How do I optimise my digital storage?

<p>I realise there have been many posts on this subject, and I hope you don't mind me seeking a bit of bespoke advice.</p>

<p>I've been taking photos for about 20 years. The first decade was film, and I have probably less than a hundred scanned images on my PC stored <strong>by subject </strong>often with the original scan sat in the same folder as the edited version(s). I plan to get scanning again at some point.</p>

<p>When I started taking digital photos my volume shot up and the content was mostly the children. I realised I needed to change my storage strategy so I switched to organising my storage by date. I now have roughly a decades worth of pictures stored <strong>by month taken</strong> i.e. 2011/June.</p>

<p>I got my D90 in October, and again my volume has increased; only this time I'm taking landscapes etc as well as the children. I'm beginning to realise that relying on my memory of when a picture was taken is not a sustainable way forward, so I need to find a way of finding images by subject. That great shot I took of the pier in 2010 or 2011......</p>

<p>My current workflow (since Oct) is:</p>

<ol>

<li>Transfer RAW files into a numbered folder under the current year using Nikon Transfer</li>

<li>Using ViewNX2: delete the duds and <strong>copy</strong> my favorites/keepers into the current monthly folder (I give them a star rating). So I have two copies of my better shots. Last month's folder has 450 images. I do all my edits on the copies.</li>

<li>Back up is fortnightly to a second internal hard drive, and monthly to an external drive.</li>

</ol>

<p> <br>

Software wise I have ViewNX2, CaptureNX2 and PSE9. I don't really want to buy another program if I can avoid it.</p>

<p>I do 80% of my editing in CaptureNX2 alone. The Nikon software has a feature where you can apply a numbered/coloured tag, so I could start using 1 for children, 2 for landscapes etc, but that alone is not precise enough. Is there a better Nikon based solution? PSE has an organizer, but I'm a bit nervous of being wed to opening everything in PSE. </p>

<p>I'd really appreciate some advice on how I should proceed. I'm not sure I can go through the pain of classifying every image on the PC (I have about 140GB worth), and I can live with keeping everything pre-October 2010 under my old file system. What I don't want to do is be struggling to find photographs I'm taking now in 10 years time!</p>

<p>Thanks in advance guys.</p>

<p>Chris </p>

<p>Use the Organizer that comes with PSE9. I purchased PSE8 just for the Organizer; I use CS5 to edit. Once you have your tags set up, it is quite ease to classify and later find images in the Organizer. PSE also has its own backup system - both incremental and full backup.</p>

<p>I have two top level folders: FamilyPhotos and MyPhotography. Below those folders I organize by year and date.</p>

<p>For example:</p>

<p>FamilyPhotos > 2011 > 2011-06-03 At the park<br>

MyPhotography > 2011 > 2011-05-07 Tokyo at Night<br>

I use LightRoom to organize. My workflow is:</p>

 

<ol>

<li>Import to LR, convert to DNG on the way in</li>

<li>Run quickly through the photos, give the great ones 5 starts, flag the junk as rejected</li>

<li>Delete the rejected images</li>

<li>Filter my view so I only see the 5 star images</li>

<li>Add relevant tags like portrait, outdoor, fine art, etc</li>

</ol>

<p>Most organizers have the ability to tag, keyword, and rate images. I find that if I don't discipline myself to do this when I import, I never make it back and then I just have a pile of pictures.</p>

<p>I think what Jason describes, or some personalized approach to that, is right. Our growth in numbers of photos parallels yours, Chris, as we've taken on more interest in serious digital photography, and if you don't get it under control early in can become a big challenge. I have directories by year, and then by place or family. Each "place" (say, Virginia) may have sub-directories like "Alexandria". Each photo group that makes it through the initial keeper-edit then gets quickly batch-named using PhotoElf by something like "2011-Virginia-Alexandria-subject..." and, if I'm doing it right that's within a couple of days of shooting. I can go back later and clean up some more, but it's easy to do a search by person or place or date and find what I need. </p>

