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Just wonder, how do you organize aircraft photos in order to track which airplanes you do have?
I'm thinking to make an Excel file or maybe to copy data from Airlines Fleets from planespotters.net to an Excel file and then to mark which airplanes I do have, maybe create hyperlinks in excel file to the folder(s) with photos.
I only track JetBlue and US Airways aircraft. I built an Excel spreadsheet, using data from Airfleets.net. I include type, registration, etc. and note the ones I've shot. For B6, I've got a gallery on my website where I upload them after shooting, so I don't track when I shot them or where they are saved. For US, I haven't gotten around to do that yet, so I do note the date I shot it - all my photos are in directories named with the date shot. I've been trying to add at least the registration in the keywords of my aircraft photos to make it easier to search, but I have a lot of old stuff that isn't tagged.
People here have spoken about this before, I know Manny has a very comprehensive backup and tagging system. I only organize my folders by date, I have no idea on which days I have photographed specific registrations
I don't use Excel since Lightroom came into my life. Its keywording and metadata searching and tagging is exemplary. While I still maintain a hierarchy on the drive itself, Lightroom keeps track of everything for me. Here is a general overview. This started with my regular photos way before Commercial aviation spotting. I find it very useful for such as well.
--Computer--
I build my computer especially for the purpose of editing photos and video and 3D modeling and rendering with gaming in mind as well (although not lately). So here is my setup from a point of view of storage and cataloging.
-HP Z620 Workstation
-Windows 8.1 Enterprise
-Primary boot drive: Dual Samsung 840 256GB SSD drives in RAID0
-Scratch drive: Dual Samsung 840 128GB SSD drives in RAID0 (for PSCS, Lightroom, 3DS Max, Cinema4D, Premiere Pro, etc. scratch disk. Also Lightroom db is here)
-Data drive: Dual WD Black 7200 RPM 2TB drives in RAID1
-One external 4TB drive for CDP (Continuous Data Protection) of primary boot and data drives
--Ingestion and Editing--
I pull data off the CF cards via a USB3 Lexar card reader. This is done from within Lightroom and directly to the primary drive.
A directory is created INSIDE of a master "Camera Import" directory.
Each shoot is named for the DATE and a short description for the folder name: "11-23-2013 JFK Spotting"
--Cataloging, Metadata, Keywording, Title and Captions--
I make heavy use of IPTC and Lightroom really helps here. I automatically tag all imported photos with copyright info, name, address, telephone number, website etc. as well as pertinent global keywords that apply to the entire shoot.
Here I also pre-apply a develop preset that has basic settings determined for the camera and lens I used as well as basic sharpening and noise corrections etc.
Once imported, the fist pass is to quickly delete obvious bad images (clipped aircraft parts, under/over exposed, OOF, motion blur, etc.)
Second pass is to actually tag individual photos with Title and Caption. The Title gets the Registration, Model, Manufacturer and Serial Number. Caption gets the same duplicated plust a description of the shot such as "Carrier, Arrival or Departure, RWY, Airport, Day or Night, etc.) and Keywords that are relevant such as City, Country, dominant colors, Strobes on, and so on.
Images deemed worthy of publishing get a star rating from 1 to 5 and get a color code depending on whether the shot has been published or not and to where and/or sold or not.
Once the shoot is fully tagged and edited, it gets moved to the Data drive. Here it sits until some time has passed (arbitrary, usually driven by space attrition) and gets moved again... see below.
--Archiving--
Once pictures are to be archived, they get moved to two different external drive RAID0 arrays. I use Lightroom to do this and one RAID0 array goes off site to my mom's and the other is on a shelf near my workstation. Lightroom keeps the thumbnails and high res JPG renderings in the catalog even of the external drives are disconnected. I can even do major editing on these and only need to plug in the drive when I need to output to print or export digitally.
--Catalog--
I maintain a single catalog for all my pictures and also have separate smaller ones for Aviation, Family and Other. The main catalog records approximately 750,000 images of which about 275,000 are aviation related.
I can pull a picture from this databse on any drive instantly. Literally as I type. I can search by any words in any field or filter the data by Camera serial number, lens type, date, time, etc. I backup the metadata in sidecar files as well in the event my entire LR databse is gone somehow, I do not lose any edits or metadata information.
I can give more details if you like...
Thanks everyone...
Manny, you're too advanced for me, but I'll read again - what you do for archiving photos.
I spent a couple of evenings after work to re-organize pictures I've uploaded on airport-data site:
http://www.airport-data.com/photogra...taras+B.:5834/
I haven't seen some my pictures in a few years, and now, a lot looked to me now very terrible, but I didn't delete anything - some airplanes most likely I won't see anymore - better terrible picture than nothing at all...
I did start entering airline/registration # on excel:
[IMG]http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...nesExcel-1.jpg[/IMG]
But most likely, I'll use excel vlookup from planespotters data.
Thanks again.
I have no system. I upload my favorite shots to JP.net. If I see the line that I have one shot uploaded, I'm like "oh, I have that already." For the shots that get rejected, I have a folder on my drive labeled Rejects. I also have a folder for artistic aviation shots that would never get accepted. That's my system. My raw files go into a folder called Plane Spotting and I have stuff from all over the place. I organize all other types of photography by the date and location. For some reason, I just don't put the same effort in plane spotting.
My head hurts just reading Manny's system...
Like I said, instant find of any plane anywhere ... and instantly produce the edited version in any format print or web ... just like that. And it covers backup and redundancy all nice and smoothly. I sleep well at night. I couldn't care less if my entire PC burns to the ground. DB and photos are backed up.
Also, this was started with my non-aviation photography... so it is just a global catalog. And furthermore, I sell and also get published. The metadata helps me stay a step ahead of others who may not be able to produce a shot quickly enough and with the right information.