Ralf,
I don't change the names of the files downloaded by the camera, ever.
I do change the names of files I work on, but I leave a piece of the
original filename in them so that I can always find the original RAW
file. So, for instance, IMGP0103.PEF might become jack-bike-0103.psd.
Files are always moved into folders which reflect the date, which are
all in a folder which encloses the year.
I posted this in the last week:
Workflow and directory structure work hand in hand. My workflow
goes this way:
1) Download PEFs to external drive 1 in DL folder
2) DNG Convert to DNGs on working drive in new folder named by date
3) Move PEFs to PEFArchive on external drive 1.
4) Open DNG folder with Bridge, let it build caches and such.
5) Backup working drive folder to external drive 1.
6) Backup external drive 1 PEFArchive and working drive folders to
external drive 2.
7) I do all the sorting, selection, and setting up RAW parameters
using Bridge and Camera Raw. Then I run the RAW conversions to .PSD
files as a batch job into the appropriate subdirectory of my
"Worked" folder, so that the next thing to do is start editing in
Photoshop CS2.
8) at an appropriate point, I backup the working drive folders onto
external drive 1 and 2 again.
That leaves me with a consistent directory structure:
working drive
-- 2005 photo folder
---- DNG folders (by date)
---- PSD worked folders (by project)
external drive (1,2)
-- PEFArchive
---- 2005 folder
------ body1 folder
------ body2 folder
-- 2005 folders
---- DNG folders (by date)
---- PSD worked folders (by project)
Every image filename in a worked folder is coded so that I can
quickly find the original DNG or PEF file if need be for reprocessing.
Since digital image files contain the EXIF data with all dates
embedded, you can find anything you want by date. I also usually
annotate the image file metadata with more information as well.
Godfrey
On Nov 28, 2005, at 12:55 PM, Ralf R. Radermacher wrote:
how do you organize/number your digital files?
Until now, I've used an Excel database with a numbering system
composed
of year, film number, and frame number, e.g. 0522134 is frame 34 on
film
221 of 2005. Other data recorded in the database are film format,
event,
location and date.
Obviously, this isn't directly applicable to digital. Since my
shootings
usually mean a day at a particular location, I might use some kind of
'event' numbering scheme.
Any suggestions?
Ralf
--
Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany
private homepage: http://www.fotoralf.de
manual cameras and photo galleries - updated Jan. 10, 2005
Contarex - Kiev 60 - Horizon 202 - P6 mount lenses
