Photo file organizing software

[kcb1dizbksfan]

I am in the process of consolidating several external hard-drives with photos and for the first time in 40 years I want to finally organize many images with the proper naming convention for the files and folders. Has anyone seen a good software that can help in that process?

 

[SkaGoat]

PC or Mac?

 

[havoc315]

Lightroom is excellent for photo management.

 

[kcb1dizbksfan]

pc or mac?

mac

 

[SkaGoat]

I would just use iPhoto, which comes with every Mac.

 

[Renysmom]

Lightroom is the best one out there hands down.

 

[k5jm]

Aperture.

 

[SkaGoat]

Lightroom is the best one out there hands down.

For organizing photos, Aperture and iPhoto are both much better than Lightroom. For editing photos Lightroom has a slight edge over Aperture... but I still don't like the modal interface in Lightroom when compared to Aperture's UI.

 

[k5jm]

There are some great Aperture Workflow tutorials out there...

https://www.apertureexpert.com/

 

[photo_chick]

The danger with relying on software for your organization is that at some point the software will become obsolete. It's not a matter of if. It will eventually become obsolete. This is why I start my organization on the file level. I keep my images separated in folders by year then further separated in those folders by event or date. It's all easily accessible by any asset management software so if I decide to up and change to another piece of software it's not a really big deal. I can also go in easily and find images just in the file folders fairly quickly if I need to. All of the software has pros and cons, really it's just about finding what works for you. I prefer Lightroom myself because I like it's library system and having my RAW processing right there in the same software then it all integrates easily with Photoshop.

There's no right or wrong way to organize, it's just about figuring out a system that works for you.

 

[SkaGoat]

The danger with relying on software for your organization is that at some point the software will become obsolete.

And when it does you export your photos into regular ol folders and files. Just tell it to export my originals. The Aperture library is just a regular folder you can open up, it keeps the orginals in their own folder labelled "Originals" In fact it's better because if I decided instead of organizing with folders by date, I want by event, or subject, I can choose, and the computer does it for me.

I'd rather concentrate on my photography, than my file system, and that's why I use Aperture, it's file organization is much much better than Lightroom's.

 

[photo_chick]

And when it does you export your photos into regular ol folders and files. Just tell it to export my originals. The Aperture library is just a regular folder you can open up, it keeps the orginals in their own folder labelled "Originals" In fact it's better because if I decided instead of organizing with folders by date, I want by event, or subject, I can choose, and the computer does it for me.

I'd rather concentrate on my photography, than my file system, and that's why I use Aperture, it's file organization is much much better than Lightroom's.

The danger of becoming obsolete is still there though and if someone is relying solely on software for organization they will have an issue with it eventually. Say you have a hard drive crash, your software is obsolete, won't run on the new OS you have to install, and you have to upgrade at that point. Your only backup organization is a library file for the obsolete software that you no longer have because it's on a crashed hard drive. (this has actually happened to someone I know). It's not an untenable or uncorrectable issue, you can always reorganize your original files again. But that takes even more time. Unless you have a crystal ball and can see the future it's always best to err on the side of caution IMO.

My file system works the best for me and it's been in place since 1999 when I got my first digital camera. A large reason it works for me is because I work on multiple computers with multiple operating systems off the same drive. My system is part of my workflow and because I've been doing it this way for so long I guarantee you I can do it just as fast as you can import your files into Aperture. But one size does not fit all and someone else might totally hate my system.

 

[Daisy14'sDH]

My system is very close to photochick, all folders have a date, an event associated with that date, and tags added to each photo, all saved to the metadata. I use LR 4.2 currently...

 

[SkaGoat]

The danger of becoming obsolete is still there though and if someone is relying solely on software for organization they will have an issue with it eventually. Say you have a hard drive crash, your software is obsolete, won't run on the new OS you have to install, and you have to upgrade at that point. Your only backup organization is a library file for the obsolete software that you no longer have because it's on a crashed hard drive.

An Aperture (and iPhoto) library is basically a folder, it's organizes the Masters in a folder, by date. So if the world ended, and I couldn't run Aperture, I could still get my Masters out, still organized (by date) Apple also would not abandon Aperture, the likelihood of if not running is very small, and iPhoto (which comes free with every new Mac) can read Aperture libraries.

I beg to differ, it doesn't get much quicker than, plugging the camera in, clicking the import button, writing in a few keywords, naming the project, and clicking "Import". When it's time to back up, I can use the integrated vault feature, and just copy the Library file to my back up drive.

It also works very well on multiple macs. I never could get Lightroom to work well across multiple computers, I always ended up with broken links etc.

Your system works for you, and that's great, but for someone trying to get their photos organized, it's not a very efficient way to do it.

Import them into iPhoto (which he has, for free with his Mac). Organize them they way he wants them, then if he wants folders, he can export the whole library, and it'll create a folder for each project.