Staying organized

[edward_feltman1]

I have many MANY photos in digital format. I use my hard drive to

keep the ones that I am currently working on or are recent, and

offload that hard drive to save space to CDs. All of the programs

for organizing photos that I have looked at assume that you will

contitnue to keep them on a hard drive, however I am more

comfortable with them on CD or DVD.

 

Does anyone have a good suggestion (given how I am set up) to allow

for cataloging and access to these. The one thing that I do like

about the software that I have seen is that it gives you names and

thumbnails, however I assume that they are linked to the actual

photos.

 

Ed

[pcnilssen]

Take a look at FotoStation. (www.fotostation.com?) I remember that the program offered an offline option, where a thumbnail from the CD's were stored on the harddisk. You can download an evaluation copy.

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>I am going through the same process right now.

<p>Here is what I have found so far (I have not decided on a solution yet). First there are

products that manage archive on CDs/DVDs : <a href="http://

www.extensis.com">Portfolio</a>, <a href="http://www.canto.com">Cumulus</a> and

<a href="http://www.iview-multimedia.com/">iView MediaPro</a> are the ones I am

currently reviewing.

<p>The products in this selection allow you to build a catalog of your images. You keep

the catalog on your HD but you archive the actual images on the CD. Whenever you need a

photo, you search the catalog and locate the corresponding CD.

<p>One of my concerns with these products is that they use proprietary file formats so I

would become dependent on their availability, upgrades, etc.

<p>An alternative that was suggested to me is to print contact sheets (<a href="http://

www.lemkesoft.com">GraphicConverter</a> creates them real fast) with all the images

on the CD and store the contact sheet in a binder. Look through the binder to locate the

CD.

<p>I also thought of keeping thumbnails of my photos on my hard disk and use the

thumbnails to locate the CDs...

<p>That's how far I am in my thinking. I would appreciate feedback/opinions/advices/...

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com">marchal.com</a>

[fg]

I run an advertising photography studio. Our archive of images is huge to say the

least and we ended up developing a small PHP/MySQL application running on the Mac

OS X Apache web server. All images that are going to be archived on CD, DVD or

external backup disks are resized to small JPEG miniatures (500x500 pixels) with a

Photoshop Droplet that and stored on the server disk in this "inexpensive" format.

The miniatures directory is scanned by a simple AppleScript that feeds the file names

into a MySQL table. The images table is then read by PHP and displayed automatically

in Safary as a contactsheet, by linking the filenames to the actual miniatures. All very

neat and simple. Before doing this, we were printing contactsheets from the digital

images and store the print in proximity of our CD library. It proved a very good

method, but the PHP way allows faster searches.

 

Sorry to say that no existing commercial application filled our needs. The worrying

part is the proprietary file formats, if you consider the long-term value (sentimental

or economic) of a photographic archive.

 

Go ahead printing your contactsheets and make up a droplet to produce small JPEGs

miniatures from your originals. It's worth the hassle.

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>An interesting testimonial, thanks.

<p>There's one more point I'd like to clarify: do you keep/store any metadata (location,

date, subject, keywords, etc.) with the files? Using IPTC or the MySQL? I'm concerned that

adding the metadata will take a lot of time and I'm wondering if it is worth the trouble...

<p>Thanks anyway

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com/">marchal.com</a>

[emre]

iMatch has an off-line cache. A beautifully engineered product; one of my favorite PC applications.

[robert_moon4]

There are some serious questions regarding the longevity of Cds & DVDs so my solution is to back up all of my photos on hard drives since they are the most archival and cheap. I just purchased two 160 GB Western Digital hard drives at Costco for $89.95 ea. and they can probably be had on line for less. I believe the break down of cost per Gig of storage bring that in pretty darn low. Also my G4 Mac can hold 4 HDs and they are a snap to put in and take out, of course one HD is reserved for the OS but I have 450 GB of pretty safe storage. BTW this is an area that has been covered on Tech TV quite a bit and the folks like Chris Breen, Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton are pretty much in agreement that this is the best way to go. I hope this is of some use.

