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How do you sort your photos digitally?


gen_b.

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gen, are you talking about how to sort them in your computer, as in which software to use? i use acd picture viewer, and for that matter an older version. picassa from google is a free software that allows you to sort them in date order or folder order.
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I use Lightroom's "Collections" feature to organize my "keepers" and use LRs "Rating" feature to rank them to determine which are keepers.

 

LR allows you to sort by Date, any EXIF field, any Keyword, or any arbitrary User order. Lightroom has brought the biggest improvement to my photo organization and processing of any s/w tool.

 

LR helps you publish your pictures with it's Export feature that has presets for things like JPEGs for email, etc. It also will create entire web galleries with a single click of the mouse.

 

<Chas>

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Like Starvy I use an older version of ACDSee, both for viewing and to create "contact sheets". (Maybe someone at

ACDSee should wake up...)

 

For lack of a better idea, I sort my images by card full, one folder per. I also batch rename the files in each folder,

starting at the raw file level, so, the tenth image on my fourth card full from my Canon 5D gets the name:

 

5D004-010

 

The contact sheets are also per card full.

 

I run a full set of jpegs from each card full of raw, first using Adobe Camera Raw on "auto" setting. Often that's the

end of it. If I take the time to go through them, and see results I don't like, I'll override "auto", ensure ACR saves the

revised settings, *and* note the departures from "auto" in an independent text format log file.

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I keep the original camera sequential name, and dump cards from a single day's shooting into one folder named according to the date, subject, and camera (ex. "2008-11-12_Boatwerks_20D"). I have a little custom application that enters the file and checksum into a data-base so I can check for corruption in archives, etc.

 

Those folders are my "originals" and get archived, etc. I then copy the keepers into a working directory using FastStone Viewer (http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm) and work on them from there with Photoshop.

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff S.

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There are picture management programs like Aperture for the Mac and Lightroom for Mac and PC. Those who use them seem happy with them. I just organize my pictures by folders for each place or subject, and browsing with Bridge does it for me.
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Don't know if it's just me and Mendel, but I'm still using ACDSee version 5.0!

 

I have v6, LR2, NX2, Bridge and Picasa, but for some reason I just keep using this little champ. I just can't figure out all this Catalogs, Collections, Imports, Exports and so on.

 

I know it's time to reorganize my work flow, but all my folders are still ordered by Year, and then Month.

 

Started to get serious only in 2006, so currently have 3 folders: 2008, 2007 and 2006, and within each folder they go: Jan 06, Feb 06,...

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I use ACD Pro 2.5. It works well for me. I rarely go to Photoshop or other editing programs unless I need

advanced selections or some way advanced editing. I beta'ed Lightroom before it was on the market. It was OK but

I ended up with Pro 2. Pro searches about any way possible, and is very fast, at least with my 6000 images and

Vista. An editing feature that I am particularly enamored with in Pro are the shadow/highlight tools. For tonal

work they are the best I have ever used.

 

I always sort by month then image creation date. But there are so many variables to choose from, including custom

searches that you can do just about anything you want. I use keywords in Pro only to keep track of camera, lens,

and film used account I still shoot mostly film. But, you still have many organization tools available. You can

add and change exif and iptc info and add custom fields if desired. You can add or change exif and iptc during

download by image or group either from a scanner or card. It goes on and on, I'll never use anywhere near its

features. Pro also embeds personal info into the image if desired.

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I catalog the raw images I store in this manner:

 

YY.MM.DD.EXP.file extension

 

So, today's first image, had I made any, would have been:

 

08.11.16.001.CRW

 

I append the raw file naming convention with either .C or .BW, indicating whether the final output is in color or black-and-white. So if today's first image were to have been a black-and-white conversion, it would have been:

 

08.11.16.001.BW.tif

 

I don't save others' images. I tend to draw inspiration from photo books and museum/gallery visits.

 

Michael J Hoffman

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When I swapped to digital I was panicking about how I was going to sort my stuff out. I had all my film catalogued in a Microsoft Access database of all things but I knew it wasn't going to cut it for the digital stuff. I got a copy of Peter Krogh's book - DAM: Digital Asset Management for photographers. You can find it at http://www.thedambook.com

 

It changed my life literally. It recommended a little programme called iView Media Pro which has since become Microsoft Expression Media and this is probably the best money I've ever spent in my photography business. I know that's a big claim but it is really fantastic.

 

As a travel and stock photographer I need to be able to find anything at the drop of a hat and this little programme, combined with Peter's recommendations for how to catalogue and store your images is worth its weight in gold. I can't recommend it highly enough.

 

I have no shares in the company, have never met the guy and know nothing about either the software or the author really but I know they work for me! And for National Geographic as well. :)

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