It's a minefield of a subject eh?
I'm not overly fussed as to how they're filed on the hard drive, but I do have a bit of OCD tendancy about keeping a clean and easy to understand file structure, and on top of that, I imagine a time when I'm not here anymore, and figure the kids might appreciate an intuitive file structure too. It's not easy though.
In the last 10 years, I could count on one hand the number of times I've used a file explorer to browse my pictures folder. Literally everything to do with viewing and management is done from within MC. I import to Lightroom, post-process, tag, then export from there to MC, where the final filing job is carried out.
In MC's rename tool, I use one expression for directories, and one for filenames, that cover all media types, as well as media sub types. By doing it this way, I only have to give the before/after list a quick glance, smile at the awesome power of MC when I see it's all still working even after so many years, and press OK.
For images, my logic goes something along these lines...
If it's clipart, put them in D:\Pictures\Clipart\Keywords
If "Occasion" is not empty, put them in D:\Pictures\Occasions\[Occasion]\[year] - [month]
If tagged "Day Tripping", put them in D:\Pictures\Day Tripping\[Location]\[year] - [month]
If [Album] does not contain /, then put them in D:\Pictures\Picture Albums\[Album]
If the photographer is me, then put them in D:\Pictures\Photographer\[artist]\[camera]\[year] - [month]
If the photographer is not me, then put them in D:\Pictures\Photographer\[artist]\[year] - [month]
That's basically it. I do some other queries based around a field I call Source that files images from the internet, into folders such as Flickr, Facebook, and so on, but there's not so many of those.
The logic works like this...
Upon import, the album is auto-tagged using yyyy/MM/dd
Occasions and Day Tripping should be pretty much self explanatory...
For photo shoots of note or interest, I will change the album once imported, otherwise the date in the album field is fine. When moving, I then check for the forward slash in the album field, and if it's not there, then this must be a file from a picture album I specifically tagged, so file it in the "Picture Albums" folder, in an "Album" subfolder.
All of my family give me their digital photos to add to our library. I have almost a hundred different cameras in the "Camera" field, no-one really cares about the camera, except me, and the ones I snapped... I like to know which camera, and which lens, so, finally, I check if the photographer is me, and if so, add a camera sub folder, otherwise, don't.
It took me a while to settle upon this workflow. I periodically check that it's still fit for purpose, as in the beginning, I just couldn't seem to find a system I was happy with. According to my notes, I haven't changed this in eight years now.
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I think that images, unlike audio, with their linear Artist > Album thing that fits for just about everyone, are completely free. There are no standards. There are as many different ways to file them as there are people taking photos, with none of them being "right" or "wrong". It's just what works for you personally. Of course, it helps if you know exactly what your options are, and you have MC.... While it does have it's boundaries, the playing field is massive. If you want any help forming a rename expression for your photos, just shout, you'll get plenty.
-marko.
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Topic: Help Auto-Tagging Images into Folders (Read 1283 times)