[ppppsssstttt]

Where do you store your photos? Hard drive


How do you sort them? Folder for year (2016), Folder starting with a number then a name (01-Forum pictures)


EDIT: Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)? Nope


How do you process them? Lightroom, sometimes Dxo Filmpack. Starting to appreciate different algorithms and thinking about trying Nik


Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG? Yes, see below


How do you backup? Hard drive is backed up via Carbon copy cloner (Mac). Exported JPGs are saved to a Dropbox folder. JPGs are my "prints" to share and save. If my hard drive dies, there's a back up. If it gets stolen or my house burns down, there's JPGs on a cloud server.


Do you arrange prints? Not usually


(I have to say that the amount of photos (especially unprocessed photos) in my computer is growing (and chaos is growing in direct proportion ) and so far I did not find any proper system. That's why I'm asking for your tips and hints.) Local storage is relatively cheap, but file sizes are bigger nowadays too. You should practice deleting files that you know you won't go back to look at. But what if some day you might? You don't need 50 burst shots of the same subject.

[emalvick]

Where do you store your photos?

I download the photos to a secondary harddrive in my computer. I use Downloader Pro to download photos to folders in format "YYYYMMDD - Shoot Title". The individual files are named in a fixed format "YYYYMMDD_HHMM_CAM_####". I have multiple bodies, so the CAM identifier allows me to see what camera shot the file, and I occasionally use high-speed, multi-shots, so I use the HHMM in the file name to help group the bursts.

How do you sort them?

Once they are downloaded, I import the photos into my DAM software, IMatch 5.5, and I browse my photos using color labels to identify photos I want to process with various colors for the software I might use (I use DxO Optics, Lightroom, and Lightzone for processing).

EDIT: Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)?

Prior to the sorting or at the same time, I'll add keywords, GeoTag, and basic lens info for manual lenses (usually just the focal length). I'll sometime add a generic lens name, but I don't have so many lenses that I worry about overlap. The focal length is usually enough for me to know what lens I used when it comes to manual lenses.

How do you process them?

See above... If I want black and white I've moved to a SilverEfex Pro only workflow, although I'll occasionally use the DxO Filmpack. I do like to try and stick with SilverEfex for the actual black and white conversion just because I have a custom preset I use that invokes a "style" to my black and white. I have not been able to mimic elsewhere

Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG?

Occasionally... Most of my RAW software save sidecars with develop settings. I save those and back them up rather than worry about specific images. Except when I need to use Photoshop or secondary software. And, I save black and whites seperately.

How do you backup?
Multiple external hard-drives and online galleries for processed images (usually saved at 6 MP)

Do you arrange prints?
I rarely make prints, so I rarely worry about them. I usually only print large sized prints for hanging or books

[zestoi]

1st post from a long time lurker...

Where do you store your photos? external usb drive

How do you sort them? jpegs in one folder and another for the raws named after the date/location/model like "YYMMDD <location> <modelName> [raw]". the ones edited for the client get saved into a third folder.

Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)? no (and only use manual lenses for video shoots)

How do you process them? I'm lucky to have someone who edits my shoots, she uses photoshop.

Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG? yes in separate folders. append "raw" to the raw version folders

How do you backup? rsync the external usb external drive to a home server which then rsyncs to an offsite server

Do you arrange prints? no

[JensE]

Thanks for raising this topic, it is something I am definitely in need of a more manageable solution as well. Before I answer your questions, I'll describe some needs/desires, which are not really addressed by most of the above examples, nor entirely satisfactory with what I have put together so far. Some of the wants/needs:

1. My wife and I share (for the most part) a common photo database. Each of us has their small individual subjects now and then but the majority are either family-related pictures or pictures which I take of her/supporting her 'hobby'.
2. We like to take part of our database with us 'on the road/train/plane', because travel and vacation provide most of the time for organization and processing of pictures or writing stuff using them.The entire archive does not fit an SSD anymore.
3. I am not a deep power user of photographic software, and my wife even less. Import/organization/output needs to be somewhat straightforward and is shared between us. This includes not wanting to having to post-process every picture but often use out of camera JPEGs.
4. The primary laptop runs Windows (for other than photographic reasons), but I do all post-processing preferably on my Linux workstation. For sure it must not be constraint to a single machine, we need concurrent access.

