Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

My MAC is an image jungle

  • 27-10-2010 9:20am
    #1
    Mcofferon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 197 ✭✭


    Hello all

    I need help.

    Photo Chaos is the only way I can describe my image library. By a mad combination of too many backups, deleting entire libraries and restoring again using rescue software, Snow Leopard iPhoto 'bug' and lazyness I have 40GB of jumbled images.

    I have them all in 1 place now (with a simple backup on an external drive) but it's a nightmare to navigate and is full of MULTIPLE DUPLICATES, loads of THUMBNAILS that have invalid links, corrupt filenames and METADATA, and a real mess of formats.

    Sources include Canon CRW & RAW, TIFF & GIFF files from film scanners and JPEGs.

    I have iPhoto('08) installed on the mac together with Photoshop CS. I did have elements too for a time too.

    I'd estimate that I can prune out about 70% of the files I have as there are so many duplicates or bogus links. It's going to take a huge effort to trace everything manually. I need to make sure I keep the right originals and get rid of the copies.

    Can any of you suggest a programme that can do some of the work for me?

    After I've trimmed the library I can then have a look at catagorising things logically and upgrading to the latest iPhoto 11.

    I welcome any suggestions.

    Mike


Comments

  • #2
    Heebie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Heebie


    YIKES! I'd say some librarian software is in order.
    iPhoto... pretends to be librarian software but it's actually just crap (my opinion.. some people like it.)

    Lightroom or even Picasa (Picasa is a LOT less expensive) should help you out with that... but good luck!

    I HATE trying to organise things!


  • #3
    Dara Robinson
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,059 ✭✭✭Dara Robinson


    tbh there is no easy way out of this make. Any software will be making decisions that for the most part you will have to monitor anyways.

    Best I can do for you personally is give you some advice coupled with telling you my current system and where I am bringing it to by the end of the year.

    Step one:
    Ok, my advice for you is to just simply start again. Get a system that works and (most importantly) makes logical sense to you.

    Step two:
    Start at the beginning of your photos (just grap a folder, alphabetically or by date... anything) and systematically go through it all.
    I know how much work is involved as I have over 300 gig of Photography and when I reached about 70 or 80 I had a melt down like you and reworked it all.

    Step three:
    Now that you have made a start you simply separate RAW (or if your not shooting RAW, and imho you should be if your camera can, the originals) and take these untouched ORIGINALS and separate them. Preferably into another drive or partition (cause if something ever goes wrong odds are it will be one drive not all that is affected). As you go through them use this system of yours to separate Originals, Published (what I called ones I have gotten ready for web, printing, etc) and you will stumble onto duplicates easily enough as you will be using metadata to figure out when the photos were taken and then dumping them into the corresponding folder you will notice the duplicate.

    Step four:
    Keep this system up from now on.



    Ok, so to explain the way I do it...


    I only shoot RAW now (but used to shoot TIFF a long time ago but I treat them as RAWs). All my RAW goes into its own drive called RAW Photography. I have it broken down into Cameras (Nikon D700, Olympus E1, Nikon F80 etc) which means if I can remember which camera I was using, normally very easy, it helps me.
    Each folder contains folders just named with years (2003, 2004, 2005... you get the picture). Then inside each of them is another folder, each containing the "Job" (basically the shoot, date, job or what ever; regardless if I was messing around with mates or out doing a paid job but as I am not a professional just a mature student in college its all together I am sure I will separate work later).
    Now here is where it gets specific. Each of these job folders is named .... "Month-Year" - "Date" "Job Title" in other words:
    "03-10 03rd - The Pool Premier" and this is located.... "Y:\Raws from Nikon D700\2010\03-10 03rd - The Pool Premier"
    Now, Published stuff has its own folder and then the exact same system of folders.
    Also, I now (cause I used to) NEVER change the fold names. I let the camera name the files (I format the cards and have the camera set to keep the numbering sequential) and so if I am ever looking to rework a picture for some reason I now know instantly which folder in the RAW drive it is in and also the file name. No looking at the pics trying to figure out exactly which one it is.

    I also have a back up system which is basically an external drive but I will be upgrading that soon to basically an old computer set to sync my backup with my computer and lappy. Once a week I will replace the external drive with one in another room and 4 or 5 times a year I will drag the most up to date external drive to my sisters and bring the one there back to my place.
    My stuff is insured so all the equipment can be replaced, the photos cannot. So worst case, if I get robbed or the house burns down I will NEVER loose everything, just a few months of photos.


Advertisement