Workflow/Organization Help

[Jim78]

Up to pretty much today I've always shot jpeg and uploaded/edited them with Google Photos, with very little to no sorting and then deleted what i don't want, basically letting Google do it all. I've downloaded all my old photos and loosely sorted them into folders and synced them to OneDrive, which for now I'm happy (ish) with. I'm not using any software other than the file manager and Fastone for editing.

I want to start shooting raw, firstly to learn how, but also so I've got all the unedited files to fall back on. I basically need to sort myself out! So, what next? What is the best way to go about importing them and renaming them etc? I'm guessing I can at least do that much via the file manager, but it's clearly really simplistic - no tags or anything and no editor.

I could really do with some pointers for A) the sorting and B) an editor. I've not thought about shooting raw for years, so know very little about current software, like are there any decent free ones? Do I need a subscription (which I hate, and also I'm not making any money from my photos, so it seems extravagant).

Any pointers on getting started would be great.

My plan so far is to copy the folder from my camera every shoot, rename the files therein and back them up!

 

[Larry_T]

Greetings and welcome. I keep having the same internal debate and for now I keep settling on shooting JPEG and using Apple Photos for sorting and storage. I am very happy with the quality of my photos from my Nikon Z6iii , Z lenses and light PP. I post on social media, and sometimes print in a photo book or to frame. I can't answer your question, but ask yourself what it is you are looking to achieve. Are you not happy with your photos after PP (there are a lot of editors out there), do you want to print and/or sell photos, Do you shoot complex situations like BIF or sports. I can't tell you to stay with JPEG but maybe you are looking for a solution to a problem that does not really exist. Best of luck.

 

[yardcoyote]

I import and do the initial sort using my own file manager. My file naming system is Camera-Year-Lens-Date-Event or Location for day to day when I only carry one camera and lens and Event/Date-Camera-Lens for one day events with multiple cameras. Multi day events like travel are Trip-Camera-Day or Location-Lens.

This works for me because I almost never change lenses in the field-- each camera goes out for to walk or for the day with one lens on it. If you are a lens swapper you may not sort each folder by lens initially. If you only own or use one camera, you would of course eliminate the first element of the naming structure.

 

[Felix_N]

It probably isn't the most popular but for the last few years I've been using Darktable for all my file organization, RAW processing and most of my image editing - free and open source. I have seen some people complain about the user interface but I've found it to be pretty user friendly personally (although that may be because I started with it instead of trying to move to it from Adobe).

 

[Klaus dk]

I shoot raw+jpg. If the jpg is good enough, I use it as is. If tweaks are needed, I use the raw converter supplied by the manufacturer. It takes care of most controls, but for pixel level editing, I use Affinity Photo, which you buy for a one-time fee that is like 6 months of Adobe subscription.

 

[esheato]

Lots of options here, but I shoot raw exclusively and I process/organize with Lightroom accepting the subscription cost as part of the hobby. I don't get wound up about it and just enjoy what I shoot. I do also use DXO and Photoshop, but the heavy lifting is done by LR. I highly highly recommend a Kelby book about LR usage and tips on setup/organization as it was tremendously helpful to me about 15 years ago.

Let me be very clear, once you start managing folders/files from within LR, it needs to be your default organizational tool for those folders. Where you realllllllly mess yourself up is if you go to typical file management tools like file manager and start moving things around. When you get back to LR, it doesn't know where you put stuff and will hiccup all over the place. Kelby explains it better than I do.

Organization:

1. OS drive and data drive...they don't overlap. Data drive is for photography.
2. Business folder (Profiles & Light Photography side hustle)
   1. 2024
   2. 2025
      1. ex 06 Newborn Smith
3. Personal folder (family, vacations, children, etc)
   1. Digital
      1. 2024
      2. 2025
         1. ex 12 Christmas w Son
   2. Film
      1. 2025
         1. ex 06 VACATION Lancaster

Naming convention is by year, then 01-12 for months and activity or location: for example 06 VACATION Lancaster was last weekend indicating June, it was a vacay, and Lancaster PA.

