Organizing Photos

[Mike Robison]

I have over 5 thousand pictures and software choices of Nikon Picture Project, Adobe PS CS2 and Picasso. Are any of these good choices or do I something else?

[KevinStecyk]

I provided the following information in another post. Given that you have 5000 images, you might want to use a database to track your pictures.

Here are two popular and robust databases:

Portfolio: Font Managers - Creative Asset Management - Font Management - Digital Asset Management

iView Media Pro:
Digital Asset and Image Management Software - iView Multimedia

Both products retail for about USD 200.00.

Hope this information helps.

Regards,
Kevin

[Noel_Carboni]

Possibly this problem doesn't require additional expenditure...

I've way over 50,000 photos myself, accumulated since 1997, and I organize them under folders and subfolders: Year \ Month \ Occasion

An example would be Photos \ 2004 \ 05 \ Karate Black Belt Test

If I search "Photos" for "Karate" using Windows Search, in a few seconds I get hits on any subfolder that contains that word. Within the folder are the images, named as they came from the camera (e.g., IMG_1234.CR2).

To browse around any given folder full of images, I use Windows Explorer, Thumbnail view. Double click an image and up comes Irfan View in a fraction of a second showing the image at a larger size.

I'm sure the Mac has equivalent functions.

There hasn't been an image I couldn't find in a few minutes or less yet. I find I can usually remember the date (or approximate date) and/or the occasion. Name the occasion according to the first thing you think of, because that'll probably be what you think of when you're searching for it.

Just something to try before spending money.

-Noel

[Bryan_Fletcher]

You might also want to take a look at Adobe Lightroom

[ChrisPerry]

I to organize my year/month/event or year/date_name depending.

As in :
07_Weddings/03_30 Liz and Bobby Blume
or
06_Seniors/May/Sara B

etc.
Works well. I don't bother with entering any exif info.

[DierkHaasis]

Chris, though some tools are available to fiddle with EXIF, they are non-writable. I guess you mean IPTC as a matter of entering useful information.

While using your HD as a sole source of organisation, directory structure can only be a fall-back solution. It offers one, and only one, level to sort your photos. As long as you have a very good idea what can be seen on all your pictures that may be enough but someday you will most likely remember your collection only partially.

How, for instance will you sort a photo showing Aunt Margaret, your own son and a Holy Cow in front of the Tadj Mahal? Is it in a directory under your mother's side of the family [Aunt Margaret happens to be a second cousin to your wife's sister-in-law]? Or should it be filed under Family Reunion? What about your own core family? 1997's summer holiday, India, religion, architecture, history ... You get my drift.

Image browsers - photos need to be accesible to be viewed - are a step up over the OS's capabilities because they usually offer useful features, like IPTC/EXIF search, IPTC keywording, ranking, flagging, even gallery building. But, as written, they only work for those files they can access, non-connected network drives, external HDs or non-loaded DVDs do not show up.

There's free image browsers like IrfanView, low-cost ones like BreezeBrowser [Pro], and very expensive ones like Adobe Bridge which has Photoshop thrown in. Bridge CS2 is rather good if slow, and you already have it, Mike.

Next step up is database-driven image organisers: iView MediaPro [henceforth Microsoft Expression Media or MEM], Extensis Portfolio, iMatch, Canto Cumulus [and the single user version which is sold under another name by another company; and I forgot]. Their biggest advantage is accessibility to photos not being on your computer, loaded or connected. Naturally they come with whole host of advanced features.

Personally I use what will shortly become MEM [see above] as do many other photographers. Portfolio and Cumulus are used by many agencies and magazines for their networking capabilities, currently lacking in MediaPro/Expression Media.

The learning curve and price for real DAMs - Data Asset Management [= database-driven organisers] - may be higer than that of image browsers including the existing OS features but it pays of quickly. You simply find your photos faster, you have better access to your collection to learn from mistakes or by comparison, and you have several layers of sorting and finding. While your Tadj Mahal photo resides in a Family Holiday directory you can easily assign keywords, catalogue sets and much more to them thus being able to forget what was in the picture.

Yes, such a DAM is a definite recommendation; iMatch is very capable and not as expensive as the others.

[ChrisPerry]

IPTC...yeah, something like that

My paid work I can find, and usually don't need to refer back to it anyway.

Personal photos...that's a whole nother ball of wax perhaps, but again, I organize like above and have not had issues when I need to go back and find something.

I don't do stock...that would of course require a more database and keyword oriented system.

I also am a one man show 95% of the time so I don't have to have a system(yet) that other people need to be able to use.

I have more of an issue with the JPGs - RAW are easy, as are PSDs. It's what I do with the JPG saved from the PSD...is it the conversion from RAW, a proof, a web sized proof, a print file, a customer ordered cropped file (and which crop), or some other file I worked on for me, as a test, etc. It's not uncommon for me to have the RAW, a PSD and 4 or 5 JPGs of the same image, but NOT the same edit/size/crop. they tend to stay in the directory structure of the event UNLESS they're for my website or sample print then they end up under my 'advertising' directories (started as one...now it's a whole nest of things)