Digital Asset Management and more...
I've had quite a few people ask me how I manage all of my digital files. That's a difficult question to answer in short, but I'll try my best.
1. Chronological Everything is based on dates. After years and years of trying different things, I finally realized this is easiest. This might not work for you, but might be worth a shot?
2. Folders, Subfolders, sub-sub folders and so on Everything gets a folder. For example: 2011 --> 01 January (the "01" maintains monthly hierarchy) --> Skiing (or other nomenclature that describes where or what you were doing) --> All files go here. Inside this folder I also generally have a few other files, such as "video" and a "RAW" folder.
3. Adobe Bridge This is the one and only tool I really use anymore. This is equivalent to Adobe Lightroom, but they both have their advantages. I prefer Bridge at this time, which might change down the road.
4. Metadata In this day and age, metadata is VERY IMPORTANT. It is most helpful for posting to social media site such as Facebook and Flickr. There are certain fields in Bridge that transfer to these sites such as headline, description and keywords. This makes posting across other platforms much easier. Right now I struggle with Shutterfly, since nothing transfers over, and I post about 250+ photos a month :-(
The other advantage to metadata is copyright. You can create a template in Bridge that can apply all of your info into each photo. i.e. Your Name, email address, copyright info and more. This info remains intact wherever the photo goes, which is helpful down the road if needed. Hopefully this will get you started with better management of your digital files. Remember to try and shoot raw files of possible, even if you don't process them, since JPEG's can degrade over time, the RAW file is a digital negative, which is always best. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
1. Chronological Everything is based on dates. After years and years of trying different things, I finally realized this is easiest. This might not work for you, but might be worth a shot?
2. Folders, Subfolders, sub-sub folders and so on Everything gets a folder. For example: 2011 --> 01 January (the "01" maintains monthly hierarchy) --> Skiing (or other nomenclature that describes where or what you were doing) --> All files go here. Inside this folder I also generally have a few other files, such as "video" and a "RAW" folder.
3. Adobe Bridge This is the one and only tool I really use anymore. This is equivalent to Adobe Lightroom, but they both have their advantages. I prefer Bridge at this time, which might change down the road.
4. Metadata In this day and age, metadata is VERY IMPORTANT. It is most helpful for posting to social media site such as Facebook and Flickr. There are certain fields in Bridge that transfer to these sites such as headline, description and keywords. This makes posting across other platforms much easier. Right now I struggle with Shutterfly, since nothing transfers over, and I post about 250+ photos a month :-(
The other advantage to metadata is copyright. You can create a template in Bridge that can apply all of your info into each photo. i.e. Your Name, email address, copyright info and more. This info remains intact wherever the photo goes, which is helpful down the road if needed. Hopefully this will get you started with better management of your digital files. Remember to try and shoot raw files of possible, even if you don't process them, since JPEG's can degrade over time, the RAW file is a digital negative, which is always best. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
