So many Lens threads, how do people keep track on their systems?

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

There are so many lens threads for different lenses. For the most part I keep my photos by subject. I do usually download from the camera into a folder named by camera and lens. For example R6ii RF100-400 1.4x or 7Dii 70-300

But once I move the shots into their proper folder on my PC, for example Cardinals, I don't change the description on the image to be that specific. Yes it is in the meta data but that means if I know a shot in a folder would fit in the RF 100-400 I have to go through and check the meta data for each shot.

How do you handle it?

 

[West Coast Birder]

I catalog my photos by date. Everything I shoot on a day goes into a folder with that date and a descriptive phrase. For example, 2023-12-04 Backyard Birding. If I’m on a trip, I may combine multiple days into one folder and name it for the trip. The folders contain the RAW files and each folder has a subdirectory for the JPGs that Lightroom exports. Beyond that, I just let Lightroom do the cataloguing internally. If I need to search all shots with a specific lens, Lightroom can do that. There is no need for me to put those photos into a separate folder.

 

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

I catalog my photos by date. Everything I shoot on a day goes into a folder with that date and a descriptive phrase. For example, 2023-12-04 Backyard Birding. If I’m on a trip, I may combine multiple days into one folder and name it for the trip. The folders contain the RAW files and each folder has a subdirectory for the JPGs that Lightroom exports. Beyond that, I just let Lightroom do the cataloguing internally. If I need to search all shots with a specific lens, Lightroom can do that. There is no need for me to put those photos into a separate folder.

I didn't realize LR could search on a lens, will have to try it out. I don't catalog in LR although I think every time I work on an image it is cataloged automatically, I would hate to try to put all my shots in a LR catalog as I have about 4 terabytes of images

 

[West Coast Birder]

I didn't realize LR could search on a lens, will have to try it out. I don't catalog in LR although I think every time I work on an image it is cataloged automatically, I would hate to try to put all my shots in a LR catalog as I have about 4 terabytes of images

Jeff,

Lightroom can have multiple catalogs. You can create a fresh catalog for each year, for example. I don't quite have as many photos as you do, so I am currently managing with just one catalog, but I have read of professional photographers who create a new catalog every year and back up the old one. It is easy to retrieve when necessary but does not bog down the system unnecessarily.

 

[pcs]

I keep my raw files in folders( year/month). I use C1 pro(but LR etc. work also) and assign keywords, in your example that would be cardinal, bird or if you want also place, season pose or whatever you want. All camera/lens specifications and settings can be filtered by the PP program of your choice. I also export my photos(jpeg full quality) to different maps(birds, cats, dogs, macro etc.) for easy viewing and use as screensaver. For photos expected to post on the web or sent by mail I use an export recipy which exports to 1600 pix long side.

 

[Bill in Texas]

I change the file name in LR and put it into a folder with the subject name and other information. Those folders are inside a month folder that is inside a year folder. I can search the subject and it will show the photos with that subject name. Works great for me. At the end of the year, I cull and keep my best plus a few folders of my specials.

 

[Bill in Texas]

continued

 

[nevermore]

I'm subject matter-oriented. And I'll use keywords in LR for more professional work, but I'm inconsistent about it in my personal work. I seldom search my catalog for focal length, and I seldom post in lens-specific threads. But I definitely availed myself of those threads on POTN--such a tremendous resource.

 

[Anton Largiader]

For the most part I keep my photos by subject. I do usually download from the camera into a folder named by camera and lens. For example R6ii RF100-400 1.4x or 7Dii 70-300

Notwithstanding that I don't really know what you mean by both "keeping them by subject" and "into a folder named by camera and lens" that sounds like a huge mess! I change lenses during the day; don't you? How do you deal with that?

A LR-style catalog seems ideal for you. I don't know this for a fact, but you can probably just point LR at your existing file structure and let it munch away all night. Then you can get them by date, equipment, keywords (that you add), etc.

 

[pcs]

Don't forget you can also use albums and collections in LR if you want to have more permanent groups in stead of using the filter everytime.

 

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

I guess I am one of those people that other photographers tell tales about LOL

Here is what I tend to do.

I download from the memory card into a Temporary folder on my E drive (I have a 1 tb C, 4 tb D, and 8 tb E, D is photos, E is Astronomy images) called "from cameras"
I then name the folder with the date camera and sometimes lens or more often just the date.
Next I go through all the images and delete any that are not that good, with birds I usually keep about 40 or so out of 1000.
Now with the 40 I will look through them and maybe process 1 or 2 and once processed will move them to a folder such as "My Pictures" > "Seasons and Nature" > "Animals" > "Best Birds TIF" or "Best Birds JPG"

I really need to cull old pictures, I seem to just keep them. I probably should only keep those that I might consider good.

I am going to have to sit down with a bottle of Jim Beam and try to figure out how I am going to organize all my images. For the most part my current system I can find images I want as I have a pretty good memory even at 70 years old, but to find them based on lens is tough.

I have "organized" my PC this way for years, never using catalogs rather folders I create in windows explorer. I also tend to not rename pictures leaving them as the camera names them. How big can a catalog be? I was wrong on size, as it is a 4 tb drive but ONLY 1.5 tb of pictures.

I decided to play around with catalogs and created a new default catalog and put all the images from "Animals" and its sub-folders (about 20 of them) into the default catalog to see how it works. Animals is only my better images with sub-folders for each type of animal or bird. It found 4,000 images under Animals and put them all into a single catalog. Since I have never given anything different file names or a title or caption this would be a HUGE job to try to do. Especially since Seasons & Nature has 32 other folders in addition to animals under it. and then I have dozens of other folders each with sub folders under my Pictures OUCH

 

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

and then the animals folder

 

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

Notwithstanding that I don't really know what you mean by both "keeping them by subject" and "into a folder named by camera and lens" that sounds like a huge mess! I change lenses during the day; don't you? How do you deal with that?

A LR-style catalog seems ideal for you. I don't know this for a fact, but you can probably just point LR at your existing file structure and let it munch away all night. Then you can get them by date, equipment, keywords (that you add), etc.

I couldn't even imaging trying to put keywords or names on 290,000+ images? My online storage has over 290,000 images.

Anton, see the previous post as it shows the file structure.

 

[nevermore]

I am going to have to sit down with a bottle of Jim Beam and try to figure out how I am going to organize all my images.

I would require a routine delivery of booze over a span of a few months to deal with that mess.

 

[Trespassers W]

I catalog my photos by date. Everything I shoot on a day goes into a folder with that date and a descriptive phrase. For example, 2023-12-04 Backyard Birding. If I’m on a trip, I may combine multiple days into one folder and name it for the trip. The folders contain the RAW files and each folder has a subdirectory for the JPGs that Lightroom exports. Beyond that, I just let Lightroom do the cataloguing internally. If I need to search all shots with a specific lens, Lightroom can do that. There is no need for me to put those photos into a separate folder.

Same here. I've been storing my photos in YYYY-MM-DD Description folder format for many years and use Lightroom collections for the ones I processed and want to be easy to find.

I used to create new LR catalogue every couple of years and archive the old one, but not anymore. I remember reading somewhere that Lightroom doesn't limit number of photos in the catalogue (in realistic numbers anyway) and decided to merge all catalogues together. It is more convenient for me and easier to search old photos in case I need them. I didn't see any noticeable decrease in LR performance with one huge catalogue, but I am not a pro and don't shoot thousands of images monthly, so YMMV.

 

[ct1co2]

I catalog by year and date. Original files, both RAW or JPG, along with edits remain in that folder. Final edits have naming conventions related just to the subject or event. I don't do paid work, but for me, the date grouping coincides with events and/or trips so it's a logical way for me to track my images as I want those easily accessible if I want to go back to them. I'll upload some final edits to my SmugMug site, and I'll group by 4 subjects/galleries for general catch all stuff (aviation, weather/storms, birds/wildlife, landscape/nature), or make a specific gallery for large events like an airshow, and private galleries for vacations and personal stuff.

I've used LR a few times to see a breakdown of focal lengths I shoot at to understand what I am doing for certain events or situations to get a sense of where my tendencies are and what am I getting from that, i.e. am I shooting eagles or an airshow at 560mm/max reach and getting a bunch of what would become throw away files requiring insane crops, or are my keeper worthy shots living between 100 and 400mm. That's actually helped me to not watch airshows just through the camera or be blasting away (as much) at tiny dots in the viewfinder.

 

[Nature's Spectrum]

I store on the hard drive by date. I have everything in a single Lr catalog. Everything is keyworded, including the lens used so that provides one way to find it. Another is the exif data that is searchable in Lr.

 

[Anton Largiader]

Well, you're not going to add new keywords to 290,000 images, that's for sure. Your existing keywording consists of the folder name. That's all you have. So if you could ingest them into a catalog and have that folder name be added to the keyword field for each image, you'd still retain all of the information that you currently have, right? Plus you could sort by all of the EXIF data.

You'd want to determine how you were going to designate the keepers before you embarked on this, though because if you just fell back into moving stuff between folders you'd just make an even bigger mess.

I would set my computer on fire if I had to make sense of what you showed us!

 

[the durkarian]

I really struggle to understand some of the convoluted filling systems that some people create to organise their photographs. With Lightroom it is really easy. Import by shooting date - which is the default setting. And then add keywords to the photographs. Generic keywords can be added at the import stage. Once the photographs are key-worded I will create Smart Collections. Any image that meets the criteria of the Smart Collection is automatically added. A single photograph can appear in several different Smart Collections.

 

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

For the most part all my good images, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial (deep space and solar and lunar) are in my Flickr account
Jeff Padell Flickr album

There are just over 2,900 images there all divided up into albums