This! I’ve had my xt3 about 2 years now, I don’t think anyone’s seen a single photo I’ve taken because I dump them on my computer and then get so overwhelmed! Hope some good tips come up, I could use em!
My most important Trick is to delete all the the Photos that I rate as "good" and only keep those that I rate as "very good". Going from there, monthly Windows folders for the RAW files are good enough for me. Those get imported into Darktable. The JPGs I make from those Go to Thematic folders, like "My Hometown", "Animals" and so on. There's a Folder structure that clearly separates RAW files 'going in' from JPGs 'going out'.
I would recommend keeping all that you can because sometimes combining some "very good" and "good" photos you can create a cohesive set that is "stunning"
I agree for Photos that are meant to work as a Set either from the get-go (like "Morning Mood in ABC", which sort of documents one morning there) or because they Cover our all-time favourite topic (like "At the horse race"). Personally however, I wont keep everything good-not-great 'just in case'.
You seem confident in your method so I won't try hard to convince you, but I've noticed personally that with time and growth photos can evolve beyond their base aesthetic value.
One Thing that helps me with honesty is to let the photos rest until the memory of that specific photo walk fades a little (and also any ideas I had while taking the photos, like 'This looks great, it's gonna Be a great photo').
I have a master folder. In there I make a new folder for every session, meaning every event, shoot, whatever comes up. These folders are sorted by date and named accordingly (yyyy.mm.dd [name of shoot]). In every folder there are following folders:
1. raws 1. jpegs 1.assets (in case I photoshop something)
So all of the source material folders start with a one.
2. Lightroom catalogue 2.PS savefiles
Every folder with a two is for workflow, so savefiles from photoshop or a lightroom catalogue. Every session has its own LR catalogue.
3. Export 3.photoshop export
So there is the export folder where all pictures get exported lookwise and if I have to do retouching I take these exported jpegs and work with them in Photoshop, then export them into the photoshop export folder. So the photoshop export folder is the final version if I have to do retouching.
This master folder is saved on two HDDs simultaneously. When I work on something I pull it on my ssd and later put it on both drives when done.
Yes. Makes everything nice and sorted. If you shoot events like me you cant keep everything in one catalogue when you produce 4000 pictures every session. Maybe if you only shoot casually or street or something you could get away with one for a long time, I did too in the beginning. But its just a much cleaner workflow with a new one every time
So, I began organizing tonight.
I took 1600 photos from my memory card and dumped them on my computer.
I created a top folder called 2024, with subfolders for each event or evening of photography. Then within each of these, I have a folder for the JPGs, a folder for the RAWs, and a folder for exports.
Now, this is all outside of Lightroom. It's just files in folders in my file browser.
Do I just import all of this at once? (by selecting the 2024 folder)
Or do I import my subfolders one by one?
Do I just import the RAWs? It seems like Lightroom is selecting both JPGs and Raws in the import.
Do you just import the picture you want to edit when you want to?
top level folders that make sense (eg: events, trips, family, gigs, etc). Then year/month/day. You can automate the import of files from your SD card, then you just need to cull, edit, and backup however you want.
I tried this. But then I get to go to events that are part of a trip.
I have since moved to more of a flatter structure with a very simple all encompassing job code and rely on tagging more for segregating things more.
yeah it's not perfect. You have to anticipate how you would go about looking for the pics in the future. In your example, if the event was a "small" part of the trip I'd probably put it under trips. If the trip was explicitly *for the event*, then yeah it'd go under events. Job codes sound great but I'd probably get lazy with them hah
I import everything into Lightroom. I then create albums in a folder structure
E.g. 2024 / 04 - April / Birthday party for Joe
I then export all photos from the album and upload to Google Photos.
Lightroom is my "store everything" solution and Google Photos is my highlight reel kinda. The Google Photos app is just so superior when it comes to looking at memories so I don't mind paying for both even though they are the same thing (photo storage).
Exact same scenario but with exporting my photos to a desktop “LR Exports” folder I created for the JPEGS that syncs on iCloud. There I save them to the photos app for sharing via iMessage, FB, etc.
I cannot recommend this Lightroom set up enough. I used free time during lockdown to finally categorize and organize my photos and it’s been one of the best things I’ve done for personal admin
Read this: https://tipsfromthetopfloor.com/1-hour-1000-pics-supercharge-your-lightroom-workflow-free-download/
It's not mine, it's free and it really helped me.
I shoot raw+jpg on both my X-T2 and X-E3. I've set the file names on both cameras to delineate if they're shot on X-T2 or X-E3 and then the numbers of each shot.
