Cataloguing your images?

[Hilary Hann]

I searched but can't find any threads on how other photographers catalogue their images.
I'm wanting to change from my current methods to a better way of cataloguing all my wildlife and stock images but am hitting brick walls. I've looked at Extensis but it is hugely slow and expensive. I don't use Lightroom, but may have to. Have tried QPict and Mediaboard One but they don't have many useful features to assign images to galleries.

So some useful suggestions would be gratefully received. I run a Mac (still on a G5 but will be upgrading to one of the new Intel models soon … have to, to upgrade to CS5 and Snow Leopard and possibly LR3 … :( )

[Doug Brown]

I'm in the process of cataloging my images right now. I am using Lightroom 3. I import images off the CF card and include the date in the file name. I have folders for each year and subfolders for each date. I assign keywords in Lightroom to each image based on species. For cataloging I create collection sets (Ducks for example), and then create smart subcollections; smart collections pull images into folders based on a wide variety of criteria. In my catalog I use species keywords to automatically sort birds into their proper folders. I hope this makes sense! :o:)

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Doug, perfect sense. I've been avoiding LR because I didn't want to use it for anything but cataloguing and it seemed overkill, however, given the quality of the catalogue software I've seen revues of, I might follow your example. It is becoming a nightmare trying to remember which trip I photographed the croc basking on the lily pad!

Are you finding it a lot of working putting in keywords to catalogue all the backlog of images? That's what is scaring me. :confused:

[Roger Clark]

Hillary,

There are many ways to do this and my concern is long term (decades) viability of any method, including working across operating systems.
Will whatever you choose be available in 20+ years, and if not will you have to start over all the indexing?
Regardless of the method, the effort to get everything into the "system" is significant, especially if you don't have anything yet.

I use verbose file and directory names and, as I feel needed, a supplementary text file.

For example, a file might be:

africa/tanzania.2009/ndutu/cheetah.mother.and.cubs.c01.25.2009.img1234.cr2
africa/tanzania.2009/ndutu/cheetah.mother.and.cubs.c01.25.2009.img1234.jpg

in file africa/tanzania.2009/ndutu/image.info.txt I'll put things like

cheetah.mother.and.cubs.c01.25.2009.img1234.jpg sunrise3 cubs Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA)
lion.c01.25.2009.img.1456.cr2 Serengeti sunset

A simple directory search can find most entries and a shell script can search the info.txt files.

Roger

[RichardLaBella]

I also use Lightroom 3, CS5, and Canon DPP.

My folder structure is as follows:
Photos/Temp/{year}/{Date} (temporary storage prior to moving into Negatives area)
Photos/Negatives/{year}/{location or topic)
Photos/Workfiles/{location or topic} (processed .psd, .tif images)
Photos/Production/{various folders for printing, web, etc}
Photos/Catalogs/Lightroom/{catalogs} (kept in same file structure as images for backup purposes)

- I use LR3 to import raw files into date folders under a temp folder (year/date) prior to doing any post processing, applying metadata & keywords as needed via the import process.
- I do a quick review of the files using DPP Quick Check Tool(brings up images quicker) for sharpness & composition and delete the garbage.
- In LR3, I then rename the temp folder based on location or topic and move it to the Negatives area, or drag the images to the appropriate Negatives folder if the import contains a mix of subjects that should be in existing folders.
- I then backup all changes to the file structure using SyncToy and, once successful, re-format the card(s).
- Processed images are processed using LR3 & CS5 (if needed) and the resulting .tif is placed in the WorkFiles area based on location or topic. If I have multiple processed versions of the same image, I add a "-1" to the filename.
- The resulting Print/web .jpg images are placed in the Production area based on type of output (print/web/etc.) I save each .jpg based upon the print size being ordered so I can easily identify & re-order later without having to do any re-processing ( filename: 10_1234-1(20x16).jpg).

