Author Topic: A growing mess, what's your filing system? (Read 5725 times)

33ft · « **on:** February 20, 2013, 00:37 »

As I continue to branch out onto other sites I'm struck by the growing monster that resides within my external backup hard drives.

I'm curious, does anyone have a great system they don't mind sharing? Not so much from simply naming and dating files, but more on what has been submitted where.
To give an example, early on I only submitted to SS and IS. Backed up files...Then those to DT and FT. As I continued to branch out to some smaller sites, some I grew bored of and let them gather dust, yet continued to upload to the big boys. Unfortunately I lost my way. There are many files that I truly cannot tell if I submitted them to the smaller sites without doing a host of research. So, the past is the past. I am more concerned about the future. As I continue to shoot, upload, and expand to other sites, any great systems out there that people use to tell the history of where the file itself has been submitted?
Thx

Poncke · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2013, 02:10 »

http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/tracking-stock-photo-sales/msg299843/#msg299843

bddigitalimages · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2013, 07:24 »

I might be a little different...but, this is how I do it
I made folders for each stock site, in each of those folders I have 6 folders in it (model release, accepted, rejected, pending, hold and deactivated) Then all I do is put a file in the main folder that is ready to send to stock until I am ready to send it then I put it in the folders that it falls into (such as if it is pending it is in that folder and then once accepted or rejected it would go in that file) The other file that I have in the main folder of all stock sites is a used file folder that I can check to see if I have ever used it before.
Sounds goofy I am sure but it is very simple to use and see at a glance everything that is going on at each stock site

Pinocchio · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2013, 10:12 »

I guess most of us have a "system" of some kind, details depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

Factors influencing the approach I formulated include:
1. I do not want a copy per site when an image is available at more than one site, even though I have a small portfolio, and I imagine such an approach would be prohibitive for large portfolios. Multiple copies of the same image create unnecessary storage demands, and I can't imagine how I would make sure all the copies were identical when they're supposed to be, or how I would identify the latest and greatest version of an image when I need it.
2. I also record all metadata for my images at all times, so I'm not dependent on any outside party for any of this information. You can read about the troubles some photographers faced by searching for "Digital Railroad", and agency that is now out of business.

My images (RAW, .PSD, .JPG) live in folders named for the date of they were captured, and I use keywords to track site/s and status of each image (upload/accept/reject/resubmit); this approach might be too much effort to be practical for large numbers of images, but I don't know.

I update image keywords using Bridge (I use Photoshop CS4, which means I have Bridge, but any keywording tool would work). So, when I gather images for upload to a given site, they all get keywords that identify the site and the fact they're going into inspection. When I know the outcome of the inspection, I update keywords accordingly. Lately I've also set up a Collection (in Bridge) for each site and status because Collections span folders in a very convenient way. I'm still a little uncertain of just how reliable Collections are when you have computer troubles, but so far it works well.

The one downside of keywords intended for my internal use like this is that they show up one way or another when you upload, so you have to be very disciplined about identifying and removing them immediately after upload, and (preferably) before inspection. If one of your keywords slips through, you might create a situation in which an iStock inspector sees "Shutterstock Rejected" as a keyword - not a good way to start a new romance.

Anyway, I'm not sure you wanted such a long response, just hope it helps.

Regards

stockastic · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2013, 11:42 »

I also use the "growing mess" system.

33ft · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2013, 11:54 »

Quote from: stockastic on February 20, 2013, 11:42

I also use the "growing mess" system.

lol, classic!

33ft · « **Reply #6 on:** February 20, 2013, 11:59 »

Quote from: Pinocchio on February 20, 2013, 10:12

The one downside of keywords intended for my internal use like this is that they show up one way or another when you upload, so you have to be very disciplined about identifying and removing them immediately after upload, and (preferably) before inspection. If one of your keywords slips through, you might create a situation in which an iStock inspector sees "Shutterstock Rejected" as a keyword - not a good way to start a new romance.

