Advice organizing & saving images...

[jenniferfraser]

<p>Hello,<br>

I have just bought a new macbook pro - and am ready to transfer over my photos from my removable hard drive. I am looking for advice about how best to organize and save my pictures.<br>

In the past, I flipped between the software that came with my Pentax camera and the 'My Pictures' files that is just on my computer. I was never really happy with the Pentax software (perhaps because I didn't really give it enough time learning it). The one benefit that I did like, however, is that it did provide all the details of how I shot each picture.<br>

Now, I am ready to start fresh. New computer, fresh start. I am trying to figure out the best way to approach this. I'd love to hear how others save and organize their photos - including how and how often you do backups. I have lost some pictures in the past (what a horrible experience - heartbreaking!) and want to avoid this in the future. But I need a system....<br>

Suggestions?<br>

Thanks,<br>

Jenn </p>

[kerrick_long]

<p>I would try using 30-day trials of both <a href="http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom">Adobe Lightroom 2 </a>(or try <a href="http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs_lightroom3">LR3</a> since the beta is here) and <a href="http://www.apple.com/aperture/trial/">Apple Aperture 3</a>, and see how you like those programs. They are digital asset management (file organization, keywording, sorting, etc.) software, and they also do RAW conversion, image editing and more.</p>

<p>As for backups, Apple's Time Machine works wonders if you have an external hard drive to back up to.</p>

[monika_epsefass]

<p>Having lost some photos due to a Windows eccentricity too, I fully feel with you... For the time being, I use a huge external drive to sort my raw images into proper files. I have a second external, which is smaller, and on which I download from the card, then do the first sorting into good and bad (bad will go away immediately, and I'm very tough on that). I will keyword all images. Then I burn 2 (!) DVDs which are stacked and used in emergency cases only.<br>

After that, all the images go to the big hard disk where I have set up folders according to subject (travels/country/place... or flowers/roses/red for example).<br>

Next investment will be a Raid system.<br>

I do not really get along with LR and aperture, and work on PS Bridge to do my initial sorting.</p>

<p>@Kerrick: thanks for mentioning Time Machine. I tell myself at least once a week I should set that up eventually... :-|</p>

[jenniferfraser]

<p>Thanks - just a few follow up questions.<br>

I have downloaded Adobe's Lightroom 2 Trial and am trying to understand how it works. I am finding the whole organizing thing a challenge - and from what I have read am I correct that instead of organizing pictures by files - they organize pictures by keywords? What if I want to still organize them by files (is that old fashioned of me??)<br>

Also, Time Machine seems like a great option - thanks. <br>

I really need to start making back up DVD's - I do occasionally - but I am not diligent about it.....<br>

Thanks,<br>

Jenn</p>

[kerrick_long]

<p>In both Lightroom (and I think Aperture), you usually organize your files in three ways simultaneously:</p>

<ol>

<li>By folder (often photogs will just leave the folder structure by date so that it's easy to import without fussing)</li>

<li>By collection (coherent structures often used for single events, photo shoots, or subjects)</li>

<li>By keyword (each photo can have multiple keyowords, and you can sort by keywords on the fly - they become smart folders in a sense, if you keyword every image)</li>

<li>A fourth option is to use smart collections, but not everybody uses them. Smart collections allow you to create collections based on data that update themselves. Examples include the default "Favorites" smart collection that automatically includes every photo rated 4 or 5.</li>

</ol>

<p>I think that if you get into it, you'll find organizing by collections and keywords will be a huge time saver. You can, in fact, drag-and-drop a single photograph (or a group) into both keywords (on the right) or collections (on the left) in Library mode.</p>

<p>A great book for you to check out if you like to read and want some great pointers is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0596523572/">the DAM book</a>. It's all about Digital Asset Management for photographers and was updated just last year.</p>

[john_parker5]

<p>Also check out lightroomkillertips.com. Matt Kloskowski provides many free tutorials on his site.</p>

[marc_rochkind]

Two warnings about Time Machine for backup: (1) it's usually on-premises, so doesn't protect from fire, flood, etc., and (2) by it's very nature, it's always powered, so a surge that takes out the main computer might take out the Time Machine as well. In short, it's not a substitute for off-premises backup.

