How to store and retrieve digital images

[wparsonsgisnet]

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I have been storing my images in folders that are descriptive and dated.

 

I would like to look at systems that will track my image files, such as Bridge.  What do other here use?

 

Many thanks,  Bill

[Jeff S]

Lightroom.

 

Jeff

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[jmahto]

In lightroom, organized in folders for year and subfolder for date (automatically created while import). Sometimes I rename the daily subfolder name by adding descriptive suffix. Actually I did this before I started using lightroom and continued the same organization. After importing I rename the files in a batch with date and a general descriptive text (i.e, 20161129_hiking_001.DNG). I have a simple preset for this. Then I add keywords to the pics. Now I can search for any image very easily later on.

 

Only after this I proceed to processing...

[ramarren]

Bridge is a good organizer but a poor archiver ... it does not retain information about files that are not available on-line live, and has little in way of management facilities. It's designed to be a workflow tool for the Adobe creative suite apps, not an image archive.

 

Lightroom was designed for image management and can store information about image files whether on or off line, move and manipulate them, change file names, etc. it also includes image processing fundamental tools as well. For most photographers, it's the right tool for this task.

[LocalHero1953]

In Windows 10, folders for year, and subfolders named and used ad hoc for event/subject/location. I use Lightroom to manage the folders (create, name, reorganise etc). 

Edited November 29, 2016 by LocalHero1953

[jim0266]

Lightroom as well. I create a new folder each year and import both images and videos into the folder. Images are keyworded on import when appropriate then keyworded on a second pass for images that need additional keywords. Once you start using LR and keyword images the location of the images isn't important.

 

Another tool is Neofinder for Mac or abeMeda for Windows. Neofinder allows for cataloging up to 10 volumes in demo mode. Worth investigating even for LR users. 

 

Switching my self-hosted web galleries to Koken, which allow for publishing directory to my website out of Lightroom. Slick!

 

In addition to local backups, all images go to Amazon's S3 service Glacier via Arq. This happens automatically in the background. Glacier's now $0.004 (less than half a cent) per month per GB. 

[mikemgb]

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In Windows 10, folders for year, and subfolders named and used ad hoc for event/subject/location. I use Lightroom to manage the folders (create, name, reorganise etc). 

 

This is what I do, simply because over the years many image organizers and editors have come and gone. Lightroom will follow them one day so I use it only to move photos around, I could lose my Lightroom catalogue this evening and it wouldn't matter, the folder structure would survive.

[wparsonsgisnet]

Thanks for this.  I am still using -- and enjoying -- Capture One, since I got my M8.  So, I'm glad to hear that you are depending on a folder structure, as I do.  

I'll look at Lightroom's handling of files.

 

Best,  Bill

[Bill Livingston]

Yep. Me too.

 

All my photos are in a similar file system with triple back up (iMac hard drive, copies on a 5 TB drive, both backed up on Time Machine on a separate drive, plus iCloud storage.

 

My file system is exactly like LocalHero53 and Mikemgb, as suggested by Scott K in his Lightroom book... And just the same, if I lost the Lightroom catalogue it would cause no issue at all.

 

Lightroom makes it easy to PP and then send the photos to the right folder, or create a new folder within the existing structure if needed.

 

I don't really see the issue. A simple folder structure, managed by Lightroom, makes everything very easy. I simply don't see the advantage in doing anything else.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Bill Livingston

[jmahto]

A question I have been struggling with for quite some time. Do you ever export processed jpegs (all of them) and publish/archive them so that they can be viewed/archived/used independent of lightroom? 

 

I thought of doing it mainly for my wife who wants to be able to access the pictures outside lightroom (from a different computer). But then again, I haven't exported all the image files because there is no simple way to export them in the same folder structure as in original place.

[250swb]

For every event or day's shooting I use a simple folder structure, ascending number with a D or F suffix for digital or film, small title, date. The images are then downloaded into the folder and given the folder number and suffix followed by the images file number.  When the images have been edited/processed and altered they are saved as TIFF files and go into a sub-folder called 'Edit', and if resized for the internet another sub-folder called 'JPEG'. All this is done in Bridge and Photoshop, I hate Lightroom.

[LocalHero1953]

A question I have been struggling with for quite some time. Do you ever export processed jpegs (all of them) and publish/archive them so that they can be viewed/archived/used independent of lightroom? 

 

I thought of doing it mainly for my wife who wants to be able to access the pictures outside lightroom (from a different computer). But then again, I haven't exported all the image files because there is no simple way to export them in the same folder structure as in original place.

Although the file structure I use for images is independent of Lightroom, and so would survive Adobe's demise, I don't have the same confidence in my Lightroom edits and their storage as a sidecar to the raw file. For a while I created jpg files of all images after final edit, and stored them with the raws (stacked in LR, so they weren't normally visible). I have got out of that habit, partly because I keep going back and reworking old files. My current plan is to create a physical book of all my images for posterity (the Mk 1 eyeball will not be superseded as an image viewing device for a while yet). I have done this for all family photos up to the year of my birth and I'm working forward from there.

[Jeff S]

 

I'll look at Lightroom's handling of files.

 

 

 

The Scott Kelby books offer great tips to simplify and avoid confusion.

 

Jeff

[sanyasi]

I use a folder system:  Folder-Photographs  Sub Folder-2016  Sub Sub Folder--11_30_2016_Chicago River Landscape.

 

Anything that I print or post online is stored as follows-- Folder-Photographs  Sub-Folder-2016  Sub Sub Folder--Output  If Output gets too full, I create an Output II folder, and so forth.  I use PhotoMechanic to browse the Output folder, but you could use Bridge.

 

I don't use Lightroom Catalogs or the CaptureOne comparable.  I always work in sessions.  

 

I have been pretty much a Photoshop user, but I am moving toward CaptureOne.  When I work in CaptureOne, I follow the above format, but I put the CaptureOne Session in the Sub Sub Folder 12_01_2016_Fashion Show.  And then the Capture One subfolders go under there automatically.

 

I have been using this approach for six or seven years, and I usually can find any photograph within a couple of minutes.  The biggest problem is remembering the year.

 

All of this is stored on two Raid drives.  One on site and one off site.  When a drive gets filled, I buy two more drives.  The drives are labeled with the years that they include.

 

I also keep a high resolution jpg in an online portfolio--the system reduces the file size for display, but the high resolution file is stored.  And I keep the high resolution photo on an iPad in the Folio app.  I certainly wouldn't want to lose the originals, but the online and Folio are two fail safes.

 

At some point, I would like to put all of this up in the Cloud, but I still find the process fairly cumbersome and slow, but it is getting better.

 

BTW, I use the same system for personal and business records.  It works for me.

[jmahto]

Before I used lightroom, I also used the folders to manage everything. The problem I ran into was duplication of pictures for publication (for photobooks mainly). I needed different crops for publishing and ended up cropping and copying pictures in publish folder. The organization is also very static. I can't create a folder for my kid's all birthday pictures and organize the pictures in year/day kind of structure at the same time. It is one way or the other with static folders.

 

Now with LR, I simply create virtual copies for different processing (crops, B&W, for prints-vs-web). No duplicates. I also use multiple collections. Same picture can be part of many collections. Add keywords and it becomes very flexible system to organize the pictures. Add geo tags to the pictures and it is even more easy to search for pictures. I can't imagine managing pictures without LR.