How to manage photo libraries?

[alanymarce]

We have (through ignorance, lack of holistic planning, and Apple's decision to abandon Aperture) accumulated multiple libraries of photos, scattered between several laptop hard drives and several external hard drives, on two different platforms (older photos on Aperture and newer photos on Lightroom), with back-up in the cloud (which is glacial in uploading, making back up of a new collection of 1000s of photos after a trip a very time-consuming process).

We need an integrated approach to managing photos, which ideally would allow the following:

1) Load photos from camera memory cards to offline storage in the field - anything up to 1000 photos per day from 2 cameras (we carry a laptop for photos on trips)
2) Upload photos from the "field storage laptop" or from the memory cards to "central" storage when back at home base
3) "Central Storage" with the capability to connect to any of the libraries from any laptop (ideally from anywhere)
4) Reliable remote back-up storage separate from our primary storage (so that if we lose everything at home we have access to the back-up libraries)

On trips we often go days with no cellular coverage, and longer without internet access.

The photos are now occupying 3+ TB.

What are others doing to manage photos? Please suggest how we could achieve these objectives.

Thanks in advance.

 

[nwoods]

My personal approach is based on time/age of photo. My image library is about the same size as yours. I have a network storage device that serves as the hub and final resting place for everything (https://www.lacie.com/products/big/2big/). Everything is filed by Year and then Month and/or Occassion/Event.

On the road I carry a portable Seagate hard drive.

My current images reside on my laptop, (usually less than 200GB) are backed up to the portable drive, and sync'd to iCloud
My older images are only on the NAS, but backed up through a RAID array setup
Every year I purge the two year old images from the laptop. I can access them through the NAS when needed.

Every 5 years or so I upgrade the NAS and store the old unit at my parents house for some degree of offsite redundancy
Whenever the house is threatened by fire (I live in SoCal), I just grab the laptop and NAS box and toss 'em into the car.
My best images are hosted on SmugMug and I can always have them burn a copy when needed.

My son (@6footphoto on Instagram) shoots professionally, adds another step of uploading all his images and Lightroom catalogs to Google Images where he has an unlimited account (or used too?)

Photo below by LaCie, but is similar to my setup:

 

[alanymarce]

My personal approach is based on time/age of photo. My image library is about the same size as yours. I have a network storage device that serves as the hub and final resting place for everything (https://www.lacie.com/products/big/2big/). Everything is filed by Year and then Month and/or Occassion/Event.

On the road I carry a portable Seagate hard drive.

My current images reside on my laptop, (usually less than 200GB) are backed up to the portable drive, and sync'd to iCloud
My older images are only on the NAS, but backed up through a RAID array setup
Every year I purge the two year old images from the laptop. I can access them through the NAS when needed.

Every 5 years or so I upgrade the NAS and store the old unit at my parents house for some degree of offsite redundancy
Whenever the house is threatened by fire (I live in SoCal), I just grab the laptop and NAS box and toss 'em into the car.
My best images are hosted on SmugMug and I can always have them burn a copy when needed.

My son (@6footphoto on Instagram) shoots professionally, adds another step of uploading all his images and Lightroom catalogs to Google Images where he has an unlimited account (or used too?)

Photo below by LaCie, but is similar to my setup:

View attachment 643149

Many thanks for the advice! It looks as if this is more or less the direction we're going:

A hub/server to which we would have access from several laptops (thanks for the link to the one you use); a RAID back-up; an external HD with the laptop on the road.

I'll have a look at google images too.

Thanks again and stay well!

 

[Neil]

We have been touring South America for the last 3 years and storing Photos has become a real headache. Uploading them to the cloud just isnt practical when you are paying by the mb . I remember getting some wifi in Peru and doing a complete backup to my google drive. 24 hours a day for 8 days .

Se we have several hard drives to back up on. They are all identical in their contents. One is a working copy, One is a backup hidden in the vehicle and the third is a backup copy that goes everywhere with us when we go out.

It is a real problem

Neil

 

[nwoods]

Neil, do you need all those photos with you? Can you ship a drive to archive somewhere and just keep the more recent stuff with you?

 

[thebmrust]

This doesn’t address the physical storage, but look at PhotoMechanic. It’s made by CamerBits. It has a new library feature that can track images across storage devices.

The catch; you need to have keywords or metadata associated w/those images.

Bothe Lightroom and PhotoMechanic have the ability to apply metadata, PM has insane levels and detail including copyright, location, code replacement (this is one of PM’s strength, the other is nearly live previews for image selection).

