Organizing my photos and pictures

I am looking for help in organizing my out-of-control set of pictures and photos.

When I Search for pictures and photos on my Dell 3000 pc (with XP) I see that I have some 1506 of them ... some photos I have taken or received by email, some screen shots I have made, and some cartoon-like icons that appear to be associated with some of my applications. I am trying, finally, to “catalog” them in a reasonable way.

I would like to organize them in such a way that I can select them using from a table-like index like this:

Photo # Date Taken Location Subject Title

1 1/2/2009 NY Battery Park apartment
2 2/3/2008 PV Pool
3 3/5/2007 CC, MD Garden …….
....…
1506 1/18/1999 Miami Joan

where the table is searchable for, say, “PdL”.

If I look through the photo-related software on my system I see that I have these packages:

• Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5’
• Jasc Paint Shop Pro Studio Dell Edition
• Kodak EasyShare Software
• Logitech QuickCam Software
• Logitech Camera Driver
• InfranView

but I have never really learned how to use any of them.


QUESTIONS:

Will any of my current software packages allow me to build an index like the kind I want?
Which one is recommended?
Is there <another> software package I should get instead of the ones I now have?

I would appreciate your suggestions.

Make a document with links to the various folders.

In folder 2010 I place all pictures that we have and will take this year.
Been doing that for several years now.

So far I have about 6500 pictures in 146 folders in the 2010 folder.

EXAMPLE:
K:\1 L drive\2010 photos\2010-01-14
Contains all our work done on that day.
Plus it is backed up to several USB hdds and a couple hdds in the lan network.

The program I use is FastStone Image Viewer
http://www.faststone.org/

It works with RAW files too.

What you're looking at in your comp is not just photos, but images. Windows can't distinguish between your photos, images that are part of programs, and clip art. To Windows, an image is an image. So it's helpful to view them in thumbnail view to make sure you're not moving stuff that should be stationery.

Irfanview is also good for organizing photos. Just make your folders in Windows Explorer, open Irfanview, and then drag an drop them in thumbnail view into the proper folders. Leave the non-photos alone, as many are part of the system or programs. Once they're organized, you don't need a table.

Another advantage of a separate partition or drive, aside from safety: next time you scan that drive, only data files will appear.

Throw out the programs you're sure you'll never use. They're just repetitive, and some are garbage. The Dell Edition of PSP? Wonder what kind odf spyware is in there. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Don't know Faststone, but the free Irfanview will do also organizing and simple editing for you. Read the excellent help file, and they also have tutorials and a forum on the website at www.irfanview.com. I started with Irfanview 15 years ago. Learn one program thoroughly and you can stay with it, with free updates for years.

^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^
Train, you took 6500 photos so far in 2010, and it's only June? Are they all as meaningful as when we used to paste a dozen in an album and keep them for years to pass down through the generations? TMI:rolleyes:

And you're writing your dates backwards, but you're not a Brit presumably. Those backwards dates in files drive me nuts. Drinking too much again, seeing everything backwards? :p

That is so windows sees them but the year, then the month and finally the date.
Believe me, that trick is a huge start since I have graphic from back in 1992 and before on here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

That is so windows sees them but the year, then the month and finally the date.
Believe me, that trick is a huge start since I have graphic from back in 1992 and before on here.

---

They're all dated in Explorer already, but I guess with that many photos, you need all the help you can get. Do you find your life richer since you can save 2000 photos a year instead of 52?:p Or are they like those old clipart programs with collections like "dog facing right" and "dog facing left?"

Are you making just 12 subfolders, or are you splitting those into 365 subsubfolders also?

We also didn't ask wdc if he's rather organize some by topic. For instance, I have all my cat photos in one folder regardless of year. Years are not particularly relevant when a cat looks the same at 2 as at 16. "The grandkids growing up and getting nastier" can be one folder, if WDC wishes, rather than having them scattered over 16 folders. I have all my photos by topic, not really by year. Cats, Good Friends, Family Visit in Florida 2003, Trips to the Zoo, etc.


How are you doing, wdc? :D

I'm with Train on date format. yyyymmdd sorts/selects correctly without manipulation. As you read this, half the programmers and computers in the world are converting the absurd date formats used by humans so calculations can be performed.

Well, heirloom graphics are sorted differently, as they were all scanned in.

Example:
Bjorge family

Then broke that down with a folder for each child starting when they got married. After all, that started a new family.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jerryctx

I'm with Train on date format. yyyymmdd sorts/selects correctly without manipulation. As you read this, half the programmers and computers in the world are converting the absurd date formats used by humans so calculations can be performed.

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Depends on how you use your comp. After 65 years of writing the format: June 10, 2010, I have trouble interpreting the backwards dates, have to look at them twice. I can sort the objects in my life any way that's convenient for me.

