# How do you organize your photos?



## Destin (Oct 14, 2016)

Hey all, I'm just starting up my photography business and want to make sure I remain organized from the start. I got two external hard drives that will mirror one another for redundancy until I can afford a better system. 

How do you organize your photos on your hard drive?

I'm thinking Genre -> Month/year -> client/event name. 

But before I dive in and commit to one style, I figured I'd see what other people are doing.


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## 480sparky (Oct 14, 2016)

Get a copy of _The DAM Book_. 

Digital Asset Mamagement.


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## tirediron (Oct 14, 2016)

You're....  supposed.... to... organize... them...  ?????????


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## JoeW (Oct 14, 2016)

What is this "organization" you speak of?

Seriously, I have a portable HD which I back up (hm, hm) on a regular (semi-regular, okay, infrequent) basis.  Some photos are by date (b/c it was a vacation with a diverse mix of shots and topics).  Most are by category:  soccer, football (listed by game), skyscape, water, waterfalls, fruit, food, animals, dogs, family, street photos, specific meet-ups by name (ANC meet-up 4-15), weddings with sub folders for specific weddings, abstract, and so on.  I have about 80 different main folders with a bunch of sub folders.


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## tirediron (Oct 14, 2016)

I do mine by date.  Each shoot has it's own folder, named something like, "12_Oct_16_Jones_Family_Portraits".  Inside are numerous sub-folders for raw, TIF, JPG, orders, etc...  Every single image is keyworded to heck in Lightroom.  Rarely can I not find anything I want.


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## table1349 (Oct 14, 2016)

Mine is exactly opposite of tirediron.  Name first then date.  Usually neither of us remember the date but the customers remember their names.  Makes it easier for me to find.

The difference in method probably stems from the fact that in Canada everyone's name end in "eh."


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## astroNikon (Oct 14, 2016)

I use LightRoom Catalogs to organize my work

I first break mine down by category such as:  Portraits, Sports, Space, Air, Family, etc which will use a different Catalog.

Then I let LR organize by date to store in file folders but they are put into Collections that I then organize by date and name.  Such as "20161014_JonesFamily"


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## tirediron (Oct 14, 2016)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Mine is exactly opposite of tirediron.  Name first then date.  Usually neither of us remember the date but the customers remember their names.  Makes it easier for me to find.
> 
> The difference in method probably stems form the fact that in Canada everyone's name end in "eh."


Bite.  Me.


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## table1349 (Oct 14, 2016)

You know you worship the Quick Sand I walk on.


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## The_Traveler (Oct 14, 2016)

If you are shooting lots of things beyond specific family or commercial shoots, you would be a Luddite not to use some sort of database system like Lightroom or PhotoMechanic, _etc_. I keep my images stored on my computer by year, month day + name but they are all input using Lightroom which allows me to categorize them with keywords and 'quality'.
Thus I can retrieve all the 3 star images keyworded with MBKids super easily.
Before you get too far into using a database of any sort you would do well to understand a hierarchical keyword system (much easier than seems).

http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2013/07/hierarchical-keywords-in-lightro


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## smoke665 (Oct 14, 2016)

I have 22 main folders in the picture file. From there it breaks down as far as necessary. IE  Pictures>Family>Grandkids> (one folder for each grandchild)>(month and year)> (raw folder & finished folder) >(any further as needed)


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## unpopular (Oct 14, 2016)

About how I organize my life. And it's about as successful :/


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## KmH (Oct 14, 2016)

Yep. Get the DAM book!
The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers


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## PersistentNomad (Oct 14, 2016)

I store on the cloud, MS OneDrive to be exact because I get unlimited storage for free with my MS account. But, if you want to pay for it DropBox is pretty sweet too. 
Within Lightroom, I use collections to organize within one master catalog, though I'm thinking of starting to make new catalogs for each new client and keeping the one catalog to rule them all for my personal work. As for file organization on the export, I have a folder set up for the year, then I create subfolders for each session that are named with the month, day and client's name. I don't make tons of different copies of images in different formats within these folders. The original RAW files are already saved in LR's master file folders from the import and high-res quality JPEGs are simple and easy for clients. So, generally I export all my keepers that will go to the client as high-res into the main folder, and then I create a sub-folder of images that are exported for web (smaller file size). All files get a name that matches the file folder name and then are sequenced. The ones for web usually get a watermark and the added "for web" to the filename.


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## 480sparky (Oct 14, 2016)

I just toss all my filled, unlabeled SD cards in a shoebox.


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## astroNikon (Oct 14, 2016)

unpopular said:


> About how I organize my life. And it's about as successful :/


Purchase a 8 feet by 4 feet expandable file folder.
Put your bed in it
Then you'll be going to bed and getting up everyday nicely organized.


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## Scatterbrained (Oct 14, 2016)

Every new drive is by year.  Other than that I don't date my folders in my catalog as I can't even tell you what day it is today, much less what day it was when  I shot a particular subject.  In my regular catalog I'm pretty unorganized.  I import images to their own labeled folders, but I don't break it down further via subject or anything.    I do use smart collections for certain subjects though.  I also use color labels for different purposes too.   For example, red images are for photo merges/composites, green are finished and ready to print or publish, blue are finished images for print that won't go to the web, etc.   Ultimately, it works for me, barely, but if I was working as a full time 'tog I'd probably take better care to be more organized.  
    As has been mentioned, the DAM Book is a good place to start in figuring out how to manage your files.  Especially if it's for work, rather than just a hobby.


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## table1349 (Oct 14, 2016)

astroNikon said:


> unpopular said:
> 
> 
> > About how I organize my life. And it's about as successful :/
> ...


Or you could just adopt good habits like Wallace and get a dog name Gromit.


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