Bob Moon

[phil_v.]

Ben: The more I checked-out the cataloging products you mentioned (and others), the more confused I got. I guess they refer to that as 'analysis paralysis'. I wound up with Portfolio and like it a lot. So far, I haven't identified any limitations and its strong point is it's flexibility in adapting to any and all subsequent folder/file changes. Btw, in order to protect myself against possible proprietary program obsolesence, I always retain backup copies of the installation programs.

 

Robert: Very good point about CD/DVD longevity. Recently, I was shocked to discovered that images I had burned onto CDs (7 - 8 years ago) were unreadable by my current CD-burner or my wife's older CD-reader (thank goodness I still had the film)! So I have just revamped my archive-media strategy from using CD-R to 2 removable HDDs.

[john_houghton]

I use ThumbsPlus for printing thumbnail sheets of my CD and DVD archives. I tried many programs but ThumbsPlus was the only one versatile enough to handle multiple levels of folders and format the output listing as I wanted, as well as cope with RAW images along with the usual jpg, tiff and psd. I decided I didn't want to input keywords for all the images - I just rely on flicking through the pages. The CDs are naturally chronological, and I usually have a reasonable idea of when I created an image, so visual searches work ok for me. I had a look at Portfolio a week or two ago and although it's very powerful, it seems overkill for my own modest purposes.

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>Phil

<p>Backup of the installation CDs are no help if you're moving to a new platform and

your software does not support it.

<p>I'm an IT guy so I need to use current versions of the OS. This may cause

incompatibilities that the original setup won't resolve.

<p>I agree most people <b>choose</b> to upgrade, my situation is I have to...

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com/">marchal.com</a>

[phil_v.]

Ben, why wouldn't an installation program always work so long as you are upgrading to a newer version of Windows and/or PC? Of course if you cross over to another type of OS, then all bets are off.

 

Btw, I also archive all important installation programs on a removable HDD since CDs haven't earned my trust.

[edward_feltman1]

Well, it appears that many strugle with this issue. The idea of using a removable hard drive as the storage and organization device leaves me wondering about crashes. The CD route leave me vulnerable to degredation. I do know that proper storage of the cd's has an awfull lot to do with how they break down.

 

Ed

[phil_v.]

Ed, how many of your hard drives have ever crashed? Certainly it can happen, but I'm on my 5th PC and it's never happened to me. Furthermore, managing over 300 PCs at work, we've never experienced more than one hard crash a year.

 

Nevertheless, you may have noticed (in my original response) that I use 2 removable hard-drives (2 drives each in their own tray, for the same removable rack). File-wise, each is a duplicate of the other. Since my original images are on an online HDD, that makes 3 hard drives that would have to crash AT THE SAME TIME for me to be 'out of business'. What do you think the odds are of that happening (especially considering that the removable drives are only inserted into the PC at time of backup)? Backup to HDD is much much faster than to an optical drive. Furthermore, it's a proven and far more reliable technology.

 

Just my $.02

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>Phil

<p>Regarding your question on upgrade: I'm not sure how long you've been using

computers but I started with DOS, then went to Windows 3.1, then to Windows 95, then to

Windows NT. With each upgrade, I have lost useful software because each upgrade caused

significant changes into the underlying OS... enough to break or cripple some software.

<p>When it came time to upgrade to Windows XP (which again promised to break some of

my software), I switched to MacOS X... which of course break more software. Still even

when staying in the Microsoft environment for more than 15 years, I have do discontinue

many applications.

<p>Loosing data after fifteen years is no big deal for certain applications. I don't care for

the compilers I lost in the process, I don't care too much for the word processors I've lost

in the process but I would care very much if I were to loose photos or if I had to rearchive

my photos every 5-10 years.

<p>Regarding HDs, I think you are partly right. Keeping multiple copies is the way to go

and, yes, there's very little chance your 3 disks will fail together... unless you have a

serious incident. A power surge could wipe out your computer and your 3 disks at once,

not to mention a fire or water leakage.

