Organizing photos

**ketko** · 2006-11-13, 09:11 AM

Hi everyone!!!
How r u goin?
So here s my question... How are you organizing your private collection of aviation photos? Are you keeping any lists? etc... write everithing about it, im interested in it... thanks, im looking forward to see posts... Any screenshots,... are welcome...

**nwafan20** · 2006-11-13, 09:26 AM

All I really do is make a folder for each spotting trip, put the pictures in that folder, then put that folder into a "Airplane pics" folder, so I can look up by date.

**Jonesbeach** · 2006-11-13, 01:17 PM

At this point, I organize them by Airline. Each airline has its own folder in my "airplane pics" folder. As I shoot new airlines, I just make a new folder. It seems to work, but I'm curious what everybody else does. I do occasionally run into problems when I have two airlines in one picture. Those go into the undecided folder.

**uplander** · 2006-11-13, 01:24 PM

I do occasionally run into problems when I have two airlines in one picture. Those go into the undecided folder.

I don't use "Album" software either (yet). I think the "by airline" system would work well. If there are two airlines in one picture you can put the pic in one folder and a shortcut to the same file in the other folder.

**Mellyrose** · 2006-11-13, 02:40 PM

I use the same system Phil does (since he's the one who initally taught me, and it made sense so I just follow his lead). As for naming my photos, It goes: Airline_AircraftType_Registration_Airport/(Dep/Arr)Runway_Date

ie: ATA_738_N316TZ_LGA22Arr_093004.jpg

As for folders, I usually keep them organized by the date they were taken on.

**Winglets747** · 2006-11-13, 10:50 PM

I use the same system as nwafan (album for each spotting trip) since I tend to want to see pictures by the trip.

My naming system is as follows:
Airport Airline Airline(Code) Aircraft Type Description - Number(if applicable)

i.e. JFK VS 744 G-VROM Landing-7.jpg

A high number of my photos are trip photos (i.e. at gate, on the taxiway, pushback, arrival) so I do not have a need to specify runway and take off/landing.

I trust my computer to remember the time and date info on the file so I don't, but maybe I'm putting too much faith in my computer. :P

One concern I've contemplated is transferring files across platforms (PC-->Mac, Mac-->PC, etc.) where the spaces in file names mess everything up. That's where the underscores (_) make sense, but they drive me crazy!

I would really like a program that would let me "tag" photos according to certain specifications (aircraft, airline, location, etc) and then let me bring up photos to (multiple) certain specifications, say if I wanted all Virgin pics, or only Virgin 744s at JFK, or all JFK pics on day X at runway Y, or all pictures of one specific plane.

-Will

**nwafan20** · 2006-11-13, 10:54 PM

well by doing what Mel does for naming, you can just use Windows search for pictures, using criteria of "Virgin 744" since it would be in your name.

I basically use Mel's naming system with a few tweeks.

I do:

NWA_A320_DTW_10/5/06_01.jpg
(Airline)_(Aircraft)_(Airport)_(Date)_(Picture Number).jpg

**G-BOAD** · 2006-11-13, 11:03 PM

the Phil and Mel system looks good in theory, but for me when i come with 70 photos I'm not going to do all that for every one
i organize the photos by spotting tip, and where, under a bigger folder

each tip looks like - Sep 9 JFK
i make a chart in Word to organize the trips, and place highlights and other info, EX) Cargo Plaza, Finnair MD-11 w/ cartoons, AA757 wing-lets

**PhilDernerJr** · 2006-11-13, 11:09 PM

Well, I only apply that naming system to photos that I edit, which are only about 5% of what I shoot (I'm picky).

As for the ones that I don't edit, I don't rename them at all, and I put them in a folder for that day titled by date "031806" (for March 18, 2006).

BUT, since I don't edit all of my shots, sometimes I want ot be able to go back and find something that maybe I didn't edit. Because of this, I was thinking about only adding the registration to a filename of oneof the photos in each sequence. This way, if I need a specific registration, I can do a file search for the reg and it will come up.

**mirrodie** · 2006-11-14, 11:52 AM

here is what I do for the ones I edit

2006-11-14-KJFK-VH-ADG-1 (or2, or 3) :)

year-month-day-airport-reg and they go in separate f0lders, ordered by airport