Finding images in your library

One of the things that I have picked up on now that I am revisiting old files is that my photo editing has improved immensely ( as it should have, with all the products and advice around)and  that naming was something that should have been standardised early on. Mine wasn't in my early days, so I just gave files a title, and shock-horror didn't save as, so some early original files weren't saved. No big deal as it was a quick crop and that was it, as they were not the gems I hope I have now.

So as my image library has increased and I wanted to index better, both on original and backup folders, and on the edited images I decided on the workflow system I have now.

All my imported files go into separate folders for the different camera's I have, and are dated with location as well, thus 2011-11-16_BEXHILL_NEX5_2. This mean I can search in Picasa for all Bexhill folders, Nex images or by date. The Raw conversions stay in the same folder for convenience.

When I select potential shots they are edited in Photoshop and saved as PSD files, named thus,  _MG_9761_LONDON_ARCHITECTURE_BW_V1, and subsequent JPEG versions for web would be the same, named _MG_9761_LONDON_ARCHITECTURE_BW_V1_RS, the RS is a resized version for web use.
I can then search in Picasa for files with any naming characteristics and sort through quickly for a particular file.

My PSD edited files go into a separate folder "NEW EDITED IMAGES" which is continually backed up to another drive.

If destined for sending to a printer I would append "Canvas" or somesuch on the end of the flattened file.
For my own printing I use Q-image, which is fantastic, and that will grab full size PSD files from the New Edited Images" folder and use that for my prints.

I adhere to this regime for all complicated edits, saving a full layered version. They are really big files but External Drives are not that expensive now.