File management tips

273K

I'm looking for advice on methods for sorting photos.

I'm usually dealing with a couple of hundred or so jpeg   raw files at a time. My method is to first screen the jpeg images deleting the rejects as I go. Then I match the remaining jpegs to the raw files and delete the rest of the raw files. Then edit/backup/etc.

The process of matching and deleting the raw files is quite tedious though. I mainly just use the sort function of the file browser then go through manually selecting and deleting all the raw files without a corresponding jpeg. I've used the cmd line on occasion, but it's not much better.

Anyone have any suggestions of better or even different ways to go about this?

cosmicma

do you need the jpg's if your processing the raws ?

if not it might be an idea to do away with the jpg's and just shoot raw
more room on the card and only one set of images to look through and process

shotokan101

AllDup - Find and Delete Duplicate Files

snerkler

First of all decide whether you need both file types as suggested. I shoot RAW and jpeg just so I have a backup for worst case scenario, but only import the RAW.

What software do you use? I use Lightroom and I import all to Lightroom then as you go through them you can just press the 'x' key to mark them as rejected. When you've finished going through them all you can then go to photo in the menu bar > remove rejected photos and then you get the choice to remove them from the computer completely (delete from disk) or to just delete them from the LR library.

shotokan101

Don't you mean "used to" ?  

273K

Well, I find the jpeg's easier to initially sift through, the files are smaller so can load, scroll through, delete them quicker. I haven't found a program that can load and scroll through raw files quickly enough not to frustrate me.

That could work, provided it does what I want (I want to keep the duplicate files, and delete the others).

Well, even if working only with raw files, I export the final image to jpeg, right, maybe several times to compare the effect of different settings? Also sometimes I'm happy with the sooc jpeg so don't need to do anything with the raw but still want to keep it just in case. When you say you only import the raw do you mean you keep the files on the memory card? Then do you keep the card as a backup and use a new one each time it's full?

I used Picasa when I used to shoot jpeg only which was great cos it had the same kind of reject feature you describe. Now I use Fuji's own Raw File Converter, mainly because it has the Fuji 'special features', such as the film simulation modes, otherwise it's not the most easy to use software, particularly for this 'sorting' activity. Plus google retired Picasa. The cost puts me off Lightroom, and other paid options, (not saying it's not good, just not worth it for the amount I'd use it), plus it has a reputation for not being great with Fuji files.

I think a lightweight jpeg viewer that has a "favourite/reject" feature to speed up initial sorting, plus a duplicate file manager like mentioned above might work for me.

cosmicma

for a lightweight jpeg / raw viewer i use a program called honeyview
Honeyview · Free Image Viewer · Download & Features

it's worth a look

273K

thanks, I currently use jpegview which is pretty good, but I'll give that one a try too.

snerkler

I tend to import RAW only onto the computer and then go through the process I outlined above. JPEGs are kept on the SD card but once I know the RAWs aren't corrupt I delete the jpegs from the card once it's full. All kept RAW files are then offloaded onto two external drives once I've finished processing them.

Loading RAW into Lightroom can take time (especially if building 1:1 previews) but most of the time I'll just let the import finish before starting to sift through, after which I can flick from one image to the next very quickly (I guess this will depend on your RAM and CPU etc).

I'm not saying this is the best way, or the way everyone should do it, but it works for me. Preview on Mac used to be a quick way to sift through RAWs, but ever since OS Mavericks it's been slow with RAW. I used to use jpegs from time to time as I thought they were OK, but for every camera I've had I've managed to get better (to my taste) results working from RAW. I have presets that I've created (eg D850 standard, EM1 Standard etc) and set one of these presets on import. This way the majority of adjustments have been done before I even start so in a way it's just like using jpegs, but on steroids

newbie1

How many keepers are you expecting from each shoot?

In my case I have a similar challenge for events.  My approach is to get the jpegs as good as possible in camera to avoid the need for any edits of the raw versions.  I’ve been using photomechanic for the first selection because it’s been much quicker than Lightroom for that, then import only raws that need edt to Lightroom.