Tidying up

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traceyjj

Senior Member
In preparation for my new camera, I have decided to try to tidy up my photo storage... currently its spread over 3 external drives and my computer hard drive... there has to be a better way than this. Taking a quick peek in some of the folders, I dont think I have deleted ANY files (including ones from my little Sony Mavica that used to store files on a floppy disc)... good or bad. I think this has got to change when I get the D800 otherwise I will be drowning in hard drives!

Anybody care to share a good/trusty workflow for me to try going forward

Do you copy your files straight from the camera to an external drive or onto your computer until such a time you archive?

Many thanks
T :)
 
Michael J.

Michael J.

Senior Member
I copy every photo out from the cam to an external hard drive. Folders named date and where. After pp I safe it to the Computer. Cos I use the photos for different purposes. (Example Folder named 2014 and there are some sub folders ) After the year is finished the whole folder goes on a other hard drive which is for the pp photos. Chronology organized.
 
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Geoffc

Senior Member
I copy everything from my camera to a folder on the PC called "pics for deletion". This folder is never backed up. I then rate them in Lightroom and delete the rubbish (on average about 90-95%). I then process the remainder in photoshop. Only then do I copy them to a main photo store folder which is automatically backed up to my cloud storage provider. My logic being that if it's not important enough to be processed soon then an accidental deletion is no big deal.

My total photo collection after ten years is about 6-8000 images which is low by most peoples standards, but I'm pretty ruthless. My wife is more ruthless than me as she culls as she walks around.


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RON_RIP

Senior Member
Just went thru my entire Library culling out duplicates and also-rans and then back these files on my G-drive. I do this every 6 months to keep my Library manageable.
 
kevy73

kevy73

Senior Member
RAW files are exported straight from compact flash card to external drive. I use lightroom to edit and rate. I delete the rubbish. Export the finished images as jpg, burn to disk and give to client. I then delete the jpgs on my machine.

Make a zip of raw files left on external drive and save to second external drive for safekeeping.
 
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traceyjj

Senior Member
siamthai1 said:
I copy every photo out from the cam to an external hard drive. Folders named date and where. After pp I safe it to the Computer. Cos I use the photos for different purposes. (Example Folder named 2014 and there are some sub folders ) After the year is finished the whole folder goes on a other hard drive which is for the pp photos. Chronology organized.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. Thats similar to what I currently do. I have a monthly folder within each year, and at the end of each year I copy the whole lot to a hard drive... but I tend to store the processed images in the same folder... I might look at changing that and keep my processed shots seperate from the unprocessed...
 
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aroy

Senior Member
I archive the original files on to external disk. They are arranged date wise.

On my desktop, I keep the RAW files date wise and the jpegs subject wise. I regularly copy both to two external disk. One original format and one zipped.
 
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traceyjj

Senior Member
Geoffc said:
I copy everything from my camera to a folder on the PC called "pics for deletion". This folder is never backed up. I then rate them in Lightroom and delete the rubbish (on average about 90-95%). I then process the remainder in photoshop. Only then do I copy them to a main photo store folder which is automatically backed up to my cloud storage provider. My logic being that if it's not important enough to be processed soon then an accidental deletion is no big deal.

My total photo collection after ten years is about 6-8000 images which is low by most peoples standards, but I'm pretty ruthless. My wife is more ruthless than me as she culls as she walks around.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...


Thanks for your reply. This last batch of photos from my holiday I have used Elements to rate and intend processing the ones I have starred. I wish I were more ruthless in deleting photos, but too many are "memories of places I have visited" and I cant bring myself to delete.
I hadnt thought about cloud storage... maybe I ought to look into that. Thanks
 
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traceyjj

Senior Member
RON said:
Just went thru my entire Library culling out duplicates and also-rans and then back these files on my G-drive. I do this every 6 months to keep my Library manageable.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Is there an easy way to find duplicates? And I really ought to do something similar before I commit them to an archive drive
 
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traceyjj

Senior Member
kevy73 said:
RAW files are exported straight from compact flash card to external drive. I use lightroom to edit and rate. I delete the rubbish. Export the finished images as jpg, burn to disk and give to client. I then delete the jpgs on my machine.

Make a zip of raw files left on external drive and save to second external drive for safekeeping.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the idea of zipping the RAW files.
Looks like I am going to have to trial lightroom to see how it compares to Elements
 
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Geoffc

Senior Member
traceyjj said:
Thanks for your reply. This last batch of photos from my holiday I have used Elements to rate and intend processing the ones I have starred. I wish I were more ruthless in deleting photos, but too many are "memories of places I have visited" and I cant bring myself to delete.
I hadnt thought about cloud storage... maybe I ought to look into that. Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm not so ruthless with memory photos.


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aroy

Senior Member
I tend to keep all but blurred and dark shots for future reference. Storage is cheap, but memories are memories.
 
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traceyjj

Senior Member
One quick question about cataloguing via Lightroom, if I move the photos to a new hard drive, will the link in the catalogue get lost (and consequently I have to delete the file from the catalogue)?
I dont know whether to recatalogue everything when I get a decent size external drive or do it now :)
 
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Geoffc

Senior Member
traceyjj said:
One quick question about cataloguing via Lightroom, if I move the photos to a new hard drive, will the link in the catalogue get lost (and consequently I have to delete the file from the catalogue)?
I dont know whether to recatalogue everything when I get a decent size external drive or do it now :)
Click to expand...

If you drag the folders and pictures to the new disk from within lightroom it's all automatic.


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