 Pat Harry |
Organizing Images I just made the plunge and purchased Lightroom. As I'm learning the tool, I'm rethinking my organization strategy. I keep both my Raw files and my JPEGs, and sometimes even the Photoshop version if I've done a lot a work on the image. So far, I've kept these in different directories, with basically the same structure. So I'll have my Raw files in RAW\2011\20110303_xxx, and I'll have the JPEGs in PRINTS\2011\20110303_xxx. But now I'm thinking about putting everything into one, and just call it IMAGES\2011\20110303_xxx. Hopefully this makes sense. Do most of you keep your Raw files and JPEGs together? Or separately?
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Kay Beausoleil |
Hi Pat, I don't have Lightroom, but I learned a long time ago what works for me (and not necessarily for someone else). When I download my stuff (I shoot in Raw) from the card, it goes immediately into a file called Archive/year/main-place-or-subject. Then I back this up to an external drive divided the same way. Archive also contains the scans of old slides. Then I copy the files I want to work in Photoshop to another section called Main, which I divide the same way as Archive, often with more subdivisions within the subject. So Main is PSDs, or about-to-be PSDs. To me, Archive and Main are the important ones - the equivalent of my old negatives - and I back up my work in Main as it goes along. Finally, for the little stuff - JPEGs and TIFFs - I have a third section called Submissions (for want of a better title) and this section is divided into the destinations of the images: a BetterPhoto file, an e-mail file, etc. This section I don't fuss about too much because I can always reconstitute a JPEG or a TIFF from the PSs in my Main section. Briefly I tried a tier system which was a disaster - too fiddly for my aged brain. Within the Year/Place tree I've already described but in a single section, each image had its own folder containing the Raw file, the PS file and the JPEG-TIFF file. It took far too much time to find anything, and was one of my more demented ideas. What's most important is being able to find stuff easily years after you've filed it. And to make backups a snap. Success depends on finding what works best for the way you yourself function. HTH!
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Pat Harry |
Thanks, Kay. Your structure is similar to the way I have had my setup. Except that I save the .jpgs rather than the PSD's (in addition to the RAW files). One reason I toyed with storing all the versions in one folder is that it would make it simple to see which ones I've worked on and which ones I haven't. Everything would be in one place. Hopefully other folks will chime in with their solutions.
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Dan W. Dooley |
I have LR and though I am very impressed by its edititng capabilities, I absolutely hate, with a passion, LOL, its orgainizaning features. Ok, that's out of the way. :-) On organizing I go by time and subject. Or subject. I do much of my editing on my laptop since it's with me more of the time. I may make temporary folders under "My Pictures" named for a subject I might be working on at the time. When I'm finished with those they are moved to the main computer where I store them in folders representing years. Under the year folders are subjects, such as "Zoo", "Alyssa Birthsay", or whatever. Of course I have "catch all" folders for on going subjects. All of these are under the main folder on the drive called "Photography". So finding images is much easier if stored by subject or something similar. I shoot only in RAW. When I process a RAW image (and I use DPP for 99% of my RAW processing rather than Lightroom) I translate the image from RAW to TIF. Then it is worked in my photo editing software and once finished saved in its final version in JPG. When I dump images off the camera card I put them into the desired folders. Either one already existing or one created new for the purpose of the subject. So the RAW images are put into the folder they will be worked in and converted to TIF and JPG in. If the work has been done on the laptop when the images are moved to the main computer to the desired folder, the RAW and JPG files will be moved together. I generally don't move the TIF file since that's intended as a temporary one anyhow and once the JPG version is finished, I can delete the TIF. I still have the original RAW if I need to redo the image later. If I have any unworked RAW images from a shoot, they're moved into the same folder as the worked ones of the subject. Finding desired images later is much easier this way. "I want to look at the images from "vacation 2010" because I'm looking for a particular scene or whatever, I know exactly where to go. So to me, storing by subject rather than by file type is much more "human friendly". I think, at least. :-)
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Dan W. Dooley |
One more thing I just thought about. When naming worked images I retain the original file name number. For example the orignal image might be IMG_3221.CR2. That's the RAW file with "3221" being the file number of the image in sequence. When I have worked it and am ready to save as JPG I will rename it to something like Utah_3221.JPG and of course it is stored in the folder Utah Vacation under the folder 2009 (the year). By retaining the file name, the number part, it makes it easy to go back later and find the original RAW image for that shot. It too will be 3221 and will be in the same folder. As I'm basically lazy, I want to make life easier on myself., LOL
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Richard Riebel |
Pat, I have LR3, and I share some of Dan's distaste. One benefit Kay could not tell you about, is that LR3 allows you to automatically send a copy to your back up system upon initial DL from your card. If you follow Kay's system (good and useable) LR3 allows you to skip on of her steps. It automates that for you on DL. One more comment. Dan suggested keeping the original RAW name as part of the archive system. That's very good advice. Do you use the custom naming feature and automatically apply key words upon DL? Those are helpful automated steps in LR3 as well.
