Community Newsletter: Q&A: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos
- 8/4/05 5:46 PM
Simple Photo Programs
by rustymanhard - 8/5/05 6:59 AM In reply to: Photo organizing utilities recommendations other than Picasa by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
DUSTY I have found that there are about a million photo programs available. the more you pay the more you will be confused. Stick to some thing simple like Microsoft Piture it or ACDSee they will both help you organize your photos into a recognizable pattern.
Most Digital Cameras come with a program that will help you download and fix your photos as well as store them search you camera box for a CD ROM with the program.
If you at some time in the future feel that you are now an expert and wish to more with your photos, Try Photo Suite or Adobe Photo Shop to really get the most out of your photo Experience.
Microsoft Photo Story
by barryw29 - 8/7/05 6:28 PM In reply to: Photo organizing utilities recommendations other than Picasa by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I didn't see any other posts with this program.
Photostory is a free download from Microsoft.com.
This program converts a lifeless slideshow into a movie. You can add music, titles and narration. You simply download all the pictures you want into the the program and just follow the on-screen step-by-step instructions.
My solution for organizing photos
by Cthrutecheyes - 8/20/05 10:03 AM In reply to: Photo organizing utilities recommendations other than Picasa by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Check out "Photomax", an awesome way to organize your photos, as well as do other things you probably had not thought of. Just go to www.PictureFreedomNow.com,
then click on 'What is Photomax' and selection the video presentation.
I encourage you to browse the rest of the website. If it seems to provide the solution you were looking for, go to drwilliams.myphotomaxusa.com and open up a free account.
Either way it would be good to get some feedback to see if this service really solves a lot of problem many of us have with photos. I like it because I am not a tech person and frankly, I don't want to spend a lot of time collecting and organizing photos.
Dekki Williams
888-525-3518
Other advice from our members
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 8/4/05 5:31 PM
In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Other suggestions
Answer:
Dusty,
The first step is to locate all your picture files. Most digital picture files are saved as JPEG’s (jpg). The Search Companion offers the most direct way to locate files. You can use wildcard characters to locate all the JPG files on your hard drive. Click Start – Search – All Files and Folders. In the box under “All or Part of the File Name:” you can type *.jpg (the asterisk is your wildcard meaning any file with a JPG extension). In the box under “Look In:” make sure it says Local Hard Drive C: and nothing else so it searches the entire drive and not just a particular folder. Now click Search to find your pictures.
Once the search is done you’ll need to go through the pictures to select which ones (some may be sample pictures provided by various programs) you want to organize. To do this you click on the first one and hold down your CTRL key while clicking each file you want.
After you have selected all the pictures you want, open up the My Pictures folder (My Pictures is located on your Start menu). Make sure both windows are visible, click on (and hold) the highlighted picture files and drag them to the My Pictures folder.
You can then view your photos and image files as a slide show or in the Filmstrip view. In Filmstrip view, your pictures appear in a single row of thumbnail images. You can scroll through your pictures using the left and right arrow buttons. If you click a picture, it is displayed as a larger image above the other pictures. You can double-click a picture to edit, print, or save the image to another folder.
To view your pictures as a slide show in the My Pictures folder, under Picture Tasks (left side menu) click View as a slide show. Use the slide show toolbar buttons to play, pause, move to the previous or next slide, or end the slide show. If the toolbar is not displayed, move the pointer across the screen, and it will appear in the upper-right corner of the screen. If none of the pictures or only one picture is selected, all of the pictures will be shown in the slide show. If two or more pictures are selected, only those pictures will be shown in the slide show.
When downloading pictures from your camera in the future, try using the Scanner and Camera Wizard. By default, Windows saves those pictures in My Pictures (unless you change the location). Plug your camera into your computer. If your camera is Plug and Play, the Scanner and Camera Wizard will start.
Submitted by: Cathi C.
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Answer:
You really don't need new software to do the job of organizing photos. I have hundreds on my computer at any given time, and can ALWAYS find what I want within moments......here's how:
First I open a folder on my desktop and give it the name of the month (I also have one that says "Photos 2005" on the desktop). During that month, every photo I take is downloaded into that folder. The folder is then sorted within the folder with separate folders with the name of the topic, and the edited photos are stored according to topic. At the end of each month, the Photos July, or whatever, is moved into the 2005 folder, and a new folder for August is opened and ready. I archive my photos on CDs quarterly, but you can do it anyway you wish....if you take fewer photos, just archive once a year. I also keep Downloaded Photos that I save in a folder labeled as "Downloads" in each monthly folder. Sure makes life easy with only two folders on the desktop in which to search.
