what kind of file structure do you guys use?

Sp00ks wrote in post #3579001
I have a somewhat different convention. So far it seems to work for me. I store to spinning disk in two different places.

Locally I store by date. On a file server on my network I store by category. I have two copies of everything and depending on the shoot, I can find it by date or by category. I may also name my date folders to include the event title.

This helps in finding photos and I have redundancy since Hard drives fail. So far I have not lost anything since starting up this scenario in 04. I do have some old shots burned to dvd but I don't totally trust that form of archive. I am in the process of purchasing an external drive as a third backup. When that drive is full, I'll store it and purchase another.

That was more info than you were asking for, I know. My "real" job pertains to archiving of medical images so my naming/storing convention encompasses archiving as well.

That sounds very inefficient: you need twice as much online storage, and twice as much offline offsite storage. Also any changes have to be made in two places. A proper DAM tool would save you trouble I bet. There's a book call "The DAM book" which i'm told is good, it's listed in my recommended books thread.

As posted by others there's no one-size fits all, but it is interesting to see what & how people manage their own stuff, depending on their needs.

My workflow is developing as I use Lightroom more and more, so the below is my LR setup today. I use the term Library, which in LR speak is Catalog; I use one main Catalog for everything.

I start of with 2 main folders - one for Import/Input/Library/O​riginal etc, and one for Export/Output/Product etc. One is for incoming, the other is for outgoing.

Inside both is date ordered by Year then Month then Dated Shoot within each Month.

Dated Shoot means the YYMMDD date code plus a 5 character id code for the shoot, for example 070630-CHOIR or 070712-DAGES. Usually I have an idea of the date I shot something and the shoot code is a visual on what's in the folder. Searching is pretty fast.

In the Output folder each dated shoot has subfolders for final delivery, firstly so I have a copy of everything I've produced and can re-issue if needed, secondly that I usually require delivery for different clients or needs. Examples of subfolders are Media, Client Proof, Client Final, Web Gallery... Metadata, tagging, output resolution etc is usually different for each. I can send a pic to a newspaper a year down the line as I'll still have it with correct copyright info and format (size, resolution, compression etc).

The Library folder has one extra level between the 'Library' and the Year. As my originals can vary, it helps me to distinguish between them by sorting them together. So this level contains Derivatives, Digital, Film, Misc. Derivatives are various images worked elsewhere and imported into the library as an 'original' - or 'base' image - for (further) work/rework. Digital is my main DSLR and hence largest proportion of the Library, Film is scanned 35mm negs/slides and Misc is everything else like p&s snaps or other scanned images sent to me. But inside each of these folders, the Year followed by Month followed by dated shoot code is all the same.

Inside the Library module of Lightroom I use Collections (which I absolutely LOVE! together with the way virtual copies work) to quickly organize images into clients or destinations - one parent Collection is Media, with child collections for each newspaper I send an image to. Another parent is Web Gallery where I put a copy of all images I output for my web gallery (funnily enough). So these Collections are similar to virtual copies of what's in my Output folder, but organized slightly differently.

Hope this helps someone

wow, thanks for all the replies! I guess I'm going to have to totally revamp my file structure, haha. I think I'm probably going to do it by date the way most of you do it, but I'll still think about it. any other suggestions?

Well I'm still thinking about it but it's developing in the right way for my needs.

Took me 2 months of churning over loads of ideas and more issues or scenarios kept on coming up, so I revised my approach again and again. Gradually my system emerged and I committed it into being.

My copy of the DAM book arrived yesterday, won't have a chance to read it over the coming days but might be able to browse through it for a few mins before bed each night. Recommended book.

Other suggestions would be to scribble lots on paper, and erase lots too, you'll have lots of unclear questions in your head but as you scribble them out, over time, your system will form.

Good luck!

if anyone else wants to share, they're welcome to!

I'm still gathering ideas, I was going to go to a book store today to see if they had the DAM book, but then I remembered that Harry Potter was coming out at midnight, so it may not be the best time to be there! lol