But I'm not a programmer. They sort the entire world into pieces of data, as if the concrete meaning of that stuff no longer exists. All of life is NOT DATA. Wall calendars will NEVER say "2010610." You'll never be able to do your gardening or your carpentry on your cell phone, no matter how complex they make them. :p

Our lives are not richer since we can save 8000 photos in less space than the old 100 photos in an album. Each photo has now become cheapened, and only a selection of those photos are really meaningful to us, just as before. The rest is "dog facing left" and "dog facing right." (Not counting pro photographers of course.)

You recall all efforts to get Americans to convert to the metric system has failed too. I have a little converter program in my computer, but I can't visualize a gram or a meter or 40 degrees C without it. My 12-year old friend can't either. Also, have you noticed that digital watches have lost whatever lead they had 20 years ago? Hardly a one in the jewelry store any more. And the schools have not been forced to impose the metric system as THE ONLY system.
..........

So, wdc, how is it going, since we've hijacked your thread?

After 65 years (and I'm about the same age, by the way) it probably isn't worth learning a new date format, metric system, etc. But that doesn't make the old ways more efficient, just less work for the elderly.

And we will convert to metric. The day when the American economy let us ignore efficiency is long gone. And I wouldn't bet that calendars will never change format. Never is a long time.

19 years of MMDDYYYY then 20 years of DDMMYYYY and now YYYYMMDD

Plus a bunch of others in the last 27 years, yep 67, I just do what works best for the given situation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jerryctx

After 65 years (and I'm about the same age, by the way) it probably isn't worth learning a new date format, metric system, etc. But that doesn't make the old ways more efficient, just less work for the elderly.

And we will convert to metric. The day when the American economy let us ignore efficiency is long gone. And I wouldn't bet that calenders will never change format. Never is a long time.

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Well, my very hip 12-year old friend is still learning both in school, and still has an analog watch where she can see that 9:20 means 20 minutes after 9 PM. I don't see her writing her birthday cards starting with

"20100612,
Dear Aunt Rebecca,"

Yes, there really are still birthday cards that are not emailed. :p

Do you think the American economy was really affected most by not using the metric system, or by competition from cheaper sources of labor? C'mon, Jerry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

19 years of MMDDYYYY then 20 years of DDMMYYYY and now YYYYMMDD

Plus a bunch of others in the last 27 years, yep 67, I just do what works best for the given situation.

---

Were you referring to programming or sorting your photos? I was distinguishing between what a computer could do, like sorting ones and zeroes, and what goes on in the real world. Not all of life can be sorted like data; it's far too complex and wonderfully chaotic. Try sorting out Mozart or Monet on your cell phone.

Did we scare you off, wdc, or do you need help? I'd like to see what you came up with.

Quote:

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Do you think the American economy was really affected most by not using the metric system, or by competition from cheaper sources of labor? C'mon, Jerry.

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• I never made such a claim
• The metric system won't solve all our problems but it will make us more competitive
• All those "cheaper sources of labor" use the metric system

And why are we both awake in the middle of the night? We need to get a life :)

I have a life but I work strange hours and sleep accordingly. :D Going to bed now.

Let's move this to Doctor's Lounge, if anyone is interested. I love intelligent discussion.

Manually organizing that many photo in folders is a real pain. I won't do it. What I'll do is this: Most photo organizers will by default read the EXIF and organize your photos by date automatically the first time u use it. This way a large part is done automatically right of the bat. Then I will go and tag the photos with keywords. E.g., I find the folder around on the days I was on a cruise last March with my dad on his birthday, find those photos and tag them "Caribbeans Cruise Dad's Birthday". Most organizer let you batch tag a whole bunch of photos at one time, so it's relatively quick. After all photos are tagged, I just leave them where they are instead of moving them around b/c it's so easy to just search for them with date and/or keywords. It really doesn't matter that photos of the same event are scattered in different folders. I don't care, I just search for them and they will all be "united" again. Besides, some photos may fit multiple categories, so where do you put them? Like some of my cruise photos are also my Dad's BD this year, so should I put them in the cruise folder or Dad's BD folder?

For new photos I tag them right the way so they won't get pile up again.

Picasa is free and can do all these.

falcon: Thanks for your post. I had put photos on the back burner but will now get back to that chore. Will certainly download Picassa. ..wdc

I am not 100&#37; certain but i heard that Windows Live Gallery can have tags on images, and it is free too. It is included with Windows7 but i think you can get it separately too.

Cassel: Thanks. Windows Live requires Vista; can not be added to an XP system, right? Or can it? ...wdc

XP is listed.
http://explore.live.com/windows-live...m-requirements