Lightroom File Organization for Landscape Photographers
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- I’ve been using Lightroom’s default organization method since I started using Adobe Lightroom for my landscape photography. In the beginning it worked out well for me, I typically remembered the time frame of when I took a photo and finding the approximate date was easy.
As time when on and I had more landscape photos in my catalog over the years it became a real chore to find photos. I started to dread someone asking me if I had a picture of something as I knew it would take me a long time to find it.
Luckily, the topic of photo organization in Lightroom came up in an online community I frequent and Suzanne Mathia had a simple, but game changing approach to organizing landscape photography images. In this video I cover what that is and how it has been working for me.
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Content:
00:00 - Intro
01:27 - The Solution
02:31 - Location Based Organization
04:26 - Lightroom Sample
09:59 - Metadata and Dates
11:14 - Moving Files to the New Structure
15:38 - Wrap Up
🛠️ Photography Workshop Information
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I've considered this, but what I ended up doing was keeping my folder structure date based, then creating collections for my individual trips. So my folder structure is YEAR/MONTH/DATE, but I have a collection set called TRIPS that contains collections named YEAR-LOCATION. You could easily name yours LOCATION-MONTH-YEAR like in your video. This has been a good solution for me and didn't require any file migration. Now I have 3 ways to find something: by date, collection name or the search function.
Collections can be a great tool as well in Lightroom. I do use Collections for certain things, even with this system. For example, I did a ebook release of photos for my fall West Virginia trip and those images went into a collection for easy finding while I worked on them and for future reference if I need to re-export or adjust any edits.
Moving away from the default date format was disconcerting at first, but so far so good! (I do wish I was better at remembering to keyword!)
Thanks for sharing your setup!
I have struggled with this forever. I use Capture One, and that allows 'tokens' to be set on import to rename images. Images are dumped into year / month folders (my choice). The camera image name is scrubbed on import and replaced by Y-M-D, camera model and a 4 digit image counter. There is an import field to add text- the 'job name' in my case- which is embedded into the file name vis the tokens. I can also create sub folders off the tokens, but rarely need it. I then have smart albums that I create or change on a whim, and that does the organization. Think keywords, but far more friendly and powerful. Scrubbing the camera image name eliminates the pain when different cameras hit the same file number, or a card rolls over and duplicates happen. That can be miserable- it can really.hose the database catalog! Capture One is also easier to create folders of images to move between laptop and desktop (RAID attached to desktop) without corrupting the data base (a problem I had with LR). I tried NAS but found it too slow on hotel wifi. I would be curious to know how you handle the laptop / desktop dance, especially remotely. Cheers!
There can be so many layers to organization! I hadn't considered renaming the base image name as it comes in, but have definitely had cases where when I shoot with two cameras occasionally have the same file name - one from one camera and one from the other.
The catalog and file interaction of Lightroom certainly has its nuances, especially when it comes to multiple computer access or needing to be more careful when moving files from one place to the other - making sure the catalog knows the files moved.
As for the desktop vs. laptop question, I only use my laptop. When in the office I have a monitor to attach for more screen real estate. I also like to work from the living room a fair amount, so I tend to value the portability factor more. (Of course, this makes the price of the laptop so much higher as I need it to do more since it is my main machine). It does help minimize any file or catalog syncing situations I might need.
For the remote part of the equation, I think I've finally reached the point where I only need to travel with an iPad. I have access to LR collections I've synced and if I need to do a fast edit on the road, I can use LR on the iPad to do the basics (though, I like to review an edit on the laptop before I consider it done-done).
I also use the iPad for photo backups on the road, using a USB-C hub to utilize a card reader and external SSD drive to make backups when traveling.
Appreciate the comment and thanks for watching!
you could have used the search feature under the library filter tool,
The search in LR is amazing with all the metadata it has access to in the image. Thanks!
Photography archiving, one of my biggest struggle😊. I tried so many "systems" so far that i'm almost exhausted organizing files 😅
Here goes my findings so far:
My "vault" archive structure should be able to accommodate all the "media" created in my family (me & my wife) in a coherent structure that works for everything. So, we have the following media to organize in the vault:
- all the iPhone snapshots taken by us, some of which are within the same event / trip, taken with 2 phones. These snapshots should be archived together falling into a consistent "storyline" within the same event / trip folder.
