How do you organise your JPEGs and raw files?

[Vincent Lowe]

Check out the IMatch Renamer function...

 

"Use the Renamer to:

Rename files to use your preferred naming convention

Remove unwanted prefixes like "_DSC" from your file names

Create unique file names using number sequences

Move files into folders based on date or other criteria

Add date and time in file names

Use globally unique ids (GUIDs) to ensure world-wide unique file names

Include project codes or user input in file names

Include metadata like camera make and model, photographer name or GPS info

Distribute (Export) files by moving or copying them into existing or dynamically created folders

Create backup copies of your files"

[Steve F]

8 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

One thing that I found useful

 

Mark, wow, thanks a lot! Given me some reading to do. Looks like my website coding!!

Steve

[Ed Rooney]

 

Thank you, Steve F for asking this question and so allowing the core of this forum to display so much useful information.

 

I'll do everyone a favour by not telling you what I do. 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[Steve F]

On 17/10/2022 at 09:23, DG13 said:

 

You can create smart collections on LR according keywords, ratings, date and many other rules. i.e you create a smart collection "Landscape evenings" with "landscape" and "sunrise" as "rules" and all pics matching it will go to this collection automatically.

 

This is useful thanks. Does LR automatically put pictures into the smart collections if you e.g. keyword subsequent images as "landscape" and "sunrise" or does it do it using AI to recognise similar images?

Edited October 24, 2022 by Steve F

[Harry Harrison]

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

Does LR automatically put pictures into the smart collections if you e.g. keyword subsequent images as "landscape" and "sunrise" or does it do it using AI to recognise similar images?

No AI, it just follows the rules that you create for that smart collection. There are potentially a very large number of permutations for these as you can combine several rules but for that example the 'Keywords' 'Must contain' 'landscape and sunrise', but it could just as easily be for a particular camera, lens, focal length etc. etc. The smart folders are virtual folders, akin to saved searches.

[Steve F]

5 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

No AI, it just follows the rules that you create for that smart collection. There are potentially a very large number of permutations for these as you can combine several rules but for that example the 'Keywords' 'Must contain' 'landscape and sunrise', but it could just as easily be for a particular camera, lens, focal length etc. etc. The smart folders are virtual folders, akin to saved searches.

 

Thanks Harry. Think I need to stop being lazy with Keywording in Lightroom. After I've spent so long taking and editing images, I just want to get them sent off to Alamy asap, but I know that causes me more work down the line...

[Harry Harrison]

3 hours ago, Steve F said:

Thanks Harry. Think I need to stop being lazy with Keywording in Lightroom. After I've spent so long taking and editing images, I just want to get them sent off to Alamy asap, but I know that causes me more work down the line...

Steve, I wouldn't want to to give you the impression that I'm particularly rigorous either but I do try and put in at least one keyword if it's going to help me later. For example I'll put in 'France' if it was taken there, or 'Oxford', 'Henley Regatta', 'panorama' etc. Mind you I can look at the Smart Collection for 'Without keywords' (literally 'Keywords' 'are empty') and there are 15,332 out of a catalogue with around 36,000! I'm more likely to use a Smart Collection for a particular camera, or lens, or ISO, aperture etc. or a combination of each. I'll also try and remember to keyword for the name of a manual lens that I might have used as of course that doesn't come through on the EXIF. I put basic keywords and a caption in before I upload to Alamy, and I have a Collection Set for my Alamy uploads (and another for my 'possibles) with each upload batch as a collection inside. I should really be using the Alamy Bridge Lightroom plugin though so that captioning and keywording done in Alamy Image Manager comes back into my LR catalogue, and vice verse, it does a lot more besides in fact but I've never got around to buying it. I am a big user of Collection Sets & Collections though so if it is an event I photograph regularly there'll be a Collection Set for it, and inside collections for each time I visit (normally annually). I'm not a big landscape photographer but I do have a Collection for landscapes so if I think it deserves it I'll put it in there for later appraisal.

 

Edited October 24, 2022 by Harry Harrison

[Steve F]

52 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Steve, I wouldn't want to to give you the impression that I'm particularly rigorous either but I do try and put in at least one keyword if it's going to help me later.

