How do you sort, process, and organize your photos?

[Josef889]

I would love to have NAS, but am intimidated by the prospect of setting one up. Any advice?

Yeah, don’t be afraid

i got a Western Digital 2 bay NAS (the my cloud EX2 ultra) and its the easiest thing to set up, you have an app or you can access it using an IP address in your browser and the dashboard is super simple. Once connected to your network and fired up it’s a simple job of locating the drive on your network and after that it’ll work the same way as any other file folder on your computer.

Modern Routers mean you can also upload to it super fast, so it’s really not much different to an internal file.

This is helpful.. Thanks!

 

[DJ STU-C]

I would love to have NAS, but am intimidated by the prospect of setting one up. Any advice?

Yeah, don’t be afraid

i got a Western Digital 2 bay NAS (the my cloud EX2 ultra) and its the easiest thing to set up, you have an app or you can access it using an IP address in your browser and the dashboard is super simple. Once connected to your network and fired up it’s a simple job of locating the drive on your network and after that it’ll work the same way as any other file folder on your computer.

Modern Routers mean you can also upload to it super fast, so it’s really not much different to an internal file.

This is helpful.. Thanks!

No probs, don’t hesitate to start a thread with any more questions, I’m fairly certain there’s some other tech nerds in here who can help out, even if I can’t … its nowhere near as daunting as it looks though.

 

[mahidoes]

I copy my photos to my secondary mechanical hard drive using the import function in Adobe Bridge (which comes free with Photoshop). My operating system and applications are on a faster SSD.

I organise the photos into folders named by year, then month, then date.

Next, I open FastRawViewer to cull the images.

Then, using Total Commander, I back them up to a mechanical USB external drive. Total Commander is set to only copy the changes, which saves time.

For very important photos, I also upload them to the cloud. Selectively

I don't format the SD card until the backup is complete, and then I format it ready for the next shoot.

I don't usually edit the photos immediately unless it's for client work. I use Bridge and Camera Raw for my workflow, and if necessary, I'll open them in Photoshop. I don't use Lightroom or any other photo editing software.

If I've created any JPEGs or PSDs, I might then sync them with my backup drive.

 

[KariP]

Quite many have their own fine systems and create various folder collections.

I have tried something like that, but i never really succeeded

Now i have used Apple Photos as seeking of a DAM. It automatically creates a nice and clever library system. Many layers , places, faces , years, dates etc - anyway easy to use IMO.

Adjusting RAW files in photos is easy and the quality is acceptable.

Culling is also rather easy and fast ( i use some stars or something to tag the best ones)

Of course i'm also deleting unnecessary RAW file quite mercilessly. If i come home from a walk and i have 100 images on the card i upload them all to Photos. Fast culling and i delete about 60-70. Then i choose the 12 best and edit and check them in Capture One. Some images really "come to life" after some editing and some are not really that special. I will save the session with the nice 5 works of art ;-). A session is easy to open again and continue editing if needed.

Sometimes there is nothing to edit.

Capture One is the software i use if i want to print something big or i think the Photos has not enough power or editing quality . These "sessions" are often something i see as the best. These sessions i usually save in a separate folder - titled with date and some subject info.

 

[MJ_Photo38]

I may have a more convoluted method than most, but that's fine by me. First thing to mention is that I have quite a few cameras, and I don't want to mix files from several cameras in the same folder.

So for each camera, I have two folders, one for JPEGs and one for RAW files. Sometimes I shoot both, sometimes I shoot only RAW, it really depends on the camera I'm using.

In each, there's a folder with a "YYYY-MM" name structure, one per month.

I use Capture One to process my photos, I have a session for each camera in which I import photos from the RAW folders. When it comes to output, I have a single "export" folder for each camera.

That allows be to know precisely which camera has taken which photo, and when, without having to look at the metadate to see the date of capture.

I generally cull my photos on the camera directly before unloading the cards. It's much more practical for cameras where I shoot RAW only (I can zoom in, check critical sharpness etc without importing in a RAW viewer), and for cameras where I shoot RAW + JPEG, I can delete both files at the same time instead of going through the trouble of doing the job twice.

 

[grcolts]

I use ACDSEE Pro for cataloging and organizing my images (jpegs). Raw files go into a folder and are archived.

ACDSEE Pro is fast, easy and no subscription is required. You can use keywords, ratings and color to tag your images. Check it out.

