What software do you use to organize your photos ?

[vitomalpi]

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.

[neuroanatomist]

Aperture. Fully integrated, easy to learn and use, great workflow management. But, you need a Mac... [:P]

[vitomalpi]

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 !

[Joel]

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

[barba]

Try the Lightroom 3 beta. Seems pretty good to me.

[Daniel Browning]

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.

[bob williams]

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

[Ehcalum]

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.

[Wes Elkin]

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.

[Brendan7]

I want aperture, but I don't own it. I have other priorities. iPhoto does fine for me.