<p>Tags are important - just keep them to a manageable number.</p>

<p>Get the book "The DAM Book - Digital Asset Management for Photographers" by Peter Krough for lots of great info on how to organize photo storage.<br>

One of the things to keep in mind with any storage organization is that it must be scalable. After only 10 years of digital photography I have more than 40,000 pictures and easily twice as many related files (XMPs, low res JPEGs, etc) and dearly wish I had planned better when I began.</p>

<p><Chas><br /><br /></p>

<p>Your question is one that remains debated; from amateurs to working pros.</p>

<p>While not difficult from a scholarly point of view, it can be quite daunting from purely a time consumption approach. Yikes. I feel your pain.</p>

<p>The recommendation of getting "The DAM" book is a good one. <a href="http://www.thedambook.com/">LINK</a></p>

<p>While PSE 9 is a nice program, it's organizer bogs down if you have thousands upon thousands of files.<br>

It will work; how well is problematical at best, so you might want to look into "other" archiving & cataloging strategies.</p>

<p>You hit the nail on the head concerning the problem of (finding) a specific image years down the road.</p>

<p><em>"Where's that photo of Aunt Annie, under that apple tree with the big lake behind her?"</em></p>

<p><strong><em>Key Words</em></strong> are your salvation.</p>

<p>Following a shoot, the very first thing I do is transfer all photos to a hard drive.</p>

<p>*** Notice I <strong>DO NOT</strong> key word them first. ***</p>

<p>While you can batch process Key Words directly to the memory card, it is not a good practice in that during the process, the possibility exists to corrupt the files during the process.</p>

<p>So as a example for images I might Key Word:</p>

<p>2012--FAMILY--HOLIDAY--JULY--BROTHER--FILM</p>

<p>Any of those Key Words will eventually navigate me to the image I want. (close)<br>

TWO or THREE of the key words will get me directly to the image I want.</p>

<p>Although Key Wording is the way to go, we all still face another problem as we span our images across hard drives, CD's or DVD's etc...</p>

<p><strong>Where does the image reside?</strong><br>

Was it on my 2 TB HD from last year that is now full or the 500 GB drive from the year before that is now unplugged or among the hundreds of DVD's somewhere?</p>

<p>When you figure that one out, lemme' know? ;)</p>

<p>The best analogy I can give you is this:</p>

<p>It's like saving all your receipts from purchases you've made in the last 10 years.<br>

They are all thrown in a box. You are tasked with cataloging them not only by month/day/year, but also by "type". Utilities, hard goods, electronic, medical, automotive etc..etc.</p>

<p>It's the (etc..etc..) that is so time consuming.</p>

<p>As a working pro, my Key Wording is actually easier than the casual shooter.<br>

In a day I will be shooting the same subject on one or two memory cards. Easy to batch Key Word.<br>

Casual shooters will shoot many different subjects; all on the same memory card; impossible to batch key word.</p>

<p>There are two types of people who catalog as they create,</p>

<p><em>"Those who do and those who wish they did"</em></p>

<blockquote>

<p> I don't really want to buy another program if I can avoid it.<br>

The Nikon software has a feature where you can apply a numbered/coloured tag, so I could start using 1 for children, 2 for landscapes etc, but that alone is not precise enough. Is there a better Nikon based solution?<br>

What I don't want to do is be struggling to find photographs I'm taking now in 10 years time!</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>I personally don't see how you are going to avoid more software. Actually, your entire post is a testament to why a program such as Adobe's Lightroom or Apple's Aperture exist: to solve all of these issues. And more. You can download a trial of either application bit IMHO, it will take longer than 30-days to get your head wrapped around <em>using</em> these programs to manage your library. But once you do, you will wonder how you ever got along without it.</p>

<p>Be sure to keep an additional hard-drive with the images off-site in case catastrophe strikes your home.</p>

<p>Thanks for the detailed responses guys. I think I'll start by reading the DAM book rather than rushing into anything.</p>

<p>I can add image tags in ViewNX2, but it appears to lack an XMP search facility. Does anyone know of a programme (preferably quick and cheap/free) that could search my existing file structure and find images from tags in the XMP data?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>Chris</p>