[fekish]

Hello,

i always struggle to find a nice way to organise all the photos i have.

I sterted using Picasa when it came out, but then i discovered that the tags given to photos, are not embedded on the photos but on the program, thus i decided to stop using it.

Then i started with Windows Live Photo Gallery, were photo tags remain with the photos, but there were so many bugs with the software that i stopped that one as well...

Now i am just using folders on my computer.

Do you have any other recommendations on this issue?

Thanks!

[LensScribe]

I had a similar experience. I tried all sorts of software but abandoned them all because of some or other failing. Then a friend put me onto Adobe Lightroom, and I haven't looked back. You can set it to write keywords into the original files XMP, and although it's non-destructive (all changes are in Lightroom and not to the originals) which means if you lose the Lightroom catalogue you potentially lose all of your edits, as I back up my photos once a week anyway, getting into the habit of backing up my Lightroom catalogue simultaneously was easy.

There's a lot of information and disparate views on photo organising/management, so do some reading and see which program's feature set suits your preferences. Personally, I'll be sticking with Lightroom for the foreseeable future.

[Marc Sabatella]

First thing you need is a good *strategy*. Once you have that, *then* you can see what software might best support it. Of course, your strategy can be influenced by what features the available software happens to provide, but strategy should be your first consideration.

The best way I know to learn about organizational strategy for digital images is to read "The DAM Book" by Peter Krogh. With regard to the specific issue of folders versus keywords, You'll see the recommendation is not to use folders for organization but to use keywords and so forth - but to make sure those keywords are embedded in the IPTC area of the photos. This is the only way to be sure your organizational work is made permanent and accessible to people other than you.

[SpecialK]

I use dated folders (with short description) to hold files with names that start with the date (and short description).

Photobucket categories help find things in a pinch.

[Arpe]

One thing I've just done is rename ALL my digital camera photos putting the date, in reverse, at the front. So now it's 2009-11-29 Jeff in the river.jpg sort of thing. I was able to do that quite easily using Bulk Rename Utility which can extract the date captured and add it to the front (as well as millions of other options for renaming files).

My photos are in folders by date with a short clue as to what's in there. Those folders are in yearly folders.

All photos are keyworded by Bridge, which embeds the keywords in the file's exif.

I do not have anywhere near as many photos as some on here, and one day I may find the limitations of my method, but in the meantime it's just fine.

I can search by keywords or filename in Bridge OR Windows Live Gallery (I've had no trouble with the latter).

Edit: I also geotag each pic with latitude and longitude using Geosetter.

[fekish]

Thanks for the tips everyone.

I have digital photos since 2002, lots of them, and i organise them very well in folders, but i now as sometimes i lose control with the photos, i want to have them in a bit better order... That's why now i am thinking of using tags, that could sort them out in a better way.

I read Picasa and Lightroom are nice, but i want a "light" program that would load up easily and that it would store the info on the photo rather than the program. So i think Lightroom is a bit "heavy" and Picasa doesnt store info on photos...

I am still on the search

[MadAmos]

FYI, looks like Picasa 3 saves it in the file. I just opened a photo in the Picasa 3 editor and when I added a tag it saved it as an IPTC keyword (checked it after closing Picasa and using an EXIF viewer on it). That should follow it to any program that will read those keywords.

[fekish]

Really?

I thought that PIcasa saved it only in the software! If that's the case then i should stop searching elsewhere!

I'll check it out...

[fekish]

From google site:
https://sites.google.com/site/picasaresources/faq#TOC-Is-face-tag-data-stored-in-the-phot

Is face tag data stored in the photo itself?

Picasa currently does not store face tag data directly inside the photo but this is functionality that Picasa hopes to have in the future.

Since my face tag data is not stored in the photo itself, where is my face tags data stored?

Face tag data is stored in the Picasa database and also in the .picasa.ini file in the folder where your tagged photo sits. To see the location of the photo on your hard drive and the .ini file where the information is stored, right click the photo and select "Locate on Disk".

[MadAmos]

Check the EXIF data on the photo if you edit the tag with the software. I'm using the EXIF Viewer 1.55 addon for firefox to see them. I added a tag to a photo in the Picasa software and it put the tag in the IPTC Keywords.

When I view the file properties in Windows it doesn't show. However if you edit the keywords in the advanced properties of the file in Windows it will add a section to EXIF IFD0 called Microsoft.XP.Keywords with what you added that way.

I just did this on a couple of jpg's on my system, should work the same way for you.

Looking at the note you're referring to, its the face tag data which makes sense. The face tagging also tags the location of the person's face in picture. I'm not sure there's a place for that kind of metadata right now in the file.

Here we go, just found this response in the help forum for Picasa: Why are picasa comments not saved in exif or IPTC header fields in the image file? - Picasa Help

"Best answer - ajr225 (Asker) Go to this answer
Picasa "captions" and "tags" are saved in the IPTC data in images that support IPTC data. JPEGs for example. "

Are you tagging RAW files or jpg? Picasa doesn't support putting metadata in all types of RAW files.


Edit: Looks like Picasa doesn't support the newer standard for the data though. People in that thread are talking about using command line tools or possibly something like http://www.irfanview.com/ to edit the newer version of the keywords/tagging. Basically IPTC-Core vs the older IPTC-IIM

[fekish]

Ok thanks, just JPEG for the moment...

I don't thing i will ever shoot RAW to be honest.

[Marc Sabatella]

Keywords are not faces. Most programs - presumably Picasa included - are capable of saving keywords to ITPC, because IPTC defines a place and format for storing keywords. But IPTC does not define a way of storing face data that isn't just another word for keywords. If you want other programs to be able to access your organizational work, you have to work within the confines of the standards that exist for that organizational work. And that generally means doing as much as you can with keywords, because those are among the most standard forms of metadata out there.

[Derridale]

I don't thing i will ever shoot RAW to be honest

I know it's not for everyone, but I can't see a reason NOT to shoot RAW.... apart from needing to process the files on the computer afterwards. And that can be as quick or as slow as you like to make it. But it DOES give you much more option to make the photo better, including everything from white balance to detail sharpening (JPGs have already thrown away so much information).

I don't want to start an old, well-worn discussion, especially as it's kinda off-topic, but I would suggest keeping an open mind on RAW - memory cards are so cheap these days, as is disk storage, that filesize has ceased to be an argument for not shooting RAW.

Or, do as some pro wedding photographer friends of mine do, and shoot RAW + JPG together. Best of both worlds!

[fekish]

RAW take more space right?

I went in a 2 weeks trip now and used 20gb and had just 100mg free space when i was returning home...

I wouldn't want to process around 2,000 photos if they are RAW... OK i will process some that i want them to be almost perfect, but i wouldn't have time to spend on all of them!

[bdery]

I have a different approach.

If you use a software, you are "forever" trapped with that software. Which makes so friggin sense.

I sort my pictures in folders, the proven method of organizing anything.

Year / Month / Date (Year-Month-Date) - Description of the event

It does work. And makes me free of software.