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Dan W. Dooley |
A comment or two on apparent differences in work process. Richard, I gather that you are using LR to download images from the card to the computer. Or perhaps I misunderstood that. I download image files to the computer using normal Windows Explorer and thus they are simply copied from one location to another. The latter being the folder I have created for the subject of the set of images. So no file name changes occur during the copy process. And, you brought up another thing I dislike about LR. Sorry, it is a great tool for those who have to have it. Namely those not using Canon and thus having available the great (I think) DPP for RAW file management. That is, the way file naming is handled when saving from LR. I have had to resort to the custom naming feature in those cases when I wanted to name the files something different when exporting from LR. Normally I just use the file name and that works but some recent experiements dictatd renaming the files in a particular way as I was saving various copies from the same original RAW file. For normal purposes I just save it using the original file name as created on the camera.
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Pat Harry |
I do not download to a backup drive. I have RAID running, plus a nightly backup to an online backup service. So I think (hope!) I'm covered. I rename my files by putting PDH_YYYMMDD in front - so my file names are PDH_YYYYMMDD_DSC1981.nef. I would put that file into a directory called YYYYMMDD_description. I'm happy with all that. But I have it duplicated three times - once for the RAW images, once for PSD/tif (when I save them), and again for the jpg output. Although, for the jpg, I append a description to the file name very specific to that one image. Maybe I'll abandon the directory structure for the psd/tif, and put those in with the jpg's. Thanks for all the feedback.
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Richard Riebel |
Pat, sounds like you have it well covered. Dan, I do input form my card directly into LR3. I have my Pentax camera name my images pretty much the same as Pat's standard naming convention. You are right, however, that upon exporting from LR3 you need to consider renaming a file. A pain for sure. Not much of an issue for me when 90% of the worthwhile images are just sent to PS CS5. I only use LR3 as a file import/management tool. I'm probably wasting the capabilities of the software.
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Dan W. Dooley |
I have LR2. Actually 2.7. Never bothered to upgrade to 3 as my use of it is minimal. I played with it again recently when I was wanting to change the exposure settings on some image files which had already been worked in the TIF format (cropping and such) and this was all a part of an "experiment" in single source HDR. Normally I do all of my RAW editing in Canon's DPP which uses a file managment structure which follows the Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer the browser) model with the hard drive folder tree structure visible. LR can't do that so I do no file management with that program. If you're not using the editing tools in LR you're missing the best features. Granted the richness of editing tools in LR exceeds those in DPP but there are the ones I really need in DPP and as any additional work done on the image I will do in my photo editing programs. Either PSP X3 or PS CS5. I have noted that unfortunately not all camera names have a tool quite like DPP thus LR fills a large need and does it well. I gather that you are using LR primarily to convert from RAW to a format CS5 can deal with? Of course CS5 can also handle RAW files but I don't like that tool so I don't use that part of CS5.
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Richard Riebel |
Dan, I do use PS5 for my RAW images. My workflow is DL to LR3, in LR3 rate images, develop the good ones in LR3 by applying clarity, vibrance, lens customization, then open in PS5. This opens the file in Camera RAW first. I can crop here or straighten easier than PS5. Then in PS5 I finalize those images. The RAW image is never changed because the mods are saved as TIFFs or PSD files. I do a fair amount of B&W and love NIKs Silver Efex. Its easier to use in PS5, for me, than using the plugin in LR. So when thinking further about my workflow, I do make some use of LR's editing other than file management. Cheers
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Allen W. Harry |
Hi Pat, I have been using LR since the beginning. One of the strong points is the cataloging system. Since LR is non-destructive you can always get back to the original file. I would not keep seperate catalogs for each file type. LR will put a file that was captured in RAW+Jpeg right next to each other in the same catalog/folder. As for files you have that were in jpeg/RAW or tiff, I would keep them all in the same folder that way you can see each image side by side. My file system takes full advantage of the hierarchial catalog in LR. I organize by subject matter, not date...The date is in the metadata for the image. All of the image files for that subject go into a folder without regard for file type. Rename to something that tells what the image is, but also include the original file name, without the date. I too use RAID 1 for my storage and a spare disc for offsite backup. Hope this helps a little. Allen HARRY (no relation that I know of)
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Dan W. Dooley |
Right. Any RAW editing process is non-destructive so the RAW image is always intact to go back to later to make another copy of a TIF or JPG if desired.
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Valerie Y. Martin |
I used to organize by category, but with Lightroom 3, I allow Lightroom to put my files into folders by date upon importing them. Then, I immediately (once the photos are imported) sort through the photos in loupe view and decide which ones I definitely am not keeping and delete those from the disk. Following the culling process, I tag the heck out of the pictures. Now, I no longer have to figure out if pictures of my son's birthday party at Moundbuilder's Park are filed under Moundbuilder's, holiday, or family. I can simply type in the relevant tags, and it'll pop up. Cheers, Valerie
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