There is an extremely well-reasoned set of principles/practices documented on Welcome | Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow | dpBestflow. It is targeting professionals, but I would definitely recommend to read it for anyone with a large number of pictures, even just to know what you're getting into by whatever process you adopt.

Where do you store your photos?
Photos get imported on the laptop mentioned above. The SSD is synced via a private cloud instance (using Seafile) to a home-server/NAS, which internally uses a software-RAID. From there, it is synced to my workstation again via Seafile whenever it is running. I never delete the pictures from the SD card before syncing to the NAS is done. More below.

How do you sort them?
We use Picasa on the laptop to organize them, sometimes I use Geeqie upfront on my workstation to quickly identify and delete garbage. Picasa does a nice job on avoiding duplicates and creation of albums, as well as exporting pictures for use (e.g. downscaled) or to order prints. Photos get imported using the import date and split up into a similar structure as mentioned above, like YYYY-MM-DD_Occasion. Pure date folders keep whatever is left up to that date. The setup is a little tricky though: as there is not enough space on the laptop, I had to split our photo archive into a part that stays on the laptop (currently 2013 and newer) and is actively being worked on and an archive part residing on a mapped drive on the NAS - divided at the top-level by year. In order for Picasa to not 'forget' metadata like faces and album membership for stuff on the intermittently connected network drive, I set those folders for 'scan once', whereas everything residing on the laptop is marked to be scanned for new pictures every time. This way, if I save pictures locally post-processed on my Linux workstation in the Seafile server into the same folder, they get propagated back via the home server to the laptop, ready for my wife to be used on her next business trip.

EDIT: Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)?
Normally not, I don't use overlapping focal length on my manual lenses except for two 135mm ones, and there I can often tell or simply don't care if it is the 135/3.5 CZJ Sonnar or the Pentax M F3.5. For use of later lenses on extension rings, I do sometimes.

How do you process them?
Picasa as above for minor corrections, crops, resizing on export for not too high quality requirements. For quality RAW development work I use Rawtherapee (mostly current dev versions), sometimes Gimp (still 2.8). Rarely Photoshop elements.

Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG?
Yes, and that's a blessing and a curse. Picasa has no way of grouping them, so you manage double the files. But it often saves effort for good enough out-of-camera JPGs. I do save the PP sidecar files from Rawtherapee with the results.

How do you backup?
As explained above, we normally have 3 copies of each in the working set, and Seafile does keep a change history. In addition, I have backed up the 'archive' part, which doesn't change much anymore, on archive grade DVDs. Intention is to add automatic staggered backup to an off-site storage, but haven't made up my mind yet where to.

Do you arrange prints?
Arrange? We do manually order small prints for old-fashioned paper albums and for larger ones for display.

The weak link in the whole process is definitely Picasa. Lightroom would be great in some respects but fails to address several of the requirements above (e.g. concurrency, connected vs. mobile use). I'm still looking for something that's able to group DNGs with JPEGs automatically (Geeqie is extremey fast and does this well - therefore using it for pre-culling still on SD), something that works with an intermittently connected archive and a solution which still allows to manage albums across both. Effiecient UI with space-saving touch-screen support for tagging/rating would be GREAT on the laptop! I'm afraid it's not something money can buy at the moment. Process-wise, I'm still considering if it's worth to implement something like the lifecycle management linked above, separating ingestion/staging, in-progress work and output/presentation as well as archiving from each other. But as explained, time allocated comes in chunks and thus those phases overlap quite a bit and it may get inconsistent when working on it even with only two people.

[Topsy]

Where do you store your photos?