Are you saying you just add a keyword to the metadata of the file once it is submitted to a certain site, i.e.: "shutter stock-rejected" that way you know where it has been submitted and its status?
I don't know why I never thought of this. Is that option searchable? i.e.: if I searched a folder on my computer that had thousands of jpegs for "shutterstock rejected", and that keyword were imbedded on that particular file or files, it would pull all of them in a folder search?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #7 on:** February 20, 2013, 12:19 »

I use aliases (mac; shortcuts on windows) in a series of folders, one for each agency I'm submitting to.

Inside each agency folder is pile of aliases and three folders with pending, accepted, rejected - I name these 1-SS-pending 2-SS-accepted 3-SS-rejected (for Shutterstock as an example) so they show up at the top of the folder and with the agency initials so I could move these all into one folder if I ever needed to.

For some of the smaller agencies where I don't care if they accepted or rejected an image (because things are so arbitrary or because I'd never resubmit regardless of their rejection reason), it would be 1-PD-next batch and 2-PD-uploaded.

I never replace a JPEG that's been uploaded if I revise something. If I fix a problem one site noticed, the new file is oldfilename-v2.jpg; if I have to make a smaller file for one agency (SS has a max 5K pixels by 5K for JPEGs from vectors and some sites won't take over 25MB file size) then it's oldfilename-smaller.jpg

The goal is not to duplicate files. The mac can be a bit whacky in handling large numbers of aliases (I assume buggy software) so sometimes the Finder restarts itself, but otherwise it works reasonably well.

Pinocchio · « **Reply #8 on:** February 20, 2013, 12:20 »

Quote from: 33ft on February 20, 2013, 11:59

Quote from: Pinocchio on February 20, 2013, 10:12

The one downside of keywords intended for my internal use like this is that they show up one way or another when you upload, so you have to be very disciplined about identifying and removing them immediately after upload, and (preferably) before inspection. If one of your keywords slips through, you might create a situation in which an iStock inspector sees "Shutterstock Rejected" as a keyword - not a good way to start a new romance.

Are you saying you just add a keyword to the metadata of the file once it is submitted to a certain site, i.e.: "shutter stock-rejected" that way you know where it has been submitted and its status?
I don't know why I never thought of this. Is that option searchable? i.e.: if I searched a folder on my computer that had thousands of jpegs for "shutterstock rejected", and that keyword were imbedded on that particular file or files, it would pull all of them in a folder search?

Yes, I add keywords to the images, but my status starts with "Candidate", i.e., images that I consider to be candidates for a given site, so I add the Candidate keyword/s before uploading. So, on the first upload for any file I have to figure out what to do about the "Candidate" keyword/s. If a file gets accepted, it gets "Accepted" keywords for the site in question, and I move it from the Candidate collection to the next one. If I then upload it somewhere else, I have to manage the "Accepted" keywords originating from the earlier upload. I do the uploading from the Candidate collection for the target site, and make use of the fact that when I hover the mouse over an image, Bridge displays the name of the folder that holds the image. I always update keywords before moving an image to the next status collection in case something goes wrong (power loss, etc), the idea being that I can use the metadata to fix things if something goes wrong.

This is searchable using Bridge, using the Filter panel. However, my folder structure sometimes gets in the way because there is no way I know of to get Bridge to search a specified set of folders. You can go up the folder hierarchy, but you can't select two or more folders. That's part of the reason I recently added Collections; Collections don't care about which folder a file lives in, displays the member files regardless of where they may live. One of the features of a Collection is that they take very little storage because the Collection seems to be a small file that lists the members; what's really nice is that if you update the image in any way, especially metadata, you can do it from any point (one of the Collections or the home folder), and those changes are visible everywhere else.

Regards

Pinocchio · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2013, 12:29 »

Quote from: jsnover on February 20, 2013, 12:19

I use aliases (mac; shortcuts on windows) in a series of folders, one for each agency I'm submitting to.

Inside each agency folder is pile of aliases and three folders with pending, accepted, rejected - I name these 1-SS-pending 2-SS-accepted 3-SS-rejected (for Shutterstock as an example) so they show up at the top of the folder and with the agency initials so I could move these all into one folder if I ever needed to.