May pay you to have a "Stock Photo" folder with copies photos you use all the time....family, pets etc., so you need not go into your CDs for photos you use frequently, just be sure a copy is stored in the appropriate dated folder, too, just in case you delete or crash, at least you always have a copy of the most important photos stored in an easy retrieval system.
Submitted by: Nance R. of Costa Mesa, CA
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Answer:
SAVING PICTURES
Hello Dusty of Baltimore,
In XP the easiest way to save any kind of pictures is to create Folders in MY DOCUMENTS. You should already have a folder called MY PICTURES, ignore this as it was created by Microsoft to hold pictures as a start for beginners.
Work out what type of pictures you wish to keep together, such as
Family Photos
Scenery
Holidays in America
Holidays overseas
Nature
Car Trips.
You can never create too many folders and I am a believer in having folders in my email for every person that writes to me, including one for CNET.
Once you have worked this out and created the folders with the names you wish to have, simply search for the photos and transfer them to the appropriate folders which you created.
When you have accomplished this and have new photos to add, decide on which folder is the correct one for each new photo - think carefully.
This is really very simple!
In MY DOCUMENTS I have folders in the same manner for Music, which is broken down into classical, Celtic, c&w, world, opera, ballet, blues, jazz etc.
In fact my own My Documents has hundred's of folders under a certain heading like
animated pictures, scrolling scripts, signatures. Once this is set up you are home and away and can find everything in alphabetical order
You can also have files under a particular folder, but I prefer to not use these as they can get hidden.
Hope this helps.
Submitted by: Vernon V. of Tasmania, Australia
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Answer:
Well Dusty, the most fatal thing according to arranging files, is that we don't name them by some hint before we save them on the drive. And the prob. as you can see gets bigger and bigger as long as the files grow in quantity.
So i suggest that you make a new folder each time you want to save a pack of pictures, or to dowload some from a media, such as your digital camera for example, or from the internet, and name it so you can identify its contents by simply reading its tittle.
Now, I will try to help you without any use of any software.
As you mentioned you are running Windows XP, so i see that the memory of your computer is acceptable to do the following:
1- First Try to run the search utility, from any folder, like the my computer one. The one that stands on your computers descktop. So Double click "my computer" from the descktop, and click on the search Button from the standard buttons toolbar. (if you don't see it, click on the "view" tab, and then make sure that you mark the "standard buttons" after pointing to toolbars.
2- Now, from the "search companion" ( the left section that appears in the folder), click on the "Picture, Music, or videos" link as an answer to the had question: "what do you want to search for?"
3- Check the "Pictures and photos" box only as a definition to search for all files of the mentioned type, that are located on your computer.
4- Click "advanced search options", and then click "More advanced options" at the bottom, and make sure that you ckeck the box near "Search Hidden files and folders" and near "Search subfolders".
5- In this step you have the choice either to define the location of the wanted pictures, if you know it, like "My Documents" for instance, or to skip the complete step "5" And if you can define the desired location, you can click on the "advanced search options" and in the "Look in" Area click the down arrow at the right to specify the desired folder. (Notice that your computer would neglect any pictures that are not in the specified folder, so if you are not sure that the wanted pictures are in this folder, skip step 5 completly)
5- Click the "search" button, and your computer will locate all the pictures found in the specified folder (or in your hard drive, in case you didn't specify any). And be patient as the process may take a long time depending on the amount of pictures you have. ( So i do recommend you that you specify a suspecious folder at a time, if you know it)
6- after the results are displayed, try to arrange them by date of modification, (and here i suppose you haven't modified the majority of them by any programs after you saved them). This arranging process can be done by right clicking on a blank area between the results and choosing "arrange icons by" and then choose "modified".
7- Here you go you have all the pictures and photos found on the location searched, arranged by the date of saving them. So that you can recongnize, each package of pictures together according to the time and date they where taken, so that you can maybe start to rearrang them in appropriate folders as i mentioned earlier.
In this step make sure that you had turned the detailed view on, so that you can see the date of each package too. (to turn the detailed view on you just need to click the view tab, and then click on details)
Hope i helped.
Submitted by: Samir S. of Lebanon
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Answer:
I am not the best organized person either, but when it comes to my pictures, I am pretty well organized.
In "My Pictures", I have a number of folders. I have divided them into Categories. When I open "My Pictures", you see several folders. One is just a "Misc." folder, where I put just odds and ends until I figure out how I want to classify them. I have a folder where I save GIF files that I copy from emails folks send me that I like to use. I have a few other folders that are basically specified, like "brackets", since I like to do scroll sawing. Then, I have the one called "Categories". Within that one, I have subdivided even more folders. I have family, friends, pets, animals, underwater, and so on, according to my likes. I have light houses, sunsets, and so on. Then, I will subdivide each of those. Family: mother/father, children, siblings, cousins, and so on. For me, this has been the easiest thing. My biggest collection of pictures, however, is my Alan Jackson Collection. I have one of my sub folders entitled "Alan Jackson", then that one is subdivided too.
