Okay, so I've read a few threads here and there regarding photo management programs, and all of their respective pros and cons. As a serious amateur (but an amateur nonetheless) I'm struggling with whether or not to just start with Adobe Bridge, which I already have but have just started to work with, and at least come up with an organization system that I like before jumping into a program that has way more bells and whistles than I know what to do with.

Any thoughts?

by the way...I've been a bit of a lurker so this is my first post. I like to get a feel for something before I jump right in...which is probably why I'm having issues with this management question. Anyhow, you might notice that I don't have any pictures yet to show nor a website to reference since I'm a bit of a perfectionist and don't have them quite the way I would like. Hopefully soon...

Amy

Amy,

Welcome. I good place to start is editing your images. Decide on your keepers. There are a couple of ways to do this... You can start a slideshow (Control+L) (my favorite way) use the keyboard to navigate from image to image (the arrow keys specificly). Then you can rate your image 1 Star to 5 Stars by using the 1 through 5 number keys. The 6 through 9 keys will give you a color coding.

These are just perfect ways to decide if you which ones you like then color code them for Color, B&W, or what other things you would like to assign each image.

You can also accomplish the same thing not in the slideshow view by selecting the image and holding the control key while pressing the number key of your choice.... Try that out for a starter...

That is my quick start tip... I will pass the mic on to someone else. Welcome! Good Luck!

This is how I do it -

I have a couple external drives (you don't need as many as I do but I'm paranoid of loosing images through a drive failiure)

External 1 - In Progress
External 2 - In Progress Back-up
External 3 - Final Project
External 4 - Final Project Back-up

Inside each of those drives are folders which break down the project type... for example -

Images -> Weddings -> Couples Name
or
Images -> Family Functions -> Dads 50th Bday

So when I come home from a shoot I will copy all the images from my CF cards into a new subdirectory inside a parent directory (Weddings(parent) -> Couples Name(subdirectory) this way there is no way the pictures can get tucked away into the wrong folder somewhere.

From there I will open the photos in Bridge, and using the 1-5 stars rate them. From there I will process the higher rated files, output the JPEGs into the same file structure on the Final Project drives. Again I do this so I will always know where the photos are when I need them 6 months down the road.

Hope that made sense and helps =)


****Edit****
And I of course back up on DVD-R's and CD-R's as well... these are kept offsite. I also back-up to my "back-up" drives at the end of each day when changes are made to any files, that way if my main work drive crashes I'm not without any files

Thank you both so much for your input and suggestions. I really appreciate your willingness to share your own methods...it really helps!

Have either of you used Lightroom? While I want to find the best system to organize and manage my photos, I don't necessarily want to start with programs that have functions I won't use for quite some time. However, if it would be best to start with a program like LR so I am accustomed to it when it does come time to step it up a bit, I'm okay with that too.

I looked at lightroom but still prefer bridge. I'm really stoked for CS3 to ship because the new bridge is like the current bridge with some cool extras. There is a loupe to zoom in on your images, the RAW processing has a boat load more adjustments too, so it should be super-fantastic!!