Author Topic: How do you organize your files? (Read 9041 times)

Miguel Calo · « **on:** July 10, 2012, 15:59 »

Hello, everybody!

I am new on the forum. I have some questions. I have about 1000 illustrations and I intent to upload them on more sites. I didn't put keywords and they are quite in a chaos. I wonder how should I organize them.

Just as an example, I have more than 50 images placed in different folders with the same name. It might sound crazy but I think those little details could make my work easier. I even wonder how do you name your files in order to find what you need. Where do you put them? Do you have an excel? Is it Lightroom? Or what?

Thanks in advance!

rimglow · « **Reply #1 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:17 »

I use Adobe Bridge. Create a folder titled Stock Illustrations. Dump everything you intend to upload into that folder. In Bridge you can add keywords and you'll have the ability to sort your files by name, date created, date modified, file size. etc.

louoates · « **Reply #2 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:22 »

Let me warn you against having multiple folders with the same name. That is made for disaster from one folder overwriting another. I've lost many valuable files with later edits that way.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:24 »

folders, no special program, just windows explorer

- 2012
   - June
   - June 8
   - NEF
   - JPG
   - June 10
   - NEF
   - JPG

if I don´t create any new files there are no "June" folders, regarding iStock because of the slots I have other folder saying IS (to know what I have uploaded, DeepMeta keeps it nicely too)

I use sequential file number dsc_XXXX but I have heard that writing little description or title may be good in terms of SEO if you ever plan on building your own website/store etc..

Mantis · « **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:29 »

Quote from: louoates on July 10, 2012, 16:22

Let me warn you against having multiple folders with the same name. That is made for disaster from one folder overwriting another. I've lost many valuable files with later edits that way.

just what I was getting ready to say. I actually have my camera set up to keep continuous file numbers. On my edited images (JPG's) I keep 1,000 image folders with very simple file names; IMG1, IMG 2 etc. I keep my keywords in a word document and paste them in to Bridge. The reason is that Istock uses CV and, for the most part, those keywords are useless elsewhere. When I upload to IS I have a set of IS keywords that reside in my Word document that I paste into Deepmeta. Lou is spot on. You will run into major problems when you have file names that are the same. There is a batch rename feature in bridge. I'd create unique names in each folder (different from other folders) then put them into one directory and do another batch rename to get synchronized file names. Then just continue adding to those files in the logical order for which you created.

Miguel Calo · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:39 »

Thanks! You are so right... My mistake was that I wasn't aware at the beginning that I'm going to dedicate myself so much to this "business" and I just used to name them "business", "business 1' and so on! You can imagine the rest!

What about the workflow? How do you think it's the best? If you shoot or draw everyday, should you upload them in the same day to all websites? Or would it be better to have a special day of the week to dedicate to this?

I mean sometimes I find quite bothering to draw and then stop to upload. I upload in order to check if the quality/idea is ok. If it's accepted, I go as on Fotolia the review of the illustrations is very fast...

rimglow · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:50 »

Workflow will vary day to day. Just deal with whatever mood you're in.

As long as you are organizing don't neglect to back up your files to two different external drives. One on sight, one off site. Remember, all drives will eventually fail.

Mantis · « **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:54 »

Quote from: Miguel Calo on July 10, 2012, 16:39

Thanks! You are so right... My mistake was that I wasn't aware at the beginning that I'm going to dedicate myself so much to this "business" and I just used to name them "business", "business 1' and so on! You can imagine the rest!

What about the workflow? How do you think it's the best? If you shoot or draw everyday, should you upload them in the same day to all websites? Or would it be better to have a special day of the week to dedicate to this?

I mean sometimes I find quite bothering to draw and then stop to upload. I upload in order to check if the quality/idea is ok. If it's accepted, I go as on Fotolia the review of the illustrations is very fast...

Generally I shoot, then the next few days is editing. After that I get into keywording mode. I do all of this in my PSD finished files then save them as JPGs into my main directory. Usually week two I do the uploading. But as Rimglow says, it's up to you. And the back up statement he made is spot on. Back up your files.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:56 »

Quote from: Miguel Calo on July 10, 2012, 16:39

What about the workflow? How do you think it's the best? If you shoot or draw everyday, should you upload them in the same day to all websites? Or would it be better to have a special day of the week to dedicate to this?

I have all agencies bookmarked in a firefox folder (I click on the folder and it opens all agencies), most I will FTP and then will submit one by one closing tabs when finished.. there are paid solutions like picworkflow

regarding metadata I use xnview (freeware)

luissantos84 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 10, 2012, 16:59 »

Quote from: Mantis on July 10, 2012, 16:54

Back up your files.

apart from the external hd I upload also all my pictures to MostPhotos, there is no review and we can download them anytime we wish for free

Mantis · « **Reply #10 on:** July 10, 2012, 17:02 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on July 10, 2012, 16:59

Quote from: Mantis on July 10, 2012, 16:54
Back up your files.

apart from the external hd I upload also all my pictures to MostPhotos, there is no review and we can download them anytime we wish for free

Until they go out of business

luissantos84 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 10, 2012, 17:33 »

Quote from: Mantis on July 10, 2012, 17:02

Quote from: luissantos84 on July 10, 2012, 16:59
Quote from: Mantis on July 10, 2012, 16:54
Back up your files.

apart from the external hd I upload also all my pictures to MostPhotos, there is no review and we can download them anytime we wish for free

Until they go out of business

I knew you were going to say that

thats true, I have a few sales there every month, guess it ain´t enough to keep them sustainable

leaf · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2012, 06:54 »

I always name my photos (and illustrations) with year-month-day-hour-minute-second then if you want to add something more put it at the end. That way you can be guaranteed no two files will have the same name and overwrite eachother.