Your collection is from 3 years, my collection is from 10 years. This is just my pictures. I have also done the same basic thing with "My Briefcase", for articles or stories. Stories I have collected, stories I have written, and so on.
It will take some time, but really, not too much at all. To start out, if your pictures are scattered, send them all to "My Pictures" and set up a few different categories. To be sure you are saving space, use the "Move Folder" instead of just "Copy Folder", that way, you don't wind up with duplicates and forget what you have moved and haven't moved. After you have rounded them all up in the folders, then you can do the same thing, to create sub-folders. In no time at all, you will be very organized. The best thing too is, when you go to save a new picture, you know just where to put it.
I hope this is helpful, and that I explained it well enough to help you get a bit more organized. After all that is done, be sure to burn them onto CDs so you are sure you have a back up for them, and then label what the categories are.
Submitted by: Linda M.
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Answer:
I had the same problem. I resolved it by using the code "PH" (without the quotes) for any photograph, followed by the title, followed by the date. I do this with a "SAVE AS" function to my documents, my briefcase, or whereever I wantto keep it. PH will group all photos together in thaparticular file. The date tells me when it was taken and also allows for more than one photo of the same title.
For example: PH SUBJECTOFPHOTO 20050729
If you go to my documents, my briefcase or wherever you placed the photo; you will find them listedalphabetically under PH. Also you can do a search for files or folders with the title, date, or even the code PH.
I also use this coding system to keep any particular group of items together. The same results can be obtained by saving your photos to a folder established for that purpose such as "My Pictures." I avoid that because I used My Pictures as a screensaver of selected photos and don't want all of them in the screensaver. That is just my personal preference.
Andy Whiteman of Raytown, MO
Submitted by: Andy W. of Raytown, MO
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Answer:
Dusty...it's time to get organized. First I would go to Windows Explorer. In the folder called My Documents is another folder called My Pictures. Highlight that and then click on File on the Menu bar. Select New and then Folder...this will allow you to create as many folders as you'd like to file your digital pictures.
Now click on your Start button and then click on Search. I presume that you saved your pictures as jpg files, but it doesn't matter. Search for Pictures, music, or video and then select Pictures and Photos and click on the search button. It will bring up every file on your computer that is in photo format. I would suggest selecting Thumbnails under View on the Menu bar which will allow you to "see" the photos.
Now it's time to file them where you want them either one at a time or by holding down the Control button and selecting photos you want to put in the same folder you created earlier. Once you've selected the photos you want to file, under Edit on the Menu bar, select Move to Folder. Locate the folder you want and select it...your photos will be filed in their new location. Keep doing this until you've filed all of your photos.
Submitted by: Brian K. of Maryland's Eastern Shore
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Answer:
Here's a solution that won't cost you anything but time
First make sure you have a my images folder.
In that folder create a bunch of empty folders with names in year month format (i.e 2005-01 for Jan 2005) Make as many as you need to go back to the first dated picture on your PC. You can always add more later.
Start a search from the top folder in My Computer. Right click on the C: drive and choose search.
In the search options dialog box click on the more advanced options item.
In the type of file pull-down filed choose JPEG file (assuming your files are jpg's) If you have mixed file types skip this step and enter *.jpg,*.bmp,.... in the file name field (enter all the types you have pictures in)
Make sure Search subfolders is checked.
Click search.
When the search is finished. Click the Folders icon at the top of the search window, under the menu line.
Click the Date Modified column heading to sort your list of found files into date order.
In the folder tree pane of the window (which appeared when you clicked the folders icon in the step above) find the My images folder ( you may need to expand folders, if you do only click on the little +s by the folder name so you don’t change the view in the other pane.
Now you can block and drag your found pictures into the correct month folder.
Now when you want to show the pictures just go to the correct month folder in my computer and make sure that you choose view -> thumbnails from the menu. Instant picture index!. Now you can just open the ones you want (or all, you know how grandmothers are).
Submitted by: Ron T.
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Answer:
Dusty,
I am by no means a power user as are some of the folks on these forums, but recently had the same problem you're experiencing. My husband and daughter are both photographers and have gone almost completely digital. Additionally, my husband recently began a home business in photography, and with his new Canon Rebel, is shooting RAW images - definitely eats up the storage space on the computer. They weren't always careful about where the images were stored. I'm also in the process