Looking for Photo Sorting Utility
Sep 29, 2017 12:48:54 #
Shootist wrote:
I am awed at the amount of time you dedicated to answer my questions, thank you very much. I can see my immediate future will include looking into your suggestions with more depth.
My pleasure.
Sep 30, 2017 06:35:07 #
Sep 30, 2017 09:09:54 #
That is Gene's "Standard Operating Procedure" - always thorough and well written! Anytime he replies to a post, I read it.
Mark
Mark
mborn wrote:
Excellent Answer 
Sep 30, 2017 09:11:05 #
jerryc41 wrote:
I wish I had a wealth of wealth. They say information is power. I'm still waiting. 
Mark
Sep 30, 2017 09:23:57 #
johnbhome2
Loc: Wyoming, Michigan
I use Microsoft Photo Gallery. All my digital photos dating back to 1989 when I first went digital are there. It was available for free when I updated to Windows 10. I use its slide show capabilities only. No fuss no muss.
Sep 30, 2017 10:00:15 #
dpullum wrote:
The Shootist said in part: "up just to find o... (show quote)
Did you mean to say "folders" in several locations?
Sep 30, 2017 10:51:12 #
Sep 30, 2017 11:21:26 #
Shootist wrote:
Has anyone used Microsoft Photo Gallery for their sorting and cataloging software? I don't want to put a lot of effort into setting this up just to find out it has fatal flaws. LightRoom seems to be the most popular but I am not interested in that particular program and also have no interest in cloud storage. Comments please?
Not sure exactly what your trying to accomplish, cataloging downloads? I file mine by date and subfolder of subject, done mostly in Windows Explorer, keywording, if I want it, is done in PSP while doing PP, Bob.
Sep 30, 2017 12:47:12 #
Shootist wrote:
Has anyone used Microsoft Photo Gallery for their sorting and cataloging software? I don't want to put a lot of effort into setting this up just to find out it has fatal flaws. LightRoom seems to be the most popular but I am not interested in that particular program and also have no interest in cloud storage. Comments please?
If you do not want to put out the money for LightRoom (which can be installed and used on your computer) Here is what I used to do, and still do somewhat. I use windows.
I have a directory "photos" under it I create others, birds, animals, insects, family etc. I have one other that is "unsorted". I download to the unsorted. From there I move to the other directories. You can rename a directory by going to that directory, selecting all, right-clicking the first one and typing in a name, ie in the flowers dir name the first one flowers and then a number will automatically be added to each one (do this the first time, after sorting by date, then when you move pics to that dir you will not overwrite any and they will have unique names and be sorted by date.
As I said, this is what I used to do before using LightRoom which is by far easier and FASTER.
Jerry (as usual) came through with several links to freebies you can try, but if all you want to do is sort, you need nothing but your computer....or use Picasa which I also used years ago....which also serves as a viewer and is still free. https://picasa.en.softonic.com/
Good luck...
Sep 30, 2017 12:58:30 #
My modus operendi is very similar. I use FastStone for viewing, collect keepers, process and put in an appropriate folder.
Mark
Mark
frankraney wrote:
If you do not want to put out the money for LightR... (show quote)
Sep 30, 2017 15:13:06 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
Why don't you decide for yourself?
Download the free 30-day trial of Elements 15 from the Adobe website and give it a try. You might want to purchase one of the guide books for it in advance (Amazon lists several... Scott Kelby's are good), to be able to use it to best possible extent during the 30-day trial... then decide if you want to pay the license fee to keep it... about $80 last time I looked. Nice thing about Elements is that it has built in support for new users. You can choose between using it in Beginner, Intermediate or Export mode... and can switch back and forth between them at any time. Elements is designed to be an all-in-one software.
The same free 30-day trial is offered for Lightroom 6, Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC. But those don't have much built in support and are more advanced DAM tools, so be sure to get a book in advance for LR6/CC. Anyone other than highly experienced users of recent versions should forget about doing a trial with Photoshop. It's way to advanced to learn to use in a 30-day trial.
