Awesome.  Thanks to you both for that.  I'd been suspecting that the separation of the catalogs was a no-no, so it's nice to hear your thoughts on the matter.

-Greg

Anyone?

Hi, folks.  I seem to recall Peter saying something about how it's a good idea to separate personal and professional files, but I'm starting to think that I should just keep ALL images in a single root-directory folder.  How do you all handle it?  Clients in one folder and pictures of the family dog in another?  But what if the family dog becomes a licensed image, etc.?

Thanks,
Greg

Thanks, Roelof.  I'd tried Bucketeer but had misunderstood its purpose.  Thanks for the clarification.  I'll try it again.

-Greg

I'm getting close to finishing sorting through 130k files on my system and now need to be able to create buckets into which I can place said files.  But, while I can use several different programs to create the folders, I can't seem to find any software that will take X number of files until reaching a predetermined maximum size (say, 25 gigs for a Blu-Ray bucket) and then place them in those folders.

Anyone know of a program for this?

Thanks,
Greg

Hi, folks.

Is anyone having issues with proper noun keywording (e.g., John Doe, Jane Doe, et al)?  I find that in order to keep a good hierarchical keyword structure, I want to sort my people names by surname rather than given name, but this presents the problem that keyword searches are not usually done like this: "Doe, John" or even "Doe John" (omitting the comma for software (i.e., Bridge) reasons).  Ideally, I'd just list all proper nouns with the surname first, followed by an underscore, then the given name: "Doe_John."  But, again, I don't think that this represents a search-worthy term.  Can I even use underscores in keywords?

Is there some cool trick to keywording people's names that I'm missing?

Thanks,
Greg

Dan,

Thanks for the reply.  After reading your first sentence, I realized how silly I was to forget something that simple.  Sometimes, my ignorance never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks again,
Greg

John,

Thanks for the reply.  You summed it up: I can rely on searches with keywords and meta-.  I'd been wondering whether or not folks were using another means of searching for master/derivative files.  At first glance, it just seemed intuitive to keep them together.

Thanks again,
Greg

Hi, gang.

I may have missed this part in Peter's book, but when I'm creating buckets for my RAW files (e.g., RAWBLU) and buckets for my derivative files (e.g., BLUDRV) how do I sync them up such that the derivative file whose master exists in RAWBLU042 can be found in BLUDRV0042?  Because it seems really inefficient for me to go looking for a file to match a master in one folder (RAWBLU042) if the derivative is placed in a folder with a different numeric value (BLUDRV078).

Which brings me to this: Should I have both a Master_Files folder and a Derivative_Files folder located inside each bucket such that within the folders inside BUCKET0042 I can find both the specific master and the derivative files?

I'm thinking that I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how buckets work.  Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Greg

Roger,

Thanks for the clarification.  I understand a bit of what you're saying, but I still don't quite get why I'd want to make a tracklog rather than just record the GPS data when I press the shutter button.  Is a tracklog somehow supposed to alleviate the problems of using GPS indoors or in places where GPS reception is spotty?  If so, why can't I just go back in and fill in the locations by memory with some other software (e.g., Geosetter)?  I mean, if I'm going to have to do post-production work either way, what's the difference?

The only situation I can imagine in which tracklogging might help is if I forget where I took my shots.  But I'm pretty sure I can recall to within a quarter-mile the location of every image I've taken within the last ten years (partially because I keyword the location into the metadata (the only exception is when I'm way out in the boonies and I'll have to look at a map and ask myself, "Was I on that ridge, or that one?")).  I'll admit, though, that I haven't really tried.   

So, from my newbie-ish point of view, it seems like it's far better NOT to use tracklogging just because the data it provides is not something that can be compiled in the camera at the time of the shot.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks again,
Greg

Hi, Tim.

I'm by no means an expert, and may be rebutted rather vigorously by folks posting later, but...

I use multiple cameras and differentiate everything simply by synchronizing all their clocks, then cataloging the images according to their time stamp.  In cataloging, I re-title each image with its date/time, then the camera's serial number, then a good guess as to the shutter count.


*Thus, an example image from Camera One is titled "020317_120034_005007_00718."
(The Camera-One image was taken on March 17, 2002 by camera serial number 005007.)

*An image from Camera Two is titled "021219_153238_101504_00281."
(The Camera-Two image was taken on December 19, 2002 by camera serial number 101504.)


I've found that this naming convention allows me to sort very easily.

Hope that helps.

-Greg

Thanks, Peter.  That makes sense.  I'm going to ruminate a bit on all this.

-Greg

Thanks, Dick!

-Greg

Thanks, Peter and Roger.  Any chance either of you has a link to share about reading more on tracklogs?  I don't quite understand the concept and would love to read up on it.  I've Googled the term but can't find anything that really tells me what it is, only how to do it. I surmise from your replies and what very little I've seen on the 'net that it's some method by which to track the spatial movement of my camera throughout the journey of my shooting session.  But why would I want to do this?  Wouldn't I simply want to record where I am when I press the shutter button?  Does it really matter where I was before and after I pressed the shutter button?

I'm afraid I'm overdue for some education on the matter.  Apologies for the ignorance.

-Greg

Thanks, Peter.  I'll give it a try.

-Greg