Organizing Digital Photos - Your Method?

[Deemo]

It is timely that this board opened as I just picked up a new PC and want to start off on the right foot.

What is your method (obviously you think it is the best or you would do it another way) for organizing your digital photos - ie your folder structure?

Dates? Events?

I was going to email Jason to ask him before I saw that the board was open but I believe he won't be able to help but chime in. 8)

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Folders, by dates and names. ie

<date> - event

As I'm still using film, it's normally

<date> - emulsion - event

Also, date your dates (=P) in year/month/date, makes searching easier.

I also have two other directories, they're the workflow directory, as well as the final output directory.

[JR]

I sort them into folders named for the date and event. For example - 2004-03-01 - Joe's Birthday.

That way it sorts properly in Windows and, more importantly, Picasa (http://www.picasa.info/).

[backpackerx]

I usually use the event name for my individual folders. Like "Valentine's Day 2004" or "Family Reunion". That way at a glance you remember what is in there. If my folders were by date and just "July 20" I'd probably not remember what that day was or what happened until I had to open each folder to find out it's contents.
If you are going to be saving tons of pics it may be good to build in plenty of subfolders under categories Like the year they were taken or the types of shots you do like "people" "landscapes" "nature" "artistic" etc.

Anyways, that's how I organize mine.

[Macguy59]

I usually use the event name for my individual folders. Like "Valentine's Day 2004" or "Family Reunion". That way at a glance you remember what is in there. If my folders were by date and just "July 20" I'd probably not remember what that day was or what happened until I had to open each folder to find out it's contents.
If you are going to be saving tons of pics it may be good to build in plenty of subfolders under categories Like the year they were taken or the types of shots you do like "people" "landscapes" "nature" "artistic" etc.

Anyways, that's how I organize mine.

That's me to. I keep it simple when creating and labeling folders with the exception of subfolders. For instance I have a folder labeled "Nephew" but have many subfolders underneath that like "2nd birthday" or "xmas 2003", etc. But I'm usually shooting less then 75 pics per month.

[ale2999]

thx for the tip guys, it will be usefull to me!

[SassKwatch]

What is your method (obviously you think it is the best or you would do it another way) for organizing your digital photos - ie your folder structure?

Dates? Events?
All the above....plus others.

I use IMatch (http://www.photools.com). Pretty slick app, but not without a learning curve.

[backpackerx]

I've heard good things from Picasa (http://picasa.biz) on this forum. I haven't tried it but Jason says it's good so............. :)

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4489

[Gary Sheynkman]

I've heard good things from Picasa (http://picasa.biz) on this forum. I haven't tried it but Jason says it's good so............. :)

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4489

picasa is all good :wink: check for a review later on.

[Suhit Gupta]

My recommendation, though not an easy one, is to put all the images in a database. That way organization can be done in one of many ways based on your queries. Unfortunately, I have not found a sufficiently robust program that will do this for me, i.e. in addition to storing pics in a db, allow me to add arbitrarily complex tags to the images so that I can cross reference them across multiple galleries, and all this with robust security. I have been meaning to write one myself for some time now, perhaps I should just get off my ass and work on it. ;-)

Suhit

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

SassKwatch's recommendation seems pretty good. I'll have to check that out soon.

[Timothy Huber]

Previous to using Photoshop Album I used a Year/Month/Event or Date folder structure. Now I just use Album to import the photos from my digital camera and organize them with the tags. The ability to work with multiple tags is far more effective than my old folder system.

Timothy

[sundown]

Similar to what others have suggestd so far, I organize first by date and then in a seperate folder structure, by subject. I've also been adding keywords to some so I can use Ulead Photo Explorer to search. It takes more hard drive space but HD's are cheap and this gives me 3 ways to find photos, which otherwise would be difficult because I have thousands.

[mrwickham]

Another application to look at is Portfolio 6.0 by extensis. Very good. It also includes movies files as well.
http://www.extensis.com/portfolio/index.html?ref=hp

Photoshop Album is pretty good as well. If you looking for quick retrieval of images BreezeBrowser is also a great program and it includes the RAW file format.

I would recommend that you download the trial versions and see what layout you like and then buy one and stick with it. Image storage and organization is individual in nature and developed over a long period of time.[/url]

[Macguy59]

Jason et all you have made me a convert. Picasa is now my photo organizer (still using Photoshop Elements for heavy lifting) :D

[Crocuta]

Another application to look at is Portfolio 6.0 by extensis. Very good.

I took a look, but $200?! With Photoshop Album at $40, it would have to be much, much better to justify the price. (Of course, I'm downloading it to see if it is that much better. I wouldn't want to miss out on something exceptional just for not checking it out.) I imagine I'll go ahead and buy PS Album. I need something more than my folder-based system and Album looks like it will meet my needs.

[bgate]

I must say...

-Picasa looks pretty smooth.
-PS Album won the PC Mag shootout.
-IMatch looks very strong. (It was not included in the PC Mag article.)

I vote for a Picasa / IMatch Compare!

[Andy Manea]

I use ACDSee to organize my pics, has anyone tried version 6 yet and is it worth the upgrade?

name folders and subfolders by topics, pic names dates (2004_feb_001.jpg) when important (nephew), otherwise specific info, like:

Nature --> Flora --> Trees_001.jpg

[marlof]

I'm using Photoshop Album 2 (I simply love their implementation of Tags and Timeline) on my Windows desk, and since iPhoto4 that is workable on my iBook. Previously, I used iView Media Pro for my catalog on Mac OS X. I never bother with folders and filenames. I just let the program take care of the tagging, and I find my pictures that way.

[Bob12]

I use a concept similar to others but (for me), somewhat simpler. In the My Pictures folder, I create a folder named for the year (2003, 2004, etc.) Then, within each folder, I create a subfolder for each event I photograph. Those folders may or may not have subfolders also, depending on the event.

[Mr. MacinTiger]

On the Mac side try:
iPhoto, iView Media Pro, Canto Cumulus, Extensis Portfolio

On the Win side try:
Picasa, Adobe Photoship Album

[bgate]

A heads up to everyone out there. Jasc has opened the public beta of Paint Shop Photo Album 5. As I use PSP and have been testing IMatch and Picasa, I'm giving it a shot.

Initial reaction - It's hitting the midground between IMatch and Picasa. It appears to have the finish of Picasa and the power (I like catagories more than keywords) of IMatch. The archiving feature looks to be promising as well.

Thought all would like to know.

[ppcsurfr]

I do it this way...

2003.03.12.Eten_P300_product_shots

Year.Month.Day.subject (or event)

I think that's the most logical and I see some follow a very similar system.

Mabuhay!!!

Carlo