File organization etc.
Hi! Happy new year! 🙂
Since I suddenly find my self having multiple cameras that I use in parallel, I'm feel I need to reevaluate how I organize my pictures. I'm not a big fan of post and I have a huge backlog of pictures to go through. I take photos mostly for myself - logged out from social media ~5 years ago because it doesn't work well with my mental health. Still watching youtube though 😉 But only watching, no interaction. I can go with old fashioned forums. Anyway, getting out of topic.
I do very little post editing, often just some minor adjustment of contrast and color. The free viewer FastStone have been sufficient for me. Lightroom have felt like too big and advanced, and also expensive in the long run with it's monthly fee considering my limited usage. However, with multiple cameras and filesystem that starting to be messy, I need to find better method and/or software. For instance the possibility to view photo takes between two dates, that are stored in several different folders (from different cameras). Or view a certain lens etc. Also I'm hoping to convert a camera to full spectrum later this year, and then I probably need some better software. I'm intrigued by AcdSee because nostalgia, one-time-pay and the underdog factor 🙂
So, my question is how do you organize your files and folders? After date, year, camera? And what software do you use (guessing 95% lightroom here)? Different for different tasks?
I use digiKam (free and open source) it has a viewer and editor and works with RAW and it can group RAW and JPG so you don't have to deal with 2 files.
It has an advanced search function that does all the expected things like search by date, lenses, camera model etc.
I mostly use digiKam to sort out and delete. I do not like editing much but it has all the basic stuff when I need it.
Thanks! Interesting, I will check it out. Do you use it on Linux or other? I used to have my own personal computer running Linux, but doesn't anymore.
Quote from Jonatan L on January 6, 2025, 1:19 pmThanks! Interesting, I will check it out. Do you use it on Linux or other? I used to have my own personal computer running Linux, but doesn't anymore.
I use it on windows but it should not matter, it's the same on every OS.
Thought I can post this here. Emily, who been on podcast with James, just released a video on the topic of Lightroom alternatives (completely free or pay-once): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NsIRKd24JA&ab
December and January have been intense, but starting next week I'm going to have more free time and I'm planning on starting to look into the free alternatives. Going to install digiKam as recommended above, and RawTherapee which seemed interesting from Emilys video.
Quote from Jonatan L on January 4, 2025, 8:49 amSo, my question is how do you organize your files and folders? After date, year, camera? And what software do you use (guessing 95% lightroom here)? Different for different tasks?
Camera Model > year > date+possible descriptive phrase.
I use Adobe Camera Raw 98% of the time. The other 2%, you guessed it, Frank Stallone.
No wait, I mean Adobe Photoshop.