LR6 is a perpetual license version costing around $145.... LR CC is the "cloud" version offered by subscription ($10 a month when you prepay a year... including Photoshop CC, which is MUCH MUCH more complex and advanced image editing, manipulation and optimization software). LR6 and LR CC are basically the same, but LR6 gets new feature updates at a much slower pace (probably deliberately because Adobe would rather you subscribe to LR CC).
Photoshop is now only offered as CC and by subscription (with LR CC... the two complement each other... each is sort of incomplete without the other).
There are plenty of other programs that can help.... free, low cost, more expensive.... simple, moderate and complex. Depends upon what you need and want to do... but I got tired of the problems with freebies (no support or updates, discontinuations, etc.) Spend a little on something tried and true... rather than having to start over with something else in the future.
If using a PC with Windows, a codec such as FastPictureViewer (https://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/) that costs all of $10 can be helpful, allowing you to see most types of images directly in Windows Explorer. I use it for for simple organizational purposes, which is about all it's good for. There's a bit more expensive ($50) FastPictureViewer Pro that has some image editing capabilities, too.
You might want to get and read "The DAM Book - Digital Asset Management for Photographers" by Peter Krogh. I found an early edition of it very useful some years ago, when first getting into digital imaging and before I'd accumulated too many files. The sooner you get organized, the better... since image archives seem to grow exponentially. I now have a couple million images so it would be a massive job to make any major changes to my organization. I'm glad I took the time to read a book or two and "do it right" close to the beginning. At least in the edition I read, Krogh recommended some specific software and devices which I didn't end up using. Maybe his latest edition is more broad or discussed more options... But I didn't have any trouble choosing equivalents to what he recommended. http://thedambook.com/the-dam-book/
Download the free 30-day trial of Elements 15 from the Adobe website and give it a try. You might want to purchase one of the guide books for it in advance (Amazon lists several... Scott Kelby's are good), to be able to use it to best possible extent during the 30-day trial... then decide if you want to pay the license fee to keep it... about $80 last time I looked. Nice thing about Elements is that it has built in support for new users. You can choose between using it in Beginner, Intermediate or Export mode... and can switch back and forth between them at any time. Elements is designed to be an all-in-one software.
The same free 30-day trial is offered for Lightroom 6, Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC. But those don't have much built in support and are more advanced DAM tools, so be sure to get a book in advance for LR6/CC. Anyone other than highly experienced users of recent versions should forget about doing a trial with Photoshop. It's way to advanced to learn to use in a 30-day trial.
LR6 is a perpetual license version costing around $145.... LR CC is the "cloud" version offered by subscription ($10 a month when you prepay a year... including Photoshop CC, which is MUCH MUCH more complex and advanced image editing, manipulation and optimization software). LR6 and LR CC are basically the same, but LR6 gets new feature updates at a much slower pace (probably deliberately because Adobe would rather you subscribe to LR CC).
Photoshop is now only offered as CC and by subscription (with LR CC... the two complement each other... each is sort of incomplete without the other).
There are plenty of other programs that can help.... free, low cost, more expensive.... simple, moderate and complex. Depends upon what you need and want to do... but I got tired of the problems with freebies (no support or updates, discontinuations, etc.) Spend a little on something tried and true... rather than having to start over with something else in the future.
If using a PC with Windows, a codec such as FastPictureViewer (https://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/) that costs all of $10 can be helpful, allowing you to see most types of images directly in Windows Explorer. I use it for for simple organizational purposes, which is about all it's good for. There's a bit more expensive ($50) FastPictureViewer Pro that has some image editing capabilities, too.
You might want to get and read "The DAM Book - Digital Asset Management for Photographers" by Peter Krogh. I found an early edition of it very useful some years ago, when first getting into digital imaging and before I'd accumulated too many files. The sooner you get organized, the better... since image archives seem to grow exponentially. I now have a couple million images so it would be a massive job to make any major changes to my organization. I'm glad I took the time to read a book or two and "do it right" close to the beginning. At least in the edition I read, Krogh recommended some specific software and devices which I didn't end up using. Maybe his latest edition is more broad or discussed more options... But I didn't have any trouble choosing equivalents to what he recommended. http://thedambook.com/the-dam-book/
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