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What software do you use to organize your photos ?
I'm looking for what is the easiest way to keep images organized (does not have to be an editing software just one to organize my photos).... right now i do it the ol' fashion way... create multiple folders under one directory...I tried once Lightroom when it was at version 1 but could not deal with the multiple steps to keep things on the right place so i gave up.
What do you recommend and why ?
Vic.
Aperture. Fully integrated, easy to learn and use, great workflow management. But, you need a Mac... [:P]
I do have a Mac and a PC, i'm using external hard drives for my files. So any suggestions on PC or Mac are welcome !
Another Aperture user here.
Why?
I love the ways to easy sort and rate my pictures. Quick previews helps me go through them fast. When I import my pictures I rate all OOF, over exposed or too motion blurred with a minus and delete those. The second round depends on the purpose of the shoot. I'll rate potential Flickr photo's with 5 stars and slideshow photo's with 4 stars. Shots which need some PP are flagged with a red flag.
After this is done I make a Smart Folder which collect all images with certain requirement (minimal amount of stars or certain flags). I picked Aperture of Lightroom because I don't like the interface (I prefer native application instead of another interface) and I tried to distance my self from Adobe for once.
Aperture 3 is awesome, but doesn't play nice with my 3 year old Macbook.
Joël
I used to use IdImager because it was powerful, then I switched to Lightroom because it had a smoother, more integrated raw workflow, though not nearly as many catalog features unfortunately.
Try the Lightroom 3 beta. Seems pretty good to me.
I use Adobe Lightroom for PC. Though the thought process used when managing files is quite different than most other software, I think the (slight) learning curve is worth it. You can download, organize, edit and output your photo's without any damage or movement to the original file. if you are curious, adobe is currently offering a free download of lightroom 3 Beta for use until April 2010.Since purchasing lightroom, I rarely use photoshop anymore.
Good luck,
Bob
BreezeBrowser and Downloader Pro. Allows for simple and quick renaming, proofs, sorts and deletes. It maps as many cameras as you want and automatically. It can send an image to an editor of choice. It also also for quick web page creation.
Photo Mechanic, its great for quickly previewing your images and selecting the keepers while you import them, add captions, copyright info, etc. Its very unobtrusive and does not bog down your computer with unnecessary tasks. It can also read raw files from just about any camera. It has greatly reduced the amount of time spent on my workflow, I highly recommend it.
I want aperture, but I don't own it. I have other priorities. iPhoto does fine for me.
Thanks all for your replies.... I thought that majority had a common software but almost all of you have different preferences.. I guess i have to find my own the hard way.. research...
Quote:
Originally Posted by vitomalpi
Picasa 3.6 to organize. Why?
1) It's free. Google it. It's by Google.
2) Non destructive editing. It never alters the original jpeg.
3) Great GUI interface.
4) Very straightforward tools that are made for photos.
5) Geo tagging and other tagging features.
6) Supports a lot of image file formats including CR2 RAW and psd. I personally use it only for processed jpegs.
I shoot in raw and use Silkypix Pro and ACR 4.4 for raw development and post processing.
I keep all my image files and raws with the original camera assigned name. I will use postfixes like "IMG2140_800.jpg" to differentiate reduced resolution images.
Each group I shoot gets a foldernamed by date-subject. Ex. 021609-Sunset on York River. All the raw files get moved from the CF card to that folder. I then process the raws with Silkypix and even sometimes ACR in photoshop and save the developed jpegs to that folder. I then create a folder with the same name in myPhotoBackup directory on my backup drive and move the CR2s and development support filesthere for storage. I then move my jpegs and parent folder to C:\photos. I tell Picasa to only scan C:\Photos for changes and my folders and jpegs are setup in descending chronologicalorder in Picasa for my management, last minute crops and/or tweaks and viewing pleasure. Picasa can great collages, do slideshows, reduce images for e-mail, and even build a library of faces pulled from all of your photos. It makes a multitude of tasks extremely easy and convenient.
I've been managing my photos forover 5years like this with zero problems. My wife has 63,311 in her photo directory on her computer and I have 16,229 on my laptop. Picasa never skips a beat.
It's nice, because when I want to upload photos to zenfolio.com I just select the ones I want in the picasa interface and drag them into the java based zenfolio uplodader. A virtual piece of cake!!
acdsee pro great for sorting lots of photos
PSE 7 fo me.
Lightroom for me, I also use it to do the majority of minor tweaks on images. It has the majority of the tools that photoshop uses, and allows for a more streamlined workflow in my opinion.
I have never used Lightroom, but as Adobe becomes the new Microsoft I care not to use anymore of there products than I need.
With that said, I'm a Mac user and Aperture is GREAT! Version 3 is available for a 30 day try out and it is great. It is substantially faster tan version 2. That was my only complaint about Aperture before, speed. But it is 64 bit with Snow Leopard.
Unfortunately being a graphic designer also, I doubt I'll ever be free of Adobe. It's a shame I was a huge advocate and an early adopter of InDesign. I even took a lot of flack for it.
I love my lightroom! na-na-nana![:P]I use it for importing all my pictures and quickly make some adjustments. When I really want to adjust a photo I open it in photoshop. Works great for me!
Keith you could also look at Corel Software like paint shop etc.
I have aperture version 2 (through my job, so I didn't pay for it [:D], but have not yet managed to decide which program to use for the first editing of my pictures, DPP or Aperture. What I like with DPP is that it recognises the settings I have done with my camera, and the possibility to perform lens aberration correction (I havent figured out if this is possible with Aperture, though). However, Aperture is superb for making books and for cataloging pictures. I do advanced adjusting in photoshop, but very rarely. Most often, the camera does its job well enough.
Is the result of editing the same in DPP and Aperture? Does anyone have convincing arguments for either of these two? I would like to manage with one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheiky
Yeah, I don't think I hate Adobe that much yet.
Aperture 3:
I loaded 147 21MP images into it tonight and this would cripple Aperture 2 on my MBP 2.4 SR, but Aperture 3 cut right through it with flying colors. I guess the 64 bit really does the trick. I'm going to upgrade just for the performance increase.
For CA correction go to Photo menu and choose Add Adjustment and Chromatic Aberrations should be there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith B
Haha perspective viewing changes a lot huh? [;)]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheiky
The software is still the best, it just the companies ethics seem to have have changed now that they have all the leverage. A lot of people said it would be a bad thing if InDesign took over publishing. I disagreed, I thought Adobe was a different company. I didn't expect them to turn into bullies. I guess after they bought Macromedia I should have expected it.