Grant Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 (edited) Hi folks, Had my DSLR for a year now and really need to get organized with archiving photos etc. There seems to be a load of options out there, but for this sort of software I expect you really have to use it for a while before you know it is what you want. So I thought I would try a short cut. Anybody out there with time to comment on what they use and offer a newbie databaser some pearls of wisdom? TIA Grant Edited April 2, 2009 by Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 I use nothing more complicated than an Excel spreadsheet, I've set it up with some filters and edited fields and a little bit of automation but it works well enough for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 You could try Picasa - some seem to like it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Mullen Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I use ACDSee V9 to create an HTML Album, which I then burn to CD. Heres an example of a similar layout (but using a different program) >> 3D Models - Tomcats << Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmatthewbacon Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Adobe Lightroom is an industrial strength solution... but you can download a demo to try to see if it does what you want: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/ bestest, m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I've been using Lightroom for over a year now, it works well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 (Viz magazine style) Top Tip: Avoid time consuming an expensive storage for your digital photos by simply staring much harder at things in the first place and not taking a picture at all. Share your pictures with others by simply inviting them along to see what you are looking at. Rotate images by lying down on either your left or right side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyT Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) Hi folks,Had my DSLR for a year now and really need to get organized with archiving photos etc. There seems to be a load of options out there, but for this sort of software I expect you really have to use it for a while before you know it is what you want. So I thought I would try a short cut. Anybody out there with time to comment on what they use and offer a newbie databaser some pearls of wisdom? TIA Grant Best thing I did was to by a USB 120 gig external hard drive and store them all on that off your main PC...... mine puts them in photos for days taken so I simply change the folder name from say as an example 4-2-09 to Cosford Visit. on like this below ( I have one of these) and they can be daisy chained as you fill them up or better still one of the ones that uses raid and 2 hard drives in one case so it stores on both drives, that way if one goes down your images are safe on the other. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Es...8991&sr=8-2 Edited April 3, 2009 by TonyT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 Thank you folks, apart from Kirk who is just being silly! Some interesting ideas there. Some cheaper than others!! Tony, I am already using an external disc for backup, they are such a cheap backup solution nowadays. At 250Gb I reckon it will last me into my 80s. cheers Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilgrim_UK Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Thank you folks, apart from Kirk who is just being silly!Some interesting ideas there. Some cheaper than others!! Tony, I am already using an external disc for backup, they are such a cheap backup solution nowadays. At 250Gb I reckon it will last me into my 80s. cheers Grant Also you might want to think about online storage as well as that 250gb hard drive. Microsoft live do a whopping 25gb storage for photos which also takes the burden of losing any of those special photos as you are guaranteed of enterprise level backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylan the rabbit Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I backup my work on DVD's, in paper/plastic sleeves in a filing cupboard. I know it's more space consuming than a 500GB or whatever drive, but I have more faith in them than putting everything on one external drive that could go tits up.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Hooded Claw Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I load my Photos up to my Laptop first and do any editing/uploading from there. Then they are transferred to my 300GB Hard Drive Tower which automatically backs them up to its slaved external USB 500GB drive. Sounds extreme but I lost most if not all of the photographic material for my magazines when my old PC died. I'm not having that happen again. As for organising the photos themselves I use a simple folder by folder system in Windows Explorer and manually sort them. The Back up duplicates this framework so it is easily rebuildable in the event of a loss one way or another. Mind you I owned my digital cameras for nearly five years now and I've not even dented the surface of my available storage! H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xffw45343tg Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Thank you folks, apart from Kirk who is just being silly! More seriously, some friends used some fantastic online photo-album software to selectively print pics as a book (i.e. not prints you stick in a book but bound printed pages). Whilst a little off topic this has been a fabulous way for them to actually look at the pics they've taken. I'll find out which one if you are interested. Also, don't buy a 250Gb drive if you can afford the small increment to 1Tb. You may think you won't use 4 times the space but history is against you on this one. Finally, had you considered putting a media server on your network? Store pics, video, music, whatever on one box that can be accessed by a variety of devices - your PC, TV etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 Finally, had you considered putting a media server on your network? Store pics, video, music, whatever on one box that can be accessed by a variety of devices - your PC, TV etc. That is actually a cool idea. I might look into that. DVD's are definitely the other backup consideration, that I am slowly catching up with, 'cos whilst there is space to last until I am 80+, no way is the disc actually going to last that long! I fell a weekend of testing coming on. cheers Grant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilgrim_UK Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Try the Synology series of products if you are thinking about media storage. Excellent support with more updates than microsoft and thats to add features not fix bugs. I have the DS106E and can't recommend it more, a fine piece of kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHREAK Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 You could print them and stick them in a nice photo album for all to see. Makes you think a bit dunnit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomastewart Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Microsoft Expression Media 2 is an excellent way to store, sort, edit and generally keep track of your images and media files. ression/products/overview.aspx?key=media'>http://www.microsoft.com/expression/produc....aspx?key=media Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darson Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements for years now (I think I'm currently on ver7) and that certainly does the job as far as I'm concerned for organising and editing digital photos. For backup I have two external 1TB drives as well as the internal 500GB drive on the PC to store the 60,000+ photos we currently have. One of the TB drives is always connected to the PC so the photos directory is always kept in sync across the two drives, while the other TB is kept off site at my mother in law's house and bought back one a month for a full system backup. This may sound like overkill but with the price of TB drives these days being as cheap as they are it doesn't cost a lot to protect yourself. Oh and by the way this backup strategy saved my butt a couple of months ago when the HD in the PC went t1ts up. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 I backup my work on DVD's, in paper/plastic sleeves in a filing cupboard.I know it's more space consuming than a 500GB or whatever drive, but I have more faith in them than putting everything on one external drive that could go tits up.. Dylan, one thought. If you are doing that, can I suggest you duplicate them.? Like CDs and floppies before, DVDs may have a limited and unpredictable lifespan. Double banking makes loss less likely. They are fairly cheap now. Most frustratiing when your disk of favourite pictures won't open. Guess how I know. John B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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