On a dedicated HDD in my PC and an external HDD. I keep a copy of them on my SD card until I've synced the HDDs.


How do you sort them?

Badly.
I leave the folders my k50 creates and put them into Monthly folders. For some special events I create separate folders, also for nice photographs.


Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)?

No, I *usually* can remember what lens I've used for what shot luckily, though I hardly ever note my apreture..


How do you process them?

Camera RAW


Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG?

I like to keep my RAWs for further tweeking.


How do you backup?

Answered on q#1


Do you arrange prints?

I need to now and am noticing how hard it is to find my photos..

[Bengan]

Where do you store your photos?
I use a NAS with RAID

How do you sort them?
I have a structure with year-folders, subfolders named with date and content info. Then in each "event-folder" there are three to four subfolders (RAW, export, edit and possibly web). I use Booth Lightroom and PSElements.

Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)?
No

How do you process them?
Import with preset Copyright info. Lens corrections, camera profiles and basic edit (Exposure, White balance, whites, blacks, highlights, shadows) in Lightroom. Then batch export (TIFF or JPEG). Final edit in PSElements. Finally keywords from the keywordlist.
I got some useful pointers from this thread https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/32-digital-processing-software-printing/3...-workflow.html

Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG?
Yes

How do you backup?
Memory cards are backed up on a WD MyPassport wireless. The NAS is backed up regularly to a separate disc which is stored in a fireproof safe

Do you arrange prints?
No

[p38arover]

I tend to upload them them to the PC and never look at them again unless I need an image to illustrate a post.

[PDL]

Storage:
Three sets of hard drives on three different devices: 2 PCs (each one RAID 1) and a NAS. In addition, I have a small USB hard drive that I use to copy the SD card. I also have DVD’s burned of all the RAW images.

Sorting:
No real sorting for general photography. For my non-profit works, each different one has its own catalogue. However, I do use the folder date function of the camera to physically separate days for “strolling” through the images.

Additional EXIF information:
I use ExifTool to add Lens information, User Name, Copyright and place names. I use GeoSetter to geotag the files since ExifToolGui’s geotag functionality is broken (Exiftool v10.12 ExifToolGUI v 5.16)

Process:
Depends on how much work is necessary. My primary software is Capture One Pro. I own a perpetual license for Lightroom v6 but I rarely, if ever, use it now.

RAW and Processed files:
Save them all. I have 5TB of disk on my main desktop, space is not an issue. The processed/published JPEG/TIFF/PNG images are imported to a Media Pro catalogue for management purposes.

Backup:
To DVD, just the RAW images. Every once in a great while I will burn a DVD of the processed images just in case the hardware fails. (Which is has on occasion, programs are reloadable it is the data that is at issue) I will also, at least annually, burn a DVD of documents and other such.

Arrange prints:
Don’t really understand what this means but here goes.
Images delivered for non-profits are delivered via OneDrive/Dropbox to be downloaded on “their” side. I print calendars for family/friends and myself. Those processed images are stored as noted above.

Workflow:
Do the shoot: 1 copy
Copy the SD information to my Wolverine flashpac. (independent USB HD) 2 copies
Run ExifToolGui and GeoSetter. 2 copies
Copy images to main computer. 3 copies
Copy images to NAS. 4 copies.
Copy images to alternate device. 5 copies.
Edit images. Send images.
Import sent images to Media Pro.
When I get around to it. Burn DVD backup. 6 copies.
Once a year reformat Wolverine. 5 copies.

The Elitist - formerly known as PDL

[JensE]

Thanks for sharing your workflow. You mention

processed/published JPEG/TIFF/PNG images are imported to a Media Pro catalogue

what about the 'strolling'? What do you use? How do you pick the ones to work on and ultimately publish?

Looking at "Media Pro", the following caught me eye:

Manage your library across multiple drives. Even when your originals are offline, you can browse, search, and annotate your images.

Maybe it is something to help solve my on road with subset/at home with everything problem described above.

