a system. I tend to just copy everything over from the memory cards into a new folder called Photos01, Photos 02, etc as they get full. Should delete the crap and burn the 'possibles' to CD, ton free up space on the MacBook.
 
This has been covered a lot on the PP forum.

I let Lightroom sort mine, so the file structure is largely irrelevant, but it is YEAR/DD-MM-YYY.
 
hollis_f said:
Use Lightroom, or another DAM application, and give your images meaningful keywords. Then it doesn't matter what they're called or what their physical location is - it's dead easy to find anything.
Click to expand...
This is it. No other advice required.
 
D:\2011-01-29 - Wedding - Sarah and John Robson
D:\2011-02-04 - Nightclub - Megabar Judge Jules Special

etc etc

Quick press of F3 to bring up search and type in what I want, 2011 photos, weddings or specifics
 
Rikki said:
D:\2011-01-29 - Wedding - Sarah and John Robson
D:\2011-02-04 - Nightclub - Megabar Judge Jules Special

etc etc

Quick press of F3 to bring up search and type in what I want, 2011 photos, weddings or specifics
Click to expand...

How easy to find photos of Jules or Julian at a wedding, taken in October or November in 2009 or 2010? In Lightroom, assuming you've keyworded even semi-efficiently, it's a piece of P.
 
I'm at the hindsight stage where I wish I'd spent some time using tags in the first place! Shotwell (linux) defaults to placing files from the memory card to Pictures/year/month/day but I'm starting to lose track a bit :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top