gdanmitchell
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Tom_W wrote:
Well, my system for years has been a main year folder, say, 2026. Then, month subfolders. Then when I do use the camera, I put it in a newly created folder called (date)(month)(year) within the month in which the photos were taken. If it was a special event, say, the Cleveland Air Show, then I name the folder that but still put it inside the active month.
As you may have guessed, this system was a lot better when all I had were 6.3 mpx 10D images. I still do this, even though LR has its own little database system. That way, I can find the files.
I can't help I'm still stuck in MSDOS in some ways! 
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There are multiple sensible ways to organize photo files. What seems “obtuse and functionally useless” can turn out to be sensible and useful to another photographer.
I’ll use me as an example.
I use a Bridge/ACR/Photoshop workflow, so everything stars with the raw files. I have lots of them, and categorizing them by subject would be a complete mess. When I import raw files to my drives (using Bridge) I automatically create file names for them that include the original camera-generated file name, a unique number generated by Bridge, and a simple from of the date of capture in YYYYMMDD form. Bridge places the raw files in subfolders by date semi-automatically. (It also adds other important information to the files including copyright info, etc. at the time of import.)
After importing a batch of raws, I open each date’s subfolder in Bridge. (Bridge keeps track of the new folders, so I do this entirely with Bridge — no need to go to the Finder.) I screen and (very lightly) cull in Bridge. I double click interested images in Bridge to open them into ACR, where I do the usual raw conversion stuff and, these days, the majority of my post-processing — ACR has become extremely powerful in this regard recently, and many things I used to do in Photoshop can ow e done in Bridge.
Any image that survives the ACR edit and looks interesting gets opening in Photoshop as a smart object. (Meaning, among other things, that I can return to ACR to update the processing there of the raw file at any later point.) Photographs that make it through the Photoshop editing process and meet my standards get saved as full PS files with all layers intact in a different directory that is organized by what I’ll call subject, and these “keeper” files get new file names that still include the original date (you may be able to anticipate why) along with a compacted from of the image title.
So, here, the final files are organized by subject, with folder names (and often sub-folder names) that reflect the subjects. “Subject” could be a location, a subject type (“wildlife” or “architecture”), a reference to people who are the subjects, etc.
That final organizational system might not make sense to others, but it works well for me and I can usually find anything pretty quickly from my 12+ TB of image files.
Am I saying that my way is the “right way” or the “best way?” Certainly now. It works very well for me, but you may have different needs and preferences. Figure that out, and don’t let anyone else tell you that you should do it their way.
YMMV.
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