How to Quickly Organize & Cull 1000's of Landscape Photos

[@JoshuaLambPhotography]

Great stuff mark! I like importing to Lightroom then I go through and rate my photos I don’t want to keep as a 1 star and delete them all pretty quickly. It works for me.

[@CassioHungria85]

Exactly the same here

[@peters1526]

Great video, and like the presentation of your workflow: keep it as simple as possible. Especially we amateurs won't have the needs to use all the complicated (and expensive!) stuff.

[@vacayshawn]

Thanks for showing us your workflow Mark. Are you keeping all of your RAW files from the shoot on your backup drives despite only editing a select few of the photos or do you go back and purge the other photos after you've selected the ones you want to edit?

[@blujeans9462]

Totally agree with your process - including not bringing photos into LR/PS unless I plan to edit. Only extra step that I do, because I am an Excel 'guru', is after the backup process, I enter a one row (with lots of fields) summary for each shoot (multiple rows if more than one location - but most photoshoots are just one location) into a spreadsheet. This allows me to search for something very easily. After well over 10 years of photo shoots, it is oftentimes difficult to remember what year you took an image, so it would take an awfully long time to look through various drives to narrow it down. By using the search criteria in Excel (by whatever I feel confident was the case for a certain photo - like I was sure I took the photo in NJ, but can't remember the city, I just search for all images that were taken in NJ) - this narrows the potential of where the files are stored. It definitely takes a huge amount of time if you are just starting the process with lots of photos already stored, but once accomplished it saves so much time - and super easy if you do it during each backup going forward - in the long run.

[@wilfs1196]

Interesting work flow. As a hobby photographer, It's great when you can pick up a few good ideas & modify them for your requirements. Thanks.

[@mikebartow9415]

Thanks Mark, an interesting process. My initial culling is hooking my monitor to the camera via HDMI. I then scroll through the photos and throw out the absolute garbage ones. I hate importing trash. After all there is a reason for calling it trash.

[@joeyrobertson4926]

Thanks for sharing your work flow. Hope you are feeling better soon 🙏

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Appreciate it Joey!

[@jamesv.wilkerson30]

Hope you feel better quickly. Also, NAS are great. Even over wifi with 45 MP files.

[@aussie2uGA]

The synology solution used to be terribly slow but thanks to advances in hardware, you're right, it's pretty good today.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks James!

[@AdamDooley]

Also, it is possible to start with an inexpensive NAS/raid system. Then find out how you really want to use it and go up from there. (For instance there are multiple ways a system can improve file sharing for your household, improve your home theater, and adding home security, too.)

[@jcfausto]

I like your approach. It makes sense, it is simple, and does not costs you a fortune or take too much effort to implement it. Thanks for sharing it.

[@richardbripleyutube]

Hi Mark: Hope you feel much, much better soon! Take care of yourself.

[@brendallsterling4117]

I like your way of thinking. Putting a yearly hard drive sounds great. Also, making a file on a desktop is a great idea. I've never done this and am still learning my MacBook Pro

[@O_Rice_0]

hello, new watcher to the channel here but liking many of the videos so far. did want to make a quick note about storing photos and other files to external hard drives (whether it be solid state or mechanical) and then storing them cold (not connected to power) in another location. It is good data health practice to plug those drives to your machine every so often so that they don't lose too much voltage which can lead to hardware failures and data loss. I don't really have a "it needs to be every X amount of time to guarantee no loss" as that larger depends on the individual drive (how new is it, how worn are it mechanical parts, how many read/writes has it had, etc etc). My work sets a policy to power them briefly once every six months, but I've heard people can also get away with once a year just as fine. And again, it is not to say that not doing so will mean that the drive will be dead after a year or two, but it is something that only take like a few minutes of being connected and then putting it away again. And it is a good way to monitor if a drives health is degrading so that you can replace it ahead of a failure. And, as always, only having the one copy of files on an external drive stored cold is not a secure back up on its own. Multiple copies, multiple methods, multiple physical locations if it is data that you really do not want to loose. If all the files are only in one place and one place only: whether it is on your computer's drive, network drives, external drives, other media, and even cloud based solutions; then it only takes one failure to loose it. Looking forward to watching more!

[@roberttarantino6478]

Mark, thank you for your time, I hope you get better soon. You are such a great teacher and mentor.

[@tjsinva]

Nothing wrong with keeping it simple. If it works for you, it works. Carry on. 👍🥂 P.S. Plane rides are dangerous germ incubators.

