Managing picture files...

[ChristopherCoy]

GEES! I just got a 75gb external drive thinking that it would be enough. Well I just started transferring everything from my laptop to the drive, and it says that I have 12,531 items and (59.7 GB) to transfer, which should take about an hour and 56 minutes....

I can't believe that I have THAT many items or pictures, but I dont see what else it could be. If that is the case, then I have SEVERELY put this little D90 to work in the two months that I have owned it.

But my question is, how do you manage such a large number of pictures and files. I would have never thought that I would have this much memory but gees....

Do you keep everything, or only the things worthy of being edited, or only the good shots? Now that I am transferring everything I am realizing how valuable some sort of 'system' is going to be for organizational purposes...


ETA: well hell... my Lightroom file with all the RAW catalogs is 19 gigs by itself... GEESSS!!!!

[ptrd]

Yeah, i'm a newbie and I find the workflow a bit daunting, but I'm getting better at it.

At first I was shooting JPEG only and it helps with managing files and opening up things.

Now I shoot mostly RAW and it's a killer.

Honestly 75gb is a pretty small HD. I am pushing 1 tb dual HD sata drives to improve transfering. Also I have finally gotten somewhat of a workflow down.

I immediatly transfer all files to the computer. Delete unnecessay pictures then back all of those up. Then I go into editing the pictures (cropping, white balance, etc) and then back those up to but in a different folder on the back up drive. Now needless to say I probably will need to backup to DVD soon so that at least if the backup HD fails, then I can recover things. Store your dvd's offsite and you should be good.

That's my take on it.

[pbyd]

Chris,
I don’t want to scare you but we are up to 7 terabytes now on our server system. We went 100% digital a little over 10 years ago and we add a minimum of 500 Gigs each year. These numbers are just for our image back up files not the office computer.

Wayne
Photography by Design
www.pbyd.com

[utdbear]

I have about 250 GB of images

I made it a point on January that I was going to start organizing, so I organize by:

Genre(Portrait/Engagement/Aviation)
Model Name/Shoot Name
Date

So on my drive it will be d:\Portraiture\(name) - 5-31-2009

Lightroom does the rest, and of course YMMV

[J Eddington]

First delete all the CRAP. Save only the best.
I then file by Year, Month, Date, subject.
Over two Terabits right now.

[zebulus]

Wow, why did you only buy a 75GB external? I would get a MINIMUM of 160GB. Thats what I use.

[kenw]

Regardless of the file structure you use, I highly recommend a document of sorts to help you find them. I use a spreadsheet that I can search/auto-filter for key words, that in turn gives me the archived folder that contains the file.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by zebulus

Wow, why did you only buy a 75GB external? I would get a MINIMUM of 160GB. Thats what I use.

Who said I bought anything? I was graciously given one by my SIL who moved up to a 1TB drive, and it just happend to be a 75gb drive.

ChristopherCoy added 1 Minutes and 50 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by J Eddington

First delete all the CRAP. Save only the best.
I then file by Year, Month, Date, subject.
Over two Terabits right now.

You mean I have to go back and RENAME all those DSC_XXX pictures now?!?! LOL <grumble>

[kenw]

do not rename files, it is not necessary.

[MHampton]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

You mean I have to go back and RENAME all those DSC_XXX pictures now?!?! LOL <grumble>

Don't rename the actual images. Make directories. I have mine set up like this...

2009\2009.07.04 Family 4th Pictures
2009\2009.07.14 Trinity River Pictures

Then I let LightRoom take care of the rest. I do the tagging there so if I want all the pictures of my grandson, click and I'm there.