 

 

Thanks for expanding Harry. I'm endeavouring to take all this onboard before importing my next batch - which I really want to get done - so it's motivation to learn I guess!!

[Steve F]

On 23/10/2022 at 08:08, M.Chapman said:

One thing that I found useful is there's a small "hack" to get LR to import  into exactly the file structure you want.

 

Hi Mark,

Thanks a lot for this post again. 

 

Ok, so first things first, you need to have a memory card in the slot to get the file rename option for Imports (yes, I am that ignorant).

Secondly, I worked out that you're using a MAC. I tried finding the template myself, but finally did a search on my entire C drive:

C:\Users\*me*\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Import Presets\User Presets

 

And then I got stuck 🙈 I didn't understand what I was supposed to do with all of this. I get that I edit the shootNameFormat string, but what's with all the abbreviations? Are these something I type in Lightroom when importing? Or into the template?

Edit the "shoot name format =" string to match the DYNAMIC sub-folder name to import to using any of the following abbreviations
    %a    Abbreviated weekday name *    Thu
    %A    Full weekday name *    Thursday
    %b    Abbreviated month name *    Aug
    %B    Full month name *    August
    %c    Date and time representation *    Thu Aug 23 14:55:02 2001
    %d    Day of the month (01-31)    23
    %H    Hour in 24h format (00-23)    14
    %I    Hour in 12h format (01-12)    02
    %j    Day of the year (001-366)    235
    %m    Month as a decimal number (01-12)    08
    %M    Minute (00-59)    55
    %p    AM or PM designation    PM
    %S    Second (00-61)    02
    %U    Week number with the first Sunday as the first day of week one (00-53)    33
    %w    Weekday as a decimal number with Sunday as 0 (0-6)    4
    %W    Week number with the first Monday as the first day of week one (00-53)    34
    %x    Date representation *    08/23/01
    %X    Time representation *    14:55:02
    %y    Year, last two digits (00-99)    01
    %Y    Year    2001
    %Z    Timezone name or abbreviation    CDT
    %%    A % sign    %
    Note that anything not preceded by a % will be included "as is" in the sub-folder name.
    /    Subfolder
    -    Hyphen seperator
    _    Underscore seperator
    Text    Miscellaneous text

 

I can see that importDestinationUseSubfolder = false, is true for you, so you've edited it somehow. And my shootNameFormat is different. Which makes sense, because we're talking about editing destination folders. Do I really enter most of that text above? Where does it go, because your final preset is almost the same as mine:

 

s = {
    id = "70A80DD1-AB80-4405-AAF9-254EA7F591B0",
    internalName = "My Import Preset",
    title = "My Import Preset",
    type = "Import",
    value = {
        Import_add_photos_to_collection = false,
        autoSegmentMethod = "autoSegment_None",
        backupDownloadFolder = "C:\\Users\\Etienne\\Pictures\\Lightroom\\Download Backups",
        crSettingsID = "<none>",
        doCopyToBackupFolder = false,
        extensionCase = "unchanged",
        generateDNGProxies = false,
        generateDNGProxiesLater = false,
        ignoreSuspectedDuplicates = true,
        importBehavior = "copyToLibrary",
        importDestinationFolderPath = "C:\\Users\\Etienne\\Pictures\\ALAMY",
        importDestinationUseSubfolder = false,
        importServiceProvider = "com.adobe.ag.import.file",
        importServiceProviderTitle = "Files on Disk",
        initialSequenceNumber = 1,
        keywords = "",
        metadataPresetID = "<none>",
        preferredImportBehavior = "refInPlace",
        previewBuildQuality = "sbig",
        previewJPEGQuality = 0.75,
        renamingTokensOn = true,
        shootNameFormat = "%Y/%Y-%m-%d",
        standardPreviewSize = 1440,
        tokenCustomString = "",
        tokenShootName = "",
        tokens = "{{date_YYYYMMDD}}-{{image_name}}",
    },
    version = 0,
}

 

 

p.s. I'm editing it using Notepad++ seems fine.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Steve F

[M.Chapman]

Hi Steve,

 

The "hack" I described is only needed if the LR import options won't import into the folder structure or the file renaming you want. For most folks the options LR provides in the import dialog will get the job done. But, in my case I wanted to import into monthly folder with the name 01 Jan, 03 Feb, 03 Mar etc. (because that's the naming convention I'd used for years that was supported by my other downloader program). LR doesn't provide this option.

