Organizing Your digital photos?

iriairi · Feb 17, 2008

I use CS3 and have used CS2 and both do a good job. I know that Canon has a RAW editor that comes with for free. I have heard people talk about GIMP. I don't know if it can do RAW or not...

SnakeVnzl · Feb 17, 2008

i use picasa. it's fast, easy, free, can read raw and psd, you can even make small corrections to the pic's, send by mail, etc, etc.

Dieselrider · Feb 17, 2008

AspiringArchitect said:
ACDSee Pro 2

Works on xp and vista

Pretty pricey program but you can use a trial for a month and try it first.

Plus I can view RAW files now!

Their program looks really good and $129.00 isn't really a bad price when you compare to Adobe PS and then add on the light room. How good is the photo filing and search features of ACDsee pro2 if you have photos stored onto a second or even third drive? Or would I need separate software to handle that? Thanks

Dieselrider · Feb 17, 2008

SnakeVnzl said:
i use picasa. it's fast, easy, free, can read raw and psd, you can even make small corrections to the pic's, send by mail, etc, etc.

I am new enough at this to just know anything, so, maybe I am just wrong on this. But, one of the very first things I read on another board (and I forgot to mark the page) was that right in the agreement with Google and Picasa is that anything loaded on there is in fact their property forever and even if you pull your pics from there they still claim ownership? I don't know if they can enforce this or not. I hope to be good enough someday to sell some of my work and I would not want to find out that I can't do that because someone else in fact owned it.

chris_arnet · Feb 17, 2008

i honestly just use a folder on my desktop, with a whole lot of folders in it. i can find any photo in 5 seconds or less. the subfolders are vauge categories and inside those there are specific shoot names. it works for me.

Dieselrider · Feb 17, 2008

chris_arnet said:
i honestly just use a floder on my desktop, with a whole lot of folders in it. i can find any photo in 5 seconds or less. the subfolders are vauge categories and inside those there are specific shoot names. it works for me.

That is pretty much what I have been doing also except that I am storing my photos on another drive (still in same box) and, this will probably work for some time. I am storing them as high quality jpeg which at 3-4 MB per shot can start eating up space in a hurry. A couple hundred photos and you have 1 gig there. I just want to have quicker access to them between the drives (at some point will probably add external drive with enough capacity to last awhile. My wife is saying that I need to network the two drives together and this would eliminate the transferring back and forth. She is smarter than me but, I don't dare let her know that or I'd never hear the end of it. :lmao:
Eventually, I will want something that will handle RAW and give me great search features while looking up photos. Thanks

Iron Flatline · Feb 17, 2008

Adobe Bridge, the new version that came with CS3 is really nice. Also, when you slot in your card into th card reader, it has a nice data pull application that allows you to copy the data to a second location for back-up purposes.

MACollum · Feb 17, 2008

If you're looking for something free, I agree with Snake; try Picasa.

Dieselrider · Feb 17, 2008

MACollum said:
If you're looking for something free, I agree with Snake; try Picasa.

i don't really care if it's free and I don't mind paying if I can afford it. I just don't want to end up buying ten different versions that don't do what I need to, or want to. I know where I can pick up a photoshop 7.0 for $25.00 but, my hesitation would be is it outdated? Thanks

Stranger · Feb 17, 2008

Aperture 2.

nice program

chris_arnet · Feb 17, 2008

dude, i use photoshop 7. i dont think its outdated at all. it suits my needs fine.

passerby · Feb 17, 2008

SnakeVnzl said:
i use picasa. it's fast, easy, free, can read raw and psd, you can even make small corrections to the pic's, send by mail, etc, etc.

Thanks for the tip snake, I have installed it barely 20 minutes ago and I have found what I am looking for. It tells for each picture as:
what camera it uses, the aperture, iso speed, shutter speed, exposure mode etc. I have not look at the editing feature in it yet, but I don't really do edit picture so it is ok.

It is 6 mb file which expand into 35 mb once installed. But it is not a memory hog. I opened and closed back and forth while watching the memory bar response, it uses 30 to 35 mb memory.