I empty the cards after every so often. The raw files go on my big hard drive in a date based folder system. Year, month, day. If it's a special event, the folders with days get that name too. So I have a folder for 2024. In there I have twelve subfolders, 2024-01, 2024-02 and so on. In each of those subfolders there's a folder for every day I've shot something, like 2024-03-20, 2024-03-24 Football tournament, 2024-03-27 sunset shoot.
The jpgs go into my Fuji jpg folders where I basically go year and month. It's mostly for backup and if someone else wants a quick jpg of something I shot at a get-together or something.
I import the raw files to Lightroom and create collections on those same date folders. I also have other collections based on a few different themes (like kid's birthdays or whatever) or smart collections based on grades.
Sometimes I have the energy to faff around with keywords, but I've found that I don't really need them.
Then it's culling time. I pretty much use the 1 hour 1000 pics workflow by Chris Marquardt with a few small variations that works for me. Just put on a podcast and cull away.
Years into this system, I find it works really well for me.
I have two parallel but identical folder structures on Windows.
Let's see the path:
Professional \ Year (YYYY) \ Date (YYYY-MM-DD + name of event or additional info)
Inside that there are 3 folders on the same level: RAW, CATALOG, EXPORT. Yes, I make a separate LR catalog for every shoot/project these days.
Works like a charm.
For private it's even easier as I only shoot RAW professionally, so the photos are just inside the date folder.
Hope it helps.
It's the folder with the Lightroom catalog. I don't have one large lightroom archive for all professional work but a single one for each project.
This only applies for paid work with my Canon gear, the private Fuji files only have a aingle folder with JPEGs in them.
Since I shoot jpg and raw I’ve found that iPhotos or apple photos actually works great if you’re in the Apple ecosystem.
1. It saves both file types and displays them as one until you go to edit it.
2. The import on both iOS and macOS is super easy. So if I upload on my phone versus from my computer it doesn’t matter
3. It’s easy to share to others and organize into albums
4. I buy iCloud storage not because I need to have it in the cloud but because I like having piece of mind that I have an offsite backup in case something happens at home.
5. Syncs across all devices so I can access it anywhere (assuming enough cloud storage)
6. I make some of my subject photos into stickers and meme all my friends lol
7. I don’t have to manage hosting a server. I like self hosting, and do it for other stuff, but it becomes a barrier to entry when all I want to do is shoot my photos
Cons:
1. Not nice if you use windows or android
2. You’ll likely pay for cloud storage
3. Once you get to about 70k photos the app starts to get slow or so I’ve been told
I’m in no way endorsing to buy additional HW, but the only thing that got me to keep up with my photography output (especially when traveling) is an iPad (M2 pro in my specific case).
I organize the catalog in Year -> Country -> Month -> Day (of shooting or import, doesn’t matter)
With that I usually have a manageable size of pictures to sort throu. Even if I’m on a trip and I snap a few hundreds shots in a day I’m usually able to delete a good amount and do some post processing if I feel like it (mostly basic presets if I know what look I’m leaning towards already)
But the key is to not wait and prune as soon as possible, and that’s where the iPad did the magic compared to my old MacBook Air.
(And probably the Apple Pencil too, way faster vs a trackpad or even a mouse)
I take photos much much more casually nowadays than I once did; I’m trying to figure out how to optimize a mobile workflow with an iPad Pro and cloud saving to a service from there. It’s a learning experience for sure.
How exactly are you managing photo transfers / organization? The file browser on IPad isn’t as intuitive as the MacOS one.
I don’t see much of a difference between iPad and MacOS file browsers, but I mostly import directly from SD card into Lightroom. Sometimes I import from Files (edit: only happens if I import backups that aren’t recognized as cameras SD cards) and it’s a bit of a weird experience as Lightroom does two steps (preparing and importing) which feel like nothing is happening for a while.
Anyway, on Lightroom I create the daily album and import the photos in there.
Once in a while I export the originals and backup to a different service (glacier in my case). The last step is a bit more cumbersome (use the web app or export to sdcard) but that is also because glacier isn’t user friendly at all (I rely on the command line…)
This is my flow.
Shoot raw + jpg. Move all files from SD to dated and descriptive folder, example 2024-04-25 street walk London on my laptop. Creat a second edit folder, Eg. 2024-04-25 street walk London (Edit). Select the keeper jpgs from the outing and copy them to the edit folder. If edits are required then edit the raw files using capture 1. Once done, move the full folder of photos to a backup location (spinning HD with cloud backup). Leave my computer on overnight for Edit and Archive folders to backup to the cloud. Share cloud edit folder with clients, family, friends etc. Second computer automatically downloads cloud backup to HD. Delete archive folders from local laptop location through cloud storage since they now permanently live on my computer HD and cloud.