<p>It is considered safer to keep multiple copies in different locations. You could improve

the security by having a removable disks at a friend or family's place. I prefer to use

different media for the off-site backup, it does spread the risk...

<p>And, yes, the odds of a catastrophic failures are small... but it's considered good

practice in IT to plan for this sort of catastrophic failure.

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com/">marchal.com</a>

[edward_feltman1]

I can't say that I have ever had a hard drive crash, but I can guarantee that if and when it happens, it will involve losing everything...it's just my luck! Multiple hard drives makes sence, expensive, but it makes sense. Much cheaper and less time consuming than re-creating the wheel!

[stephen_ray]

Extensis Portfolio is what I prefer but would not hesitate to use

Cumulus as well.

 

Over ten years of using it with many CD writers and software and

I've always found what I was looking for. (Any file type, not just

pictures.) I've even transfered between the two applications. The

thumbnails are QuickTime and the data is just that, simple data.

I'm not worried about extinction, there's too many common

translators already.

 

Archiving a CD is drag-and-drop and getting that numbered CD

off a shelf is easy. Getting a hard drive out of storage and

connecting it seems less-than-easy and far slower.

 

I think the software apps are a no-brainer. The personal naming

conventions and procedures are where the caveates lie.

 

-Stephen Ray

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>Stephen,

<p><i>I think the software apps are a no-brainer. The personal naming conventions and

procedures are where the caveates lie.</i>

<p>I realize that the filling system is more than just the software. Would you care to share

your thoughts on naming conventions?

<p>Do you know of one or more standard naming conventions, similar to the standard

library classifications?

<p>Thanks

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com/">marchal.com</a>

[stephen_ray]

>>Would you care to share your thoughts on naming

conventions? <<

 

Sure,

In regards to the original post of " I have many MANY photos in

digital format" to track, I can recommend the following:

 

If you have only one digital camera, the task is easy. Let your

digital camera number the file in sequence and let that happen

for ever. That number is the file's social security number and that

is what makes it different than all others. Don't bother to rename

the file. I consider a digital camera photo a "raw scan" file just as

I would in my graphics business. If I work on the file, it becomes

a project and gets a job number. (I can elaborate on that naming

system if asked.)

 

After drag-and-drop cataloging of the CD into Portfolio, you can

select all the "May 2004 Hawaii Vacation" photos and apply the

identifying keywords in one simple action. Then select all the

"June 2004 Graduation" photos and so-on. These identifing

keywords are more probable seach terms for the future than a

file name, in this case. Fortunately, Portfolio will pickup the

metadata, such as the time and date, and catalog that

automatically. The date of the photos will be very important in

years to come.

 

Some random keywords:

Aerials, Agriculture, Airplanes, Airport, Amusements, Animals,

Architecture, Automobiles, Baseball, Basketball, Birthday,

Children, Christmas, City Scenes, Clouds, Competition,

Construction, Copystand, Crowds, Dance, Disasters, Education,

Entertainment, Faces, Family, Farming, Food, Football,

Forest/Tree, Game, Geography, Government, Graduation,

Historical, Hockey, Holiday, Hospital, Housing, Humorous,

Industrial, Lakes/Rivers, Landscapes, Medical, Mountain

Scenes, Nature, Ocean Scenes, Office, Old Things, Party,

People, Pollution, Poverty, Railroad, Real Estate, Recreation,

Religion, Ships/Boats, Signs, Socker, Space, Sports, Suburban,

Sunrises/Sunsets, Swimming, Symbolism, Trackmeet, Traffic,

Transportation, Travel, Vacation, Water.

 

Multiple digital cameras naming their files become more of an

issue but the task is the same. Make every file name unique but

link them with common IDs or keys.

 

Ironically, I've seen some consumers that are far more organized

than some advertising and professional photographer's archive

methods. I've also seen at least one wedding photographer who

posts online wedding proofs that have the same file names for

all the different wedding couples because he resets his camera

for each event. How he will sort this in the future is a mystery to

me.

 

I hope this help,

 

-Stephen Ray