- all the "historical" family media should be archived within the same "vault". All the photos / videos taken back in time with old point-and-shoot cameras, All the film scans, print scans, old tapes (VHS, mini-DV etc)
- then we have the PRO photography: RAW files and finalized EXPORTS
ALL OF IT should be filed consistent in our "vault" archive under a structure that will also allow in the future to point any software to it and index the archive so it can be browsed / viewed within our private household (local network or privately over the internet). Think "Synology Photos" etc.
My Solution
1. Define a consistent file naming: by using YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS for files we make sure that all the files from a particular event / trip / shooting falls into a consistent "storyline" even if they come from multiple sources (multiple iPhones etc)
2. Don't use keyword in file naming: when searching the file system natively (finder / explorer) we don't want all the gazillion files to be shown as search results, we want only the folders to show up thus only folders will bear the meaningful keyword. Think about it like "books" : pictures are the pages and folders are the book. You search for the book not the individual pages.
3. Keep videos together with photos ? YES . In the past i kept videos separate but i find my self asking all the time: did i also take a video on this event ? By renaming the video files the same as photos (YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS) they will fall into the "storyline" within the same event folder making viewing and recollecting memories such a great experience. Modern software will be able to separate videos from photos when viewing your archive.
4. Master folders / high level separation :
- separate all the master RAW files from the rest. Keep a master RAW archive that will contain all the raw files coming from PRO cameras, "raw" scanned TIFF etc. All The RAW data managed by Lightroom ... in a dedicated place.
- define a second master folder for all the "finished" media ... this will include all the media in the finished form, ready to view, no matter the source. Includes all the finished exports from RAW here (i want to view them when browsing my media vault) and also all other sources: iPhones, scans edited and exported, old tapes exported etc. (we will think about separation here later)
So, here are the master folders
A. Pictures (all the "finished" media)
B. Photography (all the RAW storage for photos / scans etc.)
C. Videography (all the RAW storage for video files - ONLY those captured in raw format that needs future processing ex: raw mini-DV captures etc. , NOT the iPhone family videos these are "finished" product)
Now, how do we "file" the data ?
Since i am dealing with multiple categories of stuff: personal family stuff, landscapes, clients, sports photography, weddings sometimes, portraits, cityscapes, street photography just 4 fun .... mix in some wildlife now and then. I need to separate those.
Since we HAVE TO be consistent across our entire vault, there are some practices that works in one place but doesn't work in another ex:
Landscapes - location based file structure works the best but it becomes too granular (Country -> State -> Region/NP -> Subject within Region/NP-> Days of Shootings ... too granular)
Events - date based file structure works the best
Sports - date based file structure works the best
Wildlide - species based file structure works the best (but who is a biologist here ?)
Family - i will argue that date based works best, since is chronological. Even if you use location or event type you have to remember where you filed the particular thing, some things overlaps, you will have a bunch of categories ... and so on.
I decided to go this route
A. Define folders for BIG categories and mirror this structure across the master folders (aka: pictures, photography, videography)
Cityscape, Events, Family, Landscape, Sports, Wildlife, Portraits etc.
B. Use a date based approach within each of the categories:
* for "big" events : YYYY -> YYYY-MM-DD Keyword (meaningful keyword/s this will be our search term)
* for mundane stuff, everyday snapshots: YYYY -> YYYY-MM
* the above structure will fall chronological in order within the year: "big" events + mundane stuff.
* for categories that will benefit some sort of location based organization or any other type of granular organization we will use metadata, tags, AI etc. and create virtual albums in the software we choose to "explore" our archive. EX: Collections in Lightroom, Smart Albums in other software etc.
Conclusion:
When i export from Lightroom my finished work i will do it in "Pictures" folder in the appropriate category. Same with video files.
When i offload iPhone photos and videos, i will rename them to YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS and file them in "Pictures" folder in the appropriate category.
If i have photos from the same event, taken with the PRO camera AND with iPhone, i will store them together ... so they fall into the "storyline" of that particular event / trip.