 

So the first step is to set LR up to do an import to the nearest available option and save as a LR import preset. NB. If you want to use sub-folders then tick that option in LR.

 

The next step is to find the import preset file (well done - yes I'm on a Mac) and then edit one or two line(s) to tweak the place where the files will be imported to match exactly what you want. I only had to adjust one line (the one shown in bold in my posting). The abbreviations are merely the syntax used within the LR import template to specify where the files should go. You will probably only need one or two of the abbreviations listed when editing the LR template.

 

In the example you posted I can see this line

 

shootNameFormat = "%Y/%Y-%m-%d",

 

By referring to the abbreviation list I can see this will import files into subfolders named as YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD

 

If I wanted the month replaced with the 3 letter name of the month (i.e. YYYY/YYYY-MMM-DD), I'd edit just that one line to say

 

shootNameFormat = "%Y/%Y-%b-%d",

 

and then resave the import template with the same name.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Mark

 

PS. You may find this alternative description useful, although it only covers one renaming option.

https://blog.pardner.com/2014/12/create-a-lightroom-5-custom-import-preset-to-organize-photos-into-year-month-yyyy-mm/

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by M.Chapman

[Steve F]

17 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

Hi Steve,

 

The "hack" I described is only needed if the LR import options won't import into the folder structure or the file renaming you want. For most folks the options LR provides in the import dialog will get the job done. But, in my case I wanted to import into monthly folder with the name 01 Jan, 03 Feb, 03 Mar etc. (because that's the naming convention I'd used for years that was supported by my other downloader program). LR doesn't provide this option.

 

Hi Mark,

Thanks again. I just figured out that you were giving me a list of available commands that I should pick and choose from.

 

I've edited my preset to:

 

s = {
    id = "70A80DD1-AB80-4405-AAF9-254EA7F591B0",
    internalName = "My Import Preset",
    title = "My Import Preset",
    type = "Import",
    value = {
        Import_add_photos_to_collection = false,
        autoSegmentMethod = "autoSegment_None",
        backupDownloadFolder = "C:\\Users\\Etienne\\Pictures\\Lightroom\\Download Backups",
        crSettingsID = "<none>",
        doCopyToBackupFolder = false,
        extensionCase = "unchanged",
        generateDNGProxies = false,
        generateDNGProxiesLater = false,
        ignoreSuspectedDuplicates = true,
        importBehavior = "copyToLibrary",
        importDestinationFolderPath = "C:\\Users\\Etienne\\Pictures\\ALAMY",
        importDestinationUseSubfolder = true,
        importServiceProvider = "com.adobe.ag.import.file",
        importServiceProviderTitle = "Files on Disk",
        initialSequenceNumber = 1,
        keywords = "",
        metadataPresetID = "<none>",
        preferredImportBehavior = "refInPlace",
        previewBuildQuality = "sbig",
        previewJPEGQuality = 0.75,
        renamingTokensOn = true,
        shootNameFormat = "%Y/%m %b",
        standardPreviewSize = 1440,
        tokenCustomString = "",
        tokenShootName = "",
        tokens = "{{date_YYYYMMDD}}-{{image_name}}",
    },
    version = 0,
}

 

with the highlighted changes above. I've gone to Lightroom and Import and selected the Import Preset dropdown at the bottom to choose my preset. I imported and everything just went into my ImageDestinationFolderPath (i.e. just loose files under 'Alamy'). No new folder created. Under 'Destination' I have 'Into Subfolder' ticked. I think I'm really close. But no cigar.... 🤔

 

p.s. Or am I being really dim here? Do I create all the folders on my C drive first. ANd then when I use my import preset, it sends the raw files to the correct folder automatically?

