Library Organisation

B1ng · 17 Jan 2014 at 13:33

Afternoon all,

I was hoping for some advice with the following problem.

I have a library of photos on my hard drive, which is getting quite large (over 7k RAWs, jpgs etc. at last count). These photos are organised in meaninglessly named folders, each with an equally meaningless filename.

I am looking for a simpler way than the manual option, to take this library and organise the photos into folders with the date, with files named as the date plus the number for example. I can then use some suitable management software to allow me to tag the various shots. Several web searches show up software that looks great in use, but the folder structure is still the current useless mess.

In short, is there a tool to organise the file and folder structure and naming, or do I need to grab a cup of caffeinated beverage and cue the music?

Many thanks!

B1ng · 17 Jan 2014 at 13:50

At the moment I have dabbled with moving them about manually. Surprisingly therapeutic, but it will take forever! An application to batch process to a folder and naming structure would be ideal!

B1ng · 19 Jan 2014 at 10:33

Cheers for the advice chaps. I wish I could rewind time to getting my first camera, and organise them from the start. But life goes on.

Is Lightroom a worthy investment then, or are there free alternatives that can do an almost as good job?

B1ng · 23 Jan 2014 at 17:02

That sounds like a plan to me! I will give it a try. Thank you for the advice and suggestions.

B1ng · 28 Jan 2014 at 17:21

Just thought i'd update; had a good scour round for some software to do what I was after. I stumbled across a program called Shotwell, which seemed to have the library management I was after. I imported my existing collection to a new area, arranging in folders by date. It can also be used to import from cameras and such too I believe, but I am yet to try this bit of it. The best part; it doesn't cost a penny!