[@kenthall4207]

Mark - nice video. Thanks. Question - what do you use for your annual back-up media?

[@davidtripp4221]

In principle I like the idea of only importing the photos I like, I have a hard time deciding based only on the small preview in the import module. I find I use a lot of the features of lightroom to look carefully at my photos and compare them. This is often a big time suck and I wish I was more decisive so I would spend less time on this process. I would be interested in any tips you have on how you streamline this process.

[@HormanOmorman]

This certainly sheds some light on why Lightroom runs so slowly for me... my photo catalogue has over 100K images in it! I've looked at it as my one-stop-shop for organizing everything I've ever done, but I see now I seriously need to re-tool that approach.

[@simonpayne7994]

It is interesting to see that Mark organizes his stuff more or less the same as I organize mine. One tip I have heard that is worth noting is to keep all the bad versions of a particular image until the good version has been fully processed. Sometimes you get into the situation where you need a chunk out of a bad version to fix something in the good version. Another thing to consider is not keeping all your backup versions in a neat row next to each other on a shelf in your hobby room.. On the other hand, I am not convinced of clouds. I have "lost" three clouds. In one case they gave me two weeks to retrieve all my data before they closed down. Quite a scramble. It was just pure luck that I was at home and not on vacation. Mark's strategy to assess and sort out the good brackets prior to merging them is rather ambitious.

[@redesign5096]

Thanks for mentioning the cloud losses. I was contemplating using one in addition to my external HDs. I’ve lost 2 externals now and have been buying a new backup to the backup to prevent loss. Question is - what’s the life of an external HD used as a backup??? 2 years? In beginning I used WD now I’m on Samsung. Is San Disk better? Tired of the never ending research. lol

[@simonpayne7994]

@@redesign5096 If the hardisk is only used once a day throughout a year for backup - and not as WORK - i.e. it only starts up as the backup software starts to run - the disk can last up to ten years or more. My experience is that an INTENSO harddisk is either down right out of the box, down after a few weeks, or lasts for ever. And then do not put all your eggs into one basket. My backup is divided into 1TB chunks. I have each chunk doubled on two sperate 1TB disks. And then I have everything in a cloud for the case that my apartment burns down to the ground. Only the latest stuff is actually going to disk cum cloud on a daily basis. The old disks are just lying around completely disconnected. Two disks for each chunk.

[@gregtowns549]

Mark, I wanted to thank you for the video a while back on useful camera gear. The tripod claws work great. Thanks again, Greg

[@aqueoussilkllc9654]

I hope you feel better soon. Great info!

[@nancywebb25]

Thanks for the video. I hope you are feeling better. I don't have Lightroom. I have Affinity Photo. I also save each of my folders onto external hard drives. I have a PC, so I don't save my pictures onto my desktop. I just go straight to an external hard drive. I would love to see a video on how you copy one hard drive to another on December 31st. That is one thing I have not done yet. I have several that I need to copy. Thank you

[@MarshallShort]

Love building NAS... I have found that sometimes my favorite photos ended up being the ones I ignored the first few go arounds and would have discarded. After watching your Lightroom videos, I would go back in and just really play with them and create something new from them.

[@troymclean9301]

Mark, thank you! Very helpful. After recently returning from Colorado with 1000 pictures from Elk rut I realized I needed a better system. Importing directly into Lightroom via my iPad created to much work for syncing and backing up everything. I’m going to give your system a try. Hope you get to feeling better soon!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Troy!

[@jacklouden7451]

What backup drive do you recommend? I have a new Mac mini. Hope you feel better soon! Thanks for all your great info.

[@jamesbarnes3063]

Thanks Mark, And get well soon

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks James!

[@GlennCurran-zs5no]

Like the way you explain your theory Mark

[@Niteskate1]

Thanks Mark I hope you get feeling better soon. I have one question regarding your laptop, have you always used Apple computers, and what made you choose them over Windows based ones.

[@alsusinskas8643]

Thanks Mark. Feel better soon.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks so much!

[@jerrykita8767]

Mark, I hope you're feeling better!

[@chadwoodhouse1905]

Great video as always. I have been culling through my images your old way since I started photography years ago and thought well that's just how it is. I'll start doing it your current way now to make the importing more efficient. Hope you get to feeling better soon!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Chad!

[@rolandvanalphen4355]

Get well soon Mark and indeed (much) less is (so much!) more!!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thank ya!

[@magdalenaburesdotter9251]

Thanks I think I will use your way of organize pictures. Very help Gil.