Edited October 26, 2022 by Steve F

[M.Chapman]

17 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Hi Mark,

Thanks again. I just figured out that you were giving me a list of available commands that I should pick and choose from.

 

I've edited my preset to:

 

s = {
    id = "70A80DD1-AB80-4405-AAF9-254EA7F591B0",
    internalName = "My Import Preset",
    title = "My Import Preset",
    type = "Import",
    value = {
        Import_add_photos_to_collection = false,
        autoSegmentMethod = "autoSegment_None",
        backupDownloadFolder = "C:\\Users\\Etienne\\Pictures\\Lightroom\\Download Backups",
        crSettingsID = "<none>",
        doCopyToBackupFolder = false,
        extensionCase = "unchanged",
        generateDNGProxies = false,
        generateDNGProxiesLater = false,
        ignoreSuspectedDuplicates = true,
        importBehavior = "copyToLibrary",
        importDestinationFolderPath = "C:\\Users\\Etienne\\Pictures\\ALAMY",
        importDestinationUseSubfolder = true,
        importServiceProvider = "com.adobe.ag.import.file",
        importServiceProviderTitle = "Files on Disk",
        initialSequenceNumber = 1,
        keywords = "",
        metadataPresetID = "<none>",
        preferredImportBehavior = "refInPlace",
        previewBuildQuality = "sbig",
        previewJPEGQuality = 0.75,
        renamingTokensOn = true,
        shootNameFormat = "%Y/%m %b",
        standardPreviewSize = 1440,
        tokenCustomString = "",
        tokenShootName = "",
        tokens = "{{date_YYYYMMDD}}-{{image_name}}",
    },
    version = 0,
}

 

with the highlighted changes above. I've gone to Lightroom and Import and selected the Import Preset dropdown at the bottom to choose my preset. I imported and everything just went into my ImageDestinationFolderPath (i.e. just loose files under 'Alamy'). No new folder created. Under 'Destination' I have 'Into Subfolder' ticked. I think I'm really close. But no cigar.... 🤔

 

p.s. Or am I being really dim here? Do I create all the folders on my C drive first. ANd then when I use my import preset, it sends the raw files to the correct folder automatically?

LR will create the folders. Try ticking the subfolder option in LR before making the preset. Then edit only the shoot name line.

 

Mark

[Jill Morgan]

I'm a little more like Paulette, but then she and I don't have the volumes of images some of you guys have.  I stick with Categories then sub categories then dated files.

For example, I took around 3,000 images at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy back in July.

 

Under my Birds Folder would be another folder entitled Canadian Raptor Conservancy.

Under that would be subs that would be titles Canandian Raptor Conservancy and then the date of those images.

Under those would be one folder for the RAWS and then subfolders for the types of birds such as Eagles, Hawks, Falcons and Owls.

Under those would be all the jpgs with a filename that includes the title of the image plus the original file number, so if I want to go to the original RAW I can simply search it with the file number. (as I am doing to hopefully improve that Harris Hawk image in another post.)

 

That works for me, but if I took the volume of images that some of you guys do, I would probably have a different system.

 

Jill

 

[Steve F]

3 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

LR will create the folders. Try ticking the subfolder option in LR before making the preset. Then edit only the shoot name line.

 

Mark

 

Thanks Mark. Under 'Destination', I have 'into subfolder' ticked. There's nothing next to that, just the default 'enter name'

Below that under 'Organize', I have 'into one folder'.

 

Is this the same for you?

Steve

 

EDIT: Nom de dieu, it worked!! I changed to Organize 'By Date'

Mark, thanks very much for your help, very appreciated! I like this, very snazzy automation. 😀

Edited October 27, 2022 by Steve F

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

 

Thanks Mark. Under 'Destination', I have 'into subfolder' ticked. There's nothing next to that, just the default 'enter name'

Below that under 'Organize', I have 'into one folder'.

 

Is this the same for you?

