Any organization or team can benefit from having photos. Managing these files can feel overwhelming if you’re part of a creative or product photography team.
This guide will show you how to organize your photos so that they are never lost again.
We’ll cover the software you’ll require, the folder types you can create, and a method of creating backups so your files never get too far from you.
We need to know why we are organizing our files and what they will be used for before we can create folders.
Look into questions like:
- Where will these images be used?
- Who else can access this system?
- How often will files be added to the site?
- How often can I access the photos?
It is essential to ask yourself these questions before organizing photos. These questions will give you a clearer idea of what your file system should look like.
Delete Junk Files
Some photos we would like to keep forever. There are also photos for which it is not worth investing time or resources.
Images that are out of focus or duplicates, dark images, or photos that have been overexposed.
To organize your files, ensure you have nothing to sort out.
As a last step, delete all the files you don’t need before you start.
You can also move the files to the recycle bin rather than permanently deleting them to be safe. After cleaning your folders, head to the recycle bin and ensure nothing significant has been removed.
Restore it if you can. If you don’t find anything, remove it and continue to the next step.
Create folders, subfolders, and files.
Here is where the fun begins. You know that creating a folder structure will allow you to organize and save your photos in an organized manner.
It is still essential to understand how subfolders and folders are created.
It would be best to create your primary folders based on the Year first.
It doesn’t matter if you want to use the photo for personal or professional purposes. The Year that you capture the image is a great place to start.
You’ll need to decide how often you want to add files.
It can be used daily in professional cases. Your folder paths could look like this:
It is best to keep paths short for personal use, as fewer files exist, and you don’t have to differentiate them.
This sub-folder within the Months folder or Days folder will allow you to find the image quickly by any team member.
Note that you can also use the same folder order across all systems to organize your photos. Your files will be saved whether on your local drive or in the Cloud.
Separate Raw and Processed
Professionals are heavily involved in photo editing. RAW files must be stored safely even after photos have been edited.
You understand if you’re an eCommerce business or a studio that saves RAW files, you can have original images at your fingertips and edit them as you wish.
Before you send your photos to retouching services and photo editing companies, save your RAW files in a separate folder.
How you organize your photos will depend on your requirements and how often you add files and access them.
Create a file-renaming system.
The renaming of files is, once again, one of the most crucial processes for organizing photos and making them easily accessible. It will keep your files in the correct order and make it easy to find them with a search.
There is no set rule for how your renaming scheme should look. You only need to create a naming system you can follow and understand for all of your images.
You can refer to the SKU Renaming System.
We use three to four words to describe each category and then arrange them in order of importance.