Organizing Digital photos ?

[Howard R]

Well I think it's time (actually past time)  ;D  to get serious and do something about my electronic shoe box that is starting to bulge with digital images.

We have been  happily using a Kodak DX 6490 for the last year or so.  It came with the EasyShare software and I got serious about editing, cropping, etc of my Oshkosh shots from this summer.  Anything I edited I save as a TIFF file to protect the original and create a file without any compression.  With a little under 300 shots from this year I wanted to be able to break it down to things like P-51 Mustang, P-38, Trimotors, etc.  You can create albums for this ... so far so good ... I like the editing and cropping functions ... you can easily select and email shots. 

However    I now have 53 albums and don't like where this is going as they are all lumped together in one list which is only going to get bigger.

It seems there is no way to effectively have an Oshkosh folder, with sub folders for 2005, 2004, etc with each year having sub folders for p-38, aerobatics, etc.  or am I missing something? 

I know someone mentioned having Kodak cameras (Ned ?) so someone may have experience with the EasyShare software ... it was getting the job done, but discovered there aren't enough dividers in the shoebox.  ;D

What are the rest of you doing / using?  I have Thumbs + and am looking at Picasa from Google ... haven't used either one very much yet but they seem to show promise.  If I could just break them down in EasyShare further I would be happy I think.

thanks,

Howard

 

[Ned]

We don't have the Easyshare software but use Thumbs+ for organizing our photos.  Picasa is a good choice as well, and the price is certainly right.  Or you can just use Windows to create a folder hierarchy to store your photos.

 

[DougJ]

Hi Howard,

Like Ned I use Thumbs+ and would recommend it.  Mind you, I've not used other organising software so can't offer an opinion based on comparison.

Ciao,

Doug

 

[Ron]

We use Picasa2 available from Google at a very reasonable price.  Have tried Thumbs but like Picasa better.  Personal choice thing but both are good.

 

[joelmyer]

It seems there is no way to effectively have an Oshkosh folder, with sub folders for 2005, 2004, etc with each year having sub folders for p-38, aerobatics, etc.  or am I missing something? 

Howard

That's basically what I do.  I started by creating folders (using windows explorer) for each "event."  Then that got awkward so I created folders for each year with the event folders in each year.  And for our major trips now, I have an major event folder with supfolders.

Like for example:
2005/Summer '05/08 Yellowstone

By numbering the folders they show up in the sequence I want them to.

I use IfranView to look at.  I've played with Picasa but am flustrated because the things I do there are only in effect there.

 

[Ron]

If you get rid of Infranview or make it so it is ONLY loaded at your command you will find Picasa does very well.  InfranView seems to take over everything with photos which I don't like.

 

[Steve CDN]

My choice is Thumbs Plus which I've used for about 5 years.  It's highly customizable and is professional quality software with unequalled technical support.

 

[Ned]

In IrfanView, to to Options, Set file associations, and you can control what file types IrfanView will be associated with.  I have all associations turned off so my other, preferred, programs will open the various image files.

 

[Howard R]

First of all, thanks to each of you for the feedback ... always good to hear from the folks who are actaully doing the job. 

I haven't decided yet whether to use Picasa or Thumbs + but both look like workable solutions.  That and create a few sub folders to keep the original upload separate. 

Thanks again for the help!

Howard