Keep it simple (folder structure)

[fotojensen]

I do a lot of teaching in Lightroom for others here in Norway.
And i want to share a great structure for organizing your images.
Use one top folder for each year, and 12 sub folders, one for each month.
I use a method i called the jensen method, it works like this, you ad a sub folder in the month your in. so for example if i took some images in January 2''9 i would add a subfolder named something simular to the images i took that day. It would look like this...

Pictures 2''9
Raw-'1
winterimages
Raw-'2
Raw-'3

The folder winterimages is temporary, and i ad temporary folders like this from every trip i make, i make them in a subfolder inside the month i took the images. Afterwords i clean up and delete the images i dont need, and delete the temporary folder. Before i delete the folder i move the images up in the subfolder Raw-'1. I like to rename my images like this '9'1-'''1 '9'1-'''2 and so on.
'9 is for 2''9 '1 is for january and then a running number.

This is a simpel and easy way to organize your images.
How to find the images? Thats easy i do that with keyword, i cant see that there is any way around this.
And Lightroom make this workflow easy for me by adding every singel images into one collection called "all photographs"
I have 92 ''' images here, and it works great to search for my images!

By the way i keep my developed images stackt with the original raw file, in that way i have my files kept together.

And i use smart collections and regular collections to organize my pictures for prints, lectures, pictures for my clients and so on.

i hope some of you can find some inspiration here, tomorrow starts a new year it could be a good day to start

Happy new year to you all!!

Kai Jensen

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Excellent advise Kai!

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Well stated Kai, I use a very similar method. This screen shot shows my ballooning catalog for this year.

 

[fotojensen]

Hi Geoff, i see that you have figured out the same as i did. I have done it like this for almost 1' years. And when i started to use Lightroom two months ago, i saw right away that Lightroom was built for me, and my work flow. I was so happy when i discovered this, Capture One and Fotostation (the programs i used before) was deleted and removed from my computer. Today it is Lightroom all the way for me!
By the way, this forum is great!

Kai Jensen

 

[Marc Fairorth]

Kai -- thanks for sharing. I just posted a question about how I can generate this exact folder organization automatically by LR when importing images. You don't mention in your post how you handle the actual import process -- would you care to share that part of your workflow with me?

Specifically, how do I get LR to create/import images into folders named 2''8-1', 2''8-11, etc.

Thanks -- Marc

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Kai -- thanks for sharing. I just posted a question about how I can generate this exact folder organization automatically by LR when importing images. You don't mention in your post how you handle the actual import process -- would you care to share that part of your workflow with me?

Specifically, how do I get LR to create/import images into folders named 2''8-1', 2''8-11, etc.

Thanks -- Marc

Marc, I set up my structure at the start with the OS. Yesterday I created a 2''9 Images folder and inside that created 2''9-'1, 2''9-'2, etc.
When importing files from the card I then select the appropriate month to import with and use LR to create the day folders i.e. 2''9-'1-'1.

 

[fotojensen]

Hello Mark, i add the folders for one year in Lightroom. Like i have described, Then you use the import function in Lightroom and point to the month you are in, and add the sub folder. Type a name of the subfolder, and thats it!
Next time you use the import in Lightroom it will be pointing to that month you used earlier, so all you have to do is adding the name off the subfolder. When its time for a new month you point at that month and add a subfolder.
This i easy and perfect, i cant see that i can get easear than this