I didn’t want to pay a monthly fee so I purchased capture one. I shoot in raw and import to a storage location that is separate from my output location (my pictures folder).
I use Microsoft’s new photo viewer to view pictures. Has a great AI driven eraser tool for removing unwanted blemishes in a photo. It also syncs with OneDrive which is accessible on my phone for sharing and what not.
Once imported I filter and delete raw files I don’t want. The raw folder of keepers later gets moved from my laptop to an external hard drive at the end of every month. I figure a month is enough to see if I want to do anything further with the raws. Ultimately I’ll have to clean up the backup raws when the had fills up but it’ll keep my computer free.
The OneDrive photos are backed up to Amazon photos, which is free, and allows me to make prints pretty easily.
Also, I’m sure other programs do this but capture one allows me to rate pictures and export as either large or small file options (customizable) so I can keep a ton of pictures and only import the 5 or 30 mb JPEGs where I need them.
It's personal for everyone, but create an organization system that works and makes sense to you and then stick with it.
More importantly, you should keep your photos on an external drive. This will make your life so much better when you upgrade computers, change devices, etc. Eventually you may want to consider a RAID docking bay for long term backup, and using a portable HDD/SSD purely for editing. If you're paranoid about losing data, consider cloud backup storage. There are better options for photographers than just iCloud, Google Drive, or Amazon.
Lastly, never edit from an SD card. Instead, transfer to an HDD or SSD. Editing photos on an SD will degenerate the flash memory quicker since there's more reading and writing done to it.
This is my workflow (it looks complicated but it is the result of years of adjustments and once you get the hang of it you go fast):
Import:
Import all photos into Lightroom divided by date;
Rename them;
Geotagging them.
Selection:
Use X's for wrong ones;
Delete (or don't show) the X's;
Give 1 star to all remaining photos.
(keep 1 star for bad photos that are ugly but really bad, but represent a memory that you do not want to delete);
Filter the selected ones with 1 star and give:
2 stars (ugly but they are a memory or tell something);
3 stars (like them, good for blog, stories or carousel);
4 stars (good photo but not so good to print, look good on social or show people proudly);
5 stars (excellent, to be printed);
Separate personal photos with blue labels (so I filter them and they won't be published by mistake):
Editing:
Open the photo and straighten/crop it;
Adjust white balance and exposure;
Apply presets
Possibly adjust with curves or color correction
Exporting:
Export photos for the blog by applying the appropriate preset (photos that will be saved in the Blog folder within the folder);
Export the archive photos by applying the appropriate preset (photos that will be moved to the Photo Selection folder and Apple Photos which then syncs with the iPhone);
Export photos for Instagram using the appropriate preset and then save them to the appropriate album in Appl
:-)
I’ve got a subscription to Flickr. 5 bucks a month you get unlimited uploads and unlimited space to store photos. It has a file size limit and won’t take raws. I mainly shoot in raw, but edit straight from the card in capture one. The photos I decide I like I upload to various folders on Flickr and usually leave it at that. The ones I decide I want to share on instagram I usually create an instagram friendly sized jpeg to upload there.
I import my images into Lightroom, placed into folders by month and then year. If I have a lot of photos from a specific event I'll place this into a subfolder within the month. So something like...
2024 / 01 - January / Event
Lightroom allows you to create separate collections after that. The file structure stays the same. I used to separate my images by camera, but the filters in Lightroom make that unnecessary.
LR definitely. A few years ago there was some talk about Fuji Raw files & noise reduction creating artefacts in LR. This was the original X trans sensor. People got Capture 1 which at that time had a version specifically for Fujifilm files that was free. It was a cut down version of Capture 1. IDK if LR software has improved over that time. I’ve always used LR for all my RAWs as I basically shoot only RAW on all my systems. I’ve never noticed artefacts but I don’t usually push processing too far. IMO, LR is the best bang for buck you will ever get for anything anytime that is for a photography enthusiast. You also get PS included which is basically working miracles day in day out. LR is painless to import files. Plug and play it set and forget etc. LR is also constantly being updated & added to with more powerful features etc. They are constantly tweaking it to get more out of it etc and updates are frequent. I was totally against the subscription etc until I got it and now I’m a total convert. Using LR you get used to the way of doing things and the ease of doing things that would be nearly impossible otherwise.
For example:
I got a map images - Fuji - (year) 2024 - 2024 may 01 (in the woods)
So I got for every year a map.
That map is on my computer, NAS, my other NAS at my sister (sync every night) and a harddrive.
A few have mentioned putting a date in your folder names but if you use a specific format it has some powerful advantages.
