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Hi there,

Although I've been shooting now for 2 years I still haven't come up with a satisfactory way to keep all of my files on my hard drive and am hoping that someone with more experience than me can help me come up with a 'fail-safe' method.

I have three versions of everything (RAW + PSD + JPG) and don't know how to organise them on the HDD in a logical and easy to find/use manner.

Should I keep them all in seperate folders? ie

/Photos/2006/Birds/Finches/RAW --> All the RAW files go in here
/Photos/2006/Birds/Finches/PSD --> All the PSD files go in here. Filenames are the same as the RAW
/Photos/2006/Birds/Finches/JPG --> All the JPEGs go here. Filenames the same as the RAW

or stick them all in the same folder

/Photos/2006/Birds/Finches --> All RAW + PSD + JPG files go in the same folder

.... I'm sure there are MUCH better soloutions than that... just looking for how you guys organise all your files

I do have a copy of iMatch that I keep meaning to learn how to use to organise things as well but I've never gotten around to learning how to do more than import the pics (I currently just import the JPEG files)

Paul

I'm still trying to work out a decent file structure myself.

At the moment I have the following:

Originals
db
photos
2004
01
02
etc
2005
etc
2006
etc

Unsorted
db
photos

Processing


All my raw files out of the camera go into Unsorted/photos, here they get smart renamed by iMatch to YYYYMMDD_HHDDSS_INDEX. Once done they get placed in the appropriately dated folder. If I want any additional information such as them being a finch or whatever I can add a properties field for my image or add a category and mark the photograph being associated with that category. Something I need to do is add back all my categories. In processing I have no sub directories as yet (might change when it gets big) the files named the same as the NEF except for extension. So I'd have:

20060120_070000_00001.PSD

Which would be the cropped NEF file with any postprocessing done (eg. wb adjustment, shadow/highlight, noise reduction etc).

Then the resized image and selective sharpened with black border and copyright tag would be:

20060120_070000_00001_web.PSD

I don't even bother keeping the JPG files as they can easily be regened from the PSD file.

i do something very similar but with dates..

e.g.

2006\060313_housefire\nef
2006\060313_housefire\tif
2006\060313_housefire\jpg

that way it's very easy for me to sort through and get the exact images I am searching for. with the date in that format it's organised quite nicely for my needs.

i am very interested in getting my teeth stuck into the adobe lightroom at some stage soon.. just need to set aside the time.

cheers

Paul

I have two top level folders - PP and No PP for pics I've decided to do PP on and those I don't. The No PP are basically those I've taken, but decided weren't good enough for whatever reason. Inside each of these top level folders I then file my images by date (eg 2006-03-13).

I then use iMatch to manage the images. So if I have a pic of a finch taken today that I've PP'd it'll be in My Pictures/PP/2006-03-13 physically as say _DSC1234.NEF, _DSC1234.JPG and _DSC1234.PSD. In iMatch I tell it to only import the .NEFs and further I've told it that .JPG and .PSD are buddy files to .NEF. What the buddy file thing means is if I move a .NEF file within iMatch to a different physical location it will also move the .JPG and .PSD versions automatically.

So as discussed above my pic is now in iMatch as _DSC1234.NEF. I then assign the image to a parent category of Animals, with a sub cetegory of Bird and a sub sub category of Finch. I might also put the same image in a parent category called Location and a sub category called Victoria with a sub sub category called Mornington. Additionally I have an iMatch script I've wriiten that will also assign the image to various categories based on EXIF data eg by lens, focal length, shutter speeed etc.

Once all that's done I have a multitude of ways of getting at what is a single file on my hard disk. If I want pics of finches taken in Victoria I'll find by specifying those values in a search. If I want animal pics taken with my 70-200VR same story. Likewise if I want all shots taken using a focal length of 90mm I can search on that. I'm sure you get the idea.

So basically iMatch becomes a giant searchable repository of all sorts of image metadata. At the same time the file itself is in one single location.

Finally, one other point when the file is first moved to my hard disk from CF it goes to the No PP area. When I decide to PP it I move it to the PP area using iMatch so it can keep track of things.

There's lot's more, but this probably gives an idea of what I do. If you want more I can go into more detail (eg iMatch let's me archive this stuff to DVD and tracks that too).

Mark, you actually made me look into seeing if it was possible for iMatch to only process certain file types. The reason I'd seperated the RAWS from the processed files before was because iMatch was adding in everyfile. However I can specify Nikon NEF only

Ok so my new structure will be:

Photos
db
files
2004
01
NEF PSD
JPG
etc
2005
etc
2006
etc

Unsorted
db
files


Mark, thanks for making me refine mine

Peter, that's a nice idea with the PP and No PP. With everything starting off in the No PP area.

Also out of interest Peter, can you buddy files in sub directories eg.

