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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.

19 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Simplest is best by amightywind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    mkdir, find.

    --
    an ill wind that blows no good
    1. Re:Simplest is best by Wycliffe · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not sure why this is modded down. This was actually my first idea. The problem with this
      is that it effectively only allows one "tag" i.e. /2004/vacation/good/ /2004/vacation/bad/
      The only way to have multiple categories would be with a bunch of symbolic links which
      might not be too bad if there was a simple program to handle it. The other idea would be
      to actually store the meta data inside of each photo. That way the meta data shouldn't
      be lost if I'm forced to move to a different program assuming the new program can read
      the metadata.

    2. 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. lightroom darktable by blackest_k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    my first thought was lightroom but darktable is free runs on linux( OSX too) and will also generate a database of your images.

    For image processing you would also want a 1GB or better graphics card to take advantage of GPU processing, not that you are really interested in that, other people maybe.

    --
    Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
  3. Google Picasa 3 by sundru · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Picasa 3 , I find this has a little bit of everything i need except duplicate file management.

    1. Re:Google Picasa 3 by Pikoro · · Score: 3, Informative

      Under the Tools menu, there is an Experimental sub-menu. Select "Show duplicate files". Then I just deleted everything that shows up. Seems to work just fine. It's not automatic or anything, but it works.

      --
      "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  4. Software doesn't really matter by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unless you have some really workflow/hardware your source images are going to be in either JPEG, your camera's proprietary raw format, or both. JPEG supports a standard method of tagging via EXIF directly in the image that includes a "Rating" tag that any tool is going to use. If you are tagging raw files then make sure that you write out the tagging information into .XMP "Sidecar" files. This is an Adobe defined "standard" based around XML files, but it's extremely portable and just about any image editor/tagger that supports .XMP files will follow the core Adobe standard tags, including the ones for rating images, and since it's XML you'll always have access to the tag data if the worst should happen and to roll your own tools if need be. As long as you choose software that supports one or both of those formats, then you'll be fine and about as futureproof as it's possible to be.

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  5. Keep It Simple by pubwvj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Keep It Simple
    This is something you want to work for decades.
    Don't get fancy.
    Don't use image organization software that will stop being supported or become useless with an OS update that kills off legacy software.

    Just name your files well.
    Establish a format for naming.
    Organize images in directories / folders.
    Use the operating system search feature.

    K.I.S.S.

    1. Re:Keep It Simple by itzly · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just name your files well.

      Mine are all called DSCNxxxx.JPG.

    2. Re:Keep It Simple by ubrgeek · · Score: 5, Funny

      But those are all from your trip to Disney in China, right?

      --
      Bark less. Wag more.
  6. systemd is the best I've found. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    systemd is the best file compression software I've ever found. It got installed on my Debian computer recently. Now all my files on that computer are effectively 0 bytes in size, because I can't access them at all because my frigging system won't even boot.

  7. Anything that's OS independent? by Dadoo · · Score: 3

    As long as we're on the subject, I'd like to know about such software, too, but I'd like something that's OS independent, and stores images locally. My mom has an enormous collection of family photos, dating back to the early 20th century, that I'd like to catalog while she's still around. It would be nice if she could do the annotations on her Windows machine, while I organize everything on my Linux machine. Ideally, we could copy the images and associated data back and forth using a CDROM or USB key.

    --
    Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
  8. Cataloging write-only archives by namgge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Based on my experience as an executor, you should pick the best one or two photos from each significant occasion, record the date, location and the people (forename and surname) it shows in a plain text file and trash the rest. Fortunately chronological order is both the easiest and best way of organising such a collection. Don't bother keeping pictures that don't have clearly recognisable people in them because it's only these that will be of any interest in future.

    Then, when you die your kids will inherit a nice collection of ca 100 family photos complete with enough information to make them interesting and give them a context.

    Namgge

    1. Re:Cataloging write-only archives by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Please GOD don't do this!

      If you want to create a best of album to pass on to your kids then by all mean to that. But don't trash the rest! Storage is cheap so there is no reason you shouldn't keep everything. One of the best finds I ever had from my great grandparents was a suitcase full of old photos taken around the turn of the century. Most of them were of random life, and even though I didn't know who the people were it was a fascinating insight into how they lived. It was only 110 years ago but I found the differences incredible and much more relatable in photo form then in a book.

      I have just over 60gb of digital photos now. Many of them are crap. Another chunk are essentially duplicates where I have taken 20 photos to capture a moment. What we do is put together a highlights book for each year. We actually print them using a company that makes coffee book style books. It's a lot of work, sifting through the images, editing and cropping them and then finally putting them together in a 40-60 page book. But it is so worth it. We now have 13 of these books and we will start on 2014 shortly.

    2. Re: Cataloging write-only archives by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Jpeg has been the standard for years now, I doubt very much that it will become inaccessible anytime soon. And the best thing about digitised photos is the don't degrade like the physical versions. Proprietary mail storage files are not really comparable.

      The other nice thing about digital is that all it takes is a codec to read something. I don't need to dig out the old vcr etc.

      As for the old home videos, I made the concious decision about 5 years ago to transfer all of them to digital for exactly the reasons you outlined. So I spent days going through all mine and my parents videos and captured them on a pc. I also worked with my dad to scan every single photo and slide that he had. It took us 2 years and we went through 4 scanners in the process but they are now done. We also worked through them naming and dating them as best we could.

      And finally why would I have a reader for my first digital camera? I don't even own it anymore and I can't even remember what type of cards it took (I think it was CF). I have transferred them onto my NAS and will have reused the card multiple times. They're not like film canisters.....

      In the end there is no guarantee that my system will be readable in x years time. But using common standards, such as jpeg, and LTO tapes to back them up mean chances are they will be for someone who cares enough to look. In addition I print the yearly summary that exist in the physical world and requires no special interface to use.

  9. Print them all by julian67 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Print them all and put them in labelled shoeboxes.

  10. digiKam by Demonoid-Penguin · · Score: 5, Informative

    digiKam, free, runs on the major platforms, has the feature you've asked for and all the features you haven't asked for but, based on my experience, you will need.

    Quoting from:-

    A digiKam Overview

    digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for KDE, which makes importing and organizing digital photos a "snap". The photos are organized in albums which can be sorted chronologically, by folder layout or by custom collections.

    Tired of the folder constraints? Don’t worry, digiKam also provides tagging. You tag your images which can be spread out across multiple folders, and digiKam provides fast and intuitive ways to browse these tagged images. You can also add comments to your images. digiKam makes use of a fast and robust database to store these meta-informations which makes adding and editing of comments and tags very reliable.

    digiKam makes use of KIPI plugins for lots of added functionalities. KIPI (KDE Image Plugin Interface) is an initiative to create a common plugin infrastructure for digiKam, KPhotoAlbum, and GwenView. Its aim is to allow development of image plugins which can be shared among KDE graphical applications.

    An easy-to-use interface is provided that enables you to connect to your camera and preview, download and/or delete your images. Basic auto-transformations can be deployed on the fly during image downloading.

    Another tool, which most artists and photographers will be familiar with, is a Light Table. This tool assists artists and photographers with reviewing their work ensuring the highest quality only. A classical light table will show the artist the place on the images to touch up. Well in digiKam, the light table function provides the user a similar experience. You can import a photo, drag it onto the light table, and touch up only the areas that need it.

    Note: it's not very stable if you insist on running it on Windoof. Very reliable on Linux, I haven't tried with OSX.

    Features

  11. 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?

  12. Re:Image Organization by esldude · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I certainly agree with this sentiment. Guy wants software to use, not to create it himself. Advice like this is why people don't listen to you.