How do you organize images for your website?

[md_doc]

Because I'm working with a large number of images on several different websites, i decided it was time to find some strategy for organizing them. For starters, I'd like to know exactly where each image is being used, whether it appears in a single article or is featured on many pages.

Another problem was image captions and credits. Let's say I have an image of a polar bear, and I've been given permission to display it on a site by Larry Large, how do I keep the permission credit and caption linked to the image. To put it another way, how do I avoid losing it, or confusing it among hundreds of other permissions and captions?

I finally decided to put all of my images on a single website and link to them remotely from unique websites. Then I listed all my images in a spreadsheet, where I could add a wide variety of information. I then converted it to a database table and created a second database table that lists dynamic page URL's, matching each URL with any image that should appear on that page.

It's kind of tedious, and I'm still ironing out a few kinkds, but I think it's going to work.

Then I discovered iPhoto and am intrigued at the possibility of using it to help organize images. Merely being able to assign key words to images could help greatly in organizing them by permissions, file extensions and many other criteria.

It appears that I can import an entire folder (with subfolders) into iPhoto, with each folder lending its name to a separate Event. Unfortunately, I would presumably have to maintain two matching collections of images - one on my website, the other in iPhoto. So every time I add, delete or modify an image in one, I'd have to perform the same action in the other.

So, do either of my strategies - spreadsheet/database table or iPhoto - sound worthwhile to you? Have any of you used similar strategies, or do you have better ideas to share?

Thanks.

[ryanhellyer]

I have a spreadsheet which outlines in depth the IP of each image, the author (if known), the URL I got it from, the URL the owner has requested me to provide a link to on any page I use it on (where applicable), what site I've used it on or intend to use it on and a copy of email communications with the images owner about my use of it (if applicable). However I don't have any way of tracking the individual images on each page apart from going back to my spreadsheet and finding the file name. Lately I've started keeping all of my images in one folder per site so that I can't accidentally end up with two images with the same file name, hence causing problems with my records.

My records are only for legal purposes though in case someone accuses me of IP theft in the future. I use a lot of images which are copyrighted, but I've obtained permission from the owners to use. I'm also keen to keep records of where I find freeware images too in case it turns out that they were not supposed to be provided for free.