 

[Joe917]

Store on laptop in folders by date.
Duplicate on hard drive.
Clear camera card.
Edit ruthlessly.
Import and edit in Lightroom.
BUP to portable HD

 

[WeLikeCamping]

I have a similar problem that I have been working through the last few months. Glad that I don't have 3 TB of images to deal with as it is a huge headache. Anyway, I break them down by region/location/activity/date and created a folder structure for this. For example, here is a path: Images/Camping/Mogollon Rim/BakerButte0718.

I also use a random folder to move images into so that I can sort them into my hierarchy. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction. And yes, I've probable spent around 50 hours so far. I think the key is discipline While on the road, I have a laptop that I can download the images to, and try to sort/edit them in the field.

I don't use cloud storage as I am so old-school that I only trust iron in the rack.

 

[Joe917]

The simplest naming system is date. Put it first and be consistent, you can add more information to the name afterwards if you want or better yet put the information into the metadata when you edit in Lightroom.

 

[alanymarce]

The simplest naming system is date. Put it first and be consistent, you can add more information to the name afterwards if you want or better yet put the information into the metadata when you edit in Lightroom.

Building on this, we maintain a diary in Excel (I know, terrible product, but it's convenient) and use it (among other things) to check the date for a given trip/location, which makes finding photos reasonably simple.

 

[WanderingBison]

Building on this, we maintain a diary in Excel (I know, terrible product, but it's convenient) and use it (among other things) to check the date for a given trip/location, which makes finding photos reasonably simple.

Have you considered using GPS coordinates/geocoding to find your photos based on location?

Im using an app called Geotag Photo 2 on my iPhone to record a GPS track which I can import into Lightroom and easily add the geocode information to my photos.

I can then locate photos by date (how I store the files), by keywords that I add during processing and by looking them up on a map that shows where each photo was shot.

I’m sure other applications allow you to add the geocode info so Lightroom isn’t required.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[geoffff]

Speaking of geotagging with GPS coordinates -- and I know I'm pretty nerdy here -- but I encode the lat/lon coordinates from EXIF into the filename so I can instantly search by location just by typing in the search box on the Windows file window.

I encode in [NS]#######[EW]####### format. For example, 47.6801, -122.3271 encodes as N0476801W1223271. Such as:

20171001-172148-P79CO-N0476801W1223271--New-Bicycle--Greenlake.jpg​

That way if I type the following into the Windows search box, it will list all my photos taken within 1km of 47.6801, -122.3271

filename:$<"N04768" filename:~="W12232"​

 

[Joe917]

Our folders are by year.
Each year folder contains 12 month folders.
Each month folder contains the days folders yyyy/mm/dd
Import this to Lightroom or any similar program.
Then In Lightroom (or similar) you can add geo tags (this can be done automatically for cameras with GPS) add any other metadata you wish "Chile, Patagonia,Penguin,wildlife, etc"
This will save you from a super complicated file system that will need renaming and reshuffling down the road.

 

[Willsfree]

Our folders are by year.
Each year folder contains 12 month folders.
Each month folder contains the days folders yyyy/mm/dd
Import this to Lightroom or any similar program.
Then In Lightroom (or similar) you can add geo tags (this can be done automatically for cameras with GPS) add any other metadata you wish "Chile, Patagonia,Penguin,wildlife, etc"
This will save you from a super complicated file system that will need renaming and reshuffling down the road.

This hierarchy organization of pictures is what I want to create for myself with 15 years of photos. Could you please show a specific example, such as: Year folder = 2021, Month folder = July, Day folder =2021.07.07, Photo name = ?
My windows will not allow me to use characters such as backslash as shown in your example.
How can I search the metadata in Windows? Or do I need to utilize a separate app?
Thank you for your help.

 

[Joe917]

Sorry the "/" was misleading. "-" is more appropriate
In the Pictures folder of Windows create "Year" folder names. 2021 etc.
In each "year" create 12 months. 2021-07 2021-08 2021-09 etc.
In each "month" create a day folder for each day you have pictures 2021-07-07 2021-07-19 2021-07-25 etc.
Same for Mac.
From here you need to go Lightroom or a similar program. I know Adobe is moving or has moved all their photo programs to subscription, which is not helpful for the casual or remote user. I am using a version of Lightroom that works off line.
In Lightroom you import the "day" folders. This shows Lightroom where the images are. You can edit and copy, add metadata create collections etc. within Lightroom. All editing and metadata is non destructive (except 'Delete"). The original images are untouched, Lightroom keeps track of all the adjustments you make to an image and applies them when you open the image. Once you add metadata you can use it to search.
Don't move or rename files in windows Lightroom will lose track of the image path. You can get Lightroom to find the path but it wastes time.
There are many good programs similar to Lightroom, some free, I am used to working with Lightroom for organizing and editing photos.
Whatever you decide to use, a simple folder system by date is the easiest simplest way. Use the metadata for everything else.
Windows will not read metadata to my knowledge.