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Organising images on a PC (1 Viewer)

A

Astrokev

Well-known member
Am I alone in having difficulty finding an effective way of storing and organising my images on my PC?

So far I haven't found a system that works for me. Some images are filed in family/species folders within "year" folders. Others are filed in folders for specific trips. Both have limitations. And then there's archiving to other storage media such as CD / DVD; where to make the "cut-off"?

As my image collection grows the problems just get worse; I frequently "lose" images because I can't remember where I put them.

I'm aware of programs such as Picasa that offer solutions to these common problem but I haven't tried these as yet.

I'd be very interested in hearing what other systems or programs BF members use to help organise their images. Should I be going the Picasa route?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
 
Take a look at Adobe LightRoom as well. I have never really felt in control of my image library until I started using it recently. I like the way you can use keywords, folders, metadata etc. as different ways of categorising images. You may also want to consider the organiser in Photoshop Elements which does many of the same kinds of things (and much cheaper). But yes, there comes a time when folders aren't enough ;-)
 
I just use the my pictures folder in windows, a series of folders beginning passerines and non-passerines with sub-folders for families then species then age categories within species. I also keep separate folders for locations but copy the images to the appropriate place in the main or master folders as well.

Rob
 
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I have a set of folders for each month.Say-Birds-Nov,Assorted-Nov,e-pics Nov(ones re sized for web submissions,eg BF Gallery).Usually every couple of mths I copy each folder to a CD,and print off a thumbnail A4sheet(s) of the contents of the cd.Then I can easily see what is stored on each cd.I then store the cd along with the print out in a plastic folder.When I put the pics on the pc each day,I do make a folder with the date for that day,then after tossing out all the no go shots,I edit the remaining ,then transfer to the specific monthly folders.I sounds like a long job,but not really.I am also easily able to find the better pics,as they will be in the e-pic folder for the month,then if needed the original will be in either birds or assorted.
But after 5 yrs I do have too many files,so I am now using a storge pen for my website pics,and will eventually trawl through all other archived cd,s and put the specific species on the storage pens,winter jobbie.
 
rob stoff said:
I just use the my pictures folder in windows, a series of folders beginning passerines and non-passerines with sub-folders for families then species then age categories within species. I also keep separate folders for locations but copy the images to the appropriate place in the main or master folders as well.

Rob
Click to expand...

Hi Rob,
You've pretty much described exactly what I currently do! Whilst this does work, one of the limitations I find with this is having to duplicate images which obviously takes up valuable space.
 
I have recently started using Lightroom, in part for its file library functions.
I have settled on importing files into Lightroom by date taken, then key wording them. I will sometimes add some information to the file name, so it will go something like '2007-5-20 flight shots at Bempton cliffs' for example.
Although it has been pretty laborious key wording my back catalogue, it now means that I can easily find images of a particular subject, within a date range if needed.
The other bits of Lightroom seem pretty good too - having used Capture One LE for RAW conversion up to now, I struggled a bit with the interface in the 'develop' mode to start with, but if you're used to ACR, it should be similar. I prefer the output from Lightroom to Capture One - better colour, highlight recovery and fill light. The print module works well, as does the slide show. I havent explored the webpage module yet though.
 
Astrokev said:
Hi Rob,
You've pretty much described exactly what I currently do! Whilst this does work, one of the limitations I find with this is having to duplicate images which obviously takes up valuable space.
Click to expand...

sure does but there's no way around it that i know of, only other option would be to make a list of what you saw where with file names so you can go straight to the image in the master collection.

Rob
 
I use folders in 'my pictures' folder in Windows. They are auto named by date but I add a description to each set. Once I have around 3GB of pics I :
1) burn the images to DVD (named Photo Album 1,2,3,4 .......)
2) Move from my pictures to an Achieve photo Album folder in my docs.
3) back-up the archive folder onto a external hard drive.

I have tried Lightroom but unless you cataloged every image I don't know where the hell Lightroom is putting them - maybe I will change to LR sometime put it is a big task to start with if you have thousands of images already.
 
Roy C said:
I have tried Lightroom but unless you cataloged every image I don't know where the hell Lightroom is putting them - maybe I will change to LR sometime put it is a big task to start with if you have thousands of images already.
Click to expand...

You can tell Lightroom where to put them when you import or just leave them where they are. Lightroom just needs to know where the file is and then works from its own database for develop settings, keywords etc.
 
You may also want to look at Breeze Systems Downloader Pro to get the images from the camera onto the PC. This software is cheap & great as it will create the directory structure for you using any of the EXIF image data (i.e. capture date, camera). The other nice thing that it will do is to backup the images to a second location at the same time. You can the use to the tool to clear the camera memory card.

From here I import the images from location one into the Lightroom database (as Mark describes above) and categorise them with keywords. Lightroom then allows me to sort/filter/categorise/search by almost any criteria, which you can't do with a file system structure. The images in the second location get backed up onto DVD when there are enough of them.
 