[@markledbury3666]

Excellent video Mark! Very helpful! Hope you feel better soon!😊

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks so much!

[@bd7495]

I do everything exactly the same except the annual backup. What drive are you using for that annual backup?

[@easy56wedge]

This is the same process I use EXCEPT for copying all the image files into Lightroom. Then I cull. The non-used images are then deleted from my disk. But before all that is done, I've already made three backups of all photos - good, bad, indifferent - on three separate drives. You can say I'm the Director of the Department of Redundancy Department! LOL!. Get better soon Mark...

[@KenToney]

I love Fast RAW Viewer, inexpensive and I cull off the card. I have a Synology raid that keeps my desk top backed up (any new stuff) with Acronis

[@andrewnoden9117]

Mark What is the external drive you use for each year? It’s not clear in your video. You show a drive but you don’t say what is. Thanks Andrew

[@terrycavanaugh4961]

Thanks for the tip about importing into Lightroom. I have so many pictures in mine that make me wonder why I ever imported them. Hope you feel better soon.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Terry!

[@kenthall4207]

Oh-and please feel better soon!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thank you!

[@rlfisher]

Wow, great minds - my process is almost identical! Each day I transfer the day's images to a "day n" subfolder on the laptop. I also back up the images to a flash drive (or SSD). I don't delete anything on the SD/CF card until everything is home on the desktop and backed up to external drives and the cloud (whew)! If I start culling images while on the trip, I make sure to mark the rejects but not delete them from LrC to avoid reimporting them again. When home, I will actually delete the rejects.

[@blackicemedia658]

I'd be currious to see how you final store as well?? Like are the JPGs, PNGs, or do you only export what you need out when you need it, do you store jpgs where you store raw, etc. I'd also like to see how you deal with LR after you move your files (clearly aren't all on your desktop for a year), do you reconnect them, etc. With all that said, it's always dumbfounds me how close my process is to yours, whether it be colours, local adjustments and now organization. So its nice validation but I secretly hope there's something I am missing. Lastly I propose a different solution than RAID. It may cost more over the long run but I like cloud back ups. I use a Drobo as my main storage. Anything finished winds up there. Then I run a single external hard drive for my time machine backups. This backs up my machine as well as the drobo. Over time I'll likely just used 2 harddrives and get rid of the drobo. Then I pay for BackBlaze for cloud backup. I don't have to buy hard drives over and over and I'll limit my space used once I get rid of the Drobo. Plus it should provide enough redundancy for any issues. Like say my house burns down, I'm not losing 10 years of HDs with my machine and backups all in the house. It's an extreme example but I do like the sounds of it all.

[@bartoszgejga9267]

I hope you get well quick! Do you aktually keep all the raws? Or are you deleting all of those raws for the Photos that Were not selected into Lightroom?

[@bharadhwajh1785]

Get well soon Mark ! what HDD do you use for backups?

[@jolucas2395]

Do u have a link for the storage hard drive for each year that u use?

[@dfinlay587]

I have autoadvance turned on, so I do import all into LR, but then hit x(delete), u(dont pick), or p(pick). I shoot events and usually have 60% of the photos processed, or more, so it's easier to cull in LR than before.

[@pysto.j]

Great video! Less is more! 👍 I only bring the essentials into Lightroom myself. You can always import more later if, during editing, you realize you want another shot from that location. I’d love to hear how others use star ratings, reject flags, and colors. Personally, I only use stars: 0 stars: not culled yet, 1 star: reviewed but didn’t make the cut for editing, to be deleted in 6 months (I have a smart collection set up to ensure this happens), 2 stars: editing in progress, 3 stars: finished photo, 4 stars: candidate for portfolio or social media, 5 stars: in portfolio or on social media. Wishing you a speedy recovery, hope you feel better soon! 😊 Greetings from Finland.

[@sjedouglas]

It looks like we both organise photos in a similar way. Each year has a folder, then that's broken down into months and within the month are folders for each time I've been out with a date attached. I then do the same as you do and flick back and forth between the photos and only import the photos I want to edit so that Lightroom doesn't become too bloated. I know people have their photos organised within Bridge or other software but I've never seen the point as I like my folders and I'm glad you do yours in a similar way. The system works. Hope you feel better soon.

[@bkc1965]

Thanks for sharing the video and your process with us. What is the device you store your images from each year on? Is it an SSD? Hope you are well very soon.

