Photo Management

[BeauJangles]

Making the transition to digital has involved lots of learning for me, but I'm surprised that I find myself confused / stumped over this question - how do you keep track of your images? What software do you use?

I'm playing around with a demo of lightroom and it seems to offer some basic library features, but I feel like the interface will bog down when you try to load too many images. I've also looked into programs like iView MediaPro. If I used something like Iview, though, how should I organize my library files? Should they be organized by import date? Should I rate them and tag them in iView or in lightroom?

AND, when I finally have processed the image, where should I save the .psd file for further processing / sharpening in photoshop?

I'm so confused!!!

 

[OdiN]

I like Adobe Bridge for arranging photos in an order, then batch renaming them.

I just have stuff in folders. Weddings/Landscapes/Portraits, and then by year under that and then by the name. Then just put all their photos in there.

You can really do it anyway you want.

 

[DrVos]

I've transitioned fully to Lightroom and have found it a welcomed addition to my workflow.

I set it up download my images to folders to named by event...since dates are often meaningless to me. I really like Lightoom's integration with Photoshop: when I'm done with my basic fixes in LR like cropping, contrast, saturation, straightening out horizons etc, I can have LR open a copy of the image in Photoshop for for intense touchups. When the file is saved, LR "stacks" the fixed image on top of the original in the library view so that everything looks nice and tidy. I also flag my fav's so I can filter my view to just display them.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: DrVos
I've transitioned fully to Lightroom and have found it a welcomed addition to my workflow.

I set it up download my images to folders to named by event...since dates are often meaningless to me. I really like Lightoom's integration with Photoshop: when I'm done with my basic fixes in LR like cropping, contrast, saturation, straightening out horizons etc, I can have LR open a copy of the image in Photoshop for for intense touchups. When the file is saved, LR "stacks" the fixed image on top of the original in the library view so that everything looks nice and tidy. I also flag my fav's so I can filter my view to just display them.

So you use lightroom to manage all of your photos. Does this become cumbersome or slow down the program at all? Or do you keep different database files?

 

[Anubis]

personally i dont use any software to keep track of my images

i manually organize them
normally like ithis
Photos/Year/Date

every time i import photos i make a new folder for that day/shoot
i use Thumbs+ as a thumbnail viewer so i can see alot at once, but thats it, i hate bridge and lightroom rund liek crap on my computer + id rather just use PS

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: Anubis
personally i dont use any software to keep track of my images

i manually organize them
normally like ithis
Photos/Year/Date

every time i import photos i make a new folder for that day/shoot
i use Thumbs+ as a thumbnail viewer so i can see alot at once, but thats it, i hate bridge and lightroom rund liek crap on my computer + id rather just use PS

How do you get the RAW images into Photoshop then?

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber

Originally posted by: Anubis
personally i dont use any software to keep track of my images

i manually organize them
normally like ithis
Photos/Year/Date

every time i import photos i make a new folder for that day/shoot
i use Thumbs+ as a thumbnail viewer so i can see alot at once, but thats it, i hate bridge and lightroom rund liek crap on my computer + id rather just use PS

How do you get the RAW images into Photoshop then?

drag them with the mouse from the folder, or i use File->Open

how else would i do it?

i can actually drag right from thumbs+ as well, which i do alot as i have dual mons and its pretty easy to have each on a seperate mon

 

[Rottie]

I manage my photo and folder with easy to use and very simple called Canon ZoomBrowser EX it is free with Canon digital camera

ZoomBrowser EX

 

[tdawg]

I have a folder hierarchy system that I personally use and I use Lightroom to browse thru and work on images. My directory structure works like this: Unprocessed Photos/RAW Nefs/20070728_Blue Angels/. All images retain their original filename. Further information is stored in the metadata attached to the image.

Lightroom is nice for getting images off cards, adding them to my directory structure, and adding them to my LR library so I can begin working on them. Programs like Photo Mechanic have a much more robust image ingest application as it's much more customizable than LR, but I got my copy of LR for free and really I don't like using more than one program on a regular basis, so I make do.

 

[OdiN]

I use RAWShooter a lot for editing/converting RAW images, BTW.

It used to be free, but now I don't even think you can get it anymore =/

Well Premium wasn't free but you can't buy it anymore...wish I could.

 

[indamixx99]

I just started using Google's Picasa. I think it's pretty nice - almost like an iPhoto interface. Plus, it syncs directly with Picasa's web albums, so its easy to upload your images online.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: indamixx99
I just started using Google's Picasa. I think it's pretty nice - almost like an iPhoto interface. Plus, it syncs directly with Picasa's web albums, so its easy to upload your images online.

It's cool to use, but I found it far too limiting. The directory structure they added later on felt so tacked on. I found iPhoto pretty useless too actually.

I use Aperture myself, but I used to organize it manually... then changed it all to camera/year/month-day. I'm going to stick w/ camera/year/month-day, seems to work best for me.

And then use aperture to fine tune things. Granted, that ties me to aperture a bit and goes against what I usually think... but I've become a bit lazy. Was going to switch to Lightroom, but just can't get the hang of it (or rather, can't break my Aperture habits)

 

[alfa147x]

when i was on a pc i had light room But i hated it, i just bought a MacBook and I love using Aperture I have recommended it to all my friends.

