Rainy Days Image Sorting

[kenpossum]

Gord once advised me not to get behind in sorting out your bird photos as once you get behind, it is very difficult to get caught up. It seems like a good idea to make use of these rainy days to do just that. I will start this discussion by going over the organizing process I use for my bird photos, and invite all of you to tell us how you organize as well.

I start by labeling my files as I download them from my camera's memory card to my computer with the following sample batch file identification ie. BC Birds, 0115 Sardis Park. This each photo is labelled by topic, date and location which helps keep track of it later on. As I record my images in both RAW/NEF and JPEG FINE the downloaded file is often quite large, so I immediately transfer it to a large terrabyte external hard drive.

First sort is to eliminate any fuzzy images or any image that is obviously not meant to be kept ie. exposure and focus tests.

Second sort is to go through and remove and duplicate images. At the same time, I put each image into a file named for each bird species. I temporarily keep the less than perfect images of a bird if it may have identification information.

These files are then added to other files on the drive for that same bird species.

When I have time, I go through these files keeping only the best by replacing early shots with any that show improvement.

The files are now ready for individual images to be selected for reframing, downsizing, adjusted for exposure and contrast, cloning out unwanted detail etc. The bird species name is added to the image title and the dpi or image size.

Any RAW/NEF images that I know I will not be working with in post-processing software I also delete to clean up memory space on the external drive. I always keep the original JPEG of each image.

Finally, the entire huge BC Bird file is dated and copied to a second external drive for safe storage

That is basically what I do. How about you?

[Chris]

It is fantastic to keep up with sorting through ones pictures, especially since most people take more pictres with digital cameras than they did with film. Personally, I try to keep up with my sorting but I don't have time to. However, this winter break I went through all of my pcitures and deleted the ones I didn't like ie blurry, test shot, bird flew away.

I have not deleted duplicate shots. I thought about this, but I figured I would keep all of my good pictures. I always worry that I will delete the best picture of that bird for some reason.

If I could, I would like to organize my pictures into folders of each species with all of my decent shots of that species in the species folder (if that makes any sense). For instance, all of my Song Sparrow pictures that I like would go into a 'Song Sparrow" folder. I would also like to put pictures of birds and other animals into folders of location. To illustrate, I would put all of my good shots that I took at Cheam Wetlands into a "Cheam Wetlands" folder.

One thing Ken that you touched on, which I completely agree with, is making sure one has a backup of their pictures. I have my pictures on my computer and an external hard drive. I make sure my pictures are in at least two places so if my computer crashes then I have them on my external hard drive.

[kenpossum]

Thanks Chris, and your species folders makes perfect sense. (That is what I do as well.) I have a hard time deleting a perfectly good picture as well (duplicate) so don't feel bad.

One comment on back-ups. I USED to backup my best images on a CD or DVD. Don't. They will eventually degrade and all data will be lost. External hard drives are best, as long as they are used for storage. That operating internal hard drive that serves a dual purpose of running your computer and data storage will eventually crash. Count on it.

One other tip re: your memory cards used to store your images in your camera. After deleting your images always reformat the card. If you do not, and simply delete all the time, the memory card will eventually fail. Ken Pugh

[Gord]

Ken, good reminder to reformat your card. Speaking for myself, I often forget.

I sort by species as well, then inside each species folder, I break it down further (male, female, juvenile breeding, nonbreeding and so forth). Same for mammals, insects and scenery. Insects are usually fairly simple to sort, but with scenery, I break it down to time of year.

One other thought I have in deleting is that even if the bird is not posing nicely, it might be displaying good fieldmarks. For example, I have some of a Harlan's Hawk that while it wont see any time on the wall as a calendar, it shows the tail pattern very nicely. It will come in handy when doing a species account for it and photos are needed to point out the finer details.

Like Chris, I hesitate to delete shots unless out of focus or are just of an empty branch (I can photograph a branch at any time should I find the need).

[oldfulica]

Good memory advice Ken. I didn't know that just deleting would degrade the card. I format my card every time I use it as a means of deleting the images. On taking pictures of the Northern Hawk Owl I inadvertently deleted a picture, in the field, I thought was very good. I was so annoyed I didn't format but took the card to London Drugs to see if they could recover it. They said it was possible but would have to recover every image on the card. Every image was included in the $25 fee (approximate) up to 100 images. I took a chance and had the images recovered. Luckily only about 50 images were on the card and none of them were any good including the hawk Owl. Another example of deleting images in the field was a shot of a Western Grebe I took. On my camera screen it looked like 6 others I had taken and I was about to delete it when I saw something odd. I saved it and when I put it on the computer I saw a perfectly focused Eel Fish hanging from its' mouth. Live and learn; don't delete images until you get home.

[kenpossum]

Excellent advice Len. I sometimes do delete images on the card while it is still in the camera, but I do that at home before I download. During that process I enlarge each image to check if there is something that should be saved. The enlarging process for me is quicker in the camera than on the computer. I have deleted a good image by mistake, so now I am extra careful not to have too fast a 'delete finger'.

The reason for reformatting the card before each job is that when you delete, 100% of the image is not deleted. A very small bit of image residue remains, and over time this residue builds up like clogged arteries or old plumbing. Eventually a card failure occurs.

[Gord]

Len, good tip on not deleting in the field.

Also, next time save $25 as I can do it for you (as well as recover deleted things from thumb drives, hard drives etc). Got a nifty little program, that once it's figured out, does a good job of recovering things lost through deletion and even from a format.

[oldfulica]

Jan 16, 2011 16:51:17 GMT -8 Gord said:

Len, good tip on not deleting in the field.

Also, next time save $25 as I can do it for you (as well as recover deleted things from thumb drives, hard drives etc). Got a nifty little program, that once it's figured out, does a good job of recovering things lost through deletion and even from a format.

Thanks for the offer Gord.