pinkycat Loc: The Garden State

I want a way to catalog my best photos. I'm not a professional yet and am not close to being there. But, I'd like a way to do this so it is beneficial to me and is easily shown to others who are interested. Any ideas?

1eyedjack

Make a scrap book with 8x10's, might work..

BigD Loc: The LEFT Coast

Fire up your own website, there are many services out there that will host it and are designed for exactly what you are trying to do (look at Zenfolio). There is also Flicker, Picasa, Photo Bucket and a bunch more I am missing, don't worry the gang here will provide their names.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

For hard copy photos an art portfolio is the easiest, B&H and Adorama have a book that holds about 24 that is reasonable, for on line google provides a free website if you want it, Bob.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

The best cataloging program for consumers is Lightroom 4 by Adobe. You can do cataloging with PSE10 (Organizer) too but it's not as complete as LR4 and if the database gets to be too large it really slows PSE down.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Set up a collection as a manually-controlled slideshow in any number of post-editing software packages or MS Office Power Point and just carry in a laptop or iPad to show it on. No page sleeves, no wrinkled pages, no printing, no nothing to go wrong and "like, totally hi-tech dude" for anybody who sees it.

We're in the midst of an iPad obsession for the general public right now so you're just plain overly cool and completely professional if you move your whole life onto one (at least that's what I've heard) and dump all your thousands of dollars of other computer equipment into a closet or Goodwill store.

Personally I want to throw up when I see a TV news anchor standing in front of a green screen holding an iPad in one hand at waist level and pretending to look at it for his/her presentation when he's actually using a teleprompter. They've gone from a couple sheets of paper to an iPad in one multi-hundred dollar leap. They probably have ONE iPad for the whole staff to hold in small stations. Or maybe it's just a leather case with a sheet of white plexiglass inside, since we can't see the screen of it. Just a sign of the times, I guess.

Get one, have one, carry one in public, use one, pretend to use one - or you're not professional. It reminds me of the days of having a fake beeper with a little timer circuit that would ring itself in 5, 10, 15, or 20 minute increments to make it seem like you were important. Or fake bluetooth devices to wear with an activation LED on it so you could talk into thin air to look important.

Although... the new iPad screen is said to be the very best, top quality, screen available to mankind for showing photographs. That would certainly be the ultimate portfolio for you and something to consider seriously.

wlgoode Loc: Globe, AZ

I use Picassa for cataloging. It's kinda weak on editing but good at cataloging and it's free!

Picdude Loc: Ohio

Typically when people referer to "cataloging" on here it is in regards to a program that allows you to collect ALL of your photos in one pile (so to speak), then attach tag words or other identifiers to them so to be able to pick specific photos out of the pile.

What you have described could be accomplished as easily as making a new folder on your computer named "Best Photos" and copying all your best/favorite photos into that folder.

If you could, maybe give a little more information as to exactly what you are wanting to do so the group can come up with more specific suggestions?

pinkycat Loc: The Garden State

What I would like to do is have something available to show people my best photos. I would like something in print and something online. I have already set aside a folder with my best pictures in it. It would also serve to keep a record for me and a history as I progress in my skills.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

Sounds like what you may be wanting is a slide show creator. Software for this can range from free to $250.00 or more.

I personally use Pro Show Producer from Photodex. This software runs about $250.00 but gives very professional results. Before that I used PhotoStage Slideshow from NCH software. This is a free download.

Both of these allow you to add music, do transitions between photos, add text and burn to DVD. There are plenty of other freeware/shareware programs available, just google "sideshow software" and check out what comes up.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

For on-line display you may want to checkout the following link:

http://tutorialblog.org/so-you-need-a-photo-gallery-website/

Smugmug, Photobucket and Picasa are all three used by many members on UHH.