Multiple file copies

rob stoff said:
I just use the my pictures folder in windows, a series of folders beginning passerines and non-passerines with sub-folders for families then species then age categories within species. I also keep separate folders for locations but copy the images to the appropriate place in the main or master folders as well.

Rob
Click to expand...

Please excuse me entering the fray with a comment on this earlier post but I've just come across this thread.

Assuming you're using Windows, why not save shortcuts instead of copies of the originals. From Windows explorer, right click on a files and select 'Create shortcut'. The shortcut is created in the same folder as the original with 'Shortcut to ' preceding the original file name. Move the shortcut to the destination folder and then rename it back to the original name. You can still see that it's a shortcut by the little arrow in the icon. The shortcut should only be about 1KB.

If you tell me your all using Macs or Linux I'm sure something similar will be possible.

Mike;)
 
Mike Cook said:
Assuming you're using Windows, why not save shortcuts instead of copies of the originals.
Mike;)
Click to expand...

Hi Mike. Nice idea!

From replies so far, Lightroom seems to get some good press, but I believe is not freeware.

Regarding my original post, does anyone currently use Picasa? I'm sure I'm not alone in preferring something for nothing wherever possible!

Can anyone comment on the relative merits of LR and Picasa - indeed, are they comparable or different beasts?

Enjoying this thread - please keep the feedback coming.
Thanks
 
Astrokev - you are right; Lightroom isn't free! Nothing from Adobe is :smoke: ! The cheapest place to buy in the UK is probably Amazon, which doesn't suffer from Adobe's European uplift in price, but it is still £170!

From looking at the Picasa website, I would say that it is an entry version of Lightroom. I suppose the difference between Photoshop and a simple pixel editing package.

Stuff that I enjoy in Lightroom include (a) the workflow (b) filters and browsers by folder, keywords, metadata and any combination of these (all pictures between two dates of Robins taken with a certain lens is possible) (c) the very capable image development functions and (d) the integrated printing module. I have yet to look at the web publishing stuff.

There is a fully functional version of Lightroom available for free though from the Adobe website, which will run for 30 days. I would download it, and draw your own conclusions.
 
I prefer using a folder system. I have separate sub-folders in 'My Picutres' for each bird species and others for Animals with sub-folders for types of animals and likewise for Locations. It matters to me to have each species where I can find it rather than organised by date (still in the exif) or location. Once in folders it doesn't matter which program you use to view them as they're already organised.

Every 12 months I burn them to DVD and start afresh saving to the existing now empty folders.

I primarily use a cataloguing program called Thumbsplus which I first got as Version 4 free on a photo mag cover CD several years ago. I think it's on version 7 or 8 now to buy for around £70 but IMO well worth the money. It's useful not just for cataloguing but for the photo processing tools as well. The more recent versions have some quite powerful tools, though I'm quite happy with the more basic ones in my version.

I also have PS Elements 4 which I use whenever I need more power processing tools however it comes with a decent photo organiser. Elements usually goes for around £40 for the current version. Photos are stored at just one place on your drive, but whatever keywords you wish can be added to catalogue them.
 
awallace said:
You may also want to look at Breeze Systems Downloader Pro to get the images from the camera onto the PC. This software is cheap & great as it will create the directory structure for you using any of the EXIF image data (i.e. capture date, camera). The other nice thing that it will do is to backup the images to a second location at the same time. You can the use to the tool to clear the camera memory card.
Click to expand...

Why don't you just do this with Photo Downloader in Lightroom? It does pretty much the same job as Downloader Pro...
 
I don't know why, Mark - I guess that I am used to DLPro and have just stuck with it. It is such a simple program to use when it is all configured for automation - connect the camera and it does the rest...
 
There is another prog worth considering which is ACDSEE,a friend of mine uses it & swears by it.

Steve.
 
Mike Cook said:
Assuming you're using Windows, why not save shortcuts instead of copies of the originals. From Windows explorer, right click on a files and select 'Create shortcut'. The shortcut is created in the same folder as the original with 'Shortcut to ' preceding the original file name. Move the shortcut to the destination folder and then rename it back to the original name. You can still see that it's a shortcut by the little arrow in the icon. The shortcut should only be about 1KB.
Mike;)
Click to expand...

excellent, learn something new and useful every day. Thanks!

Don't know anything about all this Lightroom stuff etc that others are mentioning, is there any reason why not to just use the My Pictures software, it seems fine to me for cataloguing and storing which is what the original question was all about?

Rob
 
awallace said:
I don't know why, Mark - I guess that I am used to DLPro and have just stuck with it. It is such a simple program to use when it is all configured for automation - connect the camera and it does the rest...
Click to expand...

I was the same - I have used Downloader Pro for a long time too...but when I tried the Lightroom one, found it is almost as good when set-up so decided that it was faster/easier overall rather than doing a download and import.
 
Thanks for the tip Mark - I will invest the time to set it up then. I have to admit that importing the images into Lightroom, after having downloaded them with DLPro, was becoming a 'tiny' bit of a drag.
 
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