BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

I'm sorry to bring up this subject again, but I've created a real mess. I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseam, but I have not been able to derive a solution from the discussions. My files are indexed by year, then general subject, such as, "2017/Jones Family/Mary Softball/First Game. Unfortunately, under each of these final levels are sub levels containing the same files in Raw, DNG, TIFF and JPG image files. Not every level has every every sublevel; indecision on my part as to what to keep has caused me to create different indexing levels. For an organized person such as myself, I regret that I have created such a mess.

Is there any simple way to re-index these files so they will conform to a PS15 standard? If I have to delete any sub levels, I can do that. Should I delete the raw files and keep only the DNG's? Do I need the TIFF's if I have a DNG and a JPG? Or should I use some aspect of the program to make the decision for me? Of course, I will back up everything to a thumb-drive before I begin. I have two recommended books on PS, but am more confused than ever. Please help me solve this dilemma. Thank you.

Rink Loc: Tucson AZ

I can't help with your question. However I will comment on your "thumb drive" comment.
I'm not sure that a thumb drive is the safest media for precious data. Now, if you duplicate on three of them, that would help.

Rink

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll burn a DVD or CD, use an extra Passport and a couple of different thumb drives.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

There is an easier way. Lightroom will index everything for you. And maybe you can simplify your folder scheme in the process.

I am a Lightroom user. Your setup for year and subject is a good idea. It's somewhat similar to what I use. But rather than using sub folders and sub-sub folders to group similar images together, I have just a parent folder for the year, then a descriptive title for the folder's contents.

So it would look like this:

2017
->04.05 - Mary's first softball game - 4-12-17
->->exported files (jpg, tiff, png)
->->->raw and psd files

The 04.05 represents April and the 5th time I used the camera for a gig - I also do work as well. The description lets you find stuff later, and the date is the actual date of the shoot. The initial serial number keeps thing sequential on a timeline, not alphabetical.

I am sure your next question is, but what about my dngs, tiffs, jpegs, etc.?

I don't save anything in the exported file subfolder. It is automatically created in my export presets as I export my files. None of the images in the export files are ever edited.

In Lightroom, you can save export presets, saving you the need to keep output files. I have 16 or so - for instagram, facebook, flickr, my website, email, club competitions, client proofs, client finished, print lab, in-house print, etc - with and without watermarks.

If you were to adopt Lightroom, it would index everything you point it to. Nothing will change unless you want it to. It's a catalog and indexing system. Once Lightroom makes the catalog, you can move your images and folders around to organize your data, using Lightroom's organizational tools to tidy things up. I also have Lightroom generate xmp files so that I avoid using dngs, which are almost the same as raw, but not quite.

The negative side of converting everything to dng is nicely outlined here:

https://photographylife.com/why-i-no-longer-convert-raw-files-to-dng/

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Thanks, Gene. Since I've saved all the Raw files, I guess I can delete the DNG folders, as well as the TIFF. That will leave me with all the Raw files and the few I've edited. I file initially by 2017, then by general subject (Family/Railroad, which has too many sub-folders/Wildlife/etc.), then by the sub-folders I mentioned previously. Once I trash the DNG and TIFF folders, what do I do to get everything wlse into PS? Thanks, again.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Another photographer turned Adobe Religion Fanatic... This is a one sock fits all!!! Adobe is a Swiss Army knife made with patches on old code. Vs Affinity which was rebuilt from scratch over a 5 year period.

Your filing system follows YOUR logic; it has served you well. My own filing procedure is similar to your and with rare occasion do I have a problem finding something. If I took a photo of a cat it is in a file on my E Drive called CATs ... guess where I have Flowers? KIS, keep it simple.
-------------------------------
I am a strong believer in the crept door approach to back up. Better know as Hot Swap trayless drives. Open the door and put in a hard drive and use one of the many programs to completely duplicate your C:/ or in my case my photo drive E:/. If the Ransom Group attacked me...OK... but they can not touch my backup in my sock drawer... bottom left.