--
GR
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gqr/
https://garyrichards.smugmug.com

 

[Camila Saunders]

To sort and organize my photos, firstly I manually look for the files that are of larger sizes and keep them in a single folder, especially video files. Secondly, I try to keep only the original versions so that their duplicates are not found. Both these steps helps me to arrange the photos neatly.

 

[Alacris]

Storage:

SD cards to the computer, syncs to Dropbox, which also syncs to a NAS in the basement. For those that mentioned complexity of a NAS -- Synology is pretty easy to setup, but you pay extra for that ease. Drives are usually separate, but easy to upgrade. Mine also has all our movies, music, along with photos and videos.

Workflow:

• Card to computer. I have dedicated sorting folder which is on Dropbox, so if I get backed up, I'm still covered.
• There I cull out complete losers deleting both JPG and RAW. At the same time I star rank photos. If the OOC photo survives, its jpeg goes to a year/month folder or a year/activity folder. The raw go to a separate but similarly structured folder.
• Next I import the starred raws to Capture One and begin editing.
• Once done editing, I export to the jpg folder with the same name, but _edit on the end so I know which was OOC and which was edited.

Software: Dropbox, Capture One, Amok Exif Sorter, and Fast Raw Viewer

I've been wanting to play around with using the app on the phone to backup photos while on vacation. I also keep separate folders for calibration, home improvement projects, experimenting, etc. That way they don't get folded into any slideshows.

 

[Morris0]

Carefully!

Morris

 

[Bruce in Virginia]

I have my own DAM scheme, mostly using Lightroom Classic, but my biggest challenge is to have quick access to the best pictures from an event.

I would like to shoot a family event or road trip, do my culling and sorting, and then be able to later quickly bring up only the best pictures for viewing on my phone or IPad. It works if I create a Lightroom CC collection, but then I’m tied to using the App to view the collection.

What I really want is an event slide show that can be accessed by any web browser and device. I could probably get it working by uploading the selected to Google photos or other web server, but then I have duplicated all my pictures and DAM structure on the web site.


I’ll offer another vote for the Synology NAS. Relatively easy to configure once you get through the choices for file system and get it connected to your WiFi.

I also installed the Plex server on my NAS, which gives you a lot of choices for delivering media to your TV/Roku, iPad or other devices that run the Plex App. For example, I have ripped most of my movie DVDs and added them to Plex so I can watch them from any device I’m using.

 

[David L. Moore]

When I migrated from a film to a digital workflow back in 2005 the book The DAM Book was a big help and I still follow the standards and systems recommend in that book. IMHO it is a must read.

Here is what I do...

Download all the RAW images from a shoot into a working folder.

Copy the same images onto a NAS. (Now that storage is cheap I keep the unedited RAW images in an archive "forever")

First cull using Adobe Bridge, I normally end up keeping about 1/4 of the images. It maybe helpful to let the images "rest" for a few week to give yourself some emotional distance so you can be more objective. I cull by looking for what I don't like rather then trying to find a winner.

Color profile the RAW images with ColorChecker, sorted by camera body and conditions (sunny, overcast, polarized or flash). Of course you have to remember to photograph the ColorChecker...

First processing using Adobe Camera Raw. Cropping, white balance, exposure, tweaking.

Second cull

Final processing, fine tuning, polishing...

Rename images, I like the format YYYYMMDD_subject.xxx or YYYYMMDD_client.xxx or a variation of this but always starting with the YYYYMMDD

Add contact and copyright metadata.

Make groups of 750 images for copyright registration (resize and output to JPEG, ZIP images, fill out ECO spreadsheet and submit to ECO)

Add description and keyword metadata to RAW images.

Output to JPEG (final image)

Backup processed RAW files, Backup JPEG images.

Rinse and repeat...

Hope this helps,

David L. Moore

 

[iau]

I organize my photos by date.

YYYY/YYYYMmm/yyyy-mm-dd_fnum.raw (where fnum is the framenumber given by the camera).

I also use collections in Lightroom Classic and I tag all the photos upon import (with Photo Mechanic).

I know the date is in the exif-info, but this is the easiest way for me to know where to look for a certain photo. I take pictures most every day and would have a hard time to categorize a walk in the park, some street photos or bird photos. Or just friends and families. Or travel.

It gives me a structure that works well and I have had it for 20 years now, and in the meantime migrated through several computers, softwares and photo programs. I have been using Lightroom since the first beta, but try out other programs from time to time.

- iau