How do you organize your photos?

[tracey_c1]

<p >Hello! Just wanted to get some opinions on the best way to organize photos while shooting with multiple memory cards in different cameras. It’s so overwhelming coming home from a shoot with hundreds of pictures to go through. What are some of the organization techniques you use? Thanks in advance!</p>

[alex_dc]

<p>Make sure you time and date are synced on all cameras. Use custom file names for each event. Import all cards into Lightroom and viola!</p>

[steven_crist]

<p>Prior to the event I make sure all my cameras show the same time and date (within a minute). All cards used are formatted in camera - not on the computer. My cameras can take two cards so I have them set up with the CF slot set for RAW and the SD slot set for high JPEG. I prefer smaller (2, 4, 8gb) cards so I don't have the entire wedding on one card. I number all my cards with a Sharpie and rotate their usage so I'm not using the same cards week in and week out. I've read reports of cards "wearing out" so I'm just being cautious. As I change out the cards I give the SD cards to an assistant who downloads them and also prepares a slide show. The RAW file cards never leave my body. Paranoid - maybe, but I've never had an mishap causing lost images. I use Lightroom and each event is its own "catalog". The images automatically sort by time/date so the entire days images are in order when viewed. Then I do my backups (two different USB remote hard drives) and finally burn to DVD's which I keep in a bank safe deposit box. Then I process my files (Lightroom or Photoshop depending on amount of editing) and do a final backup. This works for me and I've never had any problems since converting to 100% digital a few years back. I hope this was helpful.</p>

[michaelchadwickphotography]

<p>I usually shoot weddings with an old Polaroid film camera, and after 8 or so hours of shooting, it's pretty hard to keep them in order. So I eventually hired an assistant whose only purpose is to walk around behind me with a Sharpie and a messenger bag, writing down the time I took the photos and the photo "number" I assign to them. It's not usually ever a problem, though sticking double sided tape to each and every print so that I can stick them to the wall for the bride and groom to look through is tough - but hey, it's a quick turnaround, right? I only get complaints from 8 out of about every 10 shoots, so I figure I can get good word of mouth from the other two and continue to carve out my niche as a photographer who does something really different and vintage.</p>

<p><strong>Moderator Note:</strong> Thanks for the April Fool's Day joke, Michael.</p>

[tracey_c1]

<p>Thanks everyone, that's very helpful to know. I need to look into learning Lightroom. I do everything in Photoshop and I know i'm spending too much time.</p>

[chris_seldon_lady]

<p>Hello Tracey, many different approach can make your post-wedding organization easier. I'll try to summarize mine, but only you can find the way your work needs.<br>

As other guys before me do, I sync time and date of my cameras before the wedding. I only shoot RAW and then use Aperture for asset management, selection and most of post-production. I always import as soon as I can all files in a project created ad hoc for the couple, within Aperture library, and I create a backup copy of my vault. Then I start the only phase I don't like in my work...<br>

I'm quite slow and accurate during the selection phase, maybe too much, but I prefers to give an all-printable group of pictures to my customers. I reached good results with a two-passage selection technique.</p>

<ol>

<li>In a first phase I reject all pictures that I find clearly unusable, both technically and aesthetically. The corresponding files are deleted from the library at the end of this phase, but I'll keep them in the backup hard disk.</li>

<li>In the second passage, I pick only the pictures that emerge form the mass, putting a rating of 2 or more stars in Aperture. In this phase, I can be more benevolent if the couple wants lots of pictures or, on the contrary, critical if my clients let the choice in my hands.</li>

</ol>

<p>In this way, I select just the pictures my work needs, but all other RAWs are still available, just "in case of". They are lost as long as I want, thanks to Aperture filters. Since then I can organize the selected pictures within finer subgroups, accordingly to customers expectations and album layout, still using Aperture rating by stars and colours.<br>

I hope this can help. Cheerio</p>

[michaelchadwickphotography]

<p>Wow. NO ONE fell for that?</p>

<p>Arg. Hardly worth the effort.</p>

 

[JRCrowe]

<p>Michael, I think making little Polaroid flip books for the B&G would really set you apart from the run of the mill wedding photographer. Use that double sided sticky tape to glue those photos together. </p>

[michaelchadwickphotography]

<p>All kidding aside I do have a frame action that looks like a beat up old Polaroid, and occasionally I'll take a shot that somehow fits into that look and will include it in the album - but yeah, could you just imagine some poor assistant schlepping along behind you with a Sharpie all night? Now THAT's grunt work!</p>

[dave_wilson1]

<p>This was a good thread for those of us who are not so digi adept. Thanks. And Michael, I had to do a training shoot for an industry one day that needed all the prints on the spot. I used one of the old big grey Polaroid jobs with the bellows in front and it had a sync connector so you could use like V283. So I shot about 50 shots and someone followed me around with a bag to collect the goo-frames, remember them. Funny stuff!</p>