Photo categories.

[Samuel.z]

While i look through my photos i have a wide variety of styles.
I got this great idea of sorting them into categories and realised that im not really sure what kind of categories that are commonly used and therefor i am not sure how i should sort some of them.

i have the following categories at the moment but i still feel like i cant get all my photos in the right category.

Landscape
Black n White
Portrait
Nature
Animals
Urban
Night
Lightpainting
Astrophotoraphy
Action

how do you sort your photos?

What are the most common categories to sort by?
How would you define each category?
How specific can we get with subfolders without it getting messy?
What categories do you use when sorting?

Feel free to make description on the used categories as well. I want to hear what you think fits under each category.

 

[The_Traveler]

The big issues about categories is that they should be mutually self-exclusive.
Thus there can't be Landscapes that are B&W or Animals that also fit in Nature.

I keep photos in year month day folders but they are keyworded in Lightrrom as to which different categories they also fall in.

 

[Samuel.z]

The big issues about categories is that they should be mutually self-exclusive.
Thus there can't be Landscapes that are B&W or Animals that also fit in Nature.


View attachment 130674

I see the problem. will these keywords exist in the final file?

I might just make my own program to find these keywords and show the files with those keywords.
the reason i ask and not try it out myself is because i don't have LR on the current computer i'm on.

 

[The_Traveler]

If you are shooting in a RAW format, the keywords will be in the sidecar file (*.xmp, *.orf etc.).
Same filename with different extension
These are probably all text files and so are searchable.

 

[john.margetts]

The big issues about categories is that they should be mutually self-exclusive.
Thus there can't be Landscapes that are B&W or Animals that also fit in Nature.

why not? I don't use Lightroom - is this a technical requirement? I use tags and they certainly are not mutually exclusive.

 

[480sparky]

I don't use LR, so I catalog my images the old-fashioned way. Using files in File Manager.

I use generic keywords when ingesting images, then add more when I edit each image.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I don't use Lightroom either. I label files by whatever it was and whenever I took the photos. Like Summer 2015, such 'n such place. So I know what it is when I want to find a photo I took last summer at whatever place(s) I went...

I suppose if you sort by categories you'd have to decide if a photo fits more than one category, which seems to be the primary purpose or description? Were you out shooting with B&W in mind? Were you out shooting landscapes and that's what comes to mind when you think of a particular photo or series of photos? It probably needs to be something that you'll know/remember what it means.

 

[Samuel.z]

My initial thought was ta have 2 main folders 1 with all the raw files sorted by date and one folder with all the finalized photos sorted into categories.

 

[KmH]

Tell us what application you use to manage your digital image files.

You might benefit from reading The DAM Book.
The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers