I have an insane process for managing my pictures. Currently the whole process looks something like this:
→ Ingest from camera/laptop to a network drive
→ “cull” (via geeqie) and move possibly ok photos to spinning rust on my both network and a copy to my desktop
→ Move desktop HDD photos over to my (small) nvme drive for processing (called WIP)
→ Export “finished” TIFF/jpeg to HDD folder
→ Move RAW+xmp to separate HDD folder (to clear space)
→ Folders containtin RAW+xmp are backed up to a network drive.
This is further complicated by the fact that a few pictures have multiple versions of photos because of changes I made to fit different print media.Originally, I would just rename a TIFF export appropriately, but then I realized I do not have the xmp files if I want to make a slight tweek. Now, I copy the raw+xmp (in command line)and rename to reflect the media type. The are placed in media labled sub-folders along with the exported TIFF.
Only ingest and copying the initial cull are automated to any degree.
This stupidity worked fine when I started and couldnt imagine myself having more than a few photos (per year) that were worth keeping…I was a shit photog.
I still am a shit photog, but now I am getting attached to certain photos and the prints I have made of them. Recently, I was able to fix an Epson P-800 that was going to be thrown out. So now I have my own printer and I cant NOT print every thing. That has caused a proliferation of edits and the whole thing is becoming unwieldly.
Any advice, software, etc that can help streamline things would be greatly appreciated. I need something that will help me seperate and track different versions without having to manually copy/move things. I initially thought I could use tags to do all this, but I seem to fundamentally misunderstand how tags work and how I can utilize them to help automate.
I suggest downloading an app that can install IPTC keywords and stuff into all your images - for which I use XnView MP. That way, all your files can stay where they are. XnView also has a comparator for culling and a really good search engine.
Thanks for the heads up about IPTC. I thought xnView had issues with color management (its been a couple years since I looked at viewers). I will look into it again and see if I can get the added keywords to be understood programatically. Thanks!
I would be using it more on the back end of the process, but your point still stands…I do not need to use it as an actual viewer. I only need it to do keywords and (maybe) do the folder shuffling. I will look into it.
It’s going to depend on your editing application, but I use Digikam to manage my entire portfolio, which includes photos from camera and phone.
Import and edit my camera files in Darktable, where I may wind up with raw, DNG,TIFF and Jpg files. The trick is to keep all these variants in a single Darktable group in the same location, so I can delete the entire set if I want to prune back sometime later.
Also, I set up Darktable and Digikam to share and exchange the same tagging, so the images are interoperable. But this is important: any photos edited in Darktable are deleted in Darktable, otherwise I wind up with orphan XMP files.
So:
Import onto a single drive
Cull in Digikam
Group photos in Darktable and keep them together and only delete them in Darktable
Set up common tagging between Darktable and Digikam.
Decide on a naming convention for files and stick with it for raw files, I suggest YYYY-MM-DD__HH_MM_SS__<original file name>
Now,
Ingest to your NAS.
Mount your drive on your desktop machine.
Do you culling (either geeqie or darktable)
Use darktable’s copy local feature to copy files you want to edit locally
You can now unmount the nas drive
Edit your photos in darktable
When finished editing, copy the edits back to you nas drive using the copy locally feature.
Make backups.
When you export, either export back to a subfolder of where you have the raw file, or export to a completely separate folder; I have one for prints, one for web. darktable has tags to tell you if something has been exported before.
After millions of years managing assets I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the way.
Exports are children of raws and belong in their subfolders. Some projects require gathering assets in a project specific folder. In that case I just copy the file from the subfolder to the project folder. I try to avoid this though and when feasible use the asset where it is.
Keep no more than 2000 photos from every year (this counts each edit as a separate photo). That’s about 40/week. Cull ruthlessly, every 3 months and then at the end of the year.
Unless you do this, your best photos will get lost among the rest, and you will limit your development as a photographer.
(The above assumes that you are an enthusiast and are not required to archive photos you did for clients. If that’s the case, it is a whole different story.)
@paperdigits I didnt even know about DT’s local copies. Everytime I think I have a handle on this software, I find out just how little I actually know! Thanks!
I am curious how others track (and clearly identify) multiple versions of edits. For me, the biggest issue is trying to keep tabs on versions for specific print media…be it vendor,brand, or surface differences. Tonal/chomatic range can vary significantly enough to make me adjust things after making test prints.
I prefer a flatter file structure so until the exports get extremely complicated I prefer just a export sub folder with suffixed filenames. Tagging info on the end of filename makes finding the original easy which is useful when several similar shots exist.
My photo organization is driven a bit by making sure my wife has access. Accordingly, I have a year/session hierarchy where the top two levels are exposed in a website local to the house, so she can look at what I shoot with her browser.
In each session directory I have “proofs” of my images, small JPEGs made by batch-processing the raws. The source files (NEFs, JPEGs (sometimes), MOVs, etc.) are stored in thusly named subdirectories under the session directory, and my hack raw processor can find them easily to re-open a proof for other processing.
I like the year/session directory hierarchy for finding things. I generally know the year, and I put a short descriptive title in the session name, e.g., “2025-04-02 Matt’s Birthday”. Increasingly I’ll browse the directories, and remember things that occurred long ago that I’d forgotten.
When you create a duplicate you can add a name to it in the “duplicate manager”, then add the version name to the exported file name so that you can remember what was the purpose.
The consensus seems to be (minus Cedric who employs an interesting alternative) that filenames and folders are the way to go. Since that is already what I am doing maybe my frustration is a silly rejection of tedium involved in managing photos.
The one difference I think I see, is that most keep the raws and various xmps in a single location. Whereas I actually am often copying the raw into several places. Maybe that is silly. It is, surely, using more space. Right now that is not an issue for me, but I can see how it would be long term.
For example if I have a photo named FOTO: I keep a “master” version in by main folder. If I have Mpix print it out on luster paper, I duplicate the raw and xmp (with necessary changes to keep fidelity to my master) into a folder named Mpix. If I make another print it at home on Canson Palatine, I do the same thing (again) into a folder called Canson Palatine. I think maybe I need to rethink this part. What purpose is it serving, and is it worth the costs?
The issue with copying files around wouldn’t primarily be the drive space for me but the mental overhead. Maintaining an overview would be taxing. Then the tedium of copying stuff around on top of that.
If you can I’d recommend one master raw file. DT has tools for managing virtual copies and as a RT user I can just save output a pp3 file storing the settings with each export.
I keep my raw and associated files all together because I find it’s easier to find them and possibly purge them at a later point.
Actually, I have two repositories: the first is my working photos and the second is my archive where I store photos that are more than two years old in a large external drive. I do this to preserve space on my main drive, and I also maintain backups in case a drive fails. BTW, I use the Darktable move function so the database can keep track of these changes.
I rely on tagging to do that, where I’ll add a tag as “Mpix” or “Canson Palatine”, to use your examples.