Code: Select all

NEF
  _DSC1000.NEF PSD
  _DSC1000.PSD
JPG
  _DSC1000.JPG

kipper wrote:Mark, thanks for making me refine mine

Thanks stubbsy for that.... that sounds exactly what I want to be doing with mine.

I didn't realise you could do the 'Buddy file' thing in iMatch. That will help a great deal!

Any reason you get iMatch to show only the .NEF files? I think for me I'd want to see the finished JPG files so I know exactly what I'm looking at.

Sounds like I'm going to have to do some serious research on iMatch. I recently upgraded it to the latest version and knew that I am only using a tiny part of it's functionality but have never sat down and learned exactly what it can do.

Paul

With iMatch when you create the DB you can specify what file types you want it to process.

Personally I don't think you should need to view the JPGs at all when browsing in iMatch. If you name the files the same as I do, and they're buddied (which I haven't done yet). All you need to do when later wanting to reference the original raw file that was associated with the JPG is look for the filename.

The info on how to backup to DVD would also be very helpful Peter...

Probably a little much for me to take in at this point but it's something I really need to learn.

My image collection is growing larger all the time and I'm starting to get paranoid about loosing stuff

Paul

stubbsy wrote:Paul...

[lot's of info goes here]

...There's lot's more, but this probably gives an idea of what I do. If you want more I can go into more detail (eg iMatch let's me archive this stuff to DVD and tracks that too).

Feeling better I see Peter?

That's a very good summary of some what Imatch is capable of, and one day I really am going to sort out how to use it! Perhaps you can run a workshop on "Efficient use of Imatch / digital workflow" at the Annual Meet in August!

kipper wrote:Also out of interest Peter, can you buddy files in sub directories eg.

Code: Select all

NEF
  _DSC1000.NEF PSD
  _DSC1000.PSD
JPG
  _DSC1000.JPG

Darryl - No. Buddy files muct be at the same level

NikonUser wrote:Any reason you get iMatch to show only the .NEF files? I think for me I'd want to see the finished JPG files so I know exactly what I'm looking at.

Paul
No reason at all, I don't look at the final version in iMatch. If you have iMatch do both .NEF and .JPG then you'll have two of every image showing in iMatch (inless you filter by file type). This would also complicate things like categories since you'd need to assign both bersions of a file to the same categories.

Thanks for the info so far. Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon?

Now this is probably pushing it...

But can I set it up so that:

1) I have iMatch only display the JPEG version of the file (easy)
2) I setup so that I have the PSD and NEF files as buddies (easy)
3) Somehow choose an option within iMatch that will allow me to open the NEF or PSD file for editing?

That way I could look at the final JPEG versions in the database and if I wanted to change or edit anything I could open it in Photoshop or Nikon Capture from within iMatch and not have to go hunting around my harddisk for the NEF and PSD files?

Paul

The problem I see with your method NikonUser is that you're getting iMatch to show the end result which is the JPEG instead of it showing the starting point which is the NEF file. What happens if there is no JPEG yet because you haven't PP it from a NEF into a JPEG? This means you will have no entry for that NEF file.

To me the logical thing would be to show the NEF because from there you can have things like user tools setup such as NC4 or CS2 and then you look at the NEF and go "hey I like that, I'm going to add that one to my site" and you right click fire up CS2 and convert it to a JPEG. To me the way you described sounds a bit arse about??

I only really want my database to show me files that I've processed and have JPEG's for.

For the files I haven't yet processed they are in a seperate folder

/Unedited/2006-13-03/

and I use Adobe Bridge to browse through them.

My idea is to have the iMatch database setup so I can find and browse all of my finished/edited images.

Paul

kipper wrote:To me the logical thing would be to show the NEF because from there you can have things like user tools setup such as NC4 or CS2 and then you look at the NEF and go "hey I like that, I'm going to add that one to my site" and you right click fire up CS2 and convert it to a JPEG.

I want to be able to look at the final file and say "Hey, I like that, I would like to print it out" and then be able to open the PSD file in CS2 to prepare it for printing.

Fair enough, you could always setup two DBs. One unprocessed (all NEFS), one processed (all JPEGS)?

sheepie wrote:

stubbsy wrote:Paul...

[lot's of info goes here]

...There's lot's more, but this probably gives an idea of what I do. If you want more I can go into more detail (eg iMatch let's me archive this stuff to DVD and tracks that too).

Feeling better I see Peter?

That's a very good summary of some what Imatch is capable of, and one day I really am going to sort out how to use it! Perhaps you can run a workshop on "Efficient use of Imatch / digital workflow" at the Annual Meet in August!

Or I could get my finger out and write something.

I wish i took the computing course at school instead of welding 1.1.Technology can get away from you sooo easily