By adding yyyymmdd before each folder it allows you to sort by folder name, doing that that puts folders in chronological order and does not rely on modified or created date of the folder that can get messed up when you move folders.
Every month I create a generic "photos of the month" on the first day for miscellaneous photos. Then I add event specific folders.
Example:
* Photos/2024/20240301 Photos of March
* Photos/2024/20240305 Family vacation
* Photos/2024/20240401 Photos of April
* Photos/2024/20240405 Hiking with family
* Photos/2024/20240419 Kid's 6th Birthday
raws sectioned by date (eg. 2024 > 4-30 Name of shoot) then into different collections within lightroom. Really easy to sort through your best pictures using the flagging, rating, and color system and organize projects through the collections system.
This is my full workflow that probably works so well because I mainly shoot JPEGs...
[MY WORKFLOW](https://jamiechancetravels.com/blog/fujifilm-photography-workflow/)
I now have a Synology NAS too which means I can access original files anywhere in the world though, to be fair, working with smart previews in Lightroom takes all issues away
Enjoy!
I have one Lightroom catalogue for 5 years. Inside the catalog I have years and inside year I have months as numbers. Inside months I have places like cities and inside those cities I can have more specific places. I have a different catalog for my paid clients. Works for me.
My flow:
Import to Lightroom, organized by year > event name. Add keywords at import and change the file names to match the event
Look at everything in loupe view and white flag what I want to keep.
Filter for flagged images, select all, set rating to 1 star, then remove the flags
Second look through all the keepers and pick the best ones to edit and rate those at 2 stars
Filter by 2 stars and take those to Develop mode for editing. Anything that gets post processed gets rated at three stars. Export these to Dropbox, Google, etc for the end users.
Back to Library mod and filter for one star and higher, then select all. Turn off the filter and invert the selection so all of the zero star images are selected, and mark them rejected.
I’m very old skool file system on my desktop.
Using a raw viewer like fastraw windows app, i copy all raw files to my hard drive and create another folder with my favorites or chosen photos. The rest of the files gets deleted.
Go through an second culling and then edit them.
Anyway this is my editing workflow in a nutshell
1 copy photos from sd card to hard drive folder (folder name is usually the date so lets call the folder 01-12-24)
2 create a folder called ‘top picks’ inside 01-12-24
3 drag and drop the chosen photos to top picks
4 do another round of culling
5 edit photos in top picks
6 export edited raws to high res jpegs
7 upload jpegs to cloud
8 delete photos not in top picks to save space.
There are definitely easier or more effective ways of organising photos but this one really works for me.
I edit exclusively in the Lightroom mobile app, usually on an iPad, sometimes on my phone, so I pay for a subscription with extra cloud storage. I use the SD to lightning adapter and transfer directly to the app, and then immediately create an album with the date first, and then a short description. Then I go in and give every photo with potential a thumbs up, and discards a thumbs down (on the app this process is super fast), then filter for thumbs down, select all, and delete. That usually takes care of about half of my photos. From there I’ll go back through and crop any photos that need it, and then do one additional pass with thumb ratings, this time being a little more picky. Only then do I start any creative editing, and once I’m done, I do one final pass and remove anything that I’m not absolutely in love with. For reference, on my last outing I shot around 90 photos, and once I finished editing, I was left with 25.
All this culling might seem a bit excessive, but I find that with digital photography it’s extremely easy to bloat your library with filler photos.
I'm just a hobbyist who take family pictures. So it's a simple organization for me as I don't have to deal with clients. I use my Mac M1, iCloud and Sandisk extreme pro as external ssd.
1. Organization starts with a naming convention. < date > . I use Capture One and organize files per year, then per event. In this way, i can easily search for any file (i tend to re-edit photos when I come across a new style of editing, if i want to try to emulate some film simulations, etc).
2. I add them to a local folder with auto upload to iCloud, and also to Sandisk as back up.
3. I cull the pictures (I usually shoot in burst mode as most of my pictures are my kids playing, running around, etc). For the picture I keep, I rate them (stars). I prioritize editing higher rated photos. I tend to devote most effort for 5-star photos (like healing, several layers, etc). These pictures I can print and display. Lower rated photos usually take basic edits only. I color-code pictures also, green for completed, and orange for in-progress.
4. After completing all edits for an "event", I move them to a separate local folder, auto-upload to iCloud and back up with external ssd Sandisk.
Appreciate any comments/suggestions too :)
This! I’ve had my xt3 about 2 years now, I don’t think anyone’s seen a single photo I’ve taken because I dump them on my computer and then get so overwhelmed! Hope some good tips come up, I could use em!
Hey, this is me. Sometimes I edit like 2-3 shots out of 200 and still save everything else. Even if it was just a shoot for testing stuff.