So, my "Pictures" master folder become my "viewable museum" of everything our family created, our memories, our photography passion or paid work, our old tapes, our scanned photos etc. Everything viewable from a single "media" software like Synology Photos, from our phones, tablets, smart TV's across the house ... or "exposed" in a secure and private way to access outside the house (internet).
All the "raw" data, not considered "browsable" is separate: Lightroom Catalog (Photography folder), Final Cut Library (Videography Folder) etc.
Thanks for sharing your system! You've given me a lot of things to think about!
You are way past me, I barely keep my landscape photos organized, if I start mixing in non-landscape photos and include it in my organization system - wow! I am even terrible at keeping my iPhone photos from my landscape outings organized beyond scrolling by month on my phone to find some photos.
I like the idea of not naming the file by a keyword, so when you do search for something, you keep it limited to the folders and not get a lot of file results.
I've been feeling better about my LR organization, but I need to move on and organize my final exports like you have - so I can grab files without needing to open LR. Right now, despite having most exported, I have been finding it easier to pop into LR to find them and re-export.
Again - thanks for sharing - lots of great info here!
@@JeffreyTadlockPhotography No problem ! Glad to share it, maybe someone else might find some ideas :)
Yeah, file naming with keywords becomes a mess when you search within the "native" filesystem. You will get huge amount of results clutter showing individual files + folders, when in fact you are searching for the whole "session" of the shoot / event / trip / whatever.
- At first i left the filenames untouched (DSCXXXX) = file duplicates when shooting with multiple cameras, file duplicates across the system
- Switched to YYYMMDD_Keyword_SEQUENCE = cluttered search results, numbers missed from the sequence when culling after re-naming (bad for events / shoots delivered to clients).
- Switched the "SEQUENCE" to original Frame Number (XXXX part from DSC) = neah same thing ...
- I was thinking to switch to "unique ID" (similar to stock websites) = not really useful unless you want to reference a particular photo in a mass selling process, the name looks "meaningless", you can loose chronology depending on how and when you assign those unique ID's to shoots.
- YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS = although it is a little bit too long for my taste it's the only one i found that works in all the scenarios.
Now, if this is not enough 😂 let's figure out how to organize the individual image variations:
1. How to rename braketed shots ? Technically they are the same image ... 😄
2. How to rename the merged HDR of these brackets and its further edits ? -HDR, -HDR-Edit, HDR-Edit-Edit-Edit ? 😅
3. Let' mix in some HDR panoramas: -HDR-PANO-EDIT-EDIT-EDIT 😂
So many things to solve! It feels like it is never ending!
I don't know if it's the best method out there but I initially put all my photos in the year/date folders when they are downloaded. Then for any photos I want to process to put on my website (Michael Ribas Photography) or Facebook, I have a folder named "Categories" with subfolders by location or subject matter that I move those photos to. For example I have folders for places like Blackwater Falls, Babcock State park, or Hocking Hills (I'm from WV along the Ohio River), and folders such as "covered bridges" or "flowers" For places outside of Ohio or WV I have folders by state or national park. I don't further break down the files under the Categories folder. It is a simple structure but has worked for me so far.
I was curious what monitor do you use? I have an older Dell 24" that is a good wide gamut monitor but it is 10 years old and I'm looking to replace it with a 27" 4K monitor. Thanks!
I think that approach works pretty well too. For me, having the locations has helped the most. I used to be able to keep some mental tabs on when I visited an area, but it is all starting to blur together now! Location alone helps me.
When you started listing places - I was like - you must be semi-close to me, we have a a lot of similar stomping grounds!
As for the monitor I use - I have an Asus PA278QV in my office, but most of my editing is on the laptop, a MacBook Pro.
Thanks Jeffrey. Yes I live just outside of Parkersburg. A little over an hour from Hocking Hills so I shoot there a lot. Thanks for the information on the monitor. I'm considering getting a Macbook too to replace my Dell desktop.
@@anthonymrbs Oh - I'm about an hour the opposite direction, near Columbus! (And I drive through Parkersburg on the way to Blackwater Falls!)
I'm a big fan of Macbooks - I've been using one for quite a while.