After about 9 months I'm starting to get quite a lot of pictures and some of them are even quite good. I'm now starting to worry about cataloging these and how to find them quickly easily.
I have a folder on my drive called 2002 Digital. Inside the 2002 Digital folder, I have folders such as:
2002-01-15 - Railroad Shots 2002-01-30 - Flowers and Puppies 2002-03-15 - Ides of March Celebration
etc, etc... inside each of those folders is a folder called ORIGINALS. I put my original photos in the ORIGINALS folder and work in the folder above it.
When one of these folders becomes stale and I'm not using it frequently anymore, I rename it to:
!05-2002-01-30 - Flowers and Puppies
The "!" causes it to sort to the top of the folder list. The 05 tells me that I'm going to archive it to Photo Archive CD #5 next time I archive. When I do archive a folder to CD, I delete everything from inside the folder and move the empty folder to my CD ARCHIVES folder. I can browse that folder to find which CD I need if I'm looking for something that I have archived...
Count me in the twisted category then too, I do something very similar. (In fact the differences aren't major enough to even delineate.) Couple a system like that with the ability to preview thumbnails in the most recent Windows OS's (or whatever program you like) and you're in business.
What you describe is pretty close to what I've been doing for the last year or so.
I have a 'DigitalPhotos' directory with all of the originals, in directories for date and then the original CRW files.
Out of that I then have an assortment of directories where 'processed' versions go. I'm just starting to feel that this approach isn't going to keep up. Particularly when I start archiving and want to find things from CD, rather than just backing up the whole lot.
I also use a similar process, plus I try and burn all my original files to CD or another computer as soon as I take them off the camera. I think I'm going to start a "Finals" folder where truly finished pieces go, and probably maintain that on the hard disk for ready availability as well as back it up to CD. Photos I print are also archived at my online printing services...
Me too, pretty similar to everyone else. I create a folder on my C drive so that it isn't buried very deep and I'll name it, for example, 'Single Light 10-19-02', and that's where I paste all of my originals into from that shoot. Inside of that folder I create an 'Edited' folder where I will copy my best images after I have reviewed them using ACDSee and edited using Photoshop. I usually do not chnage the names of the images that go into the 'Edited' folder so that it will be easy to find the originals, or I might change both names in each folder to make it easy. Periodically, when I have enough files to fill up a CD I'll burn the intire directories onto a Cd so that the originals are always with the edited versions. Then I just write the names of each of the directories right on the CD and I'm done.
I am also creating a 'Best Photos' directory where I put all of my top photos into for easy access and viewing. I have been currently going through all of my past digital, and in some cases 35mm photos, finding the best ones and re-editing many and putting them into my 'Best photos' directory. This is a very long proccess but it will be nice to have my best photos neatly organized in one place. I am also currently building my web site and it has been necessary to go through my photos for that purpose. One day it will actually be done and I can share it with you.
T
* This message has been edited by the author on 10/21/2002 5:49:40 PM.
Any favourite CD's to backup on? At the moment I use Imation 700mb 16x CD-R's.
I am thinking of a second backup on Kodak Ultima 80 CD-R's. Does someone have a good experience with Kodak and does the gold layer instead of silver really improve the life of the CD?
I generally use Maxells. Many other's including Kodak are good too. I definitely stay away from the no name brands because CD's are not made equally and they are not nearly as perfect as some will have you believe.
I am celebrating my first year anniversary in photography this month. I also have lots of pics on my computer with only a floppy drive for back ups. I will purchase a new computer in a few months and wonder about the new DVD burners as a storage media. Would that be a better way to go instead of a CD burner?
