Photo organization in Lightroom 5: So, a new discussion on organizing photos. I was thinking of two ways I would consider: 1) year month day (and use lots of keywords) or 2) year month...

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Photo organization in Lightroom 5

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Mar 28, 2014 22:54:19 #

RichardE Loc: California

So, a new discussion on organizing photos.
I was thinking of two ways I would consider:
1) year
month
day (and use lots of keywords)
or
2) year
month
subject (keywords of people)

I currently use:
year
yyyy-mm-dd ( and plenty of keywords)

Little background, I am retired and mainly shoot Granddaughters, family get-togethers, travel, and landscapes. I also carry my old Panasonic LX3 for and shots that capture my fancy when I do not have my K5-IIs with me.

New suggestions are also welcome. How do you organize photos?

--Richard

Mar 28, 2014 23:04:11 #

mickley Loc: Schenectady NY

RichardE wrote:

So, a new discussion on organizing photos. br I wa... (show quote)

RichardE: If you have Photoshop, you can edit the "FileInfo" and add the pertinent data there. Then you can search by data in that field. I assume the same type of FileInfo editing is available in other programs.

Mar 29, 2014 00:39:54 #

RichardE Loc: California

Mickley: Yes, but I would like to stay in LR. I use PS6 for major mods only.

Mar 29, 2014 00:50:21 #

stableduck Loc: Chugiak, Alaska

I use event or subject names for the folders, lightroom already sorts images be date, camera, lens, metadata, rating besides keywords. so by using event or subject names it is easier for me to quickly find the folder I want.

Mar 29, 2014 01:12:51 #

Myrna

I do my photos in Year, Month, Location or event. Has worked well for me.

Mar 29, 2014 01:58:34 #

RichardE Loc: California

Stableduck, Myrna: Do you also use names as keywords? Often I want to select by name and location as an example.

Mar 29, 2014 02:08:10 #

stableduck Loc: Chugiak, Alaska

RichardE wrote:

Stableduck, Myrna: Do you also use names as keywords? Often I want to select by name and location as an example.

yes, I do use names & location as keywords also. anything that will help me find the 1 or 2 images out of the thousands of images . you can us multiple keywords when you are searching. so if you have enough keywords you can narrow down your search pretty fast

Mar 29, 2014 05:50:49 #

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I now organize by location-year-month-day and keyword every photo that I keep

Mar 29, 2014 07:31:02 #

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

I use the following method, if you use collections it does not matter how many photos in each folder, all are simple to find.

Folders by year and month:
2012
__2012-1 January
__2012-2 February
2013
__2013-4 April
etc

Collections by Subject
People
__Grandchildren
__Jane
__Michael
Places
__Kent
____Ashdown Forest
____Ramsgate Docks
__Sussex
etc.

Keywords
Any keywords that would help to identify the subject or event.

Mar 29, 2014 07:45:34 #

Bob55 Loc: Valhalla NY

RichardE wrote:

So, a new discussion on organizing photos. br I wa... (show quote)

I store in Picasa, all my folders are as follows. A 4 digit year, a 2 digit month (01 to 12), a 3 letter month (Jan, Sep etc.), a 2 digit folder number for that month (01, 02 etc.), then a brief description. It works for me and I hope that helps.

Mar 29, 2014 07:51:20 #

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

RichardE wrote:

So, a new discussion on organizing photos. br I wa... (show quote)

tv.adobe.com is an excellent source for instruction. here is a video on Importing and Organizing in LR4.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-4/lightroom-4-importing-and-organizing-your-images/

Mar 29, 2014 10:16:07 #

RVDigitalBoy Loc: Clermont, Florida

For what it's worth...

I transfer all my images via Lightroom (4+). At the beginning of each year I create a folder for that year. Then I name each folder this way: "month_day_year_folder number. " For example: 3_29_14_288

All my folders are. Numbered consecutively. So, if I'm looking at an image on my flickr page I can find it easily on my drives.

Mar 29, 2014 10:17:19 #

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

RVDigitalBoy wrote:

Do you use the Keywords feature? I have done very little with that.

Mar 29, 2014 10:44:37 #

Myrna

Myrna wrote:

I do my photos in Year, Month, Location or event. Has worked well for me.

Yes I do folders for year and sub folders in that folder.

2013 folder
December (sub folder)
Yuma (sub folder)
Christmas (sub folder)
Supper at Carters (or whatever) (sub folder)
Table setting (would be the file name)

If I just take the odd picture thru the month I just put them in the Month and file name.

Mar 29, 2014 14:21:29 #

RichardE Loc: California

Thanks for everyones input. I have watched Terry White and Julieanne Kosts videos and attended Adobe meetings on the subject. I think that for my purposes I will use a hybrid structure such as:
YYYY
mmm
location/event
subfolders as needed

I also have decided to create a folder each time, if needed, for import in my pictures folder. I will start to import with a DNG conversion and, as I do now, back up to a second folder on another drive. I like this option because the copied photos are still in the original raw format, not DNG. Best of both worlds and I do not need the xml files as the mods are written into the DNG file.

I also use categories, sub-categories, and smart categories, and keywords. But sometimes the smart categories are not needed with a keyword and visa-versa.

Now, if only there were a way to convert the existing structure to my new structure without 'brute force'.

Again, thanks everyone for your input.

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