[@robryan4272]

Feel better brother. My lips felt like cement for a week after I got back. Thought I was getting sick too.

[@DigitalPhotoGuru]

What hard drive do you use to back up on location? Survived Hurricane Milton, going to Georgia-original plan was North Carolina til Helene raised her ugly head-to capture some video and images.

[@francissirois5750]

What do you backup? Do you only keep your selection or all of your photoshoot ?

[@byoregon1]

Nice to run into you and your group at the famous aspens last Friday. Fun morning! I came home sick from Colorado too. So now the question is who gave it to whom? 😀

[@slyne1000]

So, just to be clear, 1. you do all the editing from the directory on the desktop of your laptop? You don't have a faster more robust desktop system with a larger hard drive (NAS drive, SCSI drive or large fast USB drive) to store all your working files? 2. You backup (twice) all the files from your memory card. You don't cull the duds? 3. When do you decide to clear or format your memory card? Given the size of our RAW files from a Z8 or Z9 (or any full frame camera) is it worth taking up precious storage space to keep out of focus or poor shots?

[@mdp581]

Agreeall and do it the same, photos go into pc first, then only a few select go to LR for editing. Once edited go into an 'edited' folder on computer.

[@5800santiago]

Get well soon!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thank you!

[@victahh281]

Mark, do you keep all raw files? Even those that you ended up not including in the Lightroom Catalog?

[@pradippatel9345]

At what point does your hard drive on the computer get bogged down and all those files? I don’t save anything on mine computer. All my backups are on external drives. Mark, I also came back from Colorado with gold tested Leigh and couple others.

[@roseavenuechurchofchrist8593]

Thanks. I tried importing everything to Lightroom Classic, but even the thumbnails totally ate up all my hard drive space. Now I create a Lightroom folder on various vacations and import that. Feel better.

[@searcher66]

Hey Mark, why don't you use cloud storage instead of RAID storage? I'm assuming of the cost in the long run. and curious, the reason you don't synchronize all the Photos taken in Lightroom is to avoid the slowdown of it's performance, right?

[@paulmeyer8280]

Perfectly good way to back up your photos just please don't store all backups in the same location! If the house was to burn down or flood or something, god forbid, you would lose everything. Store at least 1 backup somewhere away from the house, just in case.

[@Pyramidalist]

nice ... one question left ... if you dont remember date and location but the content of a foto ... how do you find it ... lets say this flying bird close to the tree at sunset ...

[@KennyHopkinson]

Get well soon

[@freemanligon1177]

I need to watch the video again. So, you download all the pictures in three devices, and never import into Lightroom? I have always import into Lightroom since I began my photography journey. I thought I had to do that way. The problem I am running into is when I go back couple years, the lightroom can't find it. It is there but Lightroom has a certain structure called catalog. I have to figure out to how to retrieve it. I need to do the way you handle the process. Thanks.

[@timpullen9202]

Thanks Mark. But can you fix the wall clock behind you please?

[@alstamarisphotography2797]

Good inspiring vlog Mark, but do you really keep al the rest of the pictures of that shoot? It probably takes a lot of space on your copydrive and for what if you don't work on those files again. What i do is when i coming home from a shoot is "killing my darlings" . Yes, al the pictures raw and jpeg's that i do not like or not good enough i delete them. Just to keep my archive so small as possible. Thats my workflow, but ok, everyone have theirs. So Mark, keep on the good work and many greetings from a fujifilm user from Belgium 🙂👍.

[@idol031808]

Same.

[@ronjenkins4257]

Finally! Someone who doesn't use Lightroom's catalogue feature. Bloat

[@freemanligon1177]

Also, when do you actually delete photo from SD card?

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

I usually wait a few weeks after I return home from the trip.

[@TheSnugsterr]

I put my SD/CF express card in my laptop and it opens up the basic media player which comes installed on your machine. It displays my pics and I delete what I dont want. Beyond simple. Fast too

[@kencawley3121]

Hopefully, you didn't pick up COVID. I went over 4 years dodging the bullet but came back from an Olympic workshop with it a few months ago.

[@andycooper4485]

You are going to have to consider bit-rot degradation on those drives in the safe. HDD or SSD. At a minimum you should copy the folder structure elsewhere on the drive to recharge or remagnetise.

[@dn-bayou]

Fastrawviewer ... Can't get any better than that !

[@ScottBasu]

I was making the same mistake with trying to use LR in the same way. And then, I remembered a tip I got from someone I used to work with: Bridge. Culling problem solved.