I use Lightroom, but if I decided to abandon Lightroom for any reason I think my system would remain essentially the same. I set it up before buying Lightroom and though Lightroom makes it easier to use, the framework can be used with other programs or just by searching the folder structure in the operating system. I started this with a Sony Mavica in 2000.
- As images are copied to the computer they are renamed to
YYYY.MM.DD@HH.MM.SS.####. The #### is the camera image number which sometimes help distinguish rapidly shot images.
- Images are copied into a folder for each day. The folders are named YYYY-MM-DD. Lightroom does this automatically on import but other programs will as well. I used for many years before Lightroom a simple program called 'Renamer' or somthing like that which essentially did the same renaming and copying functions that Lightroom now performs.
- After import to Lightroom I add keywords or tags as they are now called. It takes great discipline to maintain a logical keyword structure but Lightroom makes it easier.
- Keywords are structured meaning that adding 'Gala' as a keyword also adds everything higher in the structure: "Food>Fruit>Apple>Gala"
- Images have color markers added during the process. On import Lightroom marks everything with "red", when I have completed my first sort and delete I mark the keepers as 'yellow', once developed they are marked "green" and when titles and keywording is complete they are marked "blue", and once uploaded to a sales site or moved to the proper collection the color tag is removed.
- I also use a mix of both regular and smart collections to sort things into logical groups. For example I have a collection "Amazon" which includes all images for sale in my Amazon shop. I also have smart collections for things like "5 stars", "stock image", "portfolio" and "no keywords" to help me stay organized.
- Keywords and star ratings are written out to the files themselves so that information is available from the operating system if Lightroom goes away or my catalog suffers a catastrophic failure.
So essentially I have four separate systems of organization that operate independently. First is the folder structure so that if I know the date or approximate date of an image I can get quite close. Second is a structured keyword system that works both within Lightroom and through the operating system. Searching for 'Apple' will return all images with that keyword. And third is organization by purpose or status using collections. So I can quickly see all images that have no keywords or all images that are for sale on stock sites or in my current portfolio. And fourth the progress of the develop process is marked by color tags so that I can come back a week or month later and know for certain the develop status of any image or batch or images.