 Lynsey Lund |
cross-referencing and labelig photos I am having a problem getting my digital files organized for back-up and searchability purposes. The problem is two-fold, I suppose. First...I think I need some sort of program to help me organize my photos. Something that will let me assign multiple keywords as well as the date. And if I want to have an external harddrive to store with DVD backups...the program needs to be installed on my external HD right? The further problem is more of an issue, I guess. When it comes time to burn CDs/DVDs...do I burn by category? By subject? By date? ANd since each photo can fall under multiple categories, how do I cross-reference those onto the backup disks so I am not wasting space? I want to be able to find these images when I need them...but am a bit at a loss of how to manage that. Any tips? I've searched the archives and haven't quite found the information I need. TIA, I appreciate your thoughts! ---Lynsey
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Ariel Lepor |
I use Picasa (Windows and Linux) for all my editing. It can even organize files stored on other computers on your network, so I'm sure it will work with external hard drives, even if it installed on your main computer. You can search for files by folder name, image name, color. You can organize pictures into albums. It is super fast. It lets you burn CDs and DVDs, and when it does this, it keeps all the information (regarding starred photos, albums, folder structure) so you can open it in Picasa on another computer and have it all organized. I highly recommend it.
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Ariel Lepor |
I mean, I use Picasa for all my organization. I use Helicon Filter for all my editing.
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Lynsey Lund |
Thanks Ariel. I have picasa but haven't really gotten into it...apparantly I need to check out the REad Me file? I am kind of bumping this to see if someone else can offer me some insight on the organizing after I get them off the computer. That seems to the part that stumps me more!
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Stephanie M. Stevens |
I use iView MediaPro 3 to organize my pictures. It lets you assign keywords, ratings, and labels, plus just about anything else you can think of. It was expensive when I bought it, but the company was recently acquired by Microsoft and came out with a new line of the software, I have no idea what their prices are, but there are several different levels. The program I have will show thumbnails of pictures that aren't on the computer anymore, and will remeber files located on my external drive, even though it isn't always attached to the computer. The biggest problem is that it doesn't hold on to files on CDs, so it's a pain to find pictures with just tiny thumbnails. The website is http://www.iview-multimedia.com/
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Ariel Lepor |
Don't bother with the Read Me. Just open it and let it scan your computer. Then it registers all the files with pictures and organizes them by date.
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Pete H |
This is actually a excellent discussion; and one I continually agonize over. Allow me to pose a question to the group. What happens when these programs become outdated? Who is to say a "organizing" program will even be available 5 yrs from now? I see many pitfalls in "keywording" programs and database searching that is specific to ONE program. What I do is; what I consider to be an easy method. Example: This year I Label ONE folder "2007" From there I simply categorize & sub-categorize..(Birthdays)...(Joes Birthday) etc...Then another folder under 2007 (Landscapes).."local"...Foreign.. or state by state...etc..Holidays..and so it goes
The whole idea of categories and sub categories can get quite cumbersome. I've tried Picasa in the past..hated it...found it no better that my personal system. The year by year system seems to work for me..so far. LOL I feel your pain Lynsey. Pete
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Ariel Lepor |
I don't see a future 5 yrs from now where Picasa no longer works. It will probably be very advanced. FYI: If you get a Mac, iPhoto will organize everything by year and folder, afaik, but I prefer Picasa's method. BTW: When you import pictures into Picasa, you can put in info like location and folder name. This helps for the super-fast searches. Maybe, Pete, you should try Picasa again. The main reason I like Picasa is that I can find any picture I want right away, and then I can right-click it and open it in any program I want. Plus, it can do some nifty edits of its own, and it does the best job making printing easy of any program I've seen. I'll stop here; people will suspect me as being a Google agent.
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Lynsey Lund |
A google agent? I apparantly am not on the forums enough, I don't know what that is! I will have to go into picasa a bit more. Aperture actually sounds like it is easy enough to use and not a whole lot of extra crap...but alas I am a PC user. Darn. Pete...I have kind of been doing what you have been....perhaps if I was more fastidious. Is this how you keep them organized outside of your computer as well? A DVD/CD for each sub folder?
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Ariel Lepor |
lol I meant, if I promote Picasa too much, people might think I work for Google (which I don't!).
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Pete H |
Lynsey; Yes....I make a carbon copy directly to a external REID hard drive and burn the directory structure to a DVD as well. I use the "so-called" archival quality DVD's and further will re-burn the DVD's every 2 yrs. The difficult aspect of all this relates more to my laziness at times. LOL If I wait til I have 1,000 photos of various subject matter, the job is tedious to say the least. When I shoot for pay, my methods vary somewhat. When I DO keep the originals, my clients sign a release that holds me harmless from data loss when thru no fault of my own..and further, after 5 yrs, I make no explicit guarantee of data integrity. It IS a very REAL problem; indexing photos is more time consuming than photography itself, and by far, less fun.
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