Need some help getting organized with my digital files/workflow.

[arcooke]

The way I do things feels like an absolute mess.

• I go out and take pictures.
• I come home and open up my memory card in My Computer
• I copy everything to a "working folder" on my desktop.
• I skim through all the shots in standard windows picture viewer.
• The ones I like, I write the number down in notepad (e.g. if it's DSC_0506.NEF/JPG, I jot down "506")
• Once I'm done glancing over all of them, I open each raw file individually (from my list) in Photoshop and start doing any necessary touch up work.
• In the "working folder" on my desktop, I create a subfolder called "edited", and save my touched-up photos in there as JPGs.

It's a wreck, and I need a more streamlined process. This all became glaringly evident when I got home from a trip with 800 pictures to go through.


As mentioned, I use Photoshop with Camera Raw (no Lightroom, no Elements). I would like to have some way to view my pictures where the raw/jpeg files do not appear as separate files, but somehow linked, so I have a nice clean set of thumbnails to look through. And something that assists with organization and whatnot would be really helpful.

Tips? Thanks.

 

[KmH]

Use Bridge to upload, and you can rate, keyword ,and apply metadata templates to all your images.

Using Bridge you can rate each photos in a couple of ways..

I highly recommend the: The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers

I use Bridge in Filmstrip mode. You can right click on the photo being displayed and generate a menu that has the stars and some other rating choices.

Once you have all the photos rated you can use the Bridge filter function in the panel on the left.

I find many people never bother to learn how to use Bridge. Bridge is a lot more useful than Window Picture Viewer.

With Bridge open, just press F1 to access Adobe Community Help. click on 'Adobe 'Bridge' and then the 'Label and rate files' tutorial, then the 'Sort and filter files' tutorial.

 

[arcooke]

Thanks for the tips. I've poked around in bridge in the past, but it seemed really clunky/messy. It's been a while though, so maybe I'll give it another chance. Have you tried lightroom yourself? I'm wondering if that might be a better alternative since it's geared towards photographers, even if I choose not to use its editing features (and just use Photoshop). It's expensive but if it's worth it in the long run......