Hopefully your files don't look like this!!
Every serious amateur and
certainly every pro photographer eventually needs to come up with
some type of system to keep track of the mounds of images that
keep piling up. Whether you want to keep track of them for publication,
business purposes, or simply to be organized to find what you
want when you want it. Being organized can save you hours in searching
for that one shot you thought you had.
There are probably as many
ways to organize your image collection as there are photographers.
The intent of this article is to share some of the ways we have
organized our work, labeled for lack of anything better, "The
Graf System." Not that we invented this process, far
from it. We have combined tips from a variety of sources to make
up our own. This is perhaps not the best system, but it is easy
to modify and work with in many aspects of keeping track of your
shots. Maybe you are trying to start from scratch - or improve
on a system you have already started. We hope you will find something
useful.
Much of this article is directed
towards people that want to create their own database using Microsoft
Access. Many already have this on their computer if they have
a Microsoft Office package. If you don't already have Access,
then perhaps you may be better off investing in a specific program
for images if this will be your only use for it. Those with Access
will want to read through this, and examine what we have to offer
at the end.
