How do you manage all of you photos?

[TrevorPierce]

Hi,

I've been looking into getting some software to manage my photos.

What are you folks using?

I've just read some reviews in the March Photographic magazine and much to my dismay I'm drawn to the more expensive Extensis Portfolio.

Any thoughts??

Thanks
Trevor

[Tim]

I have been using it for years and have preferred it's user interface to everything else I've tried. The latest update also brought S2 RAW support so I'm pleased.

http://www.polybytes.com/



Tim

[ali]

I use ACDSee, a bunch of self-made folders, and an IDE RAID (80GB x 4) so that I don't have to worry about making hundreds of CDs. I constantly rename my folders to make them more logical over the years.

[Prime Candidate]

I back up my hard disk to a removable disk, I have two of these so I always have a backup independent of the PC.

Thumsplus is very easy to use and can be setup to preview RAW files as well.

[Jess]

I love and use Fotostation....i have heard and saw Extensis used and looks great as well

[memobug]

I use the following two programs to archive and retrieve photographs

1) ThumbsPlus from Cerious software at http://www.cerious.com. This program does all kinds of things, but among them creating a database of thumbnailed images, including all your offline CDs. You can search by keyword or image and then get prompted as to which CD/DVD to insert to retrieve the actual image.

I use Thumbs a lot for resizing images. It has wonderful batch features for resizing and watermarking images. You can get an evaluation version at http://www.cerious.com. Purchase price is about US$75.

2) Archive Creator at http://www.PictureFlow.com - This is a great piece of software for making CDROM archives. The archives can span multiple discs. The latest release will even burn DVDs. You can download an evaluation at http://www.pictureflow.com. Purchase price is about $40.

Basically you select the directory or folders and the program will create an html index, with thumbnails, and titles. It generates thumbs for raw files for numerous cameras, uncompressed TIFF and JPEG, photoshop, paintshop pro, etc. Then when you inser the disk, you'll see a browsable directory of thumbnails. Only downside I have found with the program is it doesn't thumbnail compressed TIFF or GIF files. This may change in a few months when the patent on the compression is set to expire.

SUMMARY: these two programs make it really easy to store and locate your work. Try them both for free and see if they are worth the money!

Regards,

Matt

[vmic92]

Everybody has his opinion. For me :
- the best freewhare is PhotoAlbum 3. To download it for free, go to : http://www.fototime.com/
- the best sharewhare is ACDSee (version 5). You can download a trial version on this site : http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Products/ACDSee/ACDSee-Download.htm
I have purchased ACDSee (version 4) one year ago and use it every day. It's my picture viewer-finder-manager companion.

[TrevorPierce]

Guys,

Thanks for all of the info.

I think I'm going to have to take another
look at ThumbsPlus and the other software Matt mentioned.

Vincent -don't worry about your english, I didn't manage to spell "your " in the subject right!

Hope my HD has enough space to demo all of the new software!

Thanks again!

Trevor

[Swampy]

I use ACDSee for my viewing and have recently started to move over to EXIF Image Viewer since it has a lot of other features and is faster than ACDSee. The Jury is still out, but EXIF Viewer provides, uh, EXIF info while ACDSee doesn't. It also handles viewing slightly different.

Can be looked at here: http://home.pacbell.net/michal_k/exif_v.html

[Ronnie]

Hi folks...my 2 cents: I started with ACDsee and liked it very much. Presently I use Picasa and find it much easier to use and more intuitive. I think it is worth a look.

[vmic92]

Sorry Sampy101, but there are exif infos in ACDSee. Please, take a look at these screenshot. It's a partial screenshot of an ACDSee window. You can see that in ACDSee, selecting the "information" groove and clicking on "metadonnées" (in the french version).
However, thank you for the EXIF V url link. I have testing it, and it's a really good free solution.

[Swampy]

Originally posted by vmic92
Sorry Sampy101, but there are exif infos in ACDSee. Please, take a look at these screenshot. It's a partial screenshot of an ACDSee window. You can see that in ACDSee, selecting the "information" groove and clicking on "metadonnées" (in the french version).
However, thank you for the EXIF V url link. I have testing it, and it's a really good free solution.

They've come a long way then. I quit using it at version 3 or 4 because it would sit there forever trying to look at my network drives. Maybe I'll have to take another look at it. :)

Bryan

[jsmpsn]

I just purchased iMatch from www.photools.com

This is a very powerful image management database program that handles Fuji RAF/RAW files as well in the thumbnails.

One of the best features is the dynamic and hierarchical categories instead of just simple keywords.

There is a 30-day evaluation program.

Jeff

[imagepro]

ACDsee still works for my image management needs.

[azaraphale]

Used ACDsee for ages - just tried photoshop album v1 - was a bit skeptical, but really like it - good for catalog purposes - not good for viewing purposes

[jknights]

I use ACDSee 5 and iMatch.

I have just got iMatch. Has anyone managed to tranfer the info from ACDSee categories into iMatch ?
I dont want to have to recalaog everything all over.

Why I like it over ACDSee is that it has aprogramming language so you should be able to do all sorts of neat things with it. Hmmm must find time to work all this out.

[sandman]

i've tried most of them .over here in england just released adobe album it's by far the best i've ever used
i've got over 10,000 pics and after setting it up ,i can find anything in seconds
try it out it's cheap