jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

That's why I add at least one descriptive word after the serial date. You can then just do a search.

Satman Loc: Indy

Digital Photo Workflow Made Easy: Discover How to Effortlessly Organise & Process All Your Pictures Kindle Edition

$6.99 does a great job, clearing up all the possibilities..

File by date, and subject.

Organize by catalog/folders by activities

All in On1 Raw, no monthly fee.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

FWIW - all of my images are filed by date taken, they are all renamed to also include the date taken, I am not worried about remembering anything about the date taken and never search by dates, since I use Lightroom, which is a DATABASE to manage my photos, I keyword everything during import and editing. Lightroom searches the metadata to organize the photos, not just the name of the file like it seems many responders here must be forced to do.

If I want to get to a particular image of a pony on the beach, I can filter all 50,000 plus images by keywords beach and horse, and kaboom baby, that fast, all those matching are on my screen, what could be easier or faster?

If you have Lightroom, use it’s powerful database to organize things, don’t rely on a manual method, if you don’t have Lightroom, there are other applications that allow for indexing your photos to make finding them easier, settle on one of them as your asset manager/editor, but use the tools built in to let the software manage your indexing and searches, it will always be quicker.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Study up on the techy side of folders, look at the "directory tree" as an outline format with folders and sub-folders listed down the page. I put everything in folders labeled yyyy mo dd plus a brief text descriptor. The day info is optional. All of this is under my main photo folder labeled Pictures. When you import these into LR, it's database will use the same labels. Just remember that if you ever want to rename or move a folder or file after it's been imported into LR, you have to do that inside the LR program or its database will lose the link and you'll have to do a routine for it to be reestablished. I put all my original files into folders on an external drive then copy that folder onto my hard drive for editing. I use PS Elements but it catalogues the same way LR does.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

This is the first 'rule' that should be followed. Set up how you want to organize in the same manner in which you 'think' about your photos. i.e. Events, people, category, place, date, job, .... Once you decide how you want to 'remember' your pics, there are a number of ways to tag them; keywords and file name; that will always be retained in the file's metadata. Then organize them into folders and sub-folders that is meaningful to you. All easier said then done. I agree that trial and error will ultimately bring you to your conclusion (for now).
But there is more to consider. Your editing program may be able to help you do all of this. Adobe, Capture 1... This means that you not only save your files in the manner recognized by the program, but also search for files within the program. This is not the same as searching for files in Windows Explorer or Mac's Spotlight.
Also, storage space will impact your decision making process. You can't, and should not, store all of your files in the same Catalog, or hard drive (backed up of course)! The bigger the Catalog, the slower your workflow will get. And, if your Catalog gets corrupted, there goes all of your edits to your pictures (assumes Raw processing). Your original files are safe though. And hopefully, your backups of both the files and catalogs, will solve these potential problems. And, with today's cameras, and large RAW file sizes, hard drive space will get eaten up quickly.
This is a lot to think about. Other's have suggested to watch videos and read blogs specifically relating to your question. Since you are a LR person; do this with specific guides for LR.
I was an Aperture guy. It took me about 2 years to finally find and convert my Aperture libraries to a new program. And, I am still refining how I organize my files.
Anecdotal situation. Just last week I asked my wife if we had ever been to Longwood Gardens. She said yes, but I couldn't find the pics. I went into my old Aperture Library and did a search for 'Longwood Gardens'. Yup, June 15th, 2012. If it was more recent, I would have needed to open each of my Capture 1 'Year' catalogs to find out. A little more effort, but works nonetheless.
Have fun figuring this out.

KitKat98

My issue is when I import to Lightroom. I shoot Thoroughbred Horse racing. Looking for easier way to import 500-1000 photos after several Stake races on the NYRA circuit. I have to send out multiple photos via Photoshop with file index. Time consuming but it must be done. I've been manually entering horse names etc. after upload. I'm going to read and watch help menus via Utube for Lightroom. I wish someone could do this part for me. I love shooting and editing the rest eghhhhh. Thanks for all responses!!!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ditto.

You can use the file "tag" field also. (See my earlier post.)
It's handy, especially if one doesn't use a "cataloger".

KitKat98

I will read up on that! Thanks!

Chief Rob

I organize computer and Lightroom directories (folders) in this sort of tree

YearMonthDaySession01
YearMonthDaySession02

Example: 180406
18 = year (2018)
04 = month (April)
06 = date (Sixth)
Session = Topic (exp = example)
etc …..

In Lightroom I use "Collections" to further organize my photos for special purposes such as topic, shoots, place, functions, etc. From the grid view drag the selected image by their thumbnail and drag into the collection. The images remains in their storage folder but are grouped for access in the collection.

Good luck. Chief Rob

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

Collections can be very useful. One nice thing is that a given photo can be in any number of collections, while it can only be in one folder.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Read what people write and then think about how your mind operates. Storing my folders by date would never work for me, but it does for others. I store my folders by shoot, so Yellowstone and then everything from that shoot remains there (you cannot store your photos in LR in two separate folders, but you can create a collection if needed). But for some people that would not work. Using Lightroom you can always find the date you shoot something so using a date for a higerarchial system is actually redundant. The first step is to put it on paper and then look at it and work it out in your mind, ask yourself questions about how that particular system might work for you. Be careful about creating multiple collections to store photos as this can get cumbersome. I normally only use collections for the temporary use of a set of photos; for example, gathering photos from multiple folders to create a book.

Keeping all of your folders in one main folder, i.e., MY PHOTOS, or whatever, is a very easy way to help you keep organized. Use key words, stars, or colors in LR to mark photos as needed, this, too, should be decided ahead of time; doing this will help you to easily find a photo. I can find a desired photo within seconds in LR. Become familiar with the filtering tools to find photos.

You don't say what you have linked to LR and what is not linked to LR. For photos linked to LR simply drag and drop into folders created in LR. For the other folders import them into LR and then drag and drop as needed. It's very easy to recreate your photo structure in LR. You can create new folders and delete old empty ones with the click of a mouse.

Good luck.

Bob Boner

I shoot only raw, so that eliminates one problem. I enter the year, month and date the shots were taken and the name I assign to the images is usually the location or sometimes the subject matter.

FrumCA

I'm with you. Filing in a folder by subject matter is the most efficient for me. If someone asks about my photos from Italy for example all I have to do is navigate to that folder. If someone then wants to know when a particular photo was taken the metadata reveals that info.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I have to use century since I scan old pre-2000 family photos, dating them when they were taken.
(If I don't know the exact year I'll use an x, as in 198x.)

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

Some of my old family photos I have to estimate the decade, as in 18xx