My first resolution....

[wheezy]

I've been shooting in RAW for about 4 years now since I bought my first Rebel, and I have no idea how many images I've stacked up. I always worked on laptops with smaller hard drives and my pictures ended up all one main folder with way too many subfolders that I would create as I went along. And I have a mess.

Today I started to migrate and consolidate EVERYTHING into my Aperture Library. Right now I'm at 18,300 images and maybe 15% done? Maybe? I have no idea really. My goal is to have everything in the library by Feb 1st. Then I'll start to catergorize and delete and make smart folders and really utilize the file organizing of Aperture. (I used to reference which makes it messy too.)

What are your Photography Resolutions this year? Has anyone else had to move a *&^^%load of images into Aperture?

 

[CrackedButter]

Mine is to shoot less but get the ratio of winners up. I have 8000 in my library from 1 project alone split into various project folders. I'm quite meticulous anyway apart from tagging which I find boring and not as easy as I would like it to be in Aperture.

 

[dllavaneras]

Now that I've been shooting solely in RAW, I've been considering moving all my pics to a Lightroom or Aperture based workflow. iPhoto has been good enough so far, but it really bugs me that for every RAW file it makes a jpg.

Apart from that, tagging is one of my main resolutions this year. I'd like to have my 30,000+ pics tagged by July. Oh, and shoot more! I've had trouble finding the time to really shoot lately.

 

[wheezy]

I know this is a longer way around, but after I finally get everything into the Library I plan to delete anything that's crap, so I'll probably shrink by quite a lot. I've just never done much deleting, it feels like I'm killing my own kids. But not that extent.

From here out I'm importing everything that's just hobby or out shooting in to a Temp project, and then only the good ones end up filed in with the rest while the crap gets deleted. I really want to streamline my workflow and finally have the system and program to do it.

 

[H2Ockey]

I know this is a longer way around, but after I finally get everything into the Library I plan to delete anything that's crap, so I'll probably shrink by quite a lot. I've just never done much deleting, it feels like I'm killing my own kids. But not that extent.

From here out I'm importing everything that's just hobby or out shooting in to a Temp project, and then only the good ones end up filed in with the rest while the crap gets deleted. I really want to streamline my workflow and finally have the system and program to do it.

I am soooo in the exact same book. I need to purge bad shots so bad, how many family pics I have where one is poorly composed and badly lit and the other is out of focus or blurred by motion. But those are the only two I have. What I really need to do on top of the organization is the long tedious task of post processing shots here and there and just deleting the ones that don't work. hmmm... Feb 1st eh? that is a good goal, good luck i'll try the same.

 

[iBookG4user]

Well, last year I forced myself to keyword thousands upon thousands of photos (probably a similar amount of work to that which you're doing now). This year I believe I want to set myself to make at least $250-500 from my prints that will go towards my trip to Alaska (new years resolution to go on that trip in 2011).

 

[mrgreen4242]

I've taken several thousand (3k maybe) photos of my son in the last 6 months alone. I almost always "quick rate" them right after import - meaning I watch a slideshow at 2-3 seconds per shot and rate them 1-4 stars. 1 is a "technically bad" photo, eg exposure is wrong, lots of motion blur, focus wrong, etc. 2 is photo that is technically OK but is just a "bad/boring photo". 3 is for shots I like and that could use some help, life cropping or some color adjustment, etc. 4 is for shots I think are great how they are. I use 5 for photos that I end up coming back to later and thinking WOW.

My first task is to actually delete the 1's. Then rate any/all unrated shots. Then do some keyword organizing (I need to figure out a better/faster/more automated workflow for that).

My actual photography resolution, though, is to take more pictures of of things that aren't my son.

 

[iBookG4user]

I've taken several thousand (3k maybe) photos of my son in the last 6 months alone. I almost always "quick rate" them right after import - meaning I watch a slideshow at 2-3 seconds per shot and rate them 1-4 stars. 1 is a "technically bad" photo, eg exposure is wrong, lots of motion blur, focus wrong, etc. 2 is photo that is technically OK but is just a "bad/boring photo". 3 is for shots I like and that could use some help, life cropping or some color adjustment, etc. 4 is for shots I think are great how they are. I use 5 for photos that I end up coming back to later and thinking WOW.

My first task is to actually delete the 1's. Then rate any/all unrated shots. Then do some keyword organizing (I need to figure out a better/faster/more automated workflow for that).

My actual photography resolution, though, is to take more pictures of of things that aren't my son.

As for keywording, why don't you keyword them upon import? That allows you to keyword them all at the same time, upon review of the photos you can refine the keywords as necessary. I've found that system works well.

