Organising photos on Mac

I have about 10,000 photo files in thousands of folders. I know I have a certain

amount of duplicates.

 

Given that some files might have the same name but be taken by different cameras

at different times and given that I have a mixture of RAW and JPEG images, is

there any software that will be able to sort the whole mess out for me?

Rhys:

 

I use Photo Mechanics for cataloguing. In addition I also use it for adding captions,

keywords, copyright info etc. I warmly recommend this software from Camera Bits.

Well worth every penny. I have no connections whatsoever with Camera Bits aside

from being a very satisfied customer. I have used iView in the past and IMHO,

Photo Mechanic is light-years ahead.

 

Total number of digital images in my files are probably around 30,000 or so and with

Photo Mechanic I can find the exact file I'm looking for in no time at all. Easy to set

up, fantastic customer support, it just is a great tool to have.

You can do a 20-day free trial of Photo Mechanics at:<p>

 

<a href="http://www.camerabits.com/pages/demoreg.cgi"> http://www.camerabits.com/pages/demoreg.cgi </a><p>

 

HTH,<br>

Sal B.

You might also want to check out Portfolio 8.5 by

<a href=http://www.extensis.com/>Extensis</a>. They offer a free 30 day trial.

Before you think software, think and plan out how you want to organize and very importantly back up all of those files the files. A good way to do it is by date: and in DVD-R (about 4.2GB) or Blu-Ray size buckets.

 

The system I came up with confronted withthe same Herculean task is to start wit hfolders named by date: Vener_20080530 , with the files in each folder being named Vener_YYYYMMDD-####. if the photos from one day are from an assignment, I make that part of the folder name: Vener_20080530-Pfizer for example.

 

These folders are then organized into DVD-R size buckets.

 

I then use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to review ( edit (as in select or discard), globally correct (as needed), capture sharpen, and most importantly keyword and add IPTC format contact and copyright information.

 

I use the Collections pane in Lightroom's Library module to do one other important task: make Collections . In an Lr Collection the original file stays physically where it resides on your HDD or DVD-R but like subjects from different dates are grouped together. A photo can even "exist' in multiple Collections. It is sort of like having a dual cross referenced library card system.

My existing system is folders labelled by date. Some places this has got screwed up though.

I used to organise mine by date, but then it would take me a while to find things and I can't always remember the date I took photos. I changed to organising by topic/place so for instance I have some photos under uk/sussex/lewes/bonfire or abstract/prismatic 1

or hungary/budapest/abandoned places with a separate folder for each set of pictures taken on a different date

 

I find it far easier to find the exact photo I'm looking for that way

I thought about organising by site but elected for date only. I realise now that it would be nice to know where some of the places were but I can generally remember where things are.

 

I'll have to get a second portable hard drive. When I do that, I can use some windows software on my Windows laptop (I can write that) to sort photos by index number and file date.

I tend to think more "let's find that picture of the birds outside the castle in estonia" than "the castle picture from the 22nd of February" or whatever, so it's more helpful to me.

 

 

Some type of tagging software would probably do the trick I guess, that also handles RAW. Doesn't adobe do something like that?

What Ellis said (again!).

 

Also look at iVew MediaPro (aka Microsoft Expression Media).

 

iView is great and easy to use: load software. Open new catalogue (empty) and simply drag and drop the folder containing your images onto the open catalogue pane. The contents will instantly appear in the catalogue, with all the metadata from the images listed on the left (eg date, camera, file type etc).

 

If you do this by folder, each intake of images can be placed in a MediaPro folder/catalog using the existing folder name, or into a newly created hierarchical system.

 

Beauty of this software is it leaves the files in their existing locations, and stores the path to them so you can easily locate them, add captions, create slideshows, emailable jpg galleries, contact sheets, etc etc.

 

As a first step you could download the demo, have a trial run with it, and see what it can do for you. It wont affect your files, so if you ditch it, all your stuff will still be where it was before you started.

 

I use it on a Mac, although I have just obtained Lightroom as Ellis recommends - you would be wise to do some reading to establish the differences between software like Lightroom and Aperture 'swiss army knife' programmes, and the iView and Extensis Portfolio database products because there are fundamental differences that might swing you one way or another.

 

Whatever you choose, you'll really appreciate the functionality and ease of use in managing your work, and wish you'd got sorted with it sooner!