For some of the smaller agencies where I don't care if they accepted or rejected an image (because things are so arbitrary or because I'd never resubmit regardless of their rejection reason), it would be 1-PD-next batch and 2-PD-uploaded.

I never replace a JPEG that's been uploaded if I revise something. If I fix a problem one site noticed, the new file is oldfilename-v2.jpg; if I have to make a smaller file for one agency (SS has a max 5K pixels by 5K for JPEGs from vectors and some sites won't take over 25MB file size) then it's oldfilename-smaller.jpg

The goal is not to duplicate files. The mac can be a bit whacky in handling large numbers of aliases (I assume buggy software) so sometimes the Finder restarts itself, but otherwise it works reasonably well.

I also use aliases on the Mac, but only when agency or other requirements force me to re-name my files. I name the Alias so it lives where I expect to find the file. This is mostly an issue with my panoramas where I may have hundreds of source files, some of which end up in the panorama. I really want to keep all those files right next to each other; can't imagine what life would be like if these files were spreads all over the place when I discover something that I have to fix (usually before upload, thank goodness). Mistakes and oversights happen, you just have to make it easy to deal with them.

This does look like a workable approach, and I might have considered it if I felt comfortable with aliases earlier in this whole game. My aliases sometime break - I think it happens of I update a file (usually prior to the first upload), but generally I find them quite manageable.

Regards.

heywoody · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2013, 13:57 »

Simple enough, new stuff gets uploaded wherever it will be uploaded as it's produced. New site's would get portfolio in reverse age sequence, file names are YYYYMMDD_nnn.

click_click · « **Reply #11 on:** February 20, 2013, 14:00 »

I have one folder.

I upload all new images to all the sites.

Whatever gets accepted - fine.

Whatever gets rejected - who cares?

StanRohrer · « **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2013, 16:19 »

I use Photools iMatch as a Digital Asset Management system. Virtual categories can be set for each site and each step of the site image prep. I think Adobe Lightroom can also do this.

sc · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2013, 16:59 »

Quote from: click_click on February 20, 2013, 14:00

I have one folder.

I upload all new images to all the sites.

Whatever gets accepted - fine.

Whatever gets rejected - who cares?

Most rational approach and pretty much my method.

cascoly · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2013, 19:45 »

after meta data, i move the images to an area of folders for each site. sometimes i upload to multiple sites right then, sometimes just to SS - if i dont upl right away to a site, i copy the images into that folder. later i can upl to other sites. Then after uploading to individual sites, i just delete the images

this upl area is completely separate from my archives. early on i tried to track acceptance, etc, but decided it was a waste of time.

33ft · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2013, 20:52 »

Quote from: click_click on February 20, 2013, 14:00

I have one folder.

I upload all new images to all the sites.

Whatever gets accepted - fine.

Whatever gets rejected - who cares?

Agree, I don't care what gets accepted where, only that it has been submitted here and there.

33ft · « **Reply #16 on:** February 20, 2013, 20:58 »

Quote from: cascoly on February 20, 2013, 19:45

after meta data, i move the images to an area of folders for each site. sometimes i upload to multiple sites right then, sometimes just to SS - if i dont upl right away to a site, i copy the images into that folder. later i can upl to other sites. Then after uploading to individual sites, i just delete the images

this upl area is completely separate from my archives. early on i tried to track acceptance, etc, but decided it was a waste of time.

Interesting, so you use folders to essentially create a staging area. But you are saying that since those folders are not your archives, if you happen to get ahead of yourself on one site, but not another, then you just leave a copy in that sites folder until you get around to uploading it and then delete?

dbvirago · « **Reply #17 on:** February 20, 2013, 21:04 »

Quote from: 33ft on February 20, 2013, 20:52

Quote from: click_click on February 20, 2013, 14:00
I have one folder.

I upload all new images to all the sites.

Whatever gets accepted - fine.

Whatever gets rejected - who cares?

Agree, I don't care what gets accepted where, only that it has been submitted here and there.

