OK, I keep putting this off, but I need to attack the total disorganization of my photo files on my mac. How do you guys organize and file your photos, both personal and business if they are all on the same computer? I have heard not to use iPhoto because of how much space it uses... but it is so dang easy to organize stuff on there... although I end up exporting them all to my desktop to mess with in Photoshop or whatever... I just feel like there are photos EVERYWHERE and it is driving me nuts!

PLease help me figure out an ORGANIZED and efficient way to file my photos (not talking back up, I have that covered....) on my computer.
P L E A S E!!!!!!

I do organization.


It sounds like you're looking for a system. Or even a program to file and separate your photos. I don't have either. sorry.

However, here has been my approach that has worked incredibly well for me.
...$100 is the best investment into a 500gb external. Edit on your internal Hard Drive. This keeps Photoshop running quickly. When you're done, move the photos your external for storage. Each photo shoot gets it's own separate folder. I filename the folders by the couple's names and the location "ie. Katelyn and Jameson Botanical Gardens, CA" Not talking back-ups either, I'm talking for storage. Do not keep a copy on your internal.

If you ever feel a slow drain, like your computer is getting slower, and slower and slower over 6 months, it can be explained by the 40gb = growing size of Raw photos sitting on your internal.

Hi!

I keep all my personal photos in iPhoto...

For my business photos I keep them in a folder structure like this

1.Shoot
--- Date-Bride&Groom

2.Keepers Selected
--- Date-Bride&Groom

3.InAlbum Selected
--- Date-Bride&Groom

4.Album Created
--- Date-Bride&Groom

In each of the --- Date-Bride&Groom folders the LightRoom Catalog is stored (One Catalog per Wedding)

This was covered here.

But just to give you a quick answer... I feel the most basic, elegant system for ALL of your photos is to make a folder for each shoot and name them:

YYYYMMDD_description

It's chronological, descriptive, searchable, logical and EASY!

thanks so much - actually I am pretty good at organizing the shoots for people but its my personal photos that end up all over the place too. Thanks Matt for that link! that really helps!

aperture. worth every penny just for the organization it allows.

Not trying to stir the pot (too much) but I personally hate aperture and I'm a hardcore mac addict - Lightroom is much more intuitive IMO and helps organize your library very well. That being said, I have a similar filing system as matt mentioned, but I go one step further:

On my files hard drive, I have folders for each year (2006, 2007, 2008)

Inside each of those folders, I make two sub-folders: Personal and Clients

Inside the personal folder I just do date-slugged shoot folders with all of the RAW images in them, and import those directly to LR. The date slugs on both personal and client shoots are the same (eg "080317_Description" - 08 being year, 03 being month, 17 being day) and the client name is usually the description of the client shoot folders.

Now, in the client folders, I have other folders set up called Weddings, Portraits, Engagements, and Other. Those house the shoot folders, which are imported into LR upon creation.

Sounds complicated, but its quite simple, searchable, and easy to find without having to use spotlight!

why would this be stirring the pot? your just voicing your opinion. i have never used lightroom, nor am i going to spend the money to buy it , since i have had aperture since it came out and feel it suits me just fine.

haha just didn't want to get anyone rialed up. i used aperture a few times in stores, and while i know that isn't a full user experience, it just bothered me. plus i consider myself somewhat experienced with the adobe suite, so it was an easy transition from bridge to LR... and i use LR every day, hardly photoshop anymore. you're right, its just personal experience. and i'm sure LR will seem weird and ass-backwards to you if you end up trying it sometime lol!

So when you upload the images from your cf cards, where do they go FIRST. When I put my card in my card reader it automatically uploads to iPhoto. I then cull out what I don't want and then export to a folder on my desktop to be able to edit more. I have started to then just delete the folder that is left on iPhoto... but is there a better way to organize than this? its so easy to edit, organize, resize and export from iPhoto, but I am sure I am leaving duplicates all over the place, right?

mine go directly into aperture - into their appointed folder. its wonderful.

i import ALL images directly off the card into their respective shoot folder. all sorting is done in lightroom.

furthermore, i DO NOT import images from the card using any type of software. just drag and drop into the folder. then the images are backed up from the hard drive to a DVD - more like 5 DVDs per wedding - (while i still have everything on the cards) and I also run a Time Machine backup... so now I've got 4 copies of my RAW images (counting the ones on the cards) and all my bases are covered should I get a corrupt file somewhere in the process. I had Lightroom corrupt files a few times when using beta versions, and it's scared me ever since. Luckily, no problems recently but I cover my ass just in case. So, after EVERYTHING is backed up using the two methods mentioned above (oh, I forgot to mention the images are stored on my internal RAID - so if one drive fails I can re-build the RAID with a new drive and keep plugging away) that's when I import to Lightroom using "Import from current location" and then go on my merry way sorting, picking and processing. It's really quite nice.

Similar to what Trevor said, I just make a new folder for that day's shoot "YYYYMMDD_description" and within that I make a "1 RAW" folder. Plop all your images from your cards into the RAW folder and go from there.