Organizing your Digital Images

This is a subject that has begun to plague many photographers as they’re now several years into digital – leaving the old ways of film behind.

Suddenly, we’re faced with a multitude of files, stored in different location, all with similar file names assigned by the camera.  And I bet if you look closely, you’ll even find those dreaded DUPLICATE file names.

The answer is proper organization.   And it starts with a “naming convention”.

There is no “right” way to name your files, but you need to pick a system for names and then stick to it.  Doing so will allow you to find your files more easily.  Properly done, you’ll know the subject of the image without having to open it.

But even more important, you avoid the dreaded name collision.

A name collision is created when two files have the same name, and there is a very real potential for one of them to be inadvertently deleted.  This happens when you transfer your files from the camera into a folder where an identical named file already resides.   Normally, your computer asks you if you want to replace the older with the newer, and if you reflexively answer “yes”, the older file is permanently overwritten.

Here’s my naming convention:  date-text-ser#

So if I was doing a Bald Eagle shoot on January 9th, 2010, I would import my files using Photoshop (other programs with renaming capabilities include Aperture & Picasa) and batch rename them in this format: 010910eagle0001.cr2  (replace cr2 with jpg if your shooting jpg).  010910 is the date, eagle is the subject, 0001 is the serial number and cr2 is the type of file (Canon’s RAW format).

Those renamed files are sent to a folder called “birds” that is lives in my “nature & wildlife” directory.  Any images that meet my standards for portfolio work are copied (not moved) into the “bird” folder inside another directory called “portfolio”.

My folder structure is organized by subject – nature & wildlife, portrait, commercial, weddings & events, airshows, etc.

So there you have it.  A simple naming convention that will allow you to keep you photos organized, searchable and will avoid duplicates.

For more information, visit http://www.macphersonstudios.com

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