Process is:

1. Import to LR (add tags, use correct file/folder structure)
2. Let it process (convert to DNG, blah, blah)
3. Cull for rejects and delete
4. Cull for items to develop and keep...flag keepers.
5. Run keepers through DXO noise reduction software
6. Develop within LR
7. Use PS as necessary
8. Export as full size JPEG
9. Upload to Smugmug for personal usage or Pic-Time for client delivery

I have two backups; one on site with a NAS and one in the cloud using Backblaze ($99/year).

 

[F9DOG]

For me, having a hierarchy based mainly on Date as the root folder doesnt work, as who can remember what year they took a photo? - I cant.

I organise, in File Explorer, by subject. For me, this is intuitive and logical. Here is a basic example of my folder structure/ :

• Animals
  • Birds
  • Dogs
    • DogName date
• Days Out
  • LocationA
  • LocationB
  • LocationB (date if location visited mutiple times)
• People
  • PersonA (date)
  • PersonB (date)
• etc

Each folder stores the RAW files, and then there is a sub folder called JPG Final where I store the edited images - i.e:

• Animals
  • Dogs
    • DogName date
      • JPG Final

All files are stored on an external SSD drive, synched to Google Drive for backup.

I retain only a rolling 5 years worth of RAW files (I purge every so often) , but keep the JPGs.

I then use Lightroom for editing and creating Collections (a whole other topic that is worth your own research). Arguably, you can leave the original files in Archive and just move on with the new structure for new photos if your file store is very large.

When importing into LR, I am pretty ruthless on deleting those that dont make the grade of 4* or 5*. No point keeping files I will never use.

As for your current store of Photos, I had a similar dilemma years ago before I came across my current structure. I created a root folder called Archive, and moved the whole original structure into this. I then created the new structure under the root - Photos. Bit by bit I moved old photos to the new structure. No point in renaming the original files. Once all moved to the correct structure, allow Lightroom to "see" the new set of folders and files (separate topic)

--
Fuji XT-5
(27 2.8), (33 1.4), (16-55), (50-140), (100-400), (1.4 TC)

 

[esheato]

For me, having a hierarchy based mainly on Date as the root folder doesnt work, as who can remember what year they took a photo? - I cant.

Ha, funny how our brains work.

I don't necessarily remember the dates, but can correlate "it was approx 2015 when I did such and such", and clicking the top level year folder shows all sub-folder images, so it's not as bad as one would assume to flip through it and find what I'm looking for. As I'm getting older, I've considered creating a new top level folder for each decade...my decades, not calendar decades. It would be really easy to say "this happened in my 30s" or "this was totally in my 40s" and then drill down into only the 10 folders under it.

Good keywording habits also makes a huge difference.

 

[mclewis]

For me, having a hierarchy based mainly on Date as the root folder doesnt work, as who can remember what year they took a photo? - I cant.

It doesn't really matter. If you keyword stuff appropriately the folder schema is pretty much irrelevant as you can find stuff via keywords that describe what is in the photo and you can also search for any other metadata or combinations of metadata.

All my photos are stored in dated folders because that makes most sense for me. Trying to sort into subject folders gets complicated when a photos can go into multiple folders. Again with proper keywording that is a non issue.

 

[atom14]

Up to pretty much today I've always shot jpeg and uploaded/edited them with Google Photos, with very little to no sorting and then deleted what i don't want, basically letting Google do it all. I've downloaded all my old photos and loosely sorted them into folders and synced them to OneDrive, which for now I'm happy (ish) with. I'm not using any software other than the file manager and Fastone for editing.

I want to start shooting raw, firstly to learn how, but also so I've got all the unedited files to fall back on. I basically need to sort myself out! So, what next? What is the best way to go about importing them and renaming them etc? I'm guessing I can at least do that much via the file manager, but it's clearly really simplistic - no tags or anything and no editor.

I could really do with some pointers for A) the sorting and B) an editor. I've not thought about shooting raw for years, so know very little about current software, like are there any decent free ones? Do I need a subscription (which I hate, and also I'm not making any money from my photos, so it seems extravagant).

Any pointers on getting started would be great.

My plan so far is to copy the folder from my camera every shoot, rename the files therein and back them up!

The OP hasn't bothered to come back to this thread, but has wandered elsewhere in the two weeks since posting it. - Nice!

at :-| m14.