Finding duplicate images

I have been recently trying to cull a very large number of duplicate images and tried a variety of methods using Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, Photo Mechanic etc. All of these programmes are very good at what they do mainly organising and editing large numbers of images. However, when it comes to serious numbers of duplicates I have found that the best is Mindgems Duplicate Image Finder. They have a free offering which lets you try it out so you can try before you buy.

I have a large number of the same images with different file extensions such as jpg, nef, tif etc and it finds them all fairly quickly. The more you are searching then the slower it can be which is understandable.

I should say that my only connection with them is as a customer and I have found their support to be excellent.

You can find them at Duplicate Image Finder - Find and remove duplicate images, photos and pictures. Image search software - organize photos.

AS the outfit say:

Unfortunately currently we do not have support for Mac OS.

It is best to avoid duplicate files through discipline and organization, rather than renaming and filtering.

The caveat regarding duplicate files is that they are not necessarily duplicates, rather have the same name. If you keep the original name, the sequence rolls over every 10,000 image or so (100,000 for a Leica M9). My old Nikon D3 is over 80, 000 now, or 8 roll-overs.). If you name them yourself, you are even more likely to create duplicates, plus it's a lot of unnecessary work. In either case, folder names make the difference, and in combination with image names (even unchanged), constitute a unique identifier.

You can link, rather than copy, files to portfolios in Lightroom, or using a relational data base (e.g., Oracle) for team situations. That's also an easy way to share derivative images, while keeping an absolute tie to the original.

It is best to avoid duplicate files through discipline and organization, rather than renaming and filtering.

 

The caveat regarding duplicate files is that they are not necessarily duplicates, rather have the same name. If you keep the original name, the sequence rolls over every 10,000 image or so (100,000 for a Leica M9). My old Nikon D3 is over 80, 000 now, or 8 roll-overs.). If you name them yourself, you are even more likely to create duplicates, plus it's a lot of unnecessary work. In either case, folder names make the difference, and in combination with image names (even unchanged), constitute a unique identifier.

 

You can link, rather than copy, files to portfolios in Lightroom, or using a relational data base (e.g., Oracle) for team situations. That's also an easy way to share derivative images, while keeping an absolute tie to the original.

They are , in fact, duplicates as the software searches for duplicate images rather than the same or similar file names. This does make the search process slower but it does work.