I can’t stress enough the importance of an organised photo filing system.
It’s best to file properly from day one. Start the way you mean to go on. Otherwise, it’s like trying to process a year’s worth of receipts for your tax return in one go.
Filing properly means using the name of events and relevant keywords in your file names and metadata – not just blooming dates. It works a treat. Attach keywords to the pictures on your website. If people search Google for ‘Royal International Air Tattoo‘ photos, for example, and your image is tagged with ‘Royal International Air Tattoo’ you’ve got a better chance of being found.
The other day, I had to retrieve an image for a blog I’m writing on fashion photography. I knew exactly which picture I needed to illustrate that post, but if I hadn’t tagged that image with Bickleigh Castle, Devon Life, Medieval Theme and whatever other keywords I could think of at that time, then I wouldn’t have been able to find it – at least not easily. Memory fades. After ten or twenty years, I defy anyone to remember what date a particular shot has been taken on. I could remember the client, so had I not filed the image properly, I would have to go through all the client’s files. I’ve been working with the client for at least ten years, so I would have had to have gone through the whole of Devon Life 2018 – but was it 2018? It might not have been. It could have been 2019 or 2021. I could take hours trying to find that file, couldn’t I?
It’s the same with football. You will need to make the effort to get the information you need, because half the time the client won’t give you the team names, name of the cup, etc. unless you ask. Somebody might come up to me tomorrow and ask, “Have you got any pictures from the Graddon Vending final from 2014. Now my boy’s grown up, I want to get some photos of him for his 21st birthday.” If I’ve just got those pictures filed under Devon FA, forget it! But if I’ve got it filed under Devon FA Cup Finals 2014, sub-section name of the cup final, sub-section presentations, etc. then I can lay my hands on those without thinking. Tag them with the team name and even the colours if you’ve got time.
PRO FILING TIP
If you get a job cancelled on you, rather than taking the day off, sit down, do some research and tag some old files.
So, you must get yourself a decent filing workflow. Because, ten years down the line you will have real problems finding stuff. Trust me. I started off the wrong way, and that put me way behind on filing.
If you’ve got a good filing system, then you’ve only got one problem, and that’s remembering what hard drive the pictures are on. Once you’ve filled so many hard drives, you won’t have a clue where they are, so you’ve got to label your hard drives too: one, two or three for each year as you need.
I’ve also got a folder of DVDs that I’ve labeled from one to 200, together with a notebook where I’ve written down whatever’s on DVD 1, DVD 2, DVD 3, etc. So, as long as I keep putting them back in the same order (note to self!), I’m going to find what I need easily. If I want to find Mid-Devon Advertiser in 2008, I’ll go to DVD 147 or whatever. That was in the days of six megapixel cameras, when file sizes were tiny, and you could get thousands of images on to a DVD. Now, it’s hard drives that can store terabytes upon terabytes of data.
PRO FILING TIPS
- Use Adobe Bridge or Adobe Lightroom to select multiple images at once and tag them as a batch.
- If you don’t have Bridge or Lightroom, and you don’t have the time to label each image individually, just tag the first image from each series. Then when you are searching for a keyword on your hard drive, that image will come up. You can then find the entire series.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you have all your work from 2021 on one 10TB hard drive and it packs in, you’ve lost all your work from 2021! But if you’ve got it on five 2TB hard drives or ten 1TB hard drives, then at least you’ve still got most of your work from 2021 if one hard drive fails.
- When doing weddings, back up as often as possible. Use dual slot cameras, where you put two memory cards in the camera at once. It will shoot on one, and in the background it will back up on another. So, essentially you have two copies of the file. If one card goes down, or you lose one, you’ve still got the other one. As soon as you get a chance (e.g. when the wedding party sits down for their meal), back up to your computer to make a third copy. Then, if your camera gets nicked and your laptop doesn’t, at least that bride’s happy – you haven’t upset anyone.
Hard drive or cloud storage – what’s best?
Personally I would rather use hard drives and labels, but go with what you suits you.
It depends on how hard you are prepared to work to access your files. If they are in the cloud, you can access them from anywhere by logging in to your system. That might be important if you’re a hard-skinned hack, paparazzo or in another industry where the image that gets to the editor first will be used. If you’re up against 500 other photographers, using the cloud can make all the difference.
Imagine we’re both together at an event, but you were on the cloud, and I was using hard drives. An editor contacts us wanting to go to press within five minutes. It might take me an hour to get back to the office before I could submit something. You could send the pictures straight away, so you’ve got the money.
If you don’t need, or can’t be bothered with all that rubbish, and just want to get home, sit at your desk and process everything properly, then use hard drives. I have my own workflow that suits me. I come in, switch the computers on, come downstairs and put the kettle on. By the time I’ve made the brew, the computers have logged themselves on. I plug the cards in to transfer and drink my brew. By the time I’ve drunk my brew, my cards have transferred and I can get stuck in. You find a workflow that works for you.
With the cloud, there’s also the fact that other people could possibly get to your images. If you’ve got confidential images on there, somebody could hack that and get into it. Do you like that idea? Or would you rather have them on a hard drive, so that if it’s in a locked drawer, in your desk, in your office, you know that the only person who has access to that is you. If you prefer that peace of mind, use hard drives.
Then there’s the cost. The more storage you want on the cloud, the more you’ve got to pay. So, you’ve got to weigh it up. What trade are you actually going to be in? Is it really important to use the cloud? Or is it more cost-effective to use hard drives?
Have a burning photography question you would like Al to write about in his next blog post? Email info@miraclepr.com with your request.