nikonesian Loc: Midwest USA

This has probably been covered before, but I need to know your opinions on what the best course is for me to organize my collection. Currently I create files by date and activity, but with a growing volume I feel need to tag and have a decent search function to operate efficiently. Any suggestions?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This is a good topic, and it has come up many times. You will get a variety of responses. I have been using the same system for years, and it works for me. I have a folder called My Pictures. Inside that I have separate folders for, Botanical Garden, Vacation 2011, Dogs, Cars, etc. Within those folders I can have other folders. For example, Dogs can be broken up into Small, Large, Vicious, etc.

I am going to try using Lightroom for organizing because organizing is one of its strong points. You can tag images with key words and then look up anything quickly. For example, if you want to find a sunset picture, you ask for all images tagged with the word "sunset." You will get sunset pictures, regardless where and when they were taken.

nikonesian Loc: Midwest USA

Thanks Jerry. The tags are where I fall short so when I look for a sunset at a ball game I'm screwed unless I remember which ball game.

GC likes NIKON Loc: East Greenwich, Rhode Island

I use the same system as Jerry. Everything in Windows XP "My Pictures" with folders such as Grand Kids, and inside that: Kevin 2011, Kevin 2012, James 2011, James 2012, etc.

Many photographers tout using a date to begin the file name. I don't want to have to remember what year I took the specific picture to go & retrieve it.

I tried the tag system many years ago in something I think was Adobe Photo Album. I think it came bundled with PSE v2. I liked it but never kept up with tagging. There in was the problem !!! I need it simple and foolproof, with no memory required !!!

I am looking for a copy of LR3. so I may try their tagging thingy again in a limited way........

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Lightroom is well designed for the photographer who need to catalogue and sort large numbers of photos. It is done with tagging. You also have the ability to file things in seperate folders by date taken or whatever system you want. I have 45000+ bird photos and I can retrieve any one of them in seconds by searching on species name, location, date taken, camera used, lens used etc. I know I couldn't have done it without LR.

LR is also a first class photo adjuster. for many people this is all they need. If you need greater ability to do pixel level edits then Photo Shop Elements or the full Photo Shop will work seamlessly with LR.

See my previous post regarding LR vs Elements: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-36632-1.html

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

First, I have two internal hard drives. Drive C: Operating System, Program files, etc. Drive D: Only for storing Photos.
On Drive D I have a main folder. Inside that folder I have subfolders named: Events,Family,Misc. Places. Inside these folders are subfolders for the particular shoot: Under Places might be a folder named: Chicago, Boston, etc. I have just recently started using Lightroom and I think it's going to work out just fine. I can import, and do generic keywording for the main import and then go back and add specific keywords to individual shots when I am going through the photos.

Fotomann Loc: Toronto, Ontario Canada

Lightroom is the one :-) and don't forget. Depending how large of a collection you have, it will take a long time to tag each one.

Once you up to date it's not so bad.

Have fun!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Great avatar.

Bunko.T Loc: Western Australia.

Like you J, i start from Pictures & name all folders appropriately.[Sunsets] > [footy matches] etc. Sub & sub sub folders if required. I try to keep a limit on how many pic's in a folder. Of my 10,000 odd pic's I can find a pic in a matter of seconds, not minutes. Numbers in folders can make finding difficult. Remembering names or numbers for searching would be time consuming to establish.

ziggykor Loc: East Texas

I have found that using a folder system works best for me.
An example: 051912 Goodman Home Heritage Day. Then I add general shoot keywords and other general info prior to import. After import I can then add image specific keywords and other specific data to each image. This is all done using Lightroom.

I store nothing permenently on-line in my hard drives with the exception of the Lightroom Library. The actual images are stored both on external Hard drives and burned to DVD's.

For my purposes I can search by keyword or other attribute, find the location of the image desired and either insert a DVD or connect the external drive it is stored on.

How does that work, well each file name is numbered sequentially within specific folders. When you search, and select, the image comes up with that number displayed. If the time is taken to reference the dates on the disks or DVD's the image is easily found.

The secret is taking the time to do all that you can at import and then right after. If you try to catch up later, you'll always be behind. I've been there, and know this is so.

This is what works for me only, not a suggestion that everyone needs to use. The only thing I would suggest everyone should use, is to get all the EXIF data to the images at import. Time invested on the front saves time wasted on the back!

Iowegan

I was thinking the same thing. ;)

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Ziggykor, I trust you mean that you keep the Catalogue on the hard disk and the library on the external hard drives.

bvargas Loc: Palm Harbor, Florida

This works for me. I download my files into a folder, name it by year, month, day, subject. Example: 2012-5-15-Full Moon.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

The downfall of a file/sub-file/sub-sub-file system is that a particular photo can only be in one file folder at a time. So, for example Kevin will be in his folder and James in his folder. What do you do with photos of both Kevin and James together? Those might be sub-folders of the "Grandkids" folder but how do you deal with photos taken of James at Uncle Harry's Wedding? Keyword Tags are the answer to this riddle. Group photos are tagged with each individuals name and any individual can be called up without regard to where they are filed away.

For myself, using LR4, I have folders for each date with the venue as part of the folder name. If I am in more than one venue on a day I might break it down into two or more folders but that is not common for me. Photos are tagged during import with general, common information such as venue, State, County (this is important for my bird records). After I have culled the photos down to the ones I want to keep, generally only 10-15% of what I shoot, I assign tags for the specifics, i.e. species name, in-flight, with prey etc. If they are family photos, that is when I tag with individual names.

LR works very well for me. LR memorizes keywords and autofills as you type the keyword in for a photo. LR also allows you to add keywords to multiple photos at the same time by selecting the relevant photos and then doing the assignment.

Whatever program you use for organizing your photos, my suggestion is to find one with a keyword tagging system as part of it. You will never regret it.

shirl2sg Loc: Northern Minnesota

I just started using Lightroom. my keywords for some I just put in was year, museum, state, statue, flower, bench, art, photowalk. (Not all on one photo). In My pictures, they are under year, month, date, state. Some keywords I use are family, (which ones) birds, dogs, butterflies, animals (wild, domestic) museum, flower, sunsets, lake, ocean, state etc. This gives you an idea what main words you can use for tags. When years pass, like 2005, I then put all the files marked with year, (2005), and date and insert them into the main file 2005. It makes My Pictures a little cleaner.