I have many folders with pictures from my Nikon D70S and my wife's Kodak Easyshare 4 Meg. I started backing up on cd's but it takes too long and requires a lot of cd's. Still looking for a simple but effective organizing software. Perhaps I need to buy a DVD burner or Hard Drive. Have Elements 4.0 but have not put in on my lap top.

Folders break down the general catagory; within that, further breakdown (ie: FLOWERS, then folders of what TYPE of Flower (rose, dahlia, etc); For events, folders are dated and named... "YYYY-MM-DD" and then the event (ie: Christmas). Grouped by event, if there are several locations, I'll preface the image name with a commom set of letters... ie: SFpicture, DENpicture. Such, all SF pictures will be grouped together if tossed into a web photo gallery generation. This enables me to specifically find what image I am looking for quickly and accurately. Also allows for a SEARCH to be done.

I use Photoshop to create a contact sheet of every image on the CD (20-25 images per 8x10 page), then print them front and back and file it with the disc in a 3-ring binder. Sometimes looking at an "old fashion" type of contact sheet is a faster way to find an image on CD.

I keep photos on my hard drive, I back them up on DVD, and I use Adobe Album to organize the photos. The Album software works well, but the organizing function will not work with Photoshop CS. In other words, the two programs use totally different organizing software that are not compatible. At the last PMA convention I told Adobe that this was a serious problem and infact has prevented me from buying a new computer because I do not want to re-organize thousands of photos. With Album you cannot transfer the organzational information from one computer to another, but with Photoshop CS (and higher) you can because the information is stored with each photo in the meta file.

I first move all the images into a common folder until I have time to sort and organize. At that time I identify by subject (outdoor, flowers, family members, etc.) and move them into their specific folders where later I will copy to CD based on the subject. In addition I save RAW image files on CD by numeric sequience. By keeping at least part of the original image number as part of the JPEG or TIFF image made from a RAW file. I can easily locate the original RAW file for creating any other differences I discover I wish to do for future images based from the original file.

I also have a 30gb pocket drive to backup the very important works in progress.

I keep my photos on external hard drives and back them up on DVD. My original digital negs are burned immediately to a CD.

Actually, I do a bit of everything. I have a separate "Negatives" folder for unprocessed, downloaded images. Then as I process them, the completed images (jpgs) go into folders in my "photo folder" that's sorted by date. I "register" these photos with image organizing software. Then it's back to the Negative folder, where I have the "negatives", a copy of the completed jpg, and the layered file I used to make that. All three get backed up to CD or DVD and deleted from my HD. Then, I "register" the disk with my organizing software and file it. This way I have tabs on everything, the original, the final, and the layered files. It sounds crazy, but a little extra work keeps everything neat and organized.

I also back them up onto an online storage service.

I started shooting digital images in '98 and have a simple system. I start a new master file each year with the title of "Photo's 2005". Then within that file I have folders by date, event or project.

I use iPhoto. It's intuitive, and it's probably perfect for 90% of everyone reading this. It consistently has new features before competitors. If you need something more, you'll probably spend about $200 in software.

I immediately offload all photos from the PC to DVD's. No photos are ever kept on the hard drive. I can work with a specific photo from the DVD.

My folders are arranged by subject matter, then location (going from general to specific - State to specific site) It works most of the time for me. Some photos though fall into several topic areas and here is were a keyword system would be an additional help.

Not sure if this has been covered in past articles, but would like to find out more about making this easier and less time consuming from the computer to CD/DVD archive and labeling and filing archive media.

I archive to DVD and save on a Hard drive also. When the drive is full I pull it and replace it. This way I have two copies in two different formats.

I use Delkin Devices new 300 year CDs for archiving.

Until then I move them to an external hard drive that lives connected to my desktop. I still worry about them, so I usually print most to 4X6 using an online service, which lets them reside there, too. I think they're print service is cheaper and faster than using my own equipment, which I save for larger prints.