By keeping the filenames simple and using keywords & catalogs, I've been pretty happy with my ability to find whatever I need to get from this system. However, I do have that nagging concern that some day, all those keywords might become useless if Adobe changes stream, becomes irrelevant, or simply disappears. I'm just hoping that when that day comes that there will be a conversion process to continue the use of the keywords in the new system.

[Nancy A Elwood]

I use Expression Media 2 now put out by Phase One, http://www.phaseone.com/Phase%20One/Try-and-buy/Online-Store.aspx. I can go to NX2 or CS5 from within the program and it works with two monitors very well.

[Chris Ober]

Apple's Aperture is another one and probably Adobe's main competitor - http://www.apple.com/aperture/
Depending on your needs, Google's Picasa might be an option for you - http://www.google.com/picasa/

I wasn't too impressed with Expression when I tried it and I agree with you about the Extensis product.

[Chris Ober]

Oh, check out the book, "The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers" - http://www.amazon.com/DAM-Book-Digital-Management-Photographers/dp/0596523572/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1283356334&sr=8-1-fkmr0 for a popular system and workflow.

[John Chardine]

Hilary- I'm a Mac user and used to use Expression Media. I now use Photo Mechanic, and although the current version is not a cataloguing program per se, it will do I'm sure everything and more you need it for. One very powerful feature of PM is that all the EXIF and image metadata like keywords is accessible through variables which you can use in file names, for lookups to keywording files etc. I'm not sure of any other program that does that in the same way. At the stage of bringing in images from your card, you can edit the file names (using variables, strings etc), add keywords and other metadata, and do lookups etc, which saves a lot of time not having to go back to the images.

Among other things, "Cataloguing" per se allows you to store databases of images on connected and unconnected volumes, thus creating "virtual" collections of images. Photo Mechanic will include cataloguing in its next big upgrade due this year.

As a side note, I agree with you Hilary and have said many times on BPN that IMO programs like Lightroom and Aperture are overkill, unless you use them for image processing as well. I use Photoshop for RAW development and processing and have no need for any of these features in a DAM program, nor do I wish to pay for them.

[Hilary Hann]

Thank you everyone for your generosity in helping me. My mind is swirling with all this information but I have a couple of initial questions. Apart form Peter and Roger, the other cataloguing methods use 3rd party software outside of the Photoshop window which involves possible archiving problems and purchase decisions but I'm not sure that I won't go that way so thanks for the workflow info.
Peter and Roger … I quite like the premise behind the way you name the files, time consuming to begin but I can see the advantage. One question though … if you are looking through 2000 images from one trip to the Masai Mara, for example, how do you select for differing purposes. If I use the select or star tools, I have to have a key to knowing which select colour refers to which final purpose. For instance, if I want certain images for stock and then differing images for exhibition, I can't rename the select tool to reference a particular purpose I want that image for. Yellow for exhibition, red for stock etc. etc. Aaah … I've just had an idea which might work which means I could catalogue from entirely within Bridge and still have my galleries. I must go and experiment before putting it out there. As my signature says … clarity in thought comes after challenge.
Thank you, thank you. :)

[Roger Clark]

Hilary,

I use directories for my processing and results. For example (directory names):
orig (original raw files, untouched)
processed (completed processed, 16-bit tif images.)
processed.print (files for printing)
web (files for the web.
todo (images I want to process but haven't yet--I have a lot of these).

On a mac (unix) you can use symbolic links (or hard links if on the same disk drive) and put an image in multiple directories yet the file system points to the same image file. If you edit the image in one directory, you edit it everywhere because it is the same file appearing in multiple places. If I want different processing for different images, e.g. a version for printing on a lightjet, then I change the file name, adding something like lj (for lightjet). So the file and directory naming schemes can go a long way in cataloging your images.

