Cataloging digital photos

[stacymunn]

I am cataloging my digital photos in Extensis Portfolio. I don't know whether to:
a) create one large catalog for all my photos and within that set up create galleries for architecture, nature, portraits, abstract, etc. or
b) create separate catalogs for each of the main categories (architecture, nature, portraits, abstract, etc.) and use the galleries to create sub-categories, or
c) something completely different.

I have about 1000 digital photos currently and the number will be increasing rapidly. I will store them all on a 500GB LaCie external hard drive. I plan to use Portfolio exclusively for my photos, not for digital graphics, illustrations, etc.

Can anyone give me some guidance on how to set up my Portfolio catalog(s)?

I don't have all the categories figured out yet, but have researched some of the big image libraries for ideas. Any suggested category lists would also be greatly appreciated.

[Ikinaa]

I don't knew extensis Portfolio, but just a thought...
There are sure pictures that would fit in more categories, example: A landscape-shot could also fit in the animals-categorie.
Has Portfolio the ability to only link between categories or also between catalogs.
If you can't interlink catalogs, I guess you have to make a copy of a picture fitting in more catalogues for evey catalogue it will go in...

[who10]

I'm far from an expert, but here's my take. I use Extensis with a 2 catalog system:

1) Master catalog is loaded with every raw file (or original jpg) in my entire Canon archive (around 7000 files). When I get time I go through looking for images that were never processed that I want to work on, and copy them to a work disk.

2) Working catalog is loaded with all work in process and finished files (raw files and any derivative psd, tiff and jpg) - about a 1000 right now.

The master catalog monitors a directory called "RawImages" (with the subdirectories D60, 10D, S50, Other). I copy the folders right from the CompactFlash just as they are created in the DCIM directory (using continuous numbering). As new raw files are downloaded to disk, Extensis automatically updates the catalog.

Generally I use C1 or PSCS to cull images right after I add them to the raw archive disk, and copy those I intend to process to second hard-drive. The working catalog monitors all of the folders on this drive and automatically adds psd, jpg and tiff files as they are created in either Photoshop or C1.

When I want to find an old unprocessed image I look for it in the master catalog, and then copy it (from Extensis) to the work in progress raw folder - Extensis automatically updates the working catalog when the file is copied over, and subsequently adds any jpg/tiff/psd file I create.

Periodically I archive raw files from the Master catalog to DVD (Extensis keeps trackof where they are). I also create DVDs as image sets from the working catalog (Raw +its associated jpg/tiff/psd).

What's nice about this system is I only have to load existing files once - after that Extensis updates the catalogs whenever new files are copied or created in any of the monitored locations. If I don't know where an image is, I look for it in the master - if it is a file I've worked on before Extensis maintains a keyword to cross reference it's copy.

I'm still learning the product, but what I've described works great for me. I suspect Extensis allows more integration among catalogs - but I haven't had time to find out or need for it yet.

Hope this helps

David

[stacymunn]

Thanks for the posts, Ikinaa and David. After reading your responses, info on www.portfoliofaq.com, reading the Best Practices Guide and viewing all the tutorial video clips on the Extensis site, I'm well on my way to cataloging.

I created one catalog for all my original images. I like your idea of a raw catalog and a working catalog, David. I will use that system myself. I underestimated my current number of photos; 3000 and counting. I kept my master keyword list short, with the following entries:
Abstract
Architecture
Family
Friends
Nature
Portrait
Sports
I noticed that the quick search is case sensitive, so perhaps I should change these keywords (and the item keywords) to all lower case?

I'm using the folders panel to organize files and folders rather than galleries.

I spent most of the weekend cataloging and I'm not even a fifth of the way through all the files! I dread the day I realize I should start over because I set things up wrong. Yesterday I went to the Jacque Henri Lartigue exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. He had 150,000 photos that he cataloged by hand and pasted into albums. It was inspiring.

I've read a lot of warnings about LaCie external drives failing altogether. Advice is to save backups to CD or DVD. One reason I purchased the external drive is because I read in Photography Monthly magazine that recent tests show photo files saved to CD may become corrupt after only a few years. Seems now I have to have my photos as slides, on CD and on a hard drive to be safe. So much for saving space by getting rid of my stacks of CDs. I suppose I'll buy a DVD burner in the future which will consolidate quite a bit.

Stacy Munn

[stacymunn]

Initially I thougth the QuidkFind feature in Portfolio was case sensitve. But after receiving info from the members on the PortfolioFAQ forum and running tests of my own, I understand it is NOT case sensitive.

What I didn't realize earlier was that if you run a QuickFind and don't get any results (and therefore have an empty gallery) then subsequently run a QuickFind again, Portfolio will automatically run that search on the entire catalog.

[meesey]

i too have tons of photos, upwords of about 5000-6000 images, i have not yet come up with a system other than the fact that i know where they all are lol. reall though, right now i have them seperated into folders by date and years, in the 2003 folder i have jan-dec, 2004, jan-dec. it is simple enough for me right now, if i can ever find the time i am going to make a microsoft access database of my files, then i can create entries for every image and put as many key eords to that image as i like and then create querries to ask the database, such as search for landscapes, and then it will pop up a box with every photo that has "landscape" for a keyword, and if it had buffalo in the image also it would work if i search for "animals", of course i am still learning access lol

[ejwebb]

meesy,

if i can ever find the time i am going to make a microsoft access database of my files, then i can create entries for every image and put as many key eords to that image as i like and then create querries to ask the database

Might be less work to use software created for that purpose. There is software that is easier to use and less expensive than the Extensis products discussed her that might still suit your needs.

The beauty of the software is that you keep your surrent file system and create keywords and categories - even rankings of the photos. You can then view photos by file folder, category, ranking, even accross categories to get photos that have characteristics in common - like "wife" and "son". Most of the software even keeps thumbnails in the catalogue once you burn them to cd so you can include them in the search and insert the necessary cd when prompted. The dedicated software also makes the categorization and searching much more user friendly and fast than I imagine an Access database would be since it was designed for this specific purpose.

There have been a few posts on this lately and there are several programs to choose from at reasonable prices. I am currently trying several free trial versions of products in the $50 range and am leaning toward ACDSee at the moment. Photoshop Album sent me an offer for $30 once I downloaded the triial version but I just don't like it as well as ACDSee. Good luck with it.