Managing photos after a shoot?

[whipper_snappa]

Heya guys

I met a CAMS Accredited photographer and had a good talk to him asking for advice and such, He said he shoots on RAW + jpg small. I found this heaps good to see which photos I like and don't etc.

Whats everyone elses way of organizing all the photos after the shoot? I have a feeling my way is completely unefficient!

Thanks again!

Aaron

[kiwi]

I see no reason to shoot sport on raw, if you can't get it close in camera no amount of friggin around in post will help


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[Xenedis]

I met a CAMS Accredited photographer and had a good talk to him asking for advice and such, He said he shoots on RAW + jpg small. I found this heaps good to see which photos I like and don't etc.

I personally don't need camera-produced JPGs to see my images; Adobe Bridge can display RAW images, and so can my Mac's native file viewer.

I used to shoot RAW+JPG, but eventually abandoned the JPGs, and when I deleted all the camera-produced JPGs for which I also had a RAW image, I recovered 30GB of disk space.

Whats everyone elses way of organizing all the photos after the shoot? I have a feeling my way is completely unefficient!

My directory tree contains a directory for each year (commencing with 2002), and within that directory, I keep one directory per shoot, filed by name and date in the format Photoshoot Name - YYYY-MM-DD.

I process my RAW files and save the processed image as a Photoshop PSD file. I use the naming convention IMG_0001 Processed.PSD and also export to JPG for publication, preserving the same naming convention.

Attached is a screen capture illustrating my filing system.

[Xenedis]

Oh, and further to my filing system, I keep four copies of all of my files.

All of my files are on my computer, and I back up every week or so to a pair of large, redundant external disks. I keep a third hard disk off-site.

[campo]

My filing system is similar, however I have the individual shoots in folders named YY-MM-DD followed by a description. I also split at a higher level so i can easily separate the different "types" of shooting i do (eg client work vs personal work). These "types" correspond to different lightroom catalogues.

Some examples:

Portraits\2010\10-05-23 - The Brady Bunch
Weddings\2010\10-05-24 - A Monday Wedding
Personal\2010\10-05-25 - Birthday Party

[whipper_snappa]

Wow Xenedis thats alot of folders!

I guess i'm just not used to taking my time organizing everything, being a teenager I want everything done there and then. I'm just realising this won't happen again. The PSD idea is good, and naming each edited photo IMG_0001 etc is a great idea. Might start doing that to!

Thanks guys

[Xenedis]

Wow Xenedis thats alot of folders!

My image hierarchy currently consists of 33,714 files and directories.

I guess i'm just not used to taking my time organizing everything, being a teenager I want everything done there and then. I'm just realising this won't happen again.

It's much easier if you do the housekeeping from the start and as you go.

The PSD idea is good

I use a lot of layers in Photoshop, and as I tend to use non-destructive processing techniques, I like to keep what I have. A PSD file is 16-bit, has all my changes and all my layers, so I can easily perform more work or change something without sacrificing image quality.

JPG is only 8-bit, and is a lossy format, meaning that you discard data each time you save.

and naming each edited photo IMG_0001 etc is a great idea.

That's simply the camera's naming convention. I don't bother renaming files.

[whipper_snappa]

Naming then IMG_0001 etc I reckon is good, Because if you look at file names online and stuff, I want like a consistant look instead of seeing IMG_0078, IMG_0081 etc

[Xenedis]

Naming then IMG_0001 etc I reckon is good, Because if you look at file names online and stuff, I want like a consistant look instead of seeing IMG_0078, IMG_0081 etc

I should clarify something here.

I don't have an IMG_0001.CR2 for every shoot; the image number is just the camera's counter, which I don't reset. It resets to IMG_0001 after IMG_9999.

The naming convention a camera applies to image files is otherwise inconsequential, as I give my images proper titles when I upload them, and the filenames aren't visible.

[campo]

As with Xenedis, I too don't bother renaming files until I deliver them to clients. If I shoot 2000 images at an event and deliver 500, the client will get Image-001 to Image-500 and these are the only ones I rename. If the client wants more they'll get Image-501 onwards. By only renaming the ones I deliver, when I chose to archive images, it's easy to know the keepers/rejects

[whipper_snappa]

Ah okay, That seems pretty good aswell eyy.

Thanks for the help guys

Aaron

[maccaroneski]

I sue a similar structure as Campo - again I don't rename the files either - although there is one minor change brought on by doing a 365: I have a monthly structure under the yearly one.

[Calxoddity]

If you have lots of images to manage, consider digital asset management and non-destructive editing. This will reduce your management overhead, as well as the number of image variants being created and taking up disk space. Lightroom and Aperture (Mac only) are worth a look.

Regards,
Calx

[fillum]

Something I do is rename the in-camera filename to give an extra digit. So for example I'd change IMG_nnnn to IM0_nnnn, then when it rolls over past IM0_9999 I change it to IM1_nnnn etc. This helps prevent duplicate filenames and helps with sorting. Obviously you need to do this manually and unless you are particularly observant you are unlikely to catch the sequence right when it's at 9999 .


Cheers.

[Xenedis]

This helps prevent duplicate filenames

I'm not worried about duplicate filenames, as I have a directory for each shoot, and two versions of IMG_0001 will never end up in the same directory.

[fillum]

I'm not worried about duplicate filenames, as I have a directory for each shoot, and two versions of IMG_0001 will never end up in the same directory.

Yeah it's not a big issue, I do upload into separate individual directories. However I also have situations where I'll accumulate images from different shoots over many months (e.g. end of footy season for submission to club yearbook). Just one less thing I need to worry about - my workflow can be somewhat...umm..."loose"



Cheers.