Organising Digital Photos on my PC

[ted_smith]

Hi

I hope it's OK to post this in this forum...its seems the most appropriate.

I have just bought my first digital SLR - a second hand Nikon D70s. I am hugely impressed and have already taken a handful of good shots.

However I am seeking advice on the best way to store and manage what will no doubt develop into a massive digital archive!

I have a 200Gb disk drive setaside ready to go, and have created a basic folder strcture along the lines of "Macros, Landscapes, People, Animals" etc, and then in some I have sub-categories etc.

However, I shoot using RAW + Basic JPEG so that I can quickly eliminate pictures I don't want by scanning through the JPEGs and then use the RAW (NEFs in my case) for the best shots and open them up in The GIMP (photoshop stuff etc). But then I end up after that with a high quality JPEG version of the RAW in addition to the RAW and so it goes on.

What I am hoping to gain from you guys is an idea of how to logically store all my files so that I can find what I am looking for later on in both the RAW formats and the refined JPEG formats. How do you guys do it?

Thanks

Ted

 

[Reel1]

I have hear that Aperture does what you want.

 

[ted_smith]

Thanks, but I don't really want to rely on a software package to maintain my structure if I can avoid it - especially not one I have to pay for ;-) .

 

[EOS_JD]

Everyone has their own ways. I use a mix of directories and sub directories and date.

Get another 200Gb drive and make sure you back up!!!

THis is VERY important unless you want to risk all your images getting lost!

I now have 1.5TB of storage.

 

[darich]

i have my images stored on 3 seperate hard drives - 2 external and 1 internal.

As for a system, here's how i work it.
i go out for a day's shooting in Glasgow on 31st March 2007 the images are downloaded into a folder called 070331 Glasgow where
07 is the year,
03 is the month
31 is the day.
if i do another shoot on the same day it gets 070331 Edinburgh

Using the date backwards like that allows for folders to be sorted chronologically and using the location or subject after the date means that every folder is unique even if shot on the same day.

If I'm shooting RAW i always include a small jpeg so that it can be used as a thumbnail because windows can't see a raw image.

 

[MACollum]

Finding a good system isn't easy. Mine's like this (I need to do something better though, I realize): Camera folder: File type folder: Print size folder: Year folder: Month folder: Event folder. I should probably create thumbnails so I know what the files are without having to open RAW software.

My issue is that I always have to write down the file name, then get it, and there's a lot more folder opening than I'd care to do. I've yet to assign many keywords and usually it seems easier to just go to the file than to search as searching through thousands of photos can take a long time. Any more tips are much appreciated. BTW, I don't usually rename files but am thinking that maybe I should start?

I just bought a new WD My Book 250GB, $100 at Best Buy. (Breathing a sigh of relief!) It's going to take me all day to backup.

 

[mxg-w]

I do mine entirely by date, possibly not the best method but it seems to be working for me pictures>year>month>date and event>(filename)