GregW610 Loc: Indianapolis, IN

Hi all, my first post on UHH but have been watching for over a year. Finally have decided to organize/ consolidate my photos before taking up the task learning to editing them. After many years, I finally have time on my hands. I had 15+ years of digital files stored on various old computers back up drives and CDs, multiple copies in different files as I moved to new computers. Also my wife had copies on hers as well so I have a lot of sorting and cleaning out to do.

I have moved them all to my newest PC and would like to get rid of the duplicates. Two questions

1. What is the best way to do this and is there software to do this in an organized manner. I could copy them all to the same location and if there already a duplicate not copy it. But this seems like there is a lot of risk and time associated with this.

2. What are the recommended photo organization software programs to allow me to tag photos by people, events, date so I can put them in some resemblance of order other than renaming files. Using file meta data or auto recognition of people would be great but not required

Most of the files will be JPEG. After this task, will be scanning boxes my father slides that go back to the '50s.

Any help or direction is most welcome.

Ourspolair

https://www.acdsee.com/en/index/ Their software is excellent for this purpose. Builds a classification index in a database. Easy to learn.
Thereafter, you should consider how you want to proceed with tags, but this will get the job done quickly.

rcorne001 Loc: Cary, NC

You could also check into Lightroom. I understand the library function remains active even if the subscription lapses or is not active. I find it to be a very good product for that. So you could just download it give it a whirl. No $$$ up front.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I was in your boat a few years ago. I had started to use Lightroom for editing and organizing, and all my images were in one large catalog.

The first thing I did was to back everything up.

Then I divided the problem up. I sorted all the images by year and placed them in collections. I then exported each year to a separate catalog so I could work on them one year at a time. (There was a separate catalog for scanned images which had no EXIF data).

Using a limited catalog made it easier for me to keep track of where I was in the process and also there were fewer images to compare for duplicates.

I also made sure that each year’s images were in a separate folder. I used another program to look for duplicates. I think it was “Awesome Duplicate Finder” (I’m not at my desktop right now).

After cleaning out duplicates I went through the year and put keywords on all the images. That is the most time consuming part although you can put keywords on groups of images. I try to have a keyword for every person in an image. At my age that was sometimes a challenge to remember the names.

I started with about 65,000 images and got it down to 15,000. Took me about 2 months working in free time (not retired at that time) a couple hours a day.

When I got through all the years, I merged all the catalogs into one master catalog.

Since I had backed it all up at the start, I had no qualms about deleting duplicate images.

PS: I have family photos dating back to the 1870s and other documents to about 1830. I scanned them and imported them into Lightroom to make it easier to make copies and distribute them to the family. Dates are estimated and the images are in folders dated by year estimate.

Laramie Loc: Tempe

I wrote a script (batch file) that moves all files off SD media onto hard disk, organized by the date the script is run. The script then builds an html file to make browsing images easier and generates thumbnails of all images for the html file.

I copied the layout from a program my brother used, but wrote the script myself.

Xpatch Loc: New York, Antigua, GT.

Photo mechanic plus, now has a library,

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

When I bought PS Elements years ago I did so because of its ability to catalogue and tag photos plus editing features. I have not been disappointed. Got all of my slides and prints scanned and organized and keep my new digital photos organized and tagged.

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

The gold standard for organizing/editing is Lightroom Photoshop. LR started as a cataloging tool with some editing functions and has grown into something more elaborate. I'd suggest you subscribe to Adobes photography bundle and add a couple backup external drives for your files.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Lightroom will do a search and tag all duplicates with a keyword "duplicate". You then can search on the keyword duplicate and they'll all come up then you can go between the two or three with the same name and see if which one you've edited or if they all are then delete the ones you want but for me if you have not done any editing with Lightroom or any other program there's a faster way to clean up these things. I swear by it.

My preface the statement by I use windows.

Get the app called search everything. This app will do just that. For example you say all your files are jpegs, just type *.jpg in the search bar, or go through the menu and tell it to search for jpegs or all photos and it will find those photos in a matter of seconds, it is fast. Then you sort by file name. I then use Firestone image viewer and I click on the first one, then with the mouse wheel just a slight roll of the wheel goes to the next image so you can go back and forth very quickly to make sure they are the same and not a crop or something like that. if they are identical the one you're on hit the delete key and it's gone. It will include all drives connected so if you have your backup drives connected I would disconnect them and do One Drive at a time, although the software tells you where they are so you can tell if it's a backup if you look close enough at your directory. In my case I may have three or four files of the same name but it shows me where they're at, one will be on c one on f one on G one on H and I know they're backups so they're not duplicates. Since you're just starting out these are two absolute necessary programs in my mind, search everything and fast on image viewer. you'll love them both.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍 I find that Search Everything is one of the most used and useful utilities I have.

JJJLSN1 Loc: North Carolina

Can anyone tell me if Bridge can, in a more limited way from Lightroom, provide a useful way to organize photos? I subscribe to Adobe Photoshop but will not use Lightroom for a catalog.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Bridge is a folder browser. It can apply keywords but can’t do virtual copies or collections like LR.

DVZ Loc: Littleton CO

I've been using ACDSee since version 1 and really like it. You might also consider buying a couple hard drives and do a complete backup on both. Install one in your computer a make it your working photo drive. Then in the future when you upgrade your computer all you have to do is pull the hard drive and install it in the new computer and your up and running.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Yup. It is much faster, and easier to use. LR will go it, but it is slow and not as accurate.

The one thing I did was KEEP an original backup until I was sure I was good to go and no mistakes!!!

DVZ Loc: Littleton CO

Speaking of keeping originals, do not edit the only jpg, keep it untouched and only edit copies. In general editing jpgs is destructive and every time you save a jpg it condenses it to keep the file size small and in the process it slightly degrades the file.