Organizing photos

On my 'to do' list for far too long is organizing my photos. I'm sure some here are way ahead of me, so I'd like to pick some brains regarding the best way. I may buy an external hard drive today and try to get started. My intention is for this to be my long-term archive. Should I buy a program to organize or just use the Windows Photo Gallery? One concern I have is that support is there long term.

Looking forward to your comments and experiences.

dirt, I don't know where to start but I'll try not to ramble too much ....

The first thing that I do is download the images from my camera to the computer into a Folder that I first create and name by Date and Location (2-2-10 - Blackwater). I then go through my photos(using my photo-editing software) and save the ones that I want at a smaller resolution. I name each saved image this way ....... Bald Eagle - Blackwater - 2-2-10. I save them into a sub-folder called Bald Eagles. Bird Photos is the name of my Master folder and the sub-folders fall in underneath.
I eventually transfer all of the folders that I downloaded from my camera onto an external hard drive. Once that is done, I delete those folders from my computer. If I ever want to find the original of one of the photos I saved in the smaller resolution all I have to do is go to the external hard drive. The file name of the photo has the date so I can easily find the right folder on the external hard drive.

My time is worth more than the money so I never delete any of the photos downloaded right from my camera. External hard drives are relatively inexpensive these days. I have several of them only because the first ones were 250gb. Now you can buy 1TB for the same price.

Putting some of your photos on a web photo gallery like Pbase, SmugMug, Flickr, etc. also provides a contingency should for some reason you lose your photos off of the computer or external hard drive.

Hopefully some of this makes sense. Everybody has their own way. This works for me and I have no fears about losing any of my photos that I really want. The first lesson in a business contingency planning environment is to store a duplicate of one's records off-site. Having two duplicates at the same location doesn't provide protection against some risks. So for true protection one needs to look beyond storing back-ups at their own residence.

I don't do as much as linth does. I don't have any external hard drive. But, linth has made me wonder if I need one. Linth, do they connect via a USC cable?

I simply use a card reader to get the photos from the 40D to the computer. The card reader opens a folder to view the images and I use "Cut and Paste" to get them off the card and into the computer, into a folder I created called "Snap Shots". I then put the empty card back into the 40D (It upsets me when I get outside, in position, and find out I forgot to put the card back, so I do it right away.).

I open the folder called "Snap Shots and pick the photos I want to keep and delete the rest. Usually I delete more than I keep.

I use such things as Elements 7, PhotoSuite or Microsoft Office Picture Manager to enhance them and/or resize them down to no more than 800 on the longest side. When I save the file, I give it a name that includes the date, for example "1-2-10 - Northern cardinal - male - 01". If I took another pic of him, that file name would end with "- 02".

When I have them like I want them I put them in another folder I created, called "Birds to go Online". That folder stores the photos so that I can readily access them when I'm online.

I have one more folder I created called "Bird Photos". There's where I keep the very best photos of birds I've seen since I started birding. At present, I have a total of 46 Folders showing the 46 species of birds I photographed so far. Each folder is named for the kind of birds it contains, Ex. "Sparrow, Chipping". Another is "Sparrow, House".

Hope this makes sense, I does to me.

Hack

Hack, most, if not all, external hard drives are connected via the computer USB slot. It's basically plug-and-play. A USB cord is provided. The external hard drive has an AC electric cord. Eventually, if you take a lot of photos (like I do) you've got to get them off of the computer. Right now, Amazon has a 1TB (Terabyte) external hard drive for under $100.00. That will last you a long time and equal to the 4 - 250GB external drives that I have. If you ask me, you should have one.

Hack, do you keep the original of the new downsized image that you created ? Where do you store it ?

If I take a 1,000 photos in one day it would take me forever to decide which originals I want to keep and which ones to delete. That's why I don't delete any of them. I just transfer them to the external hard drive. When that fills up, I'll buy another external hard drive. To me, time is precious. I don't want to waste it.

linth, I just purchased, online a Clickfree 160 GB for $55.00. Now, I'll see how it does. I didn't see your email about the 1TB EHD until now, I read its reviews, while many were good, there were enough bad ones to put a bad taste in my mouth about the Iomege Prestige 1 TB model. I'm just not sure right now which one would be the most dependable. What kind do you have?

No, I don't keep any of the originals. I just keep the finished product. To me it would just be too much "clutter".

I don't take anywhere near as many photos as you do, and I honestly know I'm never going back and re-exam 1,000s of photos anyway - so, I just get rid of them. The ones I keep bog me down anyway.

My two preferences have been Western Digital and Seagate.

Keeping the "original" of a good quality photo is never clutter, IMO, but one has to do what one has to do. There may come the time when National Geographic would like an original of one of your photos.

I personally don't know too much about Clickfree but it looks like it has gotten some good customer reviews and the company looks like its main focus is back-up storage. I like that. I'm sure you will be pleased.

Good Topic! All my folder's have the date I took the pictures on and are ultimately put into a folder called Birds. One of the first things I do when I have transferred my images is go through them and delete all blurred or unwanted pictures. From there I keep doing the same thing until I,m down to the one's I want to keep. I have a 160gb hard drive I took from my old computer and every now and then I upload the picture's to the drive.

I agree totally with the external hard drive, a virus can lock you out of your computer and you will have to format and you may not be able to get to your images because of that virus. Ive had a couple of viruses that I had to go into my bios to run a new format (re-format) and lost every thing, but had it on my external hard drive. ;)

My system is essentially the same as Linth's. I have a 250GB external for each year. It is sort of like a diary. At the end of the year it will have 365 folders, one for each day. (Today's was 02 02 10). Everything I shot today I have loaded into today's folder. If I edit an image, I rename the edited copy. Sometimes I edit it in several different ways and I save each of them. I NEVER over write or delete the original. I have had many requests for certain images from book and magazine editors or from state bluebird associations and they usually want an unedited copy.

Edited copies go in a subfolder I name "keepers" although as I said, I keep everything, even images that seem virtually identical.. They don't take up that much room and you can always delete them later on..

I also have another external, dedicated to 2009. When I have time I move pictures still on camera cards and other pictures I previously stored in a haphazard manner on other HD's, to the appropriate date on the 2009 HD. When I finishe 2009 I will start on 2008, and so on.

Dave

Can't wait until they make a key-chain flash drive that holds a Tb. Then you go and lose it possibly step on it , ok never mind. lol

I don't use anything special. As the others, I just name the folder the date (yr mt dy) the photos where downloaded. I may also append a location or event to the name. I immediatley go through and delete most of them. I also delete alot on the camera right after shooting them. I'm also much better about taking a good photo in the first place, i.e. if the lighting is not right I don't waste my time. Photos that are exceptional go to a special folder and sub categorize as needed. I differ in that I'm pretty strict in what I'll actually save. I'll probably save 25% of what I shoot and 1-2% make the exceptional folder. Most of my photo shooting is associated with specific trips or nature hikes now, so I don't have large numbers of photos to manage.

I backup everything to an external hard drive every so often. So, I always have 2 copies of everything on different hard drives. I too have had hard drives and external hard drives fail.

Thanks for the responses. I pretty much do the same as the others, but have pics scattered on 3 computers. I'd like to get them one one drive. I also want a back-up of the hard drive, but have concerns about some of the online services-- like how long will they be around. Think I'll probably go with Symantec's online back-up.

Lot of good points raised.

I've only just started photographing birds and do not have the volume of photos that many of you folks have.

Based on what I just read, maybe I should start keeping my original, unedited photos (but, just the good ones), in a folder just for them. My concern is that I don't want to become a "pack rat" and get buried under a colossal amount photos. But I can see the benefit of having my photos grouped by first by year taken, then by species of bird, and files named by date. (It would be nice to look back next year and see when I first started seeing, say, Dark-eyed Juncos show up.

linth, I too, think the Clickfree I ordered is primarily for backup, but the deal was too good to pass up. So, now, I'm going to get another external hard drive, from Seagate, probably, for saving photos from past years - for me it would only be since June of 2009, I just started (But I looked forward to running it for a complete year.. I've also heard that Western Digital is good.

Hack

I just got on Amazon and ordered an Iomega Prestige 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34275 for $98.78. Had good reviews, better than a Seagate. Should do the job.

I just won an auction on ebay for a brand new Western Digital My Book 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - I gave $88.00 for it. Shipping was free.

There are more up for auction.

Hack

That should hold a few pictures. :-)