 

[mrgreen4242]

As for keywording, why don't you keyword them upon import? That allows you to keyword them all at the same time, upon review of the photos you can refine the keywords as necessary. I've found that system works well.

I find that keywording in import is sort of superfulous with iPhoto 08's auto event splitting. The keywords that will take time are keywording WHO is in the shot, more than where or when the shot was taken (those are practically automatic).

 

[jaseone]

I was shooting in RAW when I first got my SLR's but found that was making me a lazy photographer - "the exposure doesn't matter as I can fix that in post processing" etc. so now I just shoot in JPG. However most of my shooting is recreational in nature so it isn't that important if I don't get the perfect shot, where if it was something that really mattered I think I would switch to RAW just for a fallback.

I also do a lot of reviewing on the camera itself prior to importing as I am really bad about deleting photos once they are imported.

As for a photography related new year's resolution... I just want to take more creative photos, shots that stand out from the norm that make people say wow and hopefully get some shots featured somewhere.

 

[iBookG4user]

I find that keywording in import is sort of superfulous with iPhoto 08's auto event splitting. The keywords that will take time are keywording WHO is in the shot, more than where or when the shot was taken (those are practically automatic).

Well, I don't shoot portraits and I use LightRoom, so that is a moot point.

 

[mickbab]

My photography resolution is to learn more, get creative, and take some good pictures.

I'm 15 and I just got a Sony a300 for Christmas, and I'm really liking it. I would like to learn all its bits and pieces and what it can do.

 

[CrackedButter]

I was shooting in RAW when I first got my SLR's but found that was making me a lazy photographer - "the exposure doesn't matter as I can fix that in post processing" etc. so now I just shoot in JPG. However most of my shooting is recreational in nature so it isn't that important if I don't get the perfect shot, where if it was something that really mattered I think I would switch to RAW just for a fallback.

I wouldn't say it helps that much with exposure, I'd say it takes care of the white balance though and that isn't a bad thing (for me) when I don't have to take care of that anymore.

I also do a lot of reviewing on the camera itself prior to importing as I am really bad about deleting photos once they are imported.

I tend to import everything as you can't see all the details on a pokey camera screen, what happens if you delete the winner you never see? The only images I delete on camera are the ones that are clearly out of focus and then I handle the rest in Aperture.

 

[iBookG4user]

My photography resolution is to learn more, get creative, and take some good pictures.

I'm 15 and I just got a Sony a300 for Christmas, and I'm really liking it. I would like to learn all its bits and pieces and what it can do.

Check out Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, it's a really good book and should help you quite a bit with your resolution

 

[ChrisA]

Now that I've been shooting solely in RAW, I've been considering moving all my pics to a Lightroom or Aperture based workflow. iPhoto has been good enough so far, but it really bugs me that for every RAW file it makes a jpg.

I now how you feel. With disk space priced at $150 per Terabyte now, it's costing me almost $20 to keep a few tens of thousands of JPG files around.

Seriously, even Aperture does the same. It renders JPG preview images from your RAW files so you can browse the library without unreasonable lag. Just don't worry about the space, like I said, "$150/TB".

 

[dllavaneras]

It renders JPG preview images from your RAW files so you can browse the library without unreasonable lag. Just don't worry about the space, like I said, "$150/TB".

That's a little touchy subject for me at the moment, since I ordered two 1 TB hard drives (one for data, one for backup) and the seller only sent one 500 GB HD

I haven't used Aperture, but if all it does in jpg are previews, then it can't be that bad. iPhoto makes a full size jpg for every RAW file, so the space used is 25% more. That shouldn't be the case.

 

[PCMacUser]

I'm going to start shooting primarily in RAW this year. And I'll be rethinking my backup system. My backup hard drive is failing (oh no!), which means I'm vulnerable at the moment. I'm thinking of going for an e-SATA dock or an internal 'mobile rack' system.

 

[hhlee]

my resolution is always to shoot more!

but on the other end of that, i'm resolving to get through my pile of taken but not touched-up virtual stack of pics.

 

[wheezy]

That's a little touchy subject for me at the moment, since I ordered two 1 TB hard drives (one for data, one for backup) and the seller only sent one 500 GB HD

I haven't used Aperture, but if all it does in jpg are previews, then it can't be that bad. iPhoto makes a full size jpg for every RAW file, so the space used is 25% more. That shouldn't be the case.

You can also set in Aperture Preferences the size of the Preview it creates, I've limited mine to 1680*1680 as that's my current screen res, I think it makes a pretty full size Preview default.