Ugly Hedgehog Newsletter

Hi,
I need some tips on file management. I am taking more and more pics all the time. I delete the really bad ones ofcourse, but need to organize the good ones that I want to keep and may use later. Are there tips on how to do that? Should I just be labeling the files by name, like Flowers, or Bugs or Cars? Would love some suggestions.
Thank you!!

Terri

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

You a PC or MAC? MAC has a very good bundled program called iPhoto: It's very easy rate and assign keywords to the Metadata. An even better program is Aperture 3 which does the same thing but has better editing tools and even face recognition. If your a PC then I would suggest Adobe Lightroom.

DFHdez Loc: Brooklyn

Photoshop Bridge will let you filter searches with hundreds of criteria like date, size, aspect ratio, keyword, exposure time, aperture setting, star rating... So add as much info into the keywords box of the metadata as you can. Keep raw files in folders labelled by year/month/day/description (20110904 Long Beach Surf Championships). Make folders based on date and subject, you may have more than one folder per day because you took pictures of flowers and of people on the same day. Keep jpegs or processed files in separate folders organized in a similar way (add the word jpeg, or pix to the name). Put all of these in a folder labelled Pictures. Get a big hard drive (1TB or bigger) to keep everything on, but back up to dvd disc often.

arphot Loc: Massachusetts

I copy my images over from the memory card to a folder on my hard drive that is labeled as the date those image were from. When I have gone through them and deleted the ones I deem unusable, I work them in whatever manner I want (HDR, retouching, ect), then when they are ready to be stored, they are backed up on an external drive in a folder with a more specific name (flowers, animals, architecture, etc). To date, I have never labeled, rated or keyworded in any way each individual photo unless I have processed it and gave it a name. This is just me of course. I'm not pro (maybe someday) so I don't ye need all the tagging.

djfkeefe

Here's what I do: each time I offload pictures I assign a unique number to the offloaded "roll" , consisting of [yrmoday] - e.g., if I were to download pics today - Sep 4th, 2011, the number would be [110904]. I save the "roll" under this unique number.

When I print any of its pics, I record the above roll number, its frame number, and usually a comment on the pic's subject and where taken on the back of the print. I then store the prints in albums classified by the first and last two included unique "roll" numbers. For example, were I to store prints from Jan 3, 2010 through Sep 4, 2011, the album would be labelled
[100103-110904].

With this system, knowing approximately when (year, month, etc) a specific picture was taken, I can retieve either the print from the album or the original from the computer plus the "properties" (aperture, t, ISO, etc) of the photo.

You can further, and later, sub-categorize your photos into subjects or time or whatever.

This may look a little complicated, but it satisfies the basic criterion of photo classification and retrieval: it works.

Hope this helps you..

Dan K

djfkeefe

Here's what I do: each time I offload pictures I assign a unique number to the offloaded "roll" , consisting of [yrmoday] - e.g., if I were to download pics today - Sep 4th, 2011, the number would be [110904]. I save the "roll" under this unique number.

When I print any of its pics, I note the above number, its frame number, and usually a comment on the pic's subject and where taken on the back of the print. I then store the prints in albums classified by the first and last two included unique "roll" numbers. For example, were I to store prints from Jan 3, 2010 through Sep 4, 2011, the album would be labelled
[100103-110904].

With this system, knowing approximately when (year, month, etc) a picture was taken, I can retieve either the print from the album or the original from the computer plus the "properties" (aperture, t, ISO, etc) of the photo.

You can further, and later, sub-categorize your photos into subjects or time or whatever.

This may look a little complicated, but it satisfies the basic criterion of photo classification and retrieval: it works.

Hope this helps you..

Dan K

ap175 Loc: Van Nuys California

I made up a "file tree" named Pictures. Underneath the main folder I have labeled folders with labeledsub-folders underneath i.e Vacations, Family Photos, Cars,
Guitars, etc. Under each of the labeled sub-folders I group the pictures by date. I also name each picture. If I need to retrieve a picture and I don't know where it is, I enter a keyword or date into a little program called Everything (free download off the net) which beats the pants of the search program included in my W7. It brings up everything under my search keyword and I select from there. My method is about as basic as you can get and has served me well for many years. (I also back up all my folders on a seperate hard drive.)

Jer236

Googles Picasa is a free downloadable software program that has a pretty good means of editing and organizing photos, plus other functions as well. Much easier to learn and use than some of the more sophsiticated high priced programs such as Elements or Lightroom. Most amatuer and casual photographers don't need all of the features in the commercial programs indicated, nor do they have the time to learn all there is needed to gain the most from them. It would be worth a try and you may find it meets your needs well enough.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

After saving, my next two step are culling, then tweaking, then cropping.

I dump my memory card into a new file, named to indicate the day taken. Today, September 04, 2011 = 11-0904.

Once saved, I open folder 11-0904, and immediately create a new folder called 110904 Prime, into which I copy all acceptable images.

Then I open Prime, and create a new folder 110904 Best, into which I copy the best of similar photos, and keeper unique images. Be judicious!

Then I open Best, create folder 110904 Tweaked. I use Picasa Picnik to tweak each photo, and save tweaked image under new name (-1), and place in Tweaked folder. You can do the same with PhotoShop, etc.

Then I open Tweaked, and create folder 110904 Cropped. I again use Picasa, crop each image, save under another new name (-2), and transfer to Cropped folder. I shoot macro, so I crop quite tight to subject.

Images posted to the internet come out of Cropped folder. Images to be printed come out of Tweaked folder, because 4x6 or 8x10 prints are different formats, requiring the use of un-cropped image frame.

If you do not critically organize your images, chaos will soon overwhelm your ability to easily & accurately retrieve from storage.