Roger

[Hilary Hann]

Roger, is there a tutorial relating to using symbolic links … I've never used them and I think the way you use directories appeals to me on many fronts. I've done a quick search on the net but haven't found a tutorial which goes step by step through the process.
I have never used Terminal so would want to avoid that if necessary and found this link … would that help?
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/symboliclinker.html

[Roger Clark]

Hilary.
I did a search in google with the words: unix hard link vs soft link. see, for example

Understanding UNIX / Linux symbolic (soft) and hard link

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/understanding-unixlinux-symbolic-soft-and-hard-links.html

and there are many more. I'm not sure how to make a link in the mac file browser (I do not have a mac, but my wife does). And by the way, if you did decide to use aperture or some other program, all should be compatible with a directory structure you design.

Roger

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Roger, appreciate your effort. I have a bit of work to sort it out but I think the results will be worth it. I may end up with an idiosyncratic, symbolic catalogue. :) If I sort it all out and can make a simple workflow for Mac I will post the info later on.

[Robert Amoruso]

I am doing the same/similar as Roger and Peter.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Peter and Robert for additional info. Terminal scares me a bit but that is the way I'll try to go. If you hear screaming from the other side of the world ... that's me! :)

[Roger Clark]

Roger, is there a tutorial relating to using symbolic links … I've never used them and I think the way you use directories appeals to me on many fronts. I've done a quick search on the net but haven't found a tutorial which goes step by step through the process.
I have never used Terminal so would want to avoid that if necessary and found this link … would that help?
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/symboliclinker.html

I responded too fast this morning (running of to work). The tool you reference looks interesting. By all means try it out (I assume it is free). One warning about unix links: they don't translate well to a windows systems. They will transfer to a linux file system just fine. So if you planned on moving anything to a windows platform, best to avoid links. Some windows programs will just copy the link as another copy of the file, so disk space will expand on the windows platform. One solution I use is to have a linux box as a file server and I mount the disks on my windows machine using samba. Of course if I had a mac all that would be much easier. I really should change at some point.

Roger

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Roger. Chances of me going to windows are, ummm let me think, zero!! :p It would take me what is left of my working life to get remotely confident. :D

Free download so I'm going to see how it goes as it may mean I don't have to come to terms with Terminal just yet. Having said that, I should bite the bullet and try Terminal anyway.
Thank you for all your help
Hilary

[Hilary Hann]

Interesting, the download works but I can't see the thumbnails in Bridge which may be understandable but it makes it hard to look at a selection in thumbnails. So I'll give Terminal a go.

[Roger Clark]

Free download so I'm going to see how it goes as it may mean I don't have to come to terms with Terminal just yet. Having said that, I should bite the bullet and try Terminal anyway.
Thank you for all your help
Hilary

Some things work faster with point and click mouse and some things work faster with the command line. It is nice to use both. And then if you learns a little shell scripting, you can automate some of the things you do, speeding things up even more.

Roger

[Chris Ober]

For the non Mac or UNIX users out there, Windows has provided hard and symbolic links since Vista.

MKLINK is the command to use from within a command prompt. Just providing another option for those who want to stick with Microsoft products and like the file/folder/link ideas presented. Baby steps to the grown-up operating systems :) :D

C:\>mklink
Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

/D Creates a directory symbolic link. Default is a file
symbolic link.
/H Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
/J Creates a Directory Junction.
Link specifies the new symbolic link name.
Target specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
refers to.

[Roger Clark]

Chris,
Interesting that windows now has links. I assume this is for NTFS file systems. Do you know if XP has this, or what happens, for example, if you put links on a USB drive and then attach it to an XOP box?

Roger

[Chris Ober]

XP had junction points, or hard links to folders, only. XP should be able to handle a junction created by Vista or Win 7 but I've never tried it. Links on a SMB share should work too as long as they're created as the junctions. You are correct in that it's NTFS only.

Naturally, Windows has the usual shell extensions and 3rd party apps available so people don't have to stray from the GUI.

[Norman Beaulac]

Another you may want to look at is Helicon Photo Safe... http://www.heliconsoft.com/safe.html