What you need

A memory card reader.

An external hard drive or a second internal hard drive. Remember, Photoshop requires that you have 15% of your hard drive space free for "scratch" space. You should always try to maintain a minimum of 5% free at all times, even if you are NOT using Photoshop.

A CD/DVD Burner (Blue Ray Burner if you can afford it). Your computer should already have a CD/DVD burner built into your computer.

You can certainly connect your camera directly to the computer with the supplied USB cable that comes with the camera.

The disadvatages are:

Card readers are inexpensive, often electronic suppliers use them as loss leaders to get you into the store, and you can get one at a discount or even free with a mail-in rebate.

External Hard drive prices have come way down. You can get a 1 terabyte external USB drive now for around $100.00us or less.

File Transfer Methods

Using the Computer's Operating System

The disadvantages are:

Using Adobe's Software

The Work Flow

The goal is to make 2 copies of your camera files on the computer, and two backups to a CD/DVD. BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO SELECT YOUR KEEPERS AND EDIT YOUR PICTURES!

The Main Destination Folders

I like to store my Photos in main folders named for the month and year they were taken. The exception is when I shoot for a client or a specific subject. For example:

Or

Naming the sub-folders

I usually like to have the Sub folders named with the day they were shot. Or, you can choose to name the folder with a recognizable word. PSE also gives you the option of naming the folders with the date and time of the import as seen in the example below...

Re-Naming the files

You have lots of options here, I generally like to rename the files with a recognizable name and a number, like this:

Folder structure for you pictures

This is a typical PSE folder structure and file naming set up...

Downloading Pics to Photoshop Elements -Organizer

1. Insert your memory card into the card reader and connect your card reader to the computer. (or connect your camera to the computer with the supplied USB cable). If you are using your camera, make sure the battery is FULLY charged. Battery failure during a file transfer can be catastrophic.

2.Startup The down load wizard

It's the menu item
File > Get Photos > From Camera or Card Reader...
Key Board Shortcut
(PC) Control G
(MAC) Command G

3. Rather than me re-inventing the "how to" of what to do next I found an excellent on-line resource for you. It is a complete chapter from the book
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 On Demand
or
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 On Demand

By Perspection Inc. and Steve Johnson Feb 22, 2008 Sample Chapter is provided courtesy of Que

This is the link for PSE 6.
This is the link for PSE 7.
You can print the entire chapter! On page 7 you'll find details about downloading your photos... and following that information on how to organize your photo catalogues...

I highly recommend this book or any book in the On Demand series on the informIT Network The prices are reasonable and they are really well written and organized!

N.B. (Nota Bene / Note Well)

Somethings you need to keep in mind...

  1. Do not erase the files from your camera's memory card with the computer. You need to first verify that the files have downloaded correctly, and you have verified they actually copied to a CD or DVD.
  2. When you have verified the above... put your memory card back into the camera and use the cameras "Format" menu to "erase" the card. This will keep the card from fragmenting and slowing down when the camera writes the picture files to your card and when you later copy the pictures to your computer
  3. PSE Organizer only lets you download one set of files to a folder on your computer. Photoshop Bridge and Photoshop Lightroom lets you copy your pictures to two different folders simultaneously.
  4. After you have chosen your "keepers" and "edited" your photographs You need to make 2 more CD's or DVD's. backups of the Final Versions!
  5. If you keep your CD's or DVD's in a dark space they probably will last a lifetime or more. There are "gold" archival cd/dvd disks available that have a long guaranteed life span (up to 6x that of a "dye" DVD). Do a Google search with keywords "Gold DVD's" Prices range from $2.00 to $5 per DVD

Photoshop Bridge and Photoshop Lightroom Downloading/Importing...

Bridge

A website called Digital Frost has organized 20 tutorials on how to use Bridge to organize your files

Lightroom

Here's a sample chapter from PeachPit's "Organizing and Reviewing Images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2" By Nolan Hester.

This is the Link to the Chapter

The main difference between Photoshop Elements verses Bridge and Lightroom is that with Bridge and Lightroom you can add meta data, and keywords before the download begins. Bridge and Lightroom also allow you to download to two different folders simultaneously.

The Meta Data editor in Bridge is found using this menu item:

Tools > Create Meta Data Template

Or you can append or edit existing Metadata files and save them. This is where you can attach copyright info, and descriptions with/to the photographs

The Metadata editor in Lightroom is found here:

Metadata > Edit Metadata presets...

N.B.

Lightroom and Bridge can share the same Metadata files.

See sidebar images for examples of what the download and Metadata dialogue boxes look like...