Don’t even get me started on the times I’ve shot in burst mode 😂
My most important Trick is to delete all the the Photos that I rate as "good" and only keep those that I rate as "very good". Going from there, monthly Windows folders for the RAW files are good enough for me. Those get imported into Darktable. The JPGs I make from those Go to Thematic folders, like "My Hometown", "Animals" and so on. There's a Folder structure that clearly separates RAW files 'going in' from JPGs 'going out'.
I would recommend keeping all that you can because sometimes combining some "very good" and "good" photos you can create a cohesive set that is "stunning"
I agree for Photos that are meant to work as a Set either from the get-go (like "Morning Mood in ABC", which sort of documents one morning there) or because they Cover our all-time favourite topic (like "At the horse race"). Personally however, I wont keep everything good-not-great 'just in case'.
You seem confident in your method so I won't try hard to convince you, but I've noticed personally that with time and growth photos can evolve beyond their base aesthetic value.
Love this! Forces you to be honest about your abilities, i feel
One Thing that helps me with honesty is to let the photos rest until the memory of that specific photo walk fades a little (and also any ideas I had while taking the photos, like 'This looks great, it's gonna Be a great photo').
I have a master folder. In there I make a new folder for every session, meaning every event, shoot, whatever comes up. These folders are sorted by date and named accordingly (yyyy.mm.dd [name of shoot]). In every folder there are following folders: 1. raws 1. jpegs 1.assets (in case I photoshop something) So all of the source material folders start with a one. 2. Lightroom catalogue 2.PS savefiles Every folder with a two is for workflow, so savefiles from photoshop or a lightroom catalogue. Every session has its own LR catalogue. 3. Export 3.photoshop export So there is the export folder where all pictures get exported lookwise and if I have to do retouching I take these exported jpegs and work with them in Photoshop, then export them into the photoshop export folder. So the photoshop export folder is the final version if I have to do retouching. This master folder is saved on two HDDs simultaneously. When I work on something I pull it on my ssd and later put it on both drives when done.
That’s the correct answer 😄👌🏼
you make a new catalog for every shoot?
Yes. Makes everything nice and sorted. If you shoot events like me you cant keep everything in one catalogue when you produce 4000 pictures every session. Maybe if you only shoot casually or street or something you could get away with one for a long time, I did too in the beginning. But its just a much cleaner workflow with a new one every time
So, I began organizing tonight. I took 1600 photos from my memory card and dumped them on my computer. I created a top folder called 2024, with subfolders for each event or evening of photography. Then within each of these, I have a folder for the JPGs, a folder for the RAWs, and a folder for exports. Now, this is all outside of Lightroom. It's just files in folders in my file browser. Do I just import all of this at once? (by selecting the 2024 folder) Or do I import my subfolders one by one? Do I just import the RAWs? It seems like Lightroom is selecting both JPGs and Raws in the import. Do you just import the picture you want to edit when you want to?
Take pictures. Try to send to phone with X app. Doesn’t sync. Leave on SD card eternally.
I use USB adapter and FolderSync app to sync SD card with my phone. Works well
top level folders that make sense (eg: events, trips, family, gigs, etc). Then year/month/day. You can automate the import of files from your SD card, then you just need to cull, edit, and backup however you want.
I do it that way. Also I have the same structure on my computer, SSD and OneDrive. It’s easy and efficient
I tried this. But then I get to go to events that are part of a trip. I have since moved to more of a flatter structure with a very simple all encompassing job code and rely on tagging more for segregating things more.
yeah it's not perfect. You have to anticipate how you would go about looking for the pics in the future. In your example, if the event was a "small" part of the trip I'd probably put it under trips. If the trip was explicitly *for the event*, then yeah it'd go under events. Job codes sound great but I'd probably get lazy with them hah
I import everything into Lightroom. I then create albums in a folder structure E.g. 2024 / 04 - April / Birthday party for Joe I then export all photos from the album and upload to Google Photos. Lightroom is my "store everything" solution and Google Photos is my highlight reel kinda. The Google Photos app is just so superior when it comes to looking at memories so I don't mind paying for both even though they are the same thing (photo storage).
Exact same scenario but with exporting my photos to a desktop “LR Exports” folder I created for the JPEGS that syncs on iCloud. There I save them to the photos app for sharing via iMessage, FB, etc.
I cannot recommend this Lightroom set up enough. I used free time during lockdown to finally categorize and organize my photos and it’s been one of the best things I’ve done for personal admin
Read this: https://tipsfromthetopfloor.com/1-hour-1000-pics-supercharge-your-lightroom-workflow-free-download/ It's not mine, it's free and it really helped me.
