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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Software => Topic started by: alexa_adrian2001 on November 23, 2013, 15:46

Title: Organizing your albums and backup methods
Post by: alexa_adrian2001 on November 23, 2013, 15:46
Hi there,
I am looking for methods of organizing my images and how to backup. For this please tell me what methods did you chosen?
How to you know which images you upload on agency X, Y, ... if they were accepted or not.
Then when you back up images do you keen raws too? Regarding raws: i understood and have seen that is not so easy to backup a raw file. The changes are saved by lightroom in a separate folder. So in case you want to move a raw on a backup disk what do you do? I found out that is complicated.
I am sure that these questions are somewhere on forum but please be patient with me.

As thinks I have tried this is one: there is AcdSee software that lets you create categories and then I created ShutterStock -> Accepted; ShutterStock - Rejected and so on. The tags are also saved by AcdSee in another folder on Windows. When you reinstall windows - that is another challenge to restore tags :| I am curious how do you proceed. For those that produce thousands of files you must have very good methods :)
Title: Re: Organizing your albums and backup methods
Post by: Snufkin on November 23, 2013, 19:09
I have a 4TB HDD where all my photos and related files live. This drive is named "PHOTO".

I backup this drive in two ways:
1. External USB enclosure which holds 8 disks. My other HDDs are also backup up to other HDDs in this device.
2. My computer case has an open slot for HDDs accepting 3.5 and 2.5 HDDs. Basically I can use internal SATA disks as you would use floppy disks, they are hot-swappable.

Backup software: I use SyncToy and SyncBackFree and simply mirror the PC drives onto backup drives.
Some people will say there are more sophisticated ways than mirroring but I am afraid that the backup file might go corrupt at some point. With my method I have (at least in theory) exact copies of my drive.

Of course I back up the raw files and Ligtroom catalogues. They are most important.
Folders and file management:
I use Lightroom to manage RAWs, TIFFs, PSDs only with basic keywords allowing me to find the photos quickly.
I manage JPGs in AdobeBridge using a "batch system", e.g. BATCH 2013-01. Each agency has a separate folder and the BATCH folders are pasted into Agency Folders. I upload them immediately. This way I know which batch has been uploaded to a given agency. After some time I delete the jpg files from agency folders leaving empty folders to save space while keeping track and they stay only in one master folder e.g. BATCHES - 2013.
I don't care if an agency rejects a photo and usually don't go back to it. Most are accepted anyway.

I am thinking about renting a small bank safe and keeping some back up drives there. It is recommended to keep at least one backup offsite. Bank safes are much cheaper than online storage but you have to make a trip to the bank from time to time.

Regarding raws: i understood and have seen that is not so easy to backup a raw file. The changes are saved by lightroom in a separate folder. So in case you want to move a raw on a backup disk what do you do? I found out that is complicated.

No, the changes are stored in the lightroom catalogue file. You just need the RAW files (keeping the original folder structure) and the LR catalogue file to recreate your photo library on a new drive or machine. Just write down the partition letters where the raws are stored. When you move your stuff to a new drive just assign the same letter to the new partition (e.g. Start > Computer > Manage > Disk Management). I've done it several times, it's painless. You  don't need to care about preview files, they can be recreated automatically.
Title: Re: Organizing your albums and backup methods
Post by: alexa_adrian2001 on November 26, 2013, 15:56
Thank you very much for you reply. It helped me a lot. In the last days I have watched some tutorials on adobe site. I might say that now I have a better idea.
For the moment I didn't took care very much about backups. I know I have to do it. But I have some albums which I want to finish processing and after I decide my file structure/organization I can make  a proper backup.

This is what I thought for the moment. I will use only one catalog in LR, where I will import all my raws. At this point I am not sure how to structure on drive. I suppose I should put all folders in one main folder. But I am very sure I want to group them by destinations. So: Firenze, Pisa, Rome, Rome by summer of 2013,... But then the jpg's generates will get into each folder and 'Untitled Export' folder. Would that be OK?

Then I think that in order to keep record of images that I uploaded to a certain agency I will have to create Collections. Smart collections would be perfect if I could set for each photo a category. But I don't see such an option. In this way I wont need to copy jpgs in folders for each agency as you said you do.

After all if I learn how to backup a catalog and restore it I am done and will stay relax :)