 

As the developer of ImageIngester (featured in The DAM Book) and a Lightroom-recovery app called LRViewer, I get several emails a month from photographers who have lost images due to equipment failures or human error. 100% of these cases are avoidable. Once you have the mindset that your computer's disk is temporary storage, you will be on the right track to a solution that works.

 

--Marc

[jenniferfraser]

<p>Thanks - some great resources for me to check out. The DAM book looks especially good. <br>

Marc, I am interested in the programs you talked about - ImageIngester and LRViewer. I am not sure that I really understand WHAT they do. Perhaps you can explain....<br>

Also, as I was searching for more information about backup systems - I cam across something called SuperDuper, which I guess works with the Time Machine - only I am not sure how. Can anyone shed any light for me?<br>

I get really worried about backing up my pictures - as I have already been through the pain of losing everything and I don't want to go through it again!<br>

Jenn </p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Wow! Never thought I'ld see a 3AM cable TV infomercial style promotion for the DAM book and ImageIngester here on Photo.net.</p>

<p>Yes, tell us more about these products. You mean I have to back up all my data or it may just disappear off my computer? OMG I was never aware of this! How does it work?</p>

<p>COME ON! You can do better than that. </p>

<p> </p>

[jenniferfraser]

<p>Tim,<br>

I guess what I was asking is how they work together - I want to learn whether or not I need both systems or if I can use just one - and I wouldn't ask the question if I didn't already know the answer.<br>

Yes, of course I realize that I need to back up my data or I could lose it and at the moment I am looking into the best way to do this - that is why I am asking questions. Perhaps some things seem silly or obvious to you - but they aren't to everyone else. The only way to learn is by doing a little research and asking questions and that is exactly what I am doing. I am sorry that you feel that my questions are trivial, but then again you do not have to respond.<br>

Jenn</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>I wasn't criticizing you asking a question regarding backup procedures but to Marc's attempt at promoting his product without offering a more indepth answer.</p>

<p>There's nothing wrong about promoting your wares anywhere on the web, but you got to give something to get something in discussions of this matter especially for some one as new to it as you.</p>

<p>Just saying-"try my backup software product and if you don't it's possible you may lose all your data"- isn't going to cut it around here.</p>

<p>I would suggest that Marc might mention if his software performs a checksum or any kind of copied data integrity verification after a backup. Because, if some software doesn't play nice with hard drive registry's and OS integration not all data may be transferred and/or written correctly when backing up to a device especially CD's. The software must tell the user that the copied data's integrity has been preserved. A progress bar doesn't say anything about this.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Since this thread doesn't seem to have too many member responses, I'll just mention something about the backup of digital content that's been gnawing at the back of my mind for some time.</p>

<p>I've read in discussions on the web working professional photographers in particular wedding photogs say that they end up taking hundreds and maybe even thousands of images of one or two events spread out across several days or so.</p>

<p>What I'm wondering (troubled) about is how would they know from all those thousands of images which one went missing during a backup. How can they remember which shot of what scene went missing? How do they keep track of all those images?</p>

<p>It seems quite a bit of time would have to be spent just on organizing everything with keywords, dates and times. You'ld have to have some kind of written documentation of each image backed up that allows a visual overview of where the user's at in the long list of images backed up to an external hard drive or CD/DVD.</p>

<p>A sort of journal listing all the images associated with an invoice number for that particular shoot so you aren't searching through a ton of images.</p>

<p>I dealt with this back in '97 as a newbie digital prepress technician/art director trying to organize all the custom jobs performed with their associated invoice number which was a complete mess. The problem I ran into was coming up with a system of associating a bunch of tiff files of new and old edits and revisions of the same artwork buried in a computer directory associated with an invoice job order number which wasn't implemented back then. I had nothing to connect the picture to the digital file which was a tiny thumbnail at the time so when the client reordered we knew which revision they were referring to and we could pull from the hard copy flat file in the file cabinets.</p>

<p>God! I'm so glad I'm not doing that crap anymore.</p>

<p> </p>

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>What I'm wondering (troubled) about is how would they know from all those thousands of images which one went missing during a backup. How can they remember which shot of what scene went missing? How do they keep track of all those images?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>There are ways to use LR that make this a non-issue.</p>