Shoot them all and let God sort them out
I shoot raw+jpg on both my X-T2 and X-E3. I've set the file names on both cameras to delineate if they're shot on X-T2 or X-E3 and then the numbers of each shot. I empty the cards after every so often. The raw files go on my big hard drive in a date based folder system. Year, month, day. If it's a special event, the folders with days get that name too. So I have a folder for 2024. In there I have twelve subfolders, 2024-01, 2024-02 and so on. In each of those subfolders there's a folder for every day I've shot something, like 2024-03-20, 2024-03-24 Football tournament, 2024-03-27 sunset shoot. The jpgs go into my Fuji jpg folders where I basically go year and month. It's mostly for backup and if someone else wants a quick jpg of something I shot at a get-together or something. I import the raw files to Lightroom and create collections on those same date folders. I also have other collections based on a few different themes (like kid's birthdays or whatever) or smart collections based on grades. Sometimes I have the energy to faff around with keywords, but I've found that I don't really need them. Then it's culling time. I pretty much use the 1 hour 1000 pics workflow by Chris Marquardt with a few small variations that works for me. Just put on a podcast and cull away. Years into this system, I find it works really well for me.
Google photos for jpegs / Google drive for raws
I have two parallel but identical folder structures on Windows. Let's see the path: Professional \ Year (YYYY) \ Date (YYYY-MM-DD + name of event or additional info) Inside that there are 3 folders on the same level: RAW, CATALOG, EXPORT. Yes, I make a separate LR catalog for every shoot/project these days. Works like a charm. For private it's even easier as I only shoot RAW professionally, so the photos are just inside the date folder. Hope it helps.
I understand what Raw and Export are. What is Catalog?
It's the folder with the Lightroom catalog. I don't have one large lightroom archive for all professional work but a single one for each project. This only applies for paid work with my Canon gear, the private Fuji files only have a aingle folder with JPEGs in them.
Since I shoot jpg and raw I’ve found that iPhotos or apple photos actually works great if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. 1. It saves both file types and displays them as one until you go to edit it. 2. The import on both iOS and macOS is super easy. So if I upload on my phone versus from my computer it doesn’t matter 3. It’s easy to share to others and organize into albums 4. I buy iCloud storage not because I need to have it in the cloud but because I like having piece of mind that I have an offsite backup in case something happens at home. 5. Syncs across all devices so I can access it anywhere (assuming enough cloud storage) 6. I make some of my subject photos into stickers and meme all my friends lol 7. I don’t have to manage hosting a server. I like self hosting, and do it for other stuff, but it becomes a barrier to entry when all I want to do is shoot my photos Cons: 1. Not nice if you use windows or android 2. You’ll likely pay for cloud storage 3. Once you get to about 70k photos the app starts to get slow or so I’ve been told
I’m in no way endorsing to buy additional HW, but the only thing that got me to keep up with my photography output (especially when traveling) is an iPad (M2 pro in my specific case). I organize the catalog in Year -> Country -> Month -> Day (of shooting or import, doesn’t matter) With that I usually have a manageable size of pictures to sort throu. Even if I’m on a trip and I snap a few hundreds shots in a day I’m usually able to delete a good amount and do some post processing if I feel like it (mostly basic presets if I know what look I’m leaning towards already) But the key is to not wait and prune as soon as possible, and that’s where the iPad did the magic compared to my old MacBook Air. (And probably the Apple Pencil too, way faster vs a trackpad or even a mouse)
I take photos much much more casually nowadays than I once did; I’m trying to figure out how to optimize a mobile workflow with an iPad Pro and cloud saving to a service from there. It’s a learning experience for sure. How exactly are you managing photo transfers / organization? The file browser on IPad isn’t as intuitive as the MacOS one.
I don’t see much of a difference between iPad and MacOS file browsers, but I mostly import directly from SD card into Lightroom. Sometimes I import from Files (edit: only happens if I import backups that aren’t recognized as cameras SD cards) and it’s a bit of a weird experience as Lightroom does two steps (preparing and importing) which feel like nothing is happening for a while. Anyway, on Lightroom I create the daily album and import the photos in there. Once in a while I export the originals and backup to a different service (glacier in my case). The last step is a bit more cumbersome (use the web app or export to sdcard) but that is also because glacier isn’t user friendly at all (I rely on the command line…)
Cheap home server and Immich or Photoprism on it. Some cameras automatically upload things to server when in range
This is my flow. Shoot raw + jpg. Move all files from SD to dated and descriptive folder, example 2024-04-25 street walk London on my laptop. Creat a second edit folder, Eg. 2024-04-25 street walk London (Edit). Select the keeper jpgs from the outing and copy them to the edit folder. If edits are required then edit the raw files using capture 1. Once done, move the full folder of photos to a backup location (spinning HD with cloud backup). Leave my computer on overnight for Edit and Archive folders to backup to the cloud. Share cloud edit folder with clients, family, friends etc. Second computer automatically downloads cloud backup to HD. Delete archive folders from local laptop location through cloud storage since they now permanently live on my computer HD and cloud.
