How do you catalogue your images?

[slicendice]

As I'm starting to take more and more pictures, I'm realising I need to be slightly more organised in how I catalogue them.

How do you catalogue your pictures? By date? By subject matter? By location? Do you use any particular software to help?

All recommendations for the most effective approach gratefully received!

[tim]

I do it by date, using DIM (http://alanlight.com).

[chris.bailey]

I keep photos in date order directories and then catalogue by subject using Extensis Portfolio. Expensive and hard to learn but it works very well and seems to be the choice of people who have many thousands of pic to keep a track of.

[Andy_T]

By date, using folders.
Not really very sophisticated.

Best regards,
Andy

[AjP]

I don't use any soft, keep all pics in folders by event

[Jon]

I keep the file names (almost) the same - such as 122-2217_20D.* would be from camera folder 122, frame 2217, taken with the 20D. I archive them in copies of the original folders (renamed from 122CANON to 122C_20D to identify the camera), but file the copies I'll work with in a directory tree organized by subject. Example - H:\Photos\Horses\East Coast Arabians\2005\. If I want to file something under multiple categories, I create a short-cut in folders after the first one. That way, I'm always opening the same picture even if I've edited it somewhere else.

[chris.bailey]

Not really very sophisticated.


Describes me perfectly :-)

Have tried all sorts of other ways and returned to good old 2005/Feb/21/Raw_Inbox.

In Portfolio I then set up folder watchers for Months and Years and then set up Catalogs for particular subjects or events or shoots.

[PaulEY]

By event/date and then in each of those folders an edited folder for keeping edited/retouched versions of those files.

[dewmuw]

I use a filing system that categorises pics into subject and sub-subject folder (eg folder = flowers, sub-folders = yellow flowers, red flowers) and so on.

I do it this was so that when someone says "I want to buy that red squirrel image from your website" I just go to my system, click animals, click mammals and I'm off and running.

Works for me.

[condyk]

I keep so few and most I do keep relate to travelling so I just use country visited and sometimes I add a few sub folders that apply to a specific country. Then I have a Misc. folder with quite a bit of stuff that I won't keep (probably) but haven't chucked yet!

[Steve Parr]

I burn 'em to a CD, with title and, if I can remember it, the date...

Steve

[robertwgross]

I shoot RAW, so the shots are consecutively numbered. When I get to the RAW converter, I can assign a different filename, so I use a system of months and topics, for example:

AugPark0001.TIF

Within so many months, files get backed up so that I will never have two years with the same Aug month in it in the same directory.

---Bob Gross---

[Jon, The Elder]

AndyThaler + RobertGross + Jon Ferguson method, back up to external hardrive, burn DVD when finished.
label DVD with event+month/day+year.
If the event was comprised of several dates I add the legend "1 of 6", "2 of 6", etc.
Once a year burn safety copies and store off-site.

I have a hard copy of the workflow/routine filed in the "workflow" folder of a file cabinet.

Recently sold copies of a 'high point' winner from last January. Took 10 minutes from start to mailer. Nice return on time invested.

[the.digital.guy]

Use PhotoShop Elements 3.0 to organize all...(Great!!!!)
Use CS2 to process....Do not care for "Bridge"

[primoz]

I have my own "software" which automaticaly sorts photos to directories based on events (alpine skiing goes to one, xc skiing to other etc.). It's pretty similar to what Canto Cumulus is doing just a bit cheaper :)
All my photos have iptc stuff done so search is possible by keywords, captions, dates etc. and all of files are renamed. That's it. If I would have "system" with folders by dates or events I would never find anything anymore since it's pain in a** if you have few 100.000 photos in archive. :)

[mkh]

I use DIM to move my photos into a structure based on year/month/date. It creates the same structure under a backup directory. I'm in the process of moving this function over to Downloader Pro. Next I jump to Faststone for quick culling of my images (not the \bachup ones). After that I load PSE3 and categorize all of my images. I have categories setup for just about everything. This allows me to find every photo multiple different ways.

[vjack]

I'm still trying to figure out what to use. I really liked the earlier versions of Photoshop Album, but they won't handle raw. Somehow, the idea of buying Elements 3 when I already have CS2 seems silly.

[paulhillion]

I've tried quite a few different programs for sorting my images & 'iView MediaPro' is the one I use & recommend, it's very powerful & easy to use. Ok it's a tad expencive but you get what you pay for!

[vjack]

I just uninstalled a trial version of ACDsee 7.0 I had been playing with. I didn't particularly care for it. I also tried a trial of Elements 3 for the organizer part. While I really liked the prior Photoshop Album software, this program seemed extremely slow and somewhat buggy. Still, I haven't found anything I like better. It looks like I can get a full Elements 3 from eBay for about $30. Even though I don't need the editor, I suppose that might be worth it.

[jfrancho]

Folders:
[yyyy_mm_dd]-[description]
2005_08_01-momsGardens
Each folder gets these sub directories:
raw (raw files)
develop (conversions from ACR or C1)
dev (layered psd files)
fin (flattened psd or tiff)
jpeg (ready for web)

I rename each file with the same date/desc formula as the parent dir, but sometimes adding sub-descriptions, like bnw, duo, bnwCalc, flower_02, etc.

I do all of this in Adobe Bridge. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's just a few keystrokes in Batch.

[Tom W]

By Date for general photography:

year/month/mm_dd_yyyy

Any events get their own folder under year/month/event.

I add subfolders for processed images, and specific subfolders if some are done in a specific way. Final images get the priviledge of being in a "final" subfolder.

CD's are burned by date: mm_yyyy part 1 of X
Events and gigs by date/event: mm_yyyy_event

I use plain old Windows Explorer to set up the folders and drag/drop images from one place to another. It's easier for me since I already know it well (though I do miss file manager).

[tacos3]

I use folders with date and event name. I group folders into larger folders I call archives that hold about what fits on a DVD. I've got 35 or so archives which works well for ~36,000 images, about 150gb of files. All the archives are copied to 2 copies of DVD, one onsite and one offsite.

It's cheap and it works for me.

Darren