Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Best Software For Image Organization?

Posted by timothy on from the where-do-we-stand-in-2014? dept.

Wycliffe writes Like many people, I am starting to get a huge collection of digital photos from family vacations, etc. I am looking for some software that allows me to rate/tag my own photos in a quick way. I really don't want to spend the time tagging a bunch of photos and then be locked into a single piece of software, so what is the best software to help organize and tag photos so that I can quickly find highlights without being locked into that software for life? I would prefer open source to prevent lock-in and also prefer Linux but could do Windows if necessary.

2 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Simplest is best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I second this vote for using the file system to organise your images. This post may give me away to some of my friends, but I create folders using this template:

    [YYYY-MM-DD] Descriptive Name of Trip or Event

    This allows me to have multiple groups of images on a given day, say a lunchtime function and a dinner party.

    For groups that span multiple days I do this:

    [YYYY-MM-XX] Descriptive Name of Multi-Day Event

    If I go on a big trip then what I do is create sub folders with the date (using the same format) for each event or grouping or experience that I captured.

    If I have a folder of photos and want to make a small sub-selection. I make a folder called "pick" and put them in there. I may also do a low-res copy of that folder (and call it "web pick") and then I can email them easily to friends. I don't bother with links or any other garbage, 50-500MB of duplication doesn't matter a damn, and the backup software has de-duplication so doesn't care either.

    Finally, I've done this for almost 15 years and it's basically worked perfectly for me and I have a fantastic collection of photos going all the way back.

    Sorry, this the actual finally. Be very wary of *any* automated system based on a database or tagging system. The problem is that while initially they may seem awesome and great time savers, you will ultimately want to group [at least some of] the photos based on social, aesthetic and political assessments, and no automatic system can ever handle that.

  2. Re:Image Organization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The OP asked for a software solution, and your response is that he/she needs to become a database and Python programmer. How clueless can you be?