As you may know, I am a professional photographer, which means I have billions and billions of photos on my computer at all times. One question I commonly get asked, “How do I keep my photos organized?â€
You asked, and I shall deliver!
Here is my detailed workflow to help Keep Your Digital Photos Organized:
- After a shoot, I create a new folder in my “To Be Edited†folder on my portable hard drive (I used La Cie) Example Folder Name: “B+K Wedding RAWSâ€
- Download memory card images onto hard drive in a designated folder
- Cull through RAW images. I use a program called Photo Mechanic. I flag all the “Keepersâ€, place them in a “BK Starred†folder, and disregard the rest.
- I then import the “Starred†folder images into Lightroom, apply my S29 custom editing preset, and export images to High-Resolution Jpgs (300 DPI). I have specific folders for Weddings, Family & Commercial, and Personal photos.
- I name my client folders by the client’s name & the type of session. I name all of my personal images with the location, activity, and the date.
Having your photos nicely organized is incredibly beneficial, but take it a step further by ensuring your images are safely backed-up!
Photo Back-Up Tips
- All images are backed up online through a photo gallery & printing service I use; Zenfolio.
- As mentioned before, all images are backed up on the La Cie Hardrive.
- Subscribe to an Online Cloud Backup-System: I use BackBlaze and it auto-syncs my computer and hard-drives 24-7. Redundancy is my backup plan saves me the stress and anxiety of the inevitable and unexpected crash. At any point, I can contact BackBlaze and receive all my files mailed to me on a hard-drive or download them from the cloud. I can even access files that I deleted weeks ago. It is a complete failsafe and I love it!
- Get your pictures printed! I love Artifact Uprising for my prints!
