Software options

[dafi]

I hope some one can give me some advice. My problem is this, my hard drive is stuffed full of photos so I am going to get an external hard drive to keep them in and free up some computing speed. I have lots of stuff backed up on disc but find it ponder some to search through cd’s. Since I started digital photography I have all ways used Kodak’s easy share system. It has served me pretty well but now if I have a new storage system I would like to get another program to sort my photos. This is where my problems start as I know very little about any other systems. All i have used is Kodak and that’s it.
What I would like is something that’s easy to load the photos on. Something that I can do some basic manipulation like adjust the exposure and do a quick crop preferably a freeform crop as well. And then store them away either in the chronological order they were taken or move them in to named albums quickly and easily by some method like click and drag. (I find Kodak crap for this). I have looked in the archive but see little on the subject so I was wondering what other systems were favoured by members and how they rated them for ease of use. I don’t mind paying but cost is a bit of an issue this month.
If you reply please don’t be to technical as you will soon loose me…lol
Cheers
Daf.

[IanF]

Ever since taking up digital photography I've been using Thumbsplus (http://www.cerious.com/) by Cerious software for my photo processing. I must admit that I got mine as a freebie on a photo magazine cover CD - I don't think DVD's had been invented back then ;)

It comes with all the basic manipulation tools plus some advanced ones - the latest versions even handle RAW files - but originally it was designed as a photo cataloguing software. I keep all my photos in named species folders and burn the lot to DVD each year so they're always organised. It's up to you how you organise the files.

Programs such as Photoshop Elements comes with photo album software as well which I dare say I'd be using if I didn't have TP.

[dafi]

Cheers Ian i had a look at thumbsplus and i think i will have a look about at Elements as well. Its a bit quiet in here isnt it......or maybe it was just a dumb question..lol

[ian1962]

Hi I use Google Picassa for this, I find it very easy to use, can perform basic fixes, including freeform crop, and catalogues all your pictures in folders you name yourself or by date, and its free, well worth a look,

Ian

[ikw101]

Photoshop Album isn't bad for a freebie. Has a great timeline as well so when you're not sure what you called that missing file but you can remember when you took it it's still relatively easy to find.