Phil,
In addition to Bob's comments, this is how i work in LR. My folderstructure is assignment based on the following principals:
- Short total pathlength,
- Total volume of all my images easily distributable over multiple disks/volumes
- assignment-oriented per photographer (i do store work of other photogs),
- assuring unique-naming within my realm but with meaningless naming,
- so simple that after a hard day photoshoot and totally exhausted, i import into LR on "autopilot" without making a mistake.
(i use 1:1 preview to make sure the image got across without corruption and once uploaded, the automated backup takes care of safety backups)
Note: once i have an assignment, i immedeately create the folders. So when i have to import is do that with command "import into this folder". Whether it is work from one camera or more, with one memorycard or more, all gets imported into one folder.
My folder structure concept:
D:\PhotosVolume1\JanRSmit\JaSm0099 (Partition -> a mainfolder -> photographer -> assignment id)
Witihn JaSm0099 i have 4 folders:
JaSm0099ADMIN,
JaSm0099EDIT,
JaSm0099DERIVED,
JaSm0099REJECT
I import my raw's, my originals, in to EDIT, naming: JaSm00990001 etc.
Anything related to the assignment: contract, releases, moodboard, etc is stored in ADMIN (i am testing if it is of benefit to make all the docs in JPG so i can import into catalog as well)
Anything i derive, through export of some kind, from my originals is stored in DERIVED, mostly with approriate subfolders such as ForiPad, ForProof, etc
When done with the culling i move rejected originals to the REJECTED folder. Over time i then delete those images form catalog and disk.
If for whatever reason i do an external edit in Photoshop or similar, by default the tiff gets back into the EDIS folder, which is fine by me.
When i start to work on the images of an assignment is use my workflow implementation using collections and smartcollections (check
www.centrumbeeldbeleving.nl, the workflow is documented with an ebook, free of charge, but in Dutch) to do the culling, releasing it for editing, add the metadata, etc.
When working on those images i hardly use the folder view, i just stick in the collection view.