desktop and online solution for photo storage/organization?

[daark]

Hello,
I have more and more photos and I would like to have an application to organize them somehow, for example enable keyword tagging and searching. It is also important to enable access to photos from internet as well as offline and also use internet as backup. So best is desktop+online, but two separate solutions are also OK. I am not interested in sharing photos at the moment, so private albums should be possible, with option to share later.

I checked Picasa together with Web Albums and it is basically good. However, Picasa suddenly takes up 90% of my CPU and continues until it's closed. Noise from the fan becomes disturbing.

I also checked IrfanView Thumbs but it does not display local language characters properly (which I might use in tags) and looks old. FastStone on the other hand looks super except that it does not allow any keyword tagging.

I am wondering what solutions do professional photographers use to store and organize photos?

 

[daark]

Lightroom.

Perhaps I should ask, what solutions do beginning photographers use... Sorry, I need a more budget-friendly solution.

 

[o hey tyler]

Well, beginners that need all of your specifications would still use lightroom. At least, that's what I'd suggest.

I don't think you'll find a program with all those features at a reasonable price point for you. However, lightroom is worth it just for sheer organization.

 

[daark]

Maybe it is a stupid question, but: what Lightroom has that Picasa has not, considering only organisation and storage features?

By the way, the problem I mentioned earlier with Picasa taking up 90% CPU was solved by turning off the face recognition, or how they call it. Now it behaves normally.

Perhaps I am not even aware what a beginner or professional photographer may expect from such software and what Lightroom offers. I expect the following:

• excellent tagging and searching by tags, by date, size - that's the basis
• must be fast, display thumbnails fast
• read also CR2 format (Canon raw) and many other bitmap formats
• easy to organize into folders, copy, move etc
• easy upload to internet with the same taging/searching posibilities - so preferably integrated

Maybe something else, but I can't imagine anything more right now. All these above features are in Picasa (except of search by image size). So if you could tell me how Lightroom excels Picasa in organisation and storage features, tell me please. This might save my time if after months of using Picasa I suddenly discover it's mising something very useful.

And yes I did the homework and googled for "Picasa versus Lightroom". But in most threads people are comparing image editing features which I am not interested in. Also, I won't be using Photoshop, so the integration with PS is also not important for me.

I also checked the Lightroom home page and there are mostly editing features, and some storage but nothing that Picasa wouldn't have . But maybe I overlooked something.

 

[e.rose]

Well, beginners that need all of your specifications would still use lightroom. At least, that's what I'd suggest.

I don't think you'll find a program with all those features at a reasonable price point for you. However, lightroom is worth it just for sheer organization.

Agreed. Which is pretty much what I said yesterday before I got accidentally wiped clean, like a virus, from the forum.

 

[e.rose]

Maybe it is a stupid question, but: what Lightroom has that Picasa has not, considering only organisation and storage features?

By the way, the problem I mentioned earlier with Picasa taking up 90% CPU was solved by turning off the face recognition, or how they call it. Now it behaves normally.

Perhaps I am not even aware what a beginner or professional photographer may expect from such software and what Lightroom offers. I expect the following:

• excellent tagging and searching by tags, by date, size - that's the basis
• must be fast, display thumbnails fast
• read also CR2 format (Canon raw) and many other bitmap formats
• easy to organize into folders, copy, move etc
• easy upload to internet with the same taging/searching posibilities - so preferably integrated

Maybe something else, but I can't imagine anything more right now. All these above features are in Picasa (except of search by image size). So if you could tell me how Lightroom excels Picasa in organisation and storage features, tell me please. This might save my time if after months of using Picasa I suddenly discover it's mising something very useful.

And yes I did the homework and googled for "Picasa versus Lightroom". But in most threads people are comparing image editing features which I am not interested in. Also, I won't be using Photoshop, so the integration with PS is also not important for me.

I also checked the Lightroom home page and there are mostly editing features, and some storage but nothing that Picasa wouldn't have . But maybe I overlooked something.

Why don't you just download the trial and see for yourself then? That's the easiest thing I can think of, honestly.

 

[icassell]

+1 for Lightroom (If you are a student or faculty anywhere, you can get it for $99)

 

[fsquare]

Lightroom is amazing. The best part about them is the fact that you can add plugins, you can upload to smugmug, flickr etc etc.

Adobe - Photoshop Lightroom 3: Plug-ins

 

[o hey tyler]

Well, beginners that need all of your specifications would still use lightroom. At least, that's what I'd suggest.

I don't think you'll find a program with all those features at a reasonable price point for you. However, lightroom is worth it just for sheer organization.

Agreed. Which is pretty much what I said yesterday before I got accidentally wiped clean, like a virus, from the forum.

What happened?

 

[christinacraft]

It's not comprehensive in terms of a desktop solution (I just use simple external hard drives)... but I LOVE my smugmug account. I've had one since 2004 and I'm able to upload an unlimited number of photos for my pro account and I have it as a backup storage method. I can make private, password protect, or sell prints to clients (Smugmug works with Bay Photos who takes care of orders, printing and delivery)... it's all very easy and I love it.

 

[Infidel]

What happened?

Friendly fire incident.

Read all about it: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/welcomes-introductions/233158-i-got-taken-out-line-duty.html

 

[daark]

Smugmug has a plugin to use Picasa, so it can be on the desktop side (at least they write so). I'll check that soon. By the way, flickr has a plugin too.

 

[inaka]

Apple's Aperture + Flickr