Steve

 

EDIT: Nom de dieu, it worked!! I changed to Organize 'By Date'

Mark, thanks very much for your help, very appreciated! I like this, very snazzy automation. 😀

 

🤣🤣🤣 Steve, you crack me up with your French 🤣🤣🤣

[M.Chapman]

5 hours ago, Steve F said:

 

Thanks Mark. Under 'Destination', I have 'into subfolder' ticked. There's nothing next to that, just the default 'enter name'

Below that under 'Organize', I have 'into one folder'.

 

Is this the same for you?

Steve

 

EDIT: Nom de dieu, it worked!! I changed to Organize 'By Date'

Mark, thanks very much for your help, very appreciated! I like this, very snazzy automation. 😀

Manifique!

 

Yes, looking back I notice my import preset says

autoSegmentMethod = "autoSegment_Date",

 

Whereas yours said

autoSegmentMethod = "autoSegment_None",

 

Glad to have helped

 

Mark

[M.Chapman]

12 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

I'm a little more like Paulette, but then she and I don't have the volumes of images some of you guys have.  I stick with Categories then sub categories then dated files.

For example, I took around 3,000 images at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy back in July.

 

Under my Birds Folder would be another folder entitled Canadian Raptor Conservancy.

Under that would be subs that would be titles Canandian Raptor Conservancy and then the date of those images.

Under those would be one folder for the RAWS and then subfolders for the types of birds such as Eagles, Hawks, Falcons and Owls.

Under those would be all the jpgs with a filename that includes the title of the image plus the original file number, so if I want to go to the original RAW I can simply search it with the file number. (as I am doing to hopefully improve that Harris Hawk image in another post.)

 

That works for me, but if I took the volume of images that some of you guys do, I would probably have a different system.

 

Jill

 

 

I started with a system like that, but soon ran into problems where a single image needed to be in two folders. Suppose one of your images contained both an owl and an eagle. Which folder do you put it in? Or do you make 2 copies? It's also difficult to automate the import process. So I swapped to simply storing all images by date and then using keywords or longer filenames to categorise them. This means there's never any ambiguity over where to store a file. LR Categories/Collections or Mac Smart folders then allow a single image file to "appear" in multiple places. Smart folders on the Mac are really useful. Also because my folder structure mirrors my filename prefix (YYYY-MM-DD_Image ref.Ext) I can quickly find any image file given its filename.

 

 

1910s?? - my (digitised) family photos do go back that far...

 

Mark

Edited October 27, 2022 by M.Chapman

[Allan Bell]

I have folders for each camera I have, and have had. These folders are listed in LR and synchronised when new images are added.

Inside those folders are subject folders in which I store the RAW and TIFF files of images after the jpeg image has passed QC.

In other words I locate my images by subject when needed instead of date, as I have trouble remembering when they were taken.

 

I also have the uploaded jpegs in upload folders all numbered in sequence as a record.

 

Allan

 

[Jill Morgan]

5 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

 

I started with a system like that, but soon ran into problems where a single image needed to be in two folders. Suppose one of your images contained both an owl and an eagle. Which folder do you put it in? Or do you make 2 copies? It's also difficult to automate the import process. So I swapped to simply storing all images by date and then using keywords or longer filenames to categorise them. This means there's never any ambiguity over where to store a file. LR Categories/Collections or Mac Smart folders then allow a single image file to "appear" in multiple places. Smart folders on the Mac are really useful. Also because my folder structure mirrors my filename prefix (YYYY-MM-DD_Image ref.Ext) I can quickly find any image file given its filename.

 

 

1910s?? - my (digitised) family photos do go back that far...

 

Mark

 

Yes, I would make a copy and include the image in both folders.  This works for me, never have problems finding images.  My biggest folders are my birds and photos taken in Toronto.  

 

Jill

[Cal]

On 15/10/2022 at 12:42, Steve F said:

Hi all,

So I'm pretty sure I'm organising my photos in totally the wrong way and I'm hoping someone can correct me!

 

I've got one folder with sub folders for raw files, on my C drive. And one folder with sub folders for JPEGs. The number of sub folders is starting to multiply - I have e.g. plants and gardens, technology, miscellaneous, wildlife, England, Austria, Italy... I back up everything from time to time on two SSDs.

