Stars and Colors....

[sidewinder]

I have Photo Mechanic setup so that it will rename my photographs using the YYYYMMDD_HHMMSSss.nef structure. It will place the renamed files in a directory structure as follows:

MyLibrary
   YYYY
     MM
       YYYYMMDD Event Name
         YYYYMMDD_HHMMSSss.nef

Photo Mechanic will create any part of the directory structure in the "MyLibrary" space that it needs to. In other words, I don't have to do anything when ingesting photos other than setting the "Event Name" and filling out the IPTC data which includes keywording. As each month and year comes along, it will create the proper directories in the proper place.

I think a chronological storage structure is the best way to proceed. Trying to use the file system to categorize my photo library is a big mistake. When I need to find a photo, I will either have to know the date I shot it or rely on IPTC data to find it. When Camera Bits does come out with their cataloging software, I will be well situated to use it.

Okay, how do you folks use the stars and colors in Photo Mechanic?

Scott

[Hayo Baan]

Scott,

I'm still trying to find the best way of using both, but here's roughly what I do now.

After ingesting a new set of photos (let's call them ToDo), I need to go through them and make a selection of the ones to keep or throw out. I have three categories here:

• Trash: category of completely useless images; these I will delete later.
• Not Selected: set of images that aren't bad enough to throw away, but not good enough to really be selected either (e.g. a better version exists).
• Selected: the set of images that I think are good enough to be selected.[/i]
  

During the weeding process I tag the "Trash" ones (nice way to remember: T for trash), the others get a colour code; red for potential "selected", orange for potential "not selected". This continues until either all images have a tag or a colour code (red/orange switches during this stage too). If I've shot using a grey card, I use a third colour to mark those as well (the will later become part of Not Selected, but are first used as part of the Post Processing step).
When I'm happy with the selection categories, I will rate the selected ones, delete the Trash, and clean out all colour codes.

Cheers,
    Hayo

[sidewinder]

Basically, you use the color system to show were you are in the rating process and the star system to rate the photographs. That's a reasonable approach.

I'll have to think on this some more. Any other systems anyone else uses would be great to hear about.

Scott

[vAfotoriporter]

Actually I would not call my way of using ratings and colors to be a system. Maybe a habit I tend not to change unless needed.

Most of my time I shoot event like stuff. I ingest and use no color for images not having looked at. Upon checking out an image I decide if it is good enough for a website display without editing (save as from PM) or it need some editing in PS or LR, or it is not worth for publication in any form.
When I check an image I add crop and a color class usually one of these:
Red image OK, not much edit needed
Green edit needed
Purple additional info sheets photographed like names list or maybe other interresting stuff
Blue info helping identification as nametags, ID numbers, etc
Trash image rejected
Orange and Cyan usually mark images I select one or another paper to send. Usually I don't display in an event gallery images sent to any of the papers.

Star ratings are used by me for different groupings of images for example parts of the events, categories or so.
Tagging usually means if an image has been completed and uploaded so I can filter it out (showing untagged ones only).
For different kinds of favorite images I like I prefer to use a keyword that is not that often interacted by my workflow as color classes. For example fun images have a fun keyword, exceptional images get a select keyword.

For simple press assignments where I don't really need to work with all the images just the best ones I try to tag in camera with the protect button. These images appear in PM as tagged so I can filter out anything else and work only with them.
Usually I check all the other images and tag them as well to join the rest. Once all needed images are tagged I assign them the reject, edit or done colors like mentioned above. Usually I do their edit as a batch in LR then open the edited images in a contact sheet (or have them join in the allready open contact sheet so adding IPTC to original and edited in the same run (I use RAW so originals are never overwritten by edited versions). Then mark and send them to customers as required.

If I only need a few images from a shoot I don't even use any of the ratings or colors just tag what needs to be sent (best to do it in camera during the shoot) then I only open them to edit and send them right away. Usually after it is done I mark the sent images with one of the above colors to mark they are done, and if I have time I do mark the terribly poor images with the trash color but I often miss this step in a rush.