PHOTO MANAGEMENT

[mike_downs]

<p>When I search for photos on my computer, they seem like they are located in numerous areas.. I started using RawTherapee and PSPX2. I have been using Photo Gallery from photo management. I have recently tried to arrange photos into a sensable order.The main question is why can I open RT and not find a photo in a certain file, but find it in Photo Gallery.If a file is deleted in PSP is it still in Photo Gallery. As you can tell from my questions, I'm not the well versed on file management in general.I need someone to walk me though the basic steps of this process. I have ordered the manuel for PSP, but would like to get a head start on cleaning this mess up. I currently only have about 1500 P&S photos and now the time learn the proper method for photo storage. Just purchased a K20d and shooting/interest have increased ten fold.<br>

Thanks for your time and patience </p>

[JeffOwen]

<p>Every program that tries to handle your photo files does so in slightly different way. My advice on a PC is not to rely on specialist programs to handle you filing but to use the basic one Explorer as supplied by Windows (not sure if Vista still has this feature). In each of the image editing programs (Photoshop, Bridge, ViewNX, FastStone, IrfanView, etc.) I just access 'My Pictures' and quickly home in on the files I want.</p>

<p>I have nearly 30,000 photos (all backed up) in my PC and I can get to most in no time at all because many years ago I stopped using these 'clever' programs and just sorted my files into folders into date order. Directories by year and sub directories into 'year-month-day subject'. The actual files you can keep whatever label you want; it could be your camera label e.g IMG_0123 or whatever. Try to be consistent.<br>

I also have extra directories for special photos e.g. scanned, imported, Odds (charts & tests) and other headings for images that don't fit into the dated directories.<br>

If you haven't got too many photos to get sorted I would certainly get yourself a system and keep it simple. I have 'helped' many of my friends to get their photos in order and most say they wish they had done it that way in the beginning.<br>

Good luck</p>

[bill_stice1]

<p>Mike, you might want to take a look at Adobe Lightroom. It is designed with image management in mind. I've used many products and it is the best I've found yet. I use keywords for locating my images and can find any image in a number of different contexts. It takes some effort to set it up but works well in my opinion.</p>

[dave_cruikshank1]

<p>You may want to pick up a copy of "The DAM Book" a book on Digital Asset Management or DAM. It lays out a system for filing your images and backing them up so you will always be able to find them. There is a Forum to support the book and system here: http://www.thedambook.com/smf/index.php It is worth a look. It is considered the standard for working pros. They do base much of their work on intake through "Lightroom" but also using other DAM programs to organize your library of images. I've been using the date method for some time now. Such as anything shot today would be filed under a directory named 20090831. In some cases I may elaborate such as 20090831_model trains. Or there are times when I have a heavy shooting day that i may have 20090831_NYC_Card_01 20090831_NYC_Card_02 etc. For my purposes I do create folders and subfolders for Family, Vacation, Autos, Trains etc. When I had my Studio the subfolders were Seniors, Babies, Children, Family, Headshots. etc. But I always named each individual job by the date. And on most days there were multiple jobs so it would be the date_##_name. But the prefix was always the date. I then renamed the camera files with the date_## prefix_file### IE 20090831_01_001.jpg or CR2. Hope this helps more than confuses. Dave</p>