[Ruthiebabe]

Hi

related to my previous post on workflow but am struggling with this concept too. I made a catalogue in elements then messed up so have abandoned it and am working from my pictures at present, with no tagging system.

My question is, is it worth it? What system do you use?

A) How do you label your photos (what system do you have - file names/numbers - what else do you add on transfer?) and

B) Do you bother to catalogue them/tag/organise them using a system such as those elements or lightroom offer?

Any advice or tips welcomed, any tutorils you know of?

TIA, Ruth

[fionaB]

I dont use any of hte functions offered in Photoshop, i simply have two folders, one folder has the raw and hi res Tiff files, with the name of the location or function and sometimes the date, and the other folder has subfolders with the same things but that is for low res web upload versions of the same pics. So i have 3 versions of the same images, 1 raw and 1 tiff in one folder and 1 jpg low res in another folder
The images themselves are usually either numbered or titled, but i sometimes dont bother because strangely enough, for all the many thousands of images i have i can remember where every single one of htem was taken., i dont tag them either

[Ruthiebabe]

Thanks for your opinion Fiona. Are these folders just in my pictures? And how do you direct your photos to the folder? Do you save all the raws/tiffs into their folder then resize them all to jpg and save all those into the other?

Also I've posted this iand my other post in the wrong place should be imaging really, can a post be moved or not?

Thanks, Ruth

[silkstone]

I use the directory structure as a simple database, and that works for me and for the type and number of photos I take. However, many people really need some form of keyword index/search facility - Digital Asset Management.

The problem is that the various applications for this create proprietary databases that cannot be read by other software, so you're locked into a particular brand. I'm very reluctant to do this, especially on an application that is not cross-platform.

The next version of Bibble will have cataloging, and I may give that a try. For now, some people use Lightroom, and iPhoto has many fans.

[Dabhand16]

I've moved this here as it is a more relevant forum.

[danpen]

I use lightroom, all the images I take are tagged with the location (nearest town or city at least), this is really quick to do. Generally I'll only have been to one or two locations in a day so I just highlight the relevant shots and do each batch in one go.

Everything has the datestamp applied automatically (and I use a date based folder structure). I find that I can locate most images with that information.

For the best shots I'll add some keywords, this helps me to find all the best shots of butterflies or motorbikes but I don't go down to the lowest levels of detail. This takes less time than any cropping or colour tweaking I'd do on the same images.

Lightroom stores both the location and keywords embedded in the file so long as you use a compatible format (DNG, JPEG, TIF) or in a sidecar file for RAWs, many other applications will also read/write this information so you're not locked in to a proprietary system.

Other forms of cataloging such as making collections in LR or Elements are not written back to the file and exist only in the Database.

Lightroom's now managing about 15,000 of my images and I really value the ability to find what I'm looking for easily.

cheers

Dan

[silkstone]

Another thought here - slightly OT - whether or not you use DAM software...

I'd suggest, in Windows, keeping all your data files (photos, music, documents, etc) on a separate internal drive or at least a separate partition on the main drive. i.e. Don't use My Documents. Two reasons for this...

1. The My Documents folder is used by some software for configuration files, cache files, etc. So it isn't just for your data files, and it's neater to keep these somewhere else - separate from all the other stuff in My Documents.

2. It's a good idea to create a disk image of your system drive from time to time, in case of a drive failure. You can then reinstall the image on a new drive without having to install the OS and all your software from scratch. In Windows you can't just copy all the system and program files somewhere else - you have to use imaging software such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. This has to create an image of the entire drive/partition. If you keep all your data files (especially photos) on the system drive/partition, these are included in the image file which becomes huge! Having the data on a separate drive/partition makes the system disk image much smaller.

Just my 2p as ever.

[VinnyP]

Originally Posted by silkstone

The problem is that the various applications for this create proprietary databases that cannot be read by other software, so you're locked into a particular brand. I'm very reluctant to do this, especially on an application that is not cross-platform.

As far as I know most applications can write the keywords into the Exif as well as putting them in the database for any of the generic file formats Tiff Jpeg PSD etc. Exif is a file standard.

Unfortunatley because all Raw files are different standards it's tricky to write Exif as such as the manufacturers are not forced to release all the specs only certain aspects.

Adobe have tried to rectify this with DNG as an open source standard raw format and a few manufacturers are signing up. This has Exif data within the Raw file format. Some people are obviously suspicious that Adobe want to corner the market but once it's out there I think it would be hard to close the door again. However it's now been submitted for ISO approval; if that goes ahead then it may solve a lot of problems as the ISO would manage the standard in the same way as they do Tiff.

[VinnyP]

As for me I do use Lightroom to manage keywords. I find it useful and it simplifies things when uploading to agencies. My folder heirachy is year/Subject or Category/Date I rename files if there is anything obvious and add the general keywords on import.

Lightroom 2 is very good in this regard as it has "intelligent keywording" where it offers suggestions based on previous files. Ie if you keyword with Water it changes the suggestions to things like river sea boat etc etc.