Storm/ Tornado videos and photos: Getting all your ducks in a row

[Eric Flescher]

For newbies and veterans, it finally reaches the point where you need to make a system for all your videos and photos. Otherwise you will go crazy- trust me.

(1) I thought what is the need for storing all your photos? Well I found out when I started accumulating hundreds of photos of storms and all kinds of other photos. You need to get organized.

1a. use keywords if your software has it (I use iPhoto on my Macs- keywords are a little difficult to find as you create them under the preferences section not on the toolbar) or some system to keep order of your chases. Place them in categories so you can see them by event, chase, kind of photos or whatever you want.

1b. Name or rename your photos and videos to begin with the date (which is what I do) for additional sorting needs.

(2) I have started to put all my videos and pics, accounts etc on my external hard drive. All 2008 stuff (photos, videos , accounts etc are in the 2008 folder). I am attempting to reformulate all stuff using this system which I am revizing.

(3) also make backups of your stuff on zip drives, cd, dvds or another HD.

(4) keep a log on your computer or on a pad of paper.

(5) try to get your accounts formulated and posted along with your photos, videoclips and videos as soon (yeah easy said then done!).

Got any others to post ?
Post your own techniques, ideas, shortcuts, need to dos etc

 

[Dean Baron]

I had the same problem too when i was using the desktop computer, but since i got my laptop i created a folder on the desktop titled "Storm Chasing Pics" and then i have subfolders titled the dates of the chases and all the pics inside those folders. I know the headache of having pictures in a million different places, and its nice to have them all in one easy to find place (atleast for now).


Off topic- I used Microsoft Picture It on the desktop computer to put a watermark/copyright on my pics, but my laptop doesnt have that program, just wondering if anyone knows another program (besides photoshop or others like it) that can do the same thing for cheap or maybe even free? The Microsoft program came with the computer, and was really easy to use.

 

[Shane Adams]

I'm fairly unceremonious about image storage on my PC. What I'll do is just clear out everything random that's in "My Pictures" (I don't save much of anything beyond chase stuff) when I go to start a big website overhaul, and then upload all my chase pics into there. (It's just easier than having to create additional folders, because I like to keep things simple and scaled down). Once I get everything into my web server from the PC, I'll do a backup, name it "Website Images", and then dump everything off the "My Pictures" file. I guess this is a weird way of doing things, but I've never been the kind of person who has a huge library of organized "saved" image files all over my computer. Everything goes into "My Pics" and eventually gets deleted anyway. Plus I'm real anal about space, so I never save anything for long other than website stuff. In fact, I only have 2 icons on my desktop

 

[Shane Adams]

I used Microsoft Picture It on the desktop computer to put a watermark/copyright on my pics, but my laptop doesnt have that program, just wondering if anyone knows another program (besides photoshop or others like it) that can do the same thing for cheap or maybe even free? The Microsoft program came with the computer, and was really easy to use.

I just use Paint. It's free, comes with every computer, is easy to use, and it works just fine.

 

[Dann Cianca]

Renaming photos is a big hassle ... but it keeps me organized.

Here is my naming convention:

Example:

20080729.1831.42Z - Washington County (2W Last Chance), Colorado

YYYYMMDD.hhmm.ss(Ztime) - COUNTY (LOCATION), STATE

I've been toying with the idea of doing precise geo-coordinates ... but at this point, it sort of seems like a hassle.

I keep them all in one folder which I call "raw images", though they are not RAW format. I then go through and do adjustments (contrast/brightness/saturation/cropping and add a watermark), save it as 20080729.1831.42Z - Washington County (2W Last Chance), Colorado (Edit) and put it in My Pictures. I won't go through and do this to ALL of the photos I take, but I'd say a good 90% of them.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I am developing a system to where I keep all my media from a day's event in its own folder.. for instance..

STORM CHASE 2008
>20080529
>>Videos
>>Photos
>>Screen Caps
>>Forecasts
>>Graphics

I then make a DVD copy of the folder and store it away. This way, I have all the day's events in one spot. In the folder GRAPHICS, I have various After Effects files I may use for video highlights. All that stuff in one spot. Premiere project files and other stuff are also in there, including a finalized edit of a particular highlight reel and/or chapter.

This seems to work out nicely as I can quickly go back and see what it is I need. At the end of the year, I'll create an archive copy that organizes videos into categories and photos as well.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I've been doing the same as Tony - Storm Chases then 20080608 and then under that I typically just dump everything into the same folder.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

If you are a person who actually updates your website with frequent chases or whatever, by date, it's pretty simple. All I do with my RAW files for storing is I have a folder called Raw Images, then folders inside that one for each year, then folders inside those by each date I have images for. Pretty simple.

Raw Images
- 2008
- 08-7-28
- images

If I want to see what to work on and I don't already know, I just pull up my images by years section on my website. That or just open the raw ap and click by date, as it's horribly simple to just go that route.

I've become a huge fan of image deleting. I do not want to have too many images I don't need and don't think I ever will. I'm very unafraid to delete images. Probably too much so. So I guess I wont have an excessive amount to deal with anyway, even though I probably shoot more frequently than most. I think right now I'm down to only having 16 gigs of RAW images....going back through 2002. It's messed up to think I can fit ALL my RAW image files onto one 16 gig compact flash card. After it's been awhile since I've went back and deleted ones I don't need, I will sit and do that back as far as I can, often going through folders I've already done and just trying to find more I can delete. Keeping up with deleting can be a chore itself.