Managing and storing photos

[slopemodified]

Hello there,

I’d like some help with managing photos on the computer. I take photos for my LUG, and upload them to the blog, brickshelf and social media. The problem I’m having is that I find it very time consuming - getting photos off my camera, sorting through them and uploading to multiple platforms. I use a Mac and I’m not a fan of how the Photos program manages all of it’s photos in a database, and how I can’t resize photos, only crop them. So far, I’ve just been copying the photos to my computer and doing most of the edits in Preview. Advanced stuff I can use Photoshop for. If you know of an alternative to Photoshop, please let me know!

Can you recommend a program for managing photos? I have heard that Adobe Lightroom is a good program for managing photos, does anyone recommend it? If there's a decent program that works on Windows, let me know too, I can always switch to the PC.

Or if you don’t use a program, do you just keep them in folders on your computer?

I’d also like input on how you store your photos - on your computer or on a separate storage device? Do you keep the originals and edited photos?

I create separate photos for the different places I upload to (i.e. a folder for brickshelf, one for flickr, etc) since I keep my photo sizes to a minimum and to make uploading in batches easier.

Thanks!

[makoy]

I use Mac. I also use Windows. Also Linux... but mostly Mac. So, my opinion is not biased towards against any OS as I mainly use what works for me. Having said that, I can recommend you Lightroom because its workflow can be customised whether you are used to folder-based or catalogue-based management of pictures.

What I also like about Lightroom is that if you fully utilise its catalog features you can easily migrate your raw files from one computer to another without losing the meta data you applied in each photos (including the processing you have already done in them).

I have practically 2 back-up system. I have my local drive, then I would a separate drive and also cloud back-up. That way I will not worry about losing any pictures in case catastrophic failure happen in my system.

Also, try looking for a workflow that suits you to quickly capture all pictures and apply a style to your pictures so that you don't have to edit and manage them. I shoot RAW and I also don't have time to fiddle in every image. Nowadays people wants immediate output in Instagram so it would be best to capture your pictures right the first time and do minimal editing. Then at the time of post processing you just to apply your signature style and toning which is just a click of a button away to all images.

Hope this helps.

[slopemodified]

Thanks makoy for your advice, very helpful.

[Beard]

I also recommend Lightroom. It's a very versatile program and can handle a massive amount of photos. I use Lightroom for editing the photos, unless I need to do some actual image manipulation. Then I turn to Photoshop.

I tether or download from camera to my rMBP and usually edit on the internal SSD. Then I move the photos (still working inside Lightroom catalog) to a 2.5" USB3 drive where I can continue editing and store the photos. I keep the last few months' work on that drive for easy access. If I need to work on photos beyond the last few months, I download the originals from the cloud. I use the unlimited Amazon Cloud service, where I upload everything as soon as I come home from the shoot. Remember also to back up the catalog file(s)!

And also, think about the file format. I'm using dng with embedded raw and jpeg. I hope it will be readable long after Adobe or any other company has been bought, turned around and sold twice over.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Beard