StarTech.com 5.25in Trayless Hot Swap Mobile Rack for 3.5in Hard Drive under $25

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I would even skip the subject based folder names. Using LR, you can do the same much more efficiently using Collections which are virtual in nature, and don't require physically moving files around into specific folders. It helps when you have a shoot that has stuff that could easily belong in 2 or more folders. Based on your current scheme, if I understand it correctly, you'd have to put a copy of a file in each folder. Let's say you have a folder named Birds. You may have taken some shots at a zoo, on vacation, at your backyard feeder - and you'd probably have a folder for each of these. In LR, a single file can be included in multiple collections. Much more manageable.

You aren't "getting stuff into PS" - if you decide not to use LR. PS has Bridge, which is a file browser. It will find things that you have on your drive. Nothing more to do. In this case I would still use a date-sequential storing scheme for your images on your computer, and assign keywords, rather than placing them in specific folders. A file can have multiple keywords. You could still create Collections in PS Bridge, and they would work the same way as they do in LR.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/creativesuite/cs/using/WSA54A1C45-604E-4515-B212-0A3DF67417C4.html

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Nah, I have over 250,000 files and don't enjoy headaches when I have to find something. I could care less if the best tool for the job comes from Adobe. I have tried a number of different schemes from various mfgrs, and found it to work best. It offers most of the features available in enterprise DAM applications (no I am not cursing), and I just completely love the price.

I hope you mean you save an image and not a copy of your C drive. A copy that is not bootable is pretty useless since you just can't use it to run your computer. An image can be restored to a bootable drive and you are quickly back in business with only an hour's (or so) down time.

Your needs are clearly not the same as mine, and obviously your scheme works great for you. I would rather cut my hand off with a blunt Swiss Army knife than to try and use your system on my data. My system is far more KISS able for me. If I wanted to find a particular orchid that I took at a particular venue - I can do that and find it in under 5 seconds, or long enough to type, Brassavola Longwood 2014. This will show me all of that type of orchid, taken in 2014 at Longwood Gardens, and it wouldn't show me all the orchids I ever took at the 20 or so venues over the past 19 years. I am a very strong proponent of KISS, btw. But my version of KISS is far simpler for my needs.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Forgot to mention. If your dng files have edits in them, you may want to keep those, unless you plan on getting rid of dng altogether and re-editing your images.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I will just comment on your backup.

I'm not a fan of small-capacity backup media, e.g. CDs, DVDs, Thumb drives, etc. If you have an appreciable volume of files to be backed up you will have stacks of CDs, etc.. I used to back up to CDs years ago and wound up with a mess. Trying to find a given file requires either an indexing system telling you what file is on what CD or just going through those CDs one at a time to find what you want.

I much prefer to have all my eggs in three or more baskets. I currently use an external hard drive on my computer, another somewhere else in the house, and a third at a remote location. I also subscribe to an online storage system which backs up stuff incrementally and saves older versions of files as well. The drive on the computer gets immediate backup. The elsewhere drive gets a copy of the backup drive once or twice a week. The remote drive gets a copy of all the stuff once a month or so. When I copy to the remote drive I rotate the drives to keep them exercised.

The advantage of large drives is that you don't have to find the right one. One mount will access all files. The number of copies should reflect the value of the files. Important files should be in at least 3 places. Essential files should be in more than 3 places. This assumes that the failure rate of a given medium is fairly low, so that the probability of two drives failing at the same time is negligible. If it's not negligible, use more copies of the drives.

Archives and backup require maintenance. As technology advances, media styles change, and the archiving system has to change along with it to keep things current. Your data on 8" floppy disks has lost a lot of value due to the non-availability of readers.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I do not know what you mean by PS15 standard, I have never heard of such a thing?. Also, I do not see why what you have, you describe as a mess, only because you have Jpegs, Tiff's and Raw's in the same folder?

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Nope, not an Adobe fanatic; just a poor dumb pilgrim lost in the wilderness looking for the Holy Grail of post processing (which probably doesn't even exist yet). Will check out Affinity. Thanks.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

STOP!!! I made a mistake - a BIG one!

I meant LR, not PS!

Blame it on exhaustion, blame it on stupidity, blame in on wishful thinking - the simple fact is that I screwed up, big time. I am very, very sorry!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

No one is perfect! Forgiven!