Final Image Organization (Windows)

Majeed Badizadegan

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Alright, so it's been bugging me for a while and I thought I'd throw this out there and see if I might be able to get some good ideas from you guys.

Right now I'm using a combination of programs. The usual suspects: LR4, CS5, Photomatix, various plug-ins. PSD files, JPGs, Tiffs, etc end up on my desktop when working on a file. I re-size images to optimize for different sites, and often end up with the same file in different sizes. My desktop gets pretty full, and chaotic, and I end up periodically dumping these files into a "sorting bin" folder. Eventually, the "sorting bin" gets extremely full, and it's a mess trying to get all the corresponding files together.

I don't want my landscape shots mixed in with my portraits either, so I use a different folder for dumping all my portraits (which again, makes it hard to find shots down the road).

I do have a system within Lightroom for marking an image "final". But some of my images are taken beyond Lightroom, which is where my workflow could use an extreme makeover. I'm pretty satisfied with my workflow within LR, but beyond LR it gets messy.

There's no fancy file/folder labeling systems that I'm aware of in Windows 7. I know that Mac's have some nice color coding things for files and such, but I'm not on a Mac.

Ultimately I'd just like easy access to my final, full-sized images. And, if necessary, the corresponding files.

So what do you do?
 
I have the same problem and it'll be interesting to hear some new ideas about it. I'm sorting my files by dates in different folders and there are some folders for edited images divided by genre. But ofcourse as amount of images grow it's become more difficult to find the required one.
 
THanks for moving this to the correct forum. Wasn't sure where to put it.

Thanks for the link Keith. Sounds like that would be a fantastic investment. I'll look at purchasing it in the near future.

Do you own this book? Is there any resounding advice from it (or not from it) relative to my query that you might share?

Thanks.
 
Yes I have the book, have read the book, and have been recommending it here on TPF for 2 or 3 years now.
 
LR can handle all of this for you; it is a image management sytem with some editing tools built in.
You need to do a tutorial on how to use LR to manage images

My workflow is to:
Save images to files by date
Import all images into LR but leaving them in their original folders.
Cull and keyword all image files.
Edit in place
If needed, export to PS or my secondary editor.
Periodically resynch folders where I have been editing images with a non linked program (like Portrait Pro) to reestablish them in LR.
Backup LR every time I exit.

LR manages all the files, all the time.
 
I think this video may help. Around the 14 minute mark I believe is where you want to be.

Once I get home, I may be able to find other video links that go into more detail on file management using Lightroom.
 
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LR can handle all of this for you; it is a image management sytem with some editing tools built in.
You need to do a tutorial on how to use LR to manage images

My workflow is to:
Save images to files by date
Import all images into LR but leaving them in their original folders.
Cull and keyword all image files.
Edit in place
If needed, export to PS or my secondary editor.
Periodically resynch folders where I have been editing images with a non linked program (like Portrait Pro) to reestablish them in LR.
Backup LR every time I exit.

LR manages all the files, all the time.


So basically include the subfolders in LR and still allow LR to do all the organizing. Interesting.

I think this video may help. Around the 14 minute mark I believe is where you want to be.

Once I get home, I may be able to find other video links that go into more detail on file management using Lightroom.


Thanks! Watched the last 4 minutes.
 
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