For keeping uploads organized... I have a directory for each site up upload to, then place a shortcut to each image in that directory. When I upload the file to site X, I delete the shortcut. That way I know which files still need to be uploaded to which site.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2012, 09:52 »

Quote from: leaf on July 11, 2012, 06:54

I always name my photos (and illustrations) with year-month-day-hour-minute-second then if you want to add something more put it at the end. That way you can be guaranteed no two files will have the same name and overwrite eachother.

For keeping uploads organized... I have a directory for each site up upload to, then place a shortcut to each image in that directory. When I upload the file to site X, I delete the shortcut. That way I know which files still need to be uploaded to which site.

I like that shortcut idea. But, why delete the shortcut? Wouldn't that mean the file still needs to be uploaded?

ED: PS: Curious because I use the same naming convention except one up numbering following yyyymmdd.

cascoly · « **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2012, 16:06 »

from a longer article at http://cascoly.hubpages.com/hub/Simplify-Your-Photo-Collection --

Photoshop Elements lets you run a batch process on multiple images taken on the same day , renaming them using yymmdd-xxx where xx is a sequential number. The result is a set of images that are simple to sort by date, yet with with no duplicates, meeting the goal of having unique image numbers but still easy to find . When I’m traveling, using a fresh memory and notes, I try to do at least some captioning each night.. At a minimum I only need to identify the beginning of any major group. Thus in India I summarized more than 350 images but used only three captions::
•· 090101-002 Arrival in Delhi
•· 090103-155 Arrival in Agra to visit the Taj Mahal
•· 090104-312 Ganges river

Now, even though I didn't caption all photos, when I return to image 090101-145.jpg weeks or months later, I can instantly place it in Delhi. You can be as detailed or as general as you wish. Some days I may have a dozen or more temples, mosques and museums we've visited. This technique helps me recall them months or years later, while still providing an hour or 3 of sleeptime each night.

antistock · « **Reply #15 on:** July 12, 2012, 00:10 »

as much as i hate them with all my heart i'm still stuck with PhotoMechanic and sometimes ACDsee Pro 5.

Acdsee in particular is a gigantic sack of sh-it but still miles ahead of Adobe Bridge.

for anything else i use PS CS6 and LightRoom 3.4

THP Creative · « **Reply #16 on:** July 12, 2012, 01:56 »

Hey miguel,

Lots of good suggestions so far. I also use Adobe Bridge, and sort files into submission folders

eg: Submission 1, Submission 2 etc based on when they were uploaded. So get a batch of images ready, create new submission folder and upload them.

Find it works for me.

leaf · « **Reply #17 on:** July 12, 2012, 14:26 »

Quote from: WarrenPrice on July 11, 2012, 09:52

Quote from: leaf on July 11, 2012, 06:54
I always name my photos (and illustrations) with year-month-day-hour-minute-second then if you want to add something more put it at the end. That way you can be guaranteed no two files will have the same name and overwrite eachother.

For keeping uploads organized... I have a directory for each site up upload to, then place a shortcut to each image in that directory. When I upload the file to site X, I delete the shortcut. That way I know which files still need to be uploaded to which site.

I like that shortcut idea. But, why delete the shortcut? Wouldn't that mean the file still needs to be uploaded?

ED: PS: Curious because I use the same naming convention except one up numbering following yyyymmdd.

The shortcuts show me which files still need to be uploaded to the site. When I upload the file then the shortcut is deleted. If there are no shortcuts in folder X I know that all the photos have been uploaded.

The shortcuts are actually shortcuts to folders with groups of 50 images in them... that way they are easy to move around and organize.

bobbigmac · « **Reply #18 on:** July 14, 2012, 13:45 »

Very interesting thread. Would love to hear more about people's workflow

I use Lightroom for the initial selection process, then upload to picWorkflow (I own that site btw).
I don't usually post links to the site in here but in this case I think it's relevant because I recently wrote a pretty detailed blog post on how I select and organise my images as part of a portfolio spring-cleaning, I think it may be useful to you.

raclro · « **Reply #19 on:** July 22, 2012, 17:19 »

I upload into Lightroom with a simple date and subject name. Select and edit photos in Lightroom (sometimes there is an intermediate stop in PS Elements for addtional editing) , and delete all questionable shots from both Lightroom and the hard drive. I then export edited photos to a "Photos Ready" folder on my desktop from which I upload to iStock. After uploading, the file is then dragged into a subfolder-- "Uploaded", this folder then has subfolders-- "Accepted", "Resubmit edit" into which I drag the file after inspection. I delete rejected edited photos from my desktop subfolder since I still have the original in Lightroom should I ever want to go back to them. I star the ones I use in Lightroom to tell me they have been sent. The accepted folder is occasionally saved on an external hard drive. This workflow works well for me and for the years I did it without Lightroom, just a Windows based folder system using PS elements to edit.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #20 on:** July 24, 2012, 08:48 »

Quote from: rimglow on July 10, 2012, 16:17

I use Adobe Bridge. Create a folder titled Stock Illustrations. Dump everything you intend to upload into that folder. In Bridge you can add keywords and you'll have the ability to sort your files by name, date created, date modified, file size. etc.

That's basically what I do as well.

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Author Topic: How do you organize your files? (Read 9041 times)

Miguel Calo

rimglow

louoates

luissantos84

Mantis

Miguel Calo

rimglow

Mantis

luissantos84

luissantos84

Mantis

luissantos84

leaf

WarrenPrice

cascoly

antistock

THP Creative

leaf

bobbigmac

raclro

Tryingmybest

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