 

It feels like it's all starting to become a bit unwieldy. I'm aware that you can group photos in Lightroom into collections, but I use this rarely. It's also annoying when I'm importing into Lightroom as I'm trying to do multiple imports of raw files off the same camera card and sticking them in the 'right' raw file sub folder.

 

One change that I've made in the last couple of years is that I only have one Lightroom catalogue that I add to now. I used to have multiple catalogues that matched my themed sub folders (pretty inefficient I guess).

 

I'd appreciate any tips and suggestions 🙂

Stephen

 

 

 

If a system works for you then no reason you can't keep doing it, though it sounds like your method doesn't scale well. Here's how I do it

 

-grab raw files off memory card and put them into a directory specifically for raws. Each different "shoot" has its own dated and named subfolder, with all the photos from that day. I do not generally split the files any further than that as it starts to become unnecessarily complicated. 

-import all of those raws into Lightroom. As i've already manually copied them off the card, I instruct LR to not copy or move source files on import.

-I add them to an LR "collection" usually with same name as the folder the raws are in, just for completeness.

-I do my processing and will then usually prepare for export. JPGs go into one folder, TIFFs go into another. Each in a subfolder named and dated in the same format as I did with the raw files, so they all match. 

 

The above has worked for me for quite a while now. It scales well and since I name and date every folder reasonably consistently, finding files doesn't become harder as I continually add more photos. 

 

On occasion I process away from home using my iPad and LR in the cloud, so I'll just export my TIFFs and JPEGs to a directory on the iPad, keep the raws aside and then just add them into their respective places on the filesystem when I get home.

 

ETA a possible limitation of the above method is that it might make it hard for you to find a specific type of photo. The way I solve that is by using keywords. I will usually add a few keywords to a photo, such as the type of bird it is, even if it isn't destined for online use, so I can use the search function later. Mac OS picks up keywords in its spotlight search, I assume Windows does too. That saves having to try to arrange photos by their subject (which inevitably becomes impossible for multiple subject photos). I can then just search the entire JPG directory for what I want and it's there, the search has done the work for me. Even better, by keeping the filenames consistent across all file types, I can easily find the corresponding TIFF or raw file if I need to go back to basics.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Cal
more info

[Steve F]

47 minutes ago, Cal said:

 

If a system works for you then no reason you can't keep doing it, though it sounds like your method doesn't scale well. Here's how I do it

 

 

Thanks Cal, it was starting to become a bit unwieldy so I've changed now. Appreciated all the advice I've received - I'm now using Mark's import system and it was handy to learn about smart collection rules from DG13 and Harry.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Steve F

[Marianne]

On 22/10/2022 at 07:25, Steve F said:

 

Mark, thanks for this. Automating on importing sounds good. Sounds like I need to do some YouTubing....

 

Check out Julianne Kost on Adobe - she has lots of simple, short tutorials. I learned LR from her live at PhotoExpo in NY back in around 2009 and have been learning new things from her videos ever since. 

[Steve F]

6 minutes ago, Marianne said:

 

Check out Julianne Kost on Adobe - she has lots of simple, short tutorials. I learned LR from her live at PhotoExpo in NY back in around 2009 and have been learning new things from her videos ever since. 

 

Thanks Marianne, I'll have a look. It's a pain finding decent videos as often there's only one or two useful snippets in amongst lot of stuff you already know. Although I'll admit, I haven't really looked into this part of the functionality of LR much at all!

Edited October 31, 2022 by Steve F

[Jay D]

Good question and one that drives me nuts at the same time because of my total ineptness

 

I organise all my Raws onto an external SSD, organised by one of more of place/Year-date/subject/person then import that into LRC...I use Smart collections to gauge what i feel is appropriate ( Alamy/Insta etc ) using a Rating system, 1 being a possible through to 4 being fully edited and 5 being uploaded and approved...But in my stupidity after uploading rather than saving the jpegs i delete them...possibly with the idea my editing skills will change/improve...but now wish i hadn't. I basically try and keep things as simple as i can...