[Des]

1. Where do you store your photos?
I copy them from SD card to external hard drive. I use an SD card reader in a USB port to copy them. I put them in sub-folders in a main folder called "Photos RAW - To do". I put both DNG files and jpgs in those folders (in separate sub-folders).

2. How do you sort them?
First, I rename them using Rename Master. (Unfortunately this program doesn't run on 64-bit Windows, so I have to do this on a Windows XP desktop.) My naming convention is: "YYYY-MM-DD_[One letter code for camera body][sequential number assigned by the camera][one-letter code for the lens]_[location]". For example, "2015-12-25_C1234F_Melb.dng". That means Christmas Day 2015, K-3 (C), photo number, FA 43 (F), Melbourne.

If I use my Kenko teleconverter, I add K before the lens code.

I have scripts that do the renaming for me.

I delete obvious dud photos. I copy any really good jpgs into subfolders in My Pictures.

I move any videos to appropriate sub-folders in the My Videos folder on my main computer.

I then put the DNG files into a folder of DNGs taken in that month, or sometimes just ones taken on that day, or by theme (e.g. 2016-02 DNG-birds). The aim is to create folders with a bite-sized number of files to process. I put the jpgs into corresponding folders.

I copy folders that are awaiting processing onto a USB flash drive.

3. Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)?
No. The only lens I now have that doesn't show in EXIFs is my Sigma 400. But it's my only lens that goes to 400 so it isn't hard to work out. Anyway the lens detail is encoded in the file name (S for Sigma).

4. How do you process them?
I rotate the jpgs if necessary, using Lossless Rotation in Irfanview. I do that as soon as I have copied them from the SD card.

I try to process a group of files in DxO Optics Pro when I get a chance.

I output the processed files as jpgs. I put the processed jpgs in the same folder as the original OOC jpg, for culling.

5. Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG?
Yes. I also save the DxO editing files in the relevant folder of DNGs.

When I am done processing, I go through the folder of jpgs and select the better ones (almost always the processed ones) then select the ones worth keeping. I delete the remaining jpgs. I move the keepers into sub-folders in My Pictures. I delete any unprocessed jpgs that I had temporarily placed in those sub-folders.

I store jpgs in My Pictures in folders by trip or place (sometimes both). I also use topic sub-folders, such as Birds | Parrots | Rosellas | Crimson Rosellas. I also put the best few into a Favourites folder for each year. I might have 3 copies of some photos in different sub-folders.

After I have finished processing photos for a year, I move the favourite jpgs for the year into favourites subfolders. Most of these are regions, but some are subjects like "Family and friends" or home or pets.

When I have finished processing the RAW files in a particular sub-folder, I move that sub-folder into a "Completed" folder on the external hard drive.

6. How do you backup?
I periodically backup the entire contents of the external hard drive onto another one.

I also backup the My Pictures and My Videos folders whenever I make changes to them. I back them up to an external HD, and also import them from there to other computers.

7. Do you arrange prints?
Rarely. Usually only to give to someone.

I have to say that the amount of photos (especially unprocessed photos) in my computer is growing.
Me too. I try to keep pace with new files, but I have a backlog of travel photos from 2014 I haven't got to. Something's gotta give. Preferably less work.

[PDL]

Thanks for sharing your workflow. You mention

what about the 'strolling'? What do you use? How do you pick the ones to work on and ultimately publish?

Looking at "Media Pro", the following caught me eye:

Maybe it is something to help solve my on road with subset/at home with everything problem described above.

For "strolling" I just use File Explorer. Faster than opening my Capture One "Master" catalogue. When I work on a output project I create a "smart collection" and process the images from there. I make extensive use of variants to alter the image sets look and feel as necessary.

Media Pro is a full fledged Digital Asset Management system, however Phase One has not updated it in some time. Phase One is taking features out of Media Pro and adding them to Capture One. Media Pro will manage images, video, documents and other media (I have not tested audio). I use Media Pro to keep track of the images I have worked on as it is much easier to keep track of what has been done. It is not an editor but it does have the capability of transferring media to software for editing. I have not used it as an independent or offline tool. It might work for you but it is not a editor in anything but the most primitive sense.