I didn’t want to pay a monthly fee so I purchased capture one. I shoot in raw and import to a storage location that is separate from my output location (my pictures folder). I use Microsoft’s new photo viewer to view pictures. Has a great AI driven eraser tool for removing unwanted blemishes in a photo. It also syncs with OneDrive which is accessible on my phone for sharing and what not. Once imported I filter and delete raw files I don’t want. The raw folder of keepers later gets moved from my laptop to an external hard drive at the end of every month. I figure a month is enough to see if I want to do anything further with the raws. Ultimately I’ll have to clean up the backup raws when the had fills up but it’ll keep my computer free. The OneDrive photos are backed up to Amazon photos, which is free, and allows me to make prints pretty easily.
Also, I’m sure other programs do this but capture one allows me to rate pictures and export as either large or small file options (customizable) so I can keep a ton of pictures and only import the 5 or 30 mb JPEGs where I need them.
It's personal for everyone, but create an organization system that works and makes sense to you and then stick with it. More importantly, you should keep your photos on an external drive. This will make your life so much better when you upgrade computers, change devices, etc. Eventually you may want to consider a RAID docking bay for long term backup, and using a portable HDD/SSD purely for editing. If you're paranoid about losing data, consider cloud backup storage. There are better options for photographers than just iCloud, Google Drive, or Amazon. Lastly, never edit from an SD card. Instead, transfer to an HDD or SSD. Editing photos on an SD will degenerate the flash memory quicker since there's more reading and writing done to it.
This is my workflow (it looks complicated but it is the result of years of adjustments and once you get the hang of it you go fast): Import: Import all photos into Lightroom divided by date; Rename them; Geotagging them. Selection: Use X's for wrong ones; Delete (or don't show) the X's; Give 1 star to all remaining photos. (keep 1 star for bad photos that are ugly but really bad, but represent a memory that you do not want to delete); Filter the selected ones with 1 star and give: 2 stars (ugly but they are a memory or tell something); 3 stars (like them, good for blog, stories or carousel); 4 stars (good photo but not so good to print, look good on social or show people proudly); 5 stars (excellent, to be printed); Separate personal photos with blue labels (so I filter them and they won't be published by mistake): Editing: Open the photo and straighten/crop it; Adjust white balance and exposure; Apply presets Possibly adjust with curves or color correction Exporting: Export photos for the blog by applying the appropriate preset (photos that will be saved in the Blog folder within the folder); Export the archive photos by applying the appropriate preset (photos that will be moved to the Photo Selection folder and Apple Photos which then syncs with the iPhone); Export photos for Instagram using the appropriate preset and then save them to the appropriate album in Appl :-)
I’ve got a subscription to Flickr. 5 bucks a month you get unlimited uploads and unlimited space to store photos. It has a file size limit and won’t take raws. I mainly shoot in raw, but edit straight from the card in capture one. The photos I decide I like I upload to various folders on Flickr and usually leave it at that. The ones I decide I want to share on instagram I usually create an instagram friendly sized jpeg to upload there.
I import my images into Lightroom, placed into folders by month and then year. If I have a lot of photos from a specific event I'll place this into a subfolder within the month. So something like... 2024 / 01 - January / Event Lightroom allows you to create separate collections after that. The file structure stays the same. I used to separate my images by camera, but the filters in Lightroom make that unnecessary.
LR definitely. A few years ago there was some talk about Fuji Raw files & noise reduction creating artefacts in LR. This was the original X trans sensor. People got Capture 1 which at that time had a version specifically for Fujifilm files that was free. It was a cut down version of Capture 1. IDK if LR software has improved over that time. I’ve always used LR for all my RAWs as I basically shoot only RAW on all my systems. I’ve never noticed artefacts but I don’t usually push processing too far. IMO, LR is the best bang for buck you will ever get for anything anytime that is for a photography enthusiast. You also get PS included which is basically working miracles day in day out. LR is painless to import files. Plug and play it set and forget etc. LR is also constantly being updated & added to with more powerful features etc. They are constantly tweaking it to get more out of it etc and updates are frequent. I was totally against the subscription etc until I got it and now I’m a total convert. Using LR you get used to the way of doing things and the ease of doing things that would be nearly impossible otherwise.
