How do you manager your photos?

[Kelemvor]

So I'm just wondering how people manage all their digital photos (Windows). I know there are a lot of programs out there that can do this but I don't know if there are huge reasons why to use one over the other.

We currently use Windows Live Photo Gallery since it includes tags and things and it seems to work out fine. I haven't used anything different in many years so I don't know if there are better things out there.

A friend just contacted me and wanted me to help her move all their photos from their old computers to an external drive so I figured I should come back and see what software is out there so they can keep them organized on that drive.

Any thoughts or website comparisons or anything that anyone has would be great.

Thanks!

 

[CuriousMike]

If you're happy with Windows Live Photo Gallery, I'd say stick with it.

Picasa ( free from Google ) is pretty nice, plus has a nice set of basic editing features.

If you want a more serious solution, Adobe Lightroom is the +++ solution ( but also $, but not $$$).

 

[Imp]

I heard good things about Lightroom, especially for shooting in RAW.

I just discovered MS Office Picture Manager and LOVE it. It came with MS Office I bought years ago, didn't even know it existed. Very simple interface, just enough features. Tried to use Windows Photo Gallery, but it used the newer tab menu interface and something didn't jive with me.

 

[Kelemvor]

I know Lightroom is the king but it's not free... I've seen some Lightroom alternatives but they mostly talk about the editing capabilities (which I don't care about as much) and not about the organization abilities.

 

[corkyg]

I create folders by subject and date, and then sub-folders that are chronological and descriptive. I use no special software for that. Then I quickly edit with Irfanview and store them on three separate drives - all the same. Been doing that since 1997. Currently, there are 1000s and I have no trouble quickly finding a given pic. When on travel, I offload the camera's memory chip everyday, and do the process described above on my laptop. When I get home, I copy all folders to the dupli8cate storage drives.

 

[Berliner]

Corkyg, I can't really follow you.

Do you mind giving an example of your folder structure?

 

[Binky]

Acdsee used to be very good, then it got a little bloated for me.

Try faststone
http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

 

[corkyg]

Corkyg, Do you mind giving an example of your folder structure?

IMaybe it is too simple. OK - here's an example - a few years ago, we took a cruise in the Med called "Glories of Greece." OK - ,the title ofd the folder is just that . . . "Glories of Greece." Then I created sub-folders by day and place. Example:

Glories of Greece
Day 1 Navplion
Day 2 Santorini
Day 3 Kusadasi
Day 4 Mykonos
Day 5 At Sea
Day 6 Sorrento
Day 7 Rome

Each sub-folder contains relative photos. There are hundreds of such folders and I can whip through them with Explorer and viewer to find a particular one. The overall system is nothing more than file management. Decades ago, when I was taking color slides, I organized them in Kodak Carousels much the same way.

 

[OctaneZ]

Then I created sub-folders by day and place. Example:
Glories of Greece
Day 1 Navplion
Day 2 Santorini

I do something similar, but find the "Day 1 Beach" "Day 2 Beach" becomes a problem with large number of files, I recommend a date as the first string:
2014 Vacation
20141210 Beach
20141211 Beach
20141212 Airplane Museum

also makes searching without using EXIF easier

 

[Berliner]

..

Thanks!

I just would add the date in front as well, but subfolders per day is a good idea.

 

[jhansman]

If you want a more serious solution, Adobe Lightroom is the +++ solution ( but also $, but not $$$).

This. The Library module is not difficult to master, and once you do, you'll thank yourself for learning it. If you are shooting RAW, this is the program to use to process your images. It just keeps getting better, and cheaper.