Structurizing the pictures

[faksta]

Good day to everyone!
I've come up with a tough question for myself - can't deal with it since spring. It concern the structure of my 'Auto' folder in pictures. Right now it looks like this:

Level 1 - 55 folders in alphabetical order, English and Russian alphabets plus '0-9' folder - thus, A, B, C... and Misc folder (for such things as magazine covers, program covers, unknown cars etc.) and one more folder for torrents.

Level 2 - Within each of them there are separate folders for each make.

Level 3 - Inside every make's folder I previously had 'Sport', 'History', 'Concepts', 'Sketches', 'Computer projects', 'Various', 'Spy shots' ones (maybe missed something), and the main folder itself remained for current production cars. But now it doesn' work good, as some cars can be put, for example, in production and racing ones, thus coming into 'Sport' section and main folder at the same time. Moreover, sometimes you just can't say where the production halted and is the car still produced. Finally, for some makes such a structure means that you get an overloaded make's folder (Ford, for example, as it has a huge current model range).

So, now I'm thinking of redesigning it and would like to hear some advices from you. How do you deal with it?

I've started to make a separate folder within a make's one for every single model - say, inside Jaguar I now have some amount of folders instead of previously done, just like '[year-year] Jaguar model name'. But here's racing again - what's better, to make a 'Racing' folder for each model or to make a general 'Racing' folder in Jaguar and divide it into models that raced? Having in mind that I'd also like to sort them by racing series and maybe even classes.

Jaguar -> Model -> Racing
Jaguar -> Racing -> Model

P.S. After reading what I've written I think some of you may think I'm too scurpulous with it...

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Yeah. Minor OCD had crossed my mind.

But I think a proper Structuring of image files is Vital. Heaven forbid you have a gem of a photo you don't know what of, or when it was taken.

[LeonOfTheDead]

My archieve is sorted in this way

"Automobili" (cars) it's the main folder where you find something like 800 folders, one for each car maker or tuner (I'm thinking about putting all the pics from minor tuners in the folders of the car maker producing the actual car), so "Abt", "Audi" and so on.
in each of these fodlers, you find all the models of every car makers sorted in this way, for example "2007 8C Competizione" or "2006 8C Competizione Preview" or even "2003 8C Competizione Concept", so mixing concepts, production ready cars and production cars. racing cars are featured in the same way, as a sub folder of the road car folder (if that is race car based on a street model) as if it was just a version of the road car or directly in the manufacturer's folder, but I'm also thinking about putting all those folders (so racing versions, cabriolet versions and so on) directly on the manufacturer's folder. Sometimes when a manufacturer produced many race cars of the same kind (as F1 for Ferrari) I sort all of them in a "F1" folder in the manufacturer's folder.

[Revo]

The simpler the better.

I use structre Country->Make->Year

Additional info is in the file name, e.g race event this, driver that etc.

[Wouter Melissen]

Event -> Class -> Car

[LeonOfTheDead]

The simpler the better.

I use structre Country->Make->Year

Additional info is in the file name, e.g race event this, driver that etc.

I don't use to divide per country, and neither I use to store a lot of info about where the pic was taken or what is in the pic (driver or other info). my main interest is the car, technically and stylistically. usually, I store info about auto-shows where the car is unveiled or something like that. otherwise, if the info is already contained in the file or in its name, ok, but I won't complain if is missing.
most important, for me, are year and model.

[faksta]

My archieve is sorted in this way

"Automobili" (cars) it's the main folder where you find something like 800 folders, one for each car maker or tuner (I'm thinking about putting all the pics from minor tuners in the folders of the car maker producing the actual car), so "Abt", "Audi" and so on.
in each of these fodlers, you find all the models of every car makers sorted in this way, for example "2007 8C Competizione" or "2006 8C Competizione Preview" or even "2003 8C Competizione Concept", so mixing concepts, production ready cars and production cars. racing cars are featured in the same way, as a sub folder of the road car folder (if that is race car based on a street model) as if it was just a version of the road car or directly in the manufacturer's folder, but I'm also thinking about putting all those folders (so racing versions, cabriolet versions and so on) directly on the manufacturer's folder. Sometimes when a manufacturer produced many race cars of the same kind (as F1 for Ferrari) I sort all of them in a "F1" folder in the manufacturer's folder.

Something close to what I'm thinking of, as I understood.

The simpler the better.

I use structre Country->Make->Year

Additional info is in the file name, e.g race event this, driver that etc.

Yep, the simpler the better, but sometimes my computer doesn't want to open the folder if there are too many pictures in it, so basically this was the reason of imposing a wide structure. Also, there are some makes (like Ford again) which have different models for different plants - Australian ones, American ones, European ones etc. And the file name contains some additional info, of course - usually for racing cars. Like 'car name (year, event or track, driver)'

Event -> Class -> Car

It works when you have photos from events and shows only, I guess .

[LeonOfTheDead]

Yep, the simpler the better, but sometimes my computer doesn't want to open the folder if there are too many pictures in it, so basically this was the reason of imposing a wide structure. Also, there are some makes (like Ford again) which have different models for different plants - Australian ones, American ones, European ones etc. And the file name contains some additional info, of course - usually for racing cars. Like 'car name (year, event or track, driver)'

I had a similar problem, the pc simply slow down a lot, and actually I still has it with folders with a lot of images and high-res too, since my notebook isn't exactly the top of the line...

For as regards Ford, I would sort them in this way, Ford US/Ford EU/Ford Oz, but actually sometimes is not that easy to say if a car is from NA or Oz, so right now Ford's folder is working with all the three division inside. kinda problematic, but when I'm sure of the provenance of a certain car, I simply write "200X BLABLABLA NA" in the name of the folder.

[faksta]

I had a similar problem, the pc simply slow down a lot, and actually I still has it with folders with a lot of images and high-res too, since my notebook isn't exactly the top of the line...

For as regards Ford, I would sort them in this way, Ford US/Ford EU/Ford Oz, but actually sometimes is not that easy to say if a car is from NA or Oz, so right now Ford's folder is working with all the three division inside. kinda problematic, but when I'm sure of the provenance of a certain car, I simply write "200X BLABLABLA NA" in the name of the folder.

I have such makes in one folder now, too.

[Revo]

...sometimes is not that easy to say if a car is from NA or Oz...

If nothing else helps, then look at the steering wheel position.

[LeonOfTheDead]

If nothing else helps, then look at the steering wheel position.

LOL
that's a little tip yeah...but from the outside?!
Well, I can live with such a doubt...

[basman007]

Do what I do, make a couple new folders. from let's say new folder (1) to new folder (27) and fill them with 20k pics each. it kinda works for me..

[faksta]

Do what I do, make a couple new folders. from let's say new folder (1) to new folder (27) and fill them with 20k pics each. it kinda works for me..

You mean, instead of sorting by companies and models?

[my porsche]

Mine's like

My Photos > Camera List > Event List > Pictures

since I have a lot of pictures besides car stuff.

[faksta]

I store the pictures made by me in another folder, not in 'Auto'