The Elitist - formerly known as PDL

[reeftool]

I import my photos into Lightroom. The shots go into the pictures folders on my 'C' drive with a backup going to an external. My exported Jpegs go into different folders, also in My Pictures. I keep pretty much everything except the crap I delete at first look.

It sounds simple and it was until I began filling up my hard drive and then my external, too. Depending on how much you shoot, you may never fill up a laptop drive. While I never thought about it a few years ago, my photo library is now HUGE, over a TB currently and still growing. I now have the daunting task of going through several years of photos and getting a little bit of order in things. I now tell noobs to think ahead about organizing their files. We can easily shoot thousands of shots a year and finding that shot of juniors soccer game 5 years ago in a filled 3TB hard drive can become a real chore if all you have is the default date as a file name. Lightroom has all the tools you need.

[arkav]

Where do you store your photos?

Date and Location is important for me, so my photos go into folders with names like "2015_07_01_Gatineau_Park", and that folder would reside in a folder with a name like "2015_summer_part_3". Here's my trick: each of these "parts" is an ~4G chunk. This makes it simple to back up onto DVDs. I also back up my photos onto multiple external HDs, but burning them onto DVDs also allows me to easily store backups offsite. I just add more DVDs to my offsite archive as I burn them - easier than maintaining offsite storage on HDs.

How do you sort them?

See above. I don't really do anything else to sort my photos.

EDIT: Do you add lens information into Exif (in case of manual lenses)?

No, I can't be bothered updating EXIF. I don't use my old manual lenses much these days.

How do you process them?

It varies. Generally, I don't do anything with a photo until I see a need for it. I use FastStone as my image browser. By default, Faststone displays the embedded preview JPG that's inside the RAW files, which in the case of Pentax cameras is of fairly high quality. If all I need is a quick and dirty JPG to send as an email attachment or post on the web, I will sometimes just use the preview JPG WITHOUT DOING ANY RAW PROCESSING ( if I have an in-camera JPG, I'll use that ). If I want to make major alterations to WB or exposure or need a high quality/resolution result, then I will fire up one of my RAW processors ( PDCU, DxO, etc. ). Which one I choose will depend on the result I'm after, my mood, etc. If further manipulation is required ( layers, masking, etc. ), then I might use PSE for that, but that doesn't happen often.

My process generally goes something like this:

1. copy folder from SD card to my HD, rename folder according to my schema outlined above, divide it up as needed according to locations, etc.
2. browse photos using FastStone, deleting bad photos/duplicates.
3. if any low res crops are needed immediately, I make them from the in-camera JPGs ( or embedded preview JPGs ) using FastStone
4. at some later date, if a better version of a photo is needed for some purpose, I find it using FastStone. If the in-camera JPG meets my needs, I crop/resize using FastStone and I'm done. If not, I use one of my RAW processors to make adjustments and generate a high res TIFF, which I then edit as needed to produce the final result. I generally keep the TIFF in case I need it in the future.

Do you save both RAW and the processed JPG?

These days, I usually shoot RAW+. For poor photos that I only want to keep for record purposes, I might scrap the RAW and keep a downsized version of the in-camera JPG. For good/decent photos, I'll keep both the RAW and in camera JPG. Photos that have been cropped/resized for use elsewhere are kept in subfolders under the main "shoot" folder. If I'm editing photos for use in some project, the edited versions of those images will usually end up in a project related folder for convenience.

How do you backup?

I have an external HD docking station. I only connect the back up HD in question to my desktop when I'm performing the backup. Otherwise, the drives are in a metal box. When I fill up one of my 4G sized folders, I burn it to DVDs for local and offsite storage, and back it up onto the external HDs. I don't re-use the SD card on which the original photos are stored until I've completed these backups.


Do you arrange prints?

Depends on what's being printed.