Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

My photo workflow and archive could use improvement, especially because iPhoto will become Photo. I PProc with Photoshop Elements 13, save and backup all raws separately outside of iPhoto, and have more than 20,000 images in just iPhoto.
After a shoot, I dump the camera raws into one folder, winnow, PP, and import into iPhoto only processed "originals." I do not edit in iPhoto. I then discard all xml files and save the raws in folders by year and month (2015_5Raw), May 2015, for example.
iPhoto has grown to over 50 gigs. I also have several iPhoto "shows" on several topics, which repeats some of those in the master iPhoto library.
I'm hoping that someone knows of a better system, perhaps a database just for photographers that just does it all better.

Latsok Loc: Recently moved to Washington State.

Does anyone know if the new Mac Photo program will let you keep the iPhoto library as well? I have similar questions about best way of archiving and am at a loss as to how the new Mac photo program, which sorts all the pictures solely by "date taken". That is not how I used to archive in the past.

Mathman Loc: Bellingham, Washington

Adobe Lightroom is just such a program. It is a database and thus makes organizing your photos much easier. You can keyword your photos and use the typical search functions of a database program to find the one you want quickly. It is also a powerful post processing program and has other features like making a slideshow or a layout for a book. It switched from iPhoto to Lightroom a couple of years ago and am glad I did.

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

I understand that the new Photo will convert iPhoto libraries. I'm not sure if Photo has any advantages over iPhoto, and I'm still looking for leaner and meaner database options.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Are you averse to Lightroom? By description, what you seem to want is DAM (digital asset management) software, and Lightroom was designed for just this purpose, and specifically for photographs.

My workflow goes something like this . . . . I insert the SD card into the slot on my monitor. Lightroom starts in Import mode. Since I have various defaults set about how I want to import, the only thing I have to do is create the destination folder (within LR) and start the import.

First, I geotag all photos, using the LR maps module. Then, I keyword all photos, using the LR keyword functions. Then, I use the develop module of LR to enhance all photos. If the photos are to be shared, I export those photos I want to share to DropBox, and I'm done.

Granted, I may want to take one of the photos over to Photoshop for more intricate processing. When finished there, it brings back a PSD file and automatically adds it to the LR library.

On my D: drive, I have a folder named Photography. Within that folder, there is a folder named Masters. This is where I store all my raw images from the camera. In the Masters folder are folders for each calendar year, simply '2015'. In the year folder is a folder for each shoot I do during that year. If I went out to take some shots of the locust tree blooms today, that folder would get a name like '20150507-Locust Tree Blooms'. It is in this folder that all of today's shots of locust tree blooms go. Each image gets renamed coming from the camera to a standard. The first image would get the name 'bww-20150507-001'. The last three digits become incremented by one for each additional photo. I've never had more than 1000 photos in one shoot.

What I want to point out here is that 85-90% of all the work is done in Lightroom. I hope this has been helpful to you.

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

Thanks. My hesitation is that I'm not keen on monthly subscription or cloud features. Also, I'm interested in hearing about alternatives from anyone familiar with the digital database melee.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Forget "cloud". There's nothing about the subscription that has anything to do with cloud computing. Instead of getting a CD with the software on it (that you'll lose in the first 6 months), you simply download and install from Adobe's website. That's as 'cloud' as it gets.

Many new users of Adobe products don't know that Photoshop used to be a $700 product (just 3 short years ago). If you wanted Lightroom with that, it was another $239. The annual updates to both pieces of software was nearly $300. I'll let you do the math, but $10/month is next to free, compared to days gone by. And yes, the software is that good.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Lightroom is still available to purchase and LR6 costs $143 on Amazon (not $239!).

Back when Photoshop was still available on disk, I just bought upgrades and never had to spend more than $250.

I did the math and with the frequency I upgraded (having used Photoshop since the mid-1990s and Lightroom since it was introduced), there was no difference between buying the programs outright or "renting" the software under the current "cloud" program.

Yes, back when you bought the programs outright, the first-time purchase of Photoshop could be expensive (mine wasn't... but only because it was so many decades ago :roll: )... but after that the upgrades were rarely more than $200 to $250.

My concern with the CC setup is that I am certain that Adobe will start to ratchet up the prices as soon as they feel they have enough subscribers. It remains to be seen how much, it will probably be done in increments. But we have some clue as to what Adobe thinks the programs are worth... when they first intro'd the cloud-based version they wanted to charge $30 a month "introductory special" for Photoshop alone. No one bought it. So they lowered the price to $25, and then again to $20, 1-year introductory special for current users at first. Still no one bought it. Finally they lowered the price to $10 a month... then threw in Lightroom too... and finally people started buying in.

I guarant-damn-tee you that the price won't stay at $10 a month for PS & LR. It will go up... cable TV style.

Plus, with the current "bargain" pricing... Now we have forums flooded with "how to" questions from thousands of brand new users, who can't be bothered to buy a book or take a class and probably don't really need all the features of PS & LR anyway.

Photoshop Elements 13 ($70 on Amazon) might do all a lot of what people really need, having key bits and pieces from both PS and LR built into it so that it's actually more of a stand-alone software than the two "big brother" programs. PSE is a lot easier to use. Heck, the current version even gives choice of three user interfaces: highly guided, lightly guided and "expert". It's biggest drawback is that it's only 8 bit (JPEG) capable. Can't save images as 16 bit TIFFs, for example. OTOH, most people only ever work with and use JPEGs.

There is an old book called "The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers"... don't know if it's still published, but it was a good guide on setting up a workflow all the way from shot to finished product and archiving. It was a bit specific as to the softwares the author used, but that could be extrapolated to other available softwares. I found it really helpful and am glad I bought and read it years ago.

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

Thanks. Glad to have comments and suggestions.

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

If you want Lightroom but, like me, don't like monthly subscriptions, go to your local camera/computer store and just buy Lightroom on a CD. It works just fine but you don't get Photoshop with it - and that is fine with me.

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

Thanks. I'm a long-time user of PSElements, and prefer it to the built-in editors of iPhoto and sundry, if only because I'm old and habitual.

Mathman Loc: Bellingham, Washington

I don't like the subscription model either, so I use Lightroom with PS Elements as well. Both programs I downloaded from Adobe and are resident on my computer. PS Elements complements Lightroom very well as it does some things that Lightroom does not. Since I'm not a professional photographer or graphic artist I don't need all the bells and whistles of the full blown Photoshop program.

bw79st Loc: New York City

I subscribe to Adobe CC at $10 per month and was told that as a registered owner of PS CS5 the price was guaranteed to never change. They may boost the price in the future but that will be for new accounts and maybe for accounts that were not initially registered owners of previous editions. I'm not sure how that will work, all I know is they promised me $10 per month until I quit.