The whole reason for the move to Windows was to be able to use Lightroom’s database system of file management.  When I was shooting film I had a pretty simple filing system.  All commercial jobs were filed in 9 x 12 envelopes alphabetically by client name, dated and placed in the filing cabinet for that year.   Two years of files were kept this way.  After two years all files were archived into one file by client name and only negatives images that were ordered were kept.

My personal work was really a mess.  They were filed by broad categories.  Landscapes, still life, nudes, etc.  Then these were divided into smaller categories, mostly on my ideas at that time, but I was not consistent with any of this.   I did keep all contact sheets with their negatives but when I wanted an image there was a lot of looking through contact sheets and negatives over the lightbox.  I did separate some of my favorites into their own own file marked favorites and then I listed on the envelope which images were in that envelope.

I am hoping that with Lightroom  I can get my personal work organized.  I have started to file all my personal work by year only.  Not even sure if I need them in a year file but, for some reason, I am not ready going to using only a single picture or photo file .  I am using keywords, metadata, star ratings and colors along with collections.  Files are renamed on import into YYYYMMDD_####.DNG format.  While I am still new to this system, it is working well so far.    I still use separate files for clients  but all personal work is placed in the file for the year it was photographed.  As of now I am not separating into months and may decide I don’t need the year file and only one picture file.