Another vote for this method. Original raws are stored by month and submitted jpgs are stored by subject. After 6 years, I've learned there isn't enough consistency within each agency or between them to learn much from rejections other than it's best to avoid them.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #18 on:** February 21, 2013, 00:52 »

Quote from: click_click on February 20, 2013, 14:00

I have one folder.

I upload all new images to all the sites.

Whatever gets accepted - fine.

Whatever gets rejected - who cares?

I use almost the same, only I use subfolders with batches of files, so I can keep track which batch has been sent and which is the next I prepare. And when I start with a new agency, I start with the batch1 folder again.

fotografer · « **Reply #19 on:** February 21, 2013, 06:50 »

I have one folder with all my images in it. Everytime I have a batch to upload I make a folder for each site with the new images in each one. As I upload to each site I delete the images out of the relevant folder. For places like DT that don't like similars I leave some from each batch in the folder and gradually feed them up with other batches.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 21, 2013, 10:36 »

I have folders by date and track where they have been submitted (at their stage e.g submitted, awaiting approval) via Excel. All sites get all my files this keeps it simple.

33ft · « **Reply #21 on:** February 21, 2013, 11:46 »

Quote from: fotografer on February 21, 2013, 06:50

I have one folder with all my images in it. Everytime I have a batch to upload I make a folder for each site with the new images in each one. As I upload to each site I delete the images out of the relevant folder. For places like DT that don't like similars I leave some from each batch in the folder and gradually feed them up with other batches.

I like this and may have to try this system since some sites it's just easier than others to get them onto in volume. Others have upload limits, so getting files to them is slower.
Thanks everyone for sharing.

cascoly · « **Reply #22 on:** February 21, 2013, 16:57 »

Quote from: 33ft on February 20, 2013, 20:58

Quote from: cascoly on February 20, 2013, 19:45
after meta data, i move the images to an area of folders for each site. sometimes i upload to multiple sites right then, sometimes just to SS - if i dont upl right away to a site, i copy the images into that folder. later i can upl to other sites. Then after uploading to individual sites, i just delete the images

this upl area is completely separate from my archives. early on i tried to track acceptance, etc, but decided it was a waste of time.

Interesting, so you use folders to essentially create a staging area. But you are saying that since those folders are not your archives, if you happen to get ahead of yourself on one site, but not another, then you just leave a copy in that sites folder until you get around to uploading it and then delete?

exactly - as others have said, this makes it easier to handle sites that limit uploads

membio · « **Reply #23 on:** May 08, 2013, 12:57 »

well my method is pretty simple, as i don't do this as a full time job, so i have to simplify things.
basically i have 3 folders at the begining:

- new photos (basically everything new, i only create subfolders to people, because of model releases) i don't keep raw files after editing is done. i don't plan to re-edit if file is rejected, instead i make new ones, your photography skills are always improving anyway.

- tag (after editing files move here, i insert tags to each file and save. i use photomechanic)

- upload (after tagging files they move and keep on pilling here. after i start uploading i don't move new files to here, instead they keep pilling on the "tag" folder. i use filezilla but thinking to give "lightburner" a try. i tryed picworkflow but it is still too expensive for me.

after i finish upload to all agencies, about 12, i move the files to another one called microstock photos, i separate them by global categories like animals, nature, urban, transportation, no sub-folders like "ants" or "rivers", i'm pretty bored at sub-dividing them on the microsites, so i simplify the process on my hardrive.

i'm now experimenting new agencies, upload a pretty bulky and diverse batch and watch for a year, if it reaches the $100 mark, i keep uploading, but if not, i forget it and check once in a while.

my workflow is faster if i concentrate on better selling agencies, because is best to increase my portfolio to 1000 a year on shutterstock then spending 20h a week on smaller sites.

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Author Topic: A growing mess, what's your filing system? (Read 5725 times)

33ft

Poncke

bddigitalimages

Pinocchio

stockastic

33ft

33ft

Jo Ann Snover

Pinocchio

Pinocchio

heywoody

click_click

StanRohrer

sc

cascoly

33ft

33ft

dbvirago

MichaelJayFoto

fotografer

Pauws99

33ft

cascoly

membio

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