Organising your images.

[mike_j]

I'd be interested to know how you organise your uploaded image files.

Do you rename files on import? Do you separate original and processed files? Do you put everything into subject folders or just rely on the 'big heap' theory of filing?

Please tell

[Ian]

Re: Organising your images.

Do you mean your main stash of original image files? I use Lightroom for this and try to keyword tag batches of images on import and then Lightroom files them automatically in folders named after the date the images were taken.

Ian

[mike_j]

Re: Organising your images.

Ian,

Your's is probably a classic example of the potential confusion I am wondering about as you use so many different cameras. How do you cope with duplicated file names generated by the various cameras?

What do you do when you use images - do you export them as jpgs to folders under a job number or client name?

[Ian]

Re: Organising your images.

I either shoot RAW+JPEG or RAW only unless the camera can't shoot RAW, in which case it's JPEG only. The images are imported into a folder named using the date that they were shot. So if you have images on the card spanning several days then several folders will be created by Lightroom. But that is my own preference - you can configure Lightroom to import and store images in a variety of ways and you can store them in your own manual file structure if you prefer and simply make Lightroom import the knowledge of their location.

Lightroom can be set to check that each image imported is not a previously imported duplicate. This checking is not restricted to the file name - the file length and type and I believe a CRC check compared. I don't think there will be a problem if two different images with the same name are imported - I will double-check to see what happens.

File names are no longer paramount - I usually locate files I need by using key words or date searches, but you can also search by file name if you want. I also frequently search by ISO speed, aperture, camera make and model, lens model, etc.

Ian

[OlyPaul]

Re: Organising your images.

Your's is probably a classic example of the potential confusion I am wondering about as you use so many different cameras. How do you cope with duplicated file names generated by the various cameras?

There are so many variations that can be used for file naming and I am sure Ian has is own way, but for the problem you mention the way I name files easily gets round that.

I just rename the files to the date and time taken and the camera model .
year month date followed by the hour min and seconds and model no.

Even if using two or more cameras or there is more than one shooter the chances of both cameras or two shooters taking a image at exactly the same second is remote.

[Ian]

Re: Organising your images.

Paul is right - I forgot you can rename files as they are imported based on each file's metadata

Ian

[Pops]

Re: Organising your images.

I use subject folders and for renaming individual files I use the date taken. In the case of wildlife photographs then the subject folder has numerous sub folders indicating species or type.

[mike_j]

Re: Organising your images.

Lightroom can be set to check that each image imported is not a previously imported duplicate. This checking is not restricted to the file name - the file length and type and I believe a CRC check compared. I don't think there will be a problem if two different images with the same name are imported - I will double-check to see what happens.


Ian

I didn't realise that, I thought it was just the filename. In fact I see on the Adobe Lightroom 4 online guide:

Lightroom determines a photo is a duplicate of another file in the catalog if it has the same, original filename; the same EXIF capture date and time; and the same file size. You can instruct Lightroom to disregard duplicate files when importing