 

[Jawo]

I just organize by Camera/Year/Month/Event, then have for my backup following Canon's file format (seperate HDD); it has worked for me for years since I like hierachial file structures. But then again, I started using Flicker and Picasa and like the tagging ability; makes it easier to organize pictures instead of duplicating images (and taking up file space).

 

[IronWing]

I use ThumbsPlus from www.cerious.com . It allows for galleries, image tagging, batch processing, and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[Brainonska511]

I don't really use any programs for my photos. I use the Canon software to load them onto my computer and review them, but then they just go into a directory like this:

/My Pictures/Digital Camera/Year-Month-Day - Event
ie: /My Pictures/Digital Camera/2007-02-09 - Ski Trip

I have thought about getting PS Lightroom, but that would be more for editing a little than for organizing.

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: OdiN
I like Adobe Bridge for arranging photos in an order, then batch renaming them.

I just have stuff in folders. Weddings/Landscapes/Portraits, and then by year under that and then by the name. Then just put all their photos in there.

You can really do it anyway you want.

Agreed. I'm currently using CS3 and it's a great tool for Photo Management.

 

[soydios]

I first got into digital photography a year ago, and promptly downloaded the Lightroom beta. I've been using Lightroom for my workflow ever since, it's great. I run it on my desktop, which is fairly powerful (C2D E6600, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Vista x64), so I can't comment on how efficient it is performance-wise. I don't have Photoshop yet, so I just use Lightroom for all my basic touch-ups.

For a high-volume workflow, I cannot recommend Lightroom enough. Want to quickly import, triage, delete, touch up, and export a few hundred photos? Lightroom is built for exactly that. Learn the keyboard shortcuts (G,L,R,E,X,1-5, etc.), and they will enable you to work so much faster.

 

[TheChort]

Originally posted by: soydios
I first got into digital photography a year ago, and promptly downloaded the Lightroom beta. I've been using Lightroom for my workflow ever since, it's great. I run it on my desktop, which is fairly powerful (C2D E6600, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Vista x64), so I can't comment on how efficient it is performance-wise. I don't have Photoshop yet, so I just use Lightroom for all my basic touch-ups.

For a high-volume workflow, I cannot recommend Lightroom enough. Want to quickly import, triage, delete, touch up, and export a few hundred photos? Lightroom is built for exactly that. Learn the keyboard shortcuts (G,L,R,E,X,1-5, etc.), and they will enable you to work so much faster.

does LR work for RAW processing?

 

[corkyg]

I use a system simiular to Anubis. I keep all my images on three texternal HDDs. They are all clones of the first drive - triple redundancy. I catalog my photos by subject, then by day or event. RAW images have their own folder. So do tech images.

For the good stuff, they are also put onto CDRs or DVDs with runtime slide show viewers.

I have all of the software mentioned above, but don't use it for organizing or archiving. They each have their quirks and strong points.

My default viewer is Irfanview in both Vista and XP.

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: TheChort

Originally posted by: soydios
I first got into digital photography a year ago, and promptly downloaded the Lightroom beta. I've been using Lightroom for my workflow ever since, it's great. I run it on my desktop, which is fairly powerful (C2D E6600, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Vista x64), so I can't comment on how efficient it is performance-wise. I don't have Photoshop yet, so I just use Lightroom for all my basic touch-ups.

For a high-volume workflow, I cannot recommend Lightroom enough. Want to quickly import, triage, delete, touch up, and export a few hundred photos? Lightroom is built for exactly that. Learn the keyboard shortcuts (G,L,R,E,X,1-5, etc.), and they will enable you to work so much faster.

does LR work for RAW processing?

You bet it does. It shares the same RAW processing engine as Adobe Camera Raw, which is how Photoshop imports RAW images. So, it gets updated fairly quickly as new DSLRs hit the market. It fully works with the encrypted white balance in Nikon .NEF files, too.

 

[TheChort]

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: TheChort

Originally posted by: soydios
I first got into digital photography a year ago, and promptly downloaded the Lightroom beta. I've been using Lightroom for my workflow ever since, it's great. I run it on my desktop, which is fairly powerful (C2D E6600, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Vista x64), so I can't comment on how efficient it is performance-wise. I don't have Photoshop yet, so I just use Lightroom for all my basic touch-ups.

For a high-volume workflow, I cannot recommend Lightroom enough. Want to quickly import, triage, delete, touch up, and export a few hundred photos? Lightroom is built for exactly that. Learn the keyboard shortcuts (G,L,R,E,X,1-5, etc.), and they will enable you to work so much faster.

does LR work for RAW processing?

You bet it does. It shares the same RAW processing engine as Adobe Camera Raw, which is how Photoshop imports RAW images. So, it gets updated fairly quickly as new DSLRs hit the market. It fully works with the encrypted white balance in Nikon .NEF files, too.

you don't work for Adobe, do you

 

[nero2]

I use Bridge for my photo management. I don't know if you're going to end up using PS to edit your images, but if you are I'd take a hard look at Bridge (which comes with PS) or Lightroom. Adobe's Camera RAW plugin is great, and being able to load images directly into PS w/ the plugin is a great boon.

My file structure looks like this: 2007\07-07-21_Siren_Festival
I leave the selects (RAW files, sidecars and edited PSDs) in the root directory and move the rejects into a \rejects folder. For posting to the web I usually have a \JPG folder as well.