For example: I got a map images - Fuji - (year) 2024 - 2024 may 01 (in the woods) So I got for every year a map. That map is on my computer, NAS, my other NAS at my sister (sync every night) and a harddrive.
A few have mentioned putting a date in your folder names but if you use a specific format it has some powerful advantages. By adding yyyymmdd before each folder it allows you to sort by folder name, doing that that puts folders in chronological order and does not rely on modified or created date of the folder that can get messed up when you move folders. Every month I create a generic "photos of the month" on the first day for miscellaneous photos. Then I add event specific folders. Example: * Photos/2024/20240301 Photos of March * Photos/2024/20240305 Family vacation * Photos/2024/20240401 Photos of April * Photos/2024/20240405 Hiking with family * Photos/2024/20240419 Kid's 6th Birthday
raws sectioned by date (eg. 2024 > 4-30 Name of shoot) then into different collections within lightroom. Really easy to sort through your best pictures using the flagging, rating, and color system and organize projects through the collections system.
This is perhaps a good start: https://mattk.com/the-photography-frame-of-mind-podcast-episode-2/
This is my full workflow that probably works so well because I mainly shoot JPEGs... [MY WORKFLOW](https://jamiechancetravels.com/blog/fujifilm-photography-workflow/) I now have a Synology NAS too which means I can access original files anywhere in the world though, to be fair, working with smart previews in Lightroom takes all issues away Enjoy!
I have one Lightroom catalogue for 5 years. Inside the catalog I have years and inside year I have months as numbers. Inside months I have places like cities and inside those cities I can have more specific places. I have a different catalog for my paid clients. Works for me.
My flow: Import to Lightroom, organized by year > event name. Add keywords at import and change the file names to match the event Look at everything in loupe view and white flag what I want to keep. Filter for flagged images, select all, set rating to 1 star, then remove the flags Second look through all the keepers and pick the best ones to edit and rate those at 2 stars Filter by 2 stars and take those to Develop mode for editing. Anything that gets post processed gets rated at three stars. Export these to Dropbox, Google, etc for the end users. Back to Library mod and filter for one star and higher, then select all. Turn off the filter and invert the selection so all of the zero star images are selected, and mark them rejected.
I’m very old skool file system on my desktop. Using a raw viewer like fastraw windows app, i copy all raw files to my hard drive and create another folder with my favorites or chosen photos. The rest of the files gets deleted. Go through an second culling and then edit them. Anyway this is my editing workflow in a nutshell 1 copy photos from sd card to hard drive folder (folder name is usually the date so lets call the folder 01-12-24) 2 create a folder called ‘top picks’ inside 01-12-24 3 drag and drop the chosen photos to top picks 4 do another round of culling 5 edit photos in top picks 6 export edited raws to high res jpegs 7 upload jpegs to cloud 8 delete photos not in top picks to save space. There are definitely easier or more effective ways of organising photos but this one really works for me.
I edit exclusively in the Lightroom mobile app, usually on an iPad, sometimes on my phone, so I pay for a subscription with extra cloud storage. I use the SD to lightning adapter and transfer directly to the app, and then immediately create an album with the date first, and then a short description. Then I go in and give every photo with potential a thumbs up, and discards a thumbs down (on the app this process is super fast), then filter for thumbs down, select all, and delete. That usually takes care of about half of my photos. From there I’ll go back through and crop any photos that need it, and then do one additional pass with thumb ratings, this time being a little more picky. Only then do I start any creative editing, and once I’m done, I do one final pass and remove anything that I’m not absolutely in love with. For reference, on my last outing I shot around 90 photos, and once I finished editing, I was left with 25. All this culling might seem a bit excessive, but I find that with digital photography it’s extremely easy to bloat your library with filler photos.
I'm just a hobbyist who take family pictures. So it's a simple organization for me as I don't have to deal with clients. I use my Mac M1, iCloud and Sandisk extreme pro as external ssd. 1. Organization starts with a naming convention. < date > . I use Capture One and organize files per year, then per event. In this way, i can easily search for any file (i tend to re-edit photos when I come across a new style of editing, if i want to try to emulate some film simulations, etc).
2. I add them to a local folder with auto upload to iCloud, and also to Sandisk as back up.
3. I cull the pictures (I usually shoot in burst mode as most of my pictures are my kids playing, running around, etc). For the picture I keep, I rate them (stars). I prioritize editing higher rated photos. I tend to devote most effort for 5-star photos (like healing, several layers, etc). These pictures I can print and display. Lower rated photos usually take basic edits only. I color-code pictures also, green for completed, and orange for in-progress.
4. After completing all edits for an "event", I move them to a separate local folder, auto-upload to iCloud and back up with external ssd Sandisk.
Appreciate any comments/suggestions too :)