I decided to write an article that will pull together most of the content on OrganizePictures.com. Pretty ambitious you might say. However, the easiest way to achieve this is to describe my own photography workflow. This is the workflow that I use every time I take pictures. For each steps of my workflow I will be pointing to various articles that explain the details of each step. I intend to update this page frequently based on the new articles I’ll be writing.

A simple acronym: S.T.O.R.E

The steps in my workflow ( and probably yours as well) can be easily remembered by using S.T.O.R.E as the acronym. It stands for Shoot, Transfer, Organize, Retrieve and Export. OrganizePictures.com is mostly about step three: Organize Pictures, but as you have probably noticed I write sometimes about the other steps as well.

1. Shoot pictures.

This is where it all begins…I love taking pictures. While I’m not an expert photographer, I have learned a few important tips about taking
better pictures (Read Improve your photography). During this step there are some easy things you can do that would benefit every other step in the workflow (Read Learn how to set up your digital camera.).

2. Transfer pictures.

This is the process for transferring my pictures from the camera to my computer. Even though this step is pretty straight forward there are a few important things that I do ( Read Transfer your pictures in 6 easy steps). While tedious, transferring your pictures is very important to the entire workflow. I have started out using the Windows XP Photo Wizard (Read Transfer your pictures using the Windows XP Photo wizard.) but found out that FastStone Image Viewer (and many other programs) offers much more flexibility for this step.

3. Organize pictures.

This step was the motivation behind OrganizePictures.com, and as such there is a lot of information on this site that applies here. Once I have transferred my pictures from the camera to my computer I start organizing them. However, before I start dissecting my pictures and move them and tag them, I ask some fundamental questions for each batch of photos. The answers to these questions determine the level of organization I will be applying to them. (Read Is your photography workflow good enough?).

Once I determine the different purposes I want to achieve with this batch of photos, I start organizing them. My image organization process is accomplished in three different layers. Each layer adds more and more details. I always perform the first Layer and sometimes layers two and three, depending on what I am trying to achieve in the end (Read Define an efficient photography workflow).

Here are my image organization layers:

1. Layer 1: Organize pictures using folders. First I rename the folders according to an efficient naming convention (Read How you should name your image folders). This way it’s easy for me to find my pictures at a later date. Then I place these folders in a precise folder structure (Read Organize your pictures in 5 steps). Now the folder structure is done. Many times I stop here…depending how tired I am. However, the next two steps add a lot more flexibility later in the workflow.
2. Layer 2: Organize pictures using tags. Once I have created the right folders, I start assigning tags (or keywords) to the pictures I have just transferred. I make sure that I use software that can write these tags to the IPTC/XMP fields attached to each image file (Read Create precise keywords for your pictures). I have been using Picasa to add keywords, but found that XnView is a far superior tool for editing image metadata.
3. Layer 3: Organize pictures using Geotags. This is closely related to the step above. I separate it because many times I don’t do this step if it doesn’t make sense. For most of the family pictures I don’t need to add geotags. (Read Methods for assigning image geotags to your pictures).

4. Retrieve pictures.

This is the step that really tests my consistency and perseverance with step number 3 (Organize pictures). If I have not been consistent with my folder names and the tags I have created, then this step might end up in frustration. Any decent program will allow searching based on file names and some programs would allow me to search according to the tags I have save in IPTC/XMP. Again, depending how tired I am, I use the Windows XP search utility (Read How to use the Windows XP Search Utility) which is kind of lame. When I’m looking for specific things I use IrfanView.

5. Export pictures.

Here are some ways I export my pictures: Edit, Backup, Print, Publish on the Web and E-mail.