Need help figuring out some workflow and file storage

[vigilante]

In the old days they would have pulled the original image off the point-n-shoot, immediately begin editing in photoshop or something, export the "final", and that's it. All they ever had was the final JPG export, not the original shot, not the PSD, certainly not a RAW! I have some old "original" images that are all of 400 pixels wide!

Now they (a client) have a DSLR, shoot in RAW, and use a combination of Bridge, Photoshop, and the PS Camera RAW tool.

Only problem is finding out how to store everything.
The original RAW.
One or more Photoshop compositions and edits.
Multiple final exports at different sizes meant for different mediums. I might need one at 1000px wide for a store, and 800px for Facebook or a forum and 600px for the blog's native size, or 500px for the newsletter, etc etc. And of course an original pixel count PSD if it's meant for print, at highest quality.
The other exports might have varying qualities. The store has to be optimized as small as possible, but not so for Facebook or other hosted services. And most final exports would need a watermark.

I have to store all this stuff somewhere, but I also need to store it according to certain goals.

Example:

1) Most people in the organization do not need access to any "originals". No RAW, no PSDs, no archival TIFFs or whatever. Those should remain with the "media" person.

2) They need access to renders based on categories. For example they would need to browse a folder tree according to finding "store images". That is, all the final exports, with watermarks, that can be used online. I don't want to confuse them with optimized versions and full quality versions etc.

Basically my method now is kind of a mess. I have folder structures I'm trying to mirror in different parts of the computers and network. Like if I have a PSD on the media computer in 'store/categoryx/subtypeY/products_Z/version_Q/*.psd', then I need the public JPGs somewhere on the network in the same tree so that I can find them and match up different files.

Doing it this way is annoying if I ever want to change folder structures. It means nearly ALL files have to be specially named, so I can't just work off original file names from the camera. And I still have to separate the exact same image again into HQ print versions, or small versions for other media. Public images need the watermarks, certain other types don't. One PSD might be used for multiple renders, or I might have multiple PSDs for drastically different renders.

Not only is it confusing, I keep forgetting where particular files are. I might find a PSD, but no export, or I find a nice image, and can't track down the PSD (if it was even kept!) Some images don't need PSDs at all if simple RAW edits gets me what I want.


All that to say this, how do you guys store and archive all the different file types, originals, exports, prints, varying size renders and still keep it all logically organized? Not only logically organized but also in a way where only editors have access to some files, and the marketers and web guys only have access to versions suitable for them.

Any advice?

 

[Derrel]

One thing I have been doing for 15 years or so is appending descriptive terms to images, so I can use the search function to find "types" of images. For example, let's take one image, and call it DSC9958_Multnomah Falls.NEF

So...I know it's a camera-original Nikon .NEF file.

For images that have been extensively retouched,spotted, I append the term in all-caps "MASTER"...and that would be the "Master Negative" so to speak. If it's a 16-bit it is Master_16.TIF or Master_16.PSD

If it has further been color-corrected, well...tack on the suffix Master_16_CC.TIF or Master_16_CC.PSD

Large, high-resolution .JPEG images carry an all-caps .JPG file type.

For smaller images, I append the size in longest dimensions, such as DSC9958_Multnomah Falls_2400.jpg.

For stuff destined for web, _web is annotated.

For uncorrected proof files, I append _proof.

For images that have been optimized for printing, I append _PRINT for high-resolution print-optimized images, so we'd have DSC9958_Multnomah Falls_CC_PRINT.JPG. Based on the CC I'd know it had been color-corrected, and that it was a LARGE-print image, based on the all-caps spelling of PRINT and also based on the all-caps .JPG suffix.

The Mac OS allows one to search based on a large number of criteria...if I want to find specific PRINT images, I can do a search of any drive or piece of media based on the criteria I wish to use. By always annotating files with some basic data, it's easier to find things of the kind I am looking for. Like _web images, or CC_PRINT files and so on.

If one is using Mac OS, one also can color-code folders or individual files in one of seven different colors (plus no color) , and perform searches and file sorts based on file label-colors.

 

[dennybeall]

Lightroom works very well for those that choose to use it's full potential. You can establish file names and keywords in a way that makes sense to you and if you do the work up front you can find things very easily. People that use it also do much of their photo touch-up with Lightroom as well.
If I was still working at it - I'd use Lightroom and Photoshop.
Old retired guys just like to roam through to find stuff and see what else is forgotten in the files.

 

[AceCo55]

Possibility (I don't use it) ... I'm just thinking out loud
Create main folder for a shoot with subfolders for RAW, TIFF (edits), PSD (edits), JPEG subfolders (LARGE, 600px, web-px) Whatever.
Then password protect the folders that you don't want others to have access to (eg RAW, TIFF, PSD)
- you would need third party software to do this but it means you have the same folder structure and all the variants for a file would be inside that main folder. Next shoot, create a main folder for THAT shoot with the various sub-folders

5 Ways to Protect a Folder in Windows - wikiHow
How do I password protect my files and folders in Windows
I'm sure Google search will bring up some info if you find the idea attractive

 

[wfooshee]

For my storage, I place images in folders with the folder named for the date then the subject, in the format YYYY - MM - DD - Where or what. That puts the folders in chronological order when I sort by name.
I keep identically named folders on two drives, one of which contains the RAW and the other which contains the edited JPGs for distribution, posting, whatever. Of course, both of those folders get backed up to yet another drive, and the JPGs get cloud backup, for "anywhere" access. (I can't afford the space for cloud storage of the RAW files!)
For indexing I've been using Picasa. I don't use any of the other features of Picasa, like auto-upload to web albums or any of its "editing" functions; I just tag the photos for the ability to search. I started using Picasa for that several years ago with the thinking that if anybody knows about indexing and searching, it's Google.

 

[vigilante]

These are all good ideas.

I watched a Phlearn video about his Lightroom workflow and he also keeps the date on the main folder, and adds a descriptive text. Then subfolders for capture, master, output, and selects.

What is interesting about product photography for an online store is that certain rules don't exactly apply.

I've asked this type of question on other forums and nobody really has an answer for businesses.

Picasa does some cool stuff when it comes to finding images, tagging, rating, face detection, etc. But it is a one-person tool. Everybody in the office can't use it to browse the same photo collection on a network drive.
Lightroom is peachy, again for one person on one computer, but it doesn't really do the "shared" thing either. And we aren't buying LR for all people who need access to photos!

Picasa shows you all images, so it's sometimes annoying to see the exact same picture 3, 4, 6, 8 times because you have different jpegs and pdfs of different sizes and qualities. I don't need to look at every export or whatever, just one image will do! Plus I don't want to have to tag every different export with all the same tags and meta data.

This would be like a dream for me if there was a product that could do this sort of thing:

1) I would work locally, LR and PS, etc. Organize master files as needed, tag and assign "master meta data" that gets applied to all exports.
2) Exports would be available in a public location like a network drive but with some security caveats, like they can't just delete images or move folders around. Some kind of connection would be maintained between master files and exports so that if I browse exports, I can easily find masters, and vice versa. Or if I update meta data on master, it applies it to the exports.
3) All photos could have extensive meta data, tags, faces, keywords, media type, etc. A person could just search for a product name and find all images that contain that product. Or they could search by size, or by media or by type (such as "logo") or by product color even.

This sort of stuff isn't done with just folders, SOME kind of application or even a server would be required to handle everything and maintain the database and file system and relationship between files.
I can picture the marketing guy putting together a newsletter and browsing all public images, selecting one and choosing some premade export option like "Export for newsletter" and it would grab the newsletter version for him. Or if some magazine wants our logo, we could search for logos, pick the correct one and select "Email vector" and it would know that there is an Illustrator or PDF version and attach it an email.

If I create a new corporate logo for stationary, I could even somehow "replace" the previous version so it maintains different versions of the same file. Like "company black/grey horizontal logo (version 1)" and then over the years go through version 2 and 3 and 4. If the boss every searches for the logos, it would present the latest one, but for kicks he could look at previous archived versions. That would be cool!

I wouldn't need to be emailed 10 times a week like "Hey, can you email our logo to Jeff,....". Instead, anybody who wants company images would have a standard media-browsing corporate tool of some kind to find, search, export, print, email, tag, build a personal user album if they wanted, or even upload new photos to some staging area where the Photoshop guy can import and begin work on them.
They could create ad-hoc albums or lists of files that can be exported to a thumbdrive, blank CD, emailed, exported to Facebook, whatever.

As it stands now, there are no such tools out there! Anybody with a camera just shoots stuff and puts it on their own computers, some are used before having any touchup work done at all. They aren't in a central location, there is no central database to do tagging and enter meta data. No tool to browse and search and export. No workflow for originals and pre and post processing stages.

I just wish there was something useful not just for individual photographers, but for entire companies who have media people on staff and everybody needs to be involved in different meaningful ways without stepping on each others' toes.

A guy can dream can't he?

 

[snowbear]

Google "document management."