So what does your folder structure look like?

[vibhav]

I am an hobbyist so my pictures are not folderized the way they probably should be... Here is a structure that I plan to use but am curious to see/learn what others are using to improve mine. I have two considerations : 1. I shoot a lot of pictures of my kid so I need easy access to find them as I can not remember which month I took tham as they are not for a special event, just everyday photos; 2. All vacation trips, events photos that I do for myself.

So, what I am thinking is that my folder structure needs to be two folded:

1. Top Level is an year (2006, 2007 etc.)
2. Second level is where the two folds begin: I have one folder dedicated folder for my kid and have twelve other folders for months, such as 01 January, 02 February etc...This way they are all in the monthly order. I will use the monthly folders to put my vacaton trip etc. pictures in them.
3. In every monthly folder, there is a third level folder by the date when I shoot and the event as an suffix - example: 2007-04-July Fireworks in Austin
4. Fourth level is my files where the file names are the name generated by the camera, followed by the shot date and then the event, for example: CRW_9292 2007-04-July Fireworks in Austin. The CRW file number keeps each image unique.

So, what do you guys think and let me know how yours looks like so that I may be able to improve upon it. Thanks for your help!

-Vibhav.

[mattchow]

car show event structure looks like this.

2007_0121-Import_Face_Off-Houston-Texas
2006_1007-HIN-Dallas-Texas
2006_0930-Petit_LeMans-Atlanta-Georgia
2006_0916-NOPI_Nationals-Atlanta-Georgia

regular photo structure looks like this

2007_0101-Misc
2007_0101-Kethan_New_Years_Party
2006_1223-Phong_Xmas_Party
2006_1012-Stoptech

[janetg]

i pretty much use the same sort of structure - year, month, day. i suppose i could put a better description to the side of that, but so far, it's worked without adding the extra information to the name.

what i can suggest - make a separate drive for your kid - or store them offline somewhere where the child is able to access them. now i know you are thinking...my child wouldn't mess up my pictures...and no they wouldn't. on purpose. what they can do - is accidentally is overright a file. or not copy a file to another name when they've done some editing. trust me on this - my kids used the pictures for i can't tell you how many school projects, etc.

in order for you to be absolutely certain no one will ever mess things up for you - you have to be the only person in control. to this day, one of my kids is in college for the second time and the other one is a freshman 2000 miles away, and they still want the pictures, they still mess with them, and i keep them all online at full rez for them to have at their will. or in the case of the youngest, she brought her hd home at xmas - and we updated it with new pictures.

[KeithAlanK]

Year/Month/Day/Event
All originals and early edits stay in this section.
(Copy them to external harddrive daily, and burn to CD every week)

All photos that have been edited for a project go into a new folder for that specific job.
I just right-click and 'copy to' the new folder.
This way they stay in the original folder for archiving and backup.
But they are quickly accessible in the new folder, too, and I can delete it when finished without worrying about losing originals and edits not involved with the project.

'Copy To...' is your friend, especially since you can move any number of files with just a few keystrokes.

[brad]

Originals and RAWs go in a "year-month-day event or name" folder

Finished files go in a "Year/Event or name month-day-year" folder

[OversighT]

I use a similar setup to most who've already posted. Main folder is "YYYY.MM.DD Title" and I have sub folders that hold the other formats created from the Raw files.

Example...
Main folder: 2006.01.26 Today's Event (contains all Raw files)
Sub folder: JPEG (contains any straight to JPEG conversions from ACR)
Sub folder: PSD (Photoshop documents)

I use ACDSee Pro to keyword and add IPTC information after the files have been imported into the file system.

T.

[Detonate]

Folder PATH listing
Volume serial number is 000FF3E8 4AC1:773F
E:.
+---Business
|   +---040801 - SCUBA Class
|   +---040822 - SCUBA Class
|   +---040912 - SCUBA Class
|   +---040918 - Lone Star Biker Bash
|   +---041003 - SCUBA Class
|   +---050312 - Your Adventure
|   +---050318 - Texas Hill Country
|   +---060519 - Live 6
|   +---060624 - Russ Band Practice
|   +---060816 - Summer
|   +---060901 - Brittani
|   +---060923 - Heros Parade
|   +---060929 - Hummer Adventure Shoot
|   +---061201 - Shannell
|   +---061205 - Curtis
|   +---061208 - Harper
|   +---061209 - Angela
|   +---061214 - Muslin Test
|   +---061216 - Kristen
|   +---061217 - Summer
|   \---061220 - Erin Nicole
+---Family
|   +---000704 - 4th of July Party at Jeremy's
|   +---000720 - Dogs
|   +---000729 - Rock Climbing
|   +---001029 - Halloween
|   +---001216 - Rugby Christmas Party
|   +---001231 - Rugby New Year
|   +---010203 - Rugby Game
|   +---010310 - Rugby
|   +---010317 - Rugby
|   +---010401 - Mineral Wells
|   +---010414 - Aunt Gwen
|   +---010512 - Rugby Awards
|   +---010701 - The CPL
|   +---010821 - Wedding and other
|   +---020325 - Ski Trip
|   +---020501 - Hun Farm Shoot
|   +---020809 - Labor Day
|   +---020822 - American Idol
|   +---021031 - Jeremy Halloween Party
|   +---030504 - AGR Wheelin Ranch
|   +---030612 - Hawaii
|   |   +---030610 - Hilton by the Pool
|   |   +---030610 - Snorkel in Hilton Lagoon
|   |   +---030611 - Jet Ski
|   |   +---030611 - Luau (2)
|   |   +---030613 - Booze C ruise
|   |   +---030613 - Panorama
|   |   +---030616 - Falls
|   |   +---030616 - Falls (2)
|   |   +---030616 - Panorama
|   |   +---030617 - Last Day
|   |   \---030617 - Panorama
|   +---030619 - Bens Half Yard House
|   +---041031 - Halloween
|   +---050803 - Trinity
\---Misc

I do the year month day thing + description.

Then inside I normally have a few folders. I put the RAW files in the root, the basic JPEGS in a BASIC folder, and then I'll have a PSD, Print, and Web folder. PSD is for edited images. Print is for images that have been sharpened and printed. And web is resized images for the web.


Everything has NTF permissions set so that my wife can view pictures, modify attributes on the pictures (i.e. add Tags, and such), she can create folders, add files, but she can not accidentally delete anything. I also have permissions setup for my mediacenter so that it too can access all the files without worrying about them getting deleted.

[brad]

I see lots of people keeping the RAWs and the finished images together... I usually keep them separate cause I like to back them up separately and it makes it easier if they aren't in the same directory.

[Gordon]

I do much the same. I have a 'Pictures' directory.

In there, there is a folder for each year.

Then in each year folder, there's a folder for each capture.

Folder names are automatically created by the import software I use and have a job name appended, so

YYYYMMDD_job_id

I use YYYYMMDD so the directories sort by name order, in date order.

All the RAW files go into a directory called 'originals' under that directory, with the files renamed to

YYYYMMDD_job_id_unique_number (based on the capture file number - so I can keep track of the number of shots in a year)

I then have a couple of other directories. edits for layered PSD files. web for JPEGs print for print ready versions.

When I need space I blow away the 'web' and 'print' versions. I backup at capture time the RAW files and occasionally go through and back up the PSD versions too.

[janetg]

brad - i'm with you - when i started shooting raw - i keep them entirely on a separate drive - which is dedicated only to raw files. (i'm a drive hog..and now have 8 drives)

[vibhav]

Awesome! So, I think I am on the right path... :-)

I may be overly complicating things a bit which I could probably simplify. I agree that RAW and processed need to be two separate folders as well.

Thanks everyone for sharing!

-Vibhav

[rwwright]

another consideration. look at something like iviewpro. set up a structure of something like all 2006 photos in a directory called 2006. sub directories of 2006 mmdd somekindofsubject. for processed or selected photos have a directory of 2006 mmdd somekindofsubject SEL. Maybe a directory called JPG below that one for web or emailed photos.

then use the subject or people or keywords for subdefinations such as person-1-birthdays or whatever you can use for finding those photos fast.

I use iviewpro and have tried several others, but that dosent mean you should choose this one, but they all have similiar features. iviewpro lets me leave the photos in my origional places and quickly search or find certain photos. .......IF I SET UP KEYWORDS correctly and follow thru with the photos.....

[Bartman01]

Currently I *try* to use the following:
Photos\CATEGORY\YYYYMMDD EVENTNAME\YYYYMMDD_III_0SEQ.ext

CATEGORY = general category (for now). This will go away when I get a permanent image database/tagging process in place. Some events defy general categorization since they could potentially fall in to to two categories.

YYYY = 4 digit year; MM = 2 digit month; DD = 2 digit month. This way it sorts chronologically (1/2/2005 = 20050102).

EVENTNAME is the overall event name.

The filename is designed to keep me from ever having 2 image files with the exact same name. That way if I decide to re-organize later or find a specific file I don't have issues with duplicate names for different images.
YYYYMMDD = date as described above
III = my initials/initials of shooter if not me (don't currently have duplication issues here)
0SEQ = 4 digit sequence for the image (starting at 0001 for each day of each event).

[Gordon]

I used to just store captures by date and for a couple of years I could actually work out where stuff was. Adding an 'event name' type tag into the directory and file name has been a huge help now though.

I just try to keep it shortish, but enough of a trigger to work out what is in that dir.

Except I did 2 years of fairly constant shooting at the lady bird Johnston wildflower center and have probably 60 directories of the type YYYYMMDD_wild
which doesn't help with finding things much :)

[DeLeon]

I have A Dir for the client, then subs for original RAW files, I copy the raw file to a "working" DIR, after the post is complete i change the working folder to finished. then burn everything to two DVD's, I keep a DVD in a filing cab here at the house, and another DVD in a file cabinet at my in-laws house. there are always at least two copies on two sides of town. and sometimes i lay awake at night worrying about the possibility of both of our houses burning down and loosing everything......