Folder convention for RAW and jpeg

[Chris Bishop]

I only have one camera (today), I shoot 95% RAW, but occasionally at family gatherings etc I shoot jpeg for speed. This may change as I get better at RAW processing.
Question:
My buckests are sequential, as are my file names, and folders.
DVD_007       (Bucket)
  0987_1124     (Folder)
  1124_1245     (seqential folder)    Files maybe RAW maybe jpeg?       If this was placed elsewhere I could "lose it" and start panicking as to where it has gone.
It would be in the JPEG_002 bucket I wouldn't think of that in the panic

Does it matter that a folder in the system is full of jpegs and not RAW? I cannot see an issue, but DAM workflow indicates they should be in a different folder/bucket hierarchy.
12 months or more down the timeline I could be panicking as to where the missing folder is.
Chris Bishop
PS This isn't a RAW and jpeg combined shoot-my camera doesn't do that

[David Anderson]

Chris,
What need to be kept in separate bucket folders are originals and derivatives. The key reason is that originals are created in a strictly sequential manner, while derivatives are created in a semi-random manner sometimes years after the original. If they were mixed together then backup becomes a real pain, as explained in Peter Krogh's book.

As far as I am aware, it does not matter whether the originals are Raw, JPG or TIFF. They can all be mixed together. All that matters is that they are your original source files, kept in chronological order. In my own case, my original buckets are a mixture of JPEGs and DNGs (I now only shoot in Raw and the JPEGs are old files). I also keep my Canon CR2/CRW raw files in a separate bucket structure just for peace of mind.

As regards finding files, there should be no panic. That's what a catalogue app is for, e.g. iView MediaPro or Extensis Portfolio.

David    

[peterkrogh]

Chris,
I have taken to keeping my RAW and JPEG files in different buckets. Not a huge deal to keep them together, just slightly more convenient.

As far as looking for these a year out, I would suggest you won't bbe doing this by folder, but rather by, say, the Date Finder tool in iView, or by catalog sets you have made in iView.
Peter

[Chris Bishop]

Thanks all, It wasn't that I would be looking for the files a year or so from now, it was that there would be gap in the filing system as the jpegs would leave anumerical gap in the RAw filing.
However, my filing system, currently falls short of your archiving to exterrnal-remote drive BEFORE cataloging. I have been creating folders DVD size, with my sub-folders in numerical order within my working drive AND stopping there. I catalogued these, thinking archiving was only done when my working file was getting full. Currently I have no DNG files, other than as experimments in workflow.
In this scenario a numerical folder full of jpegs stored in another main folder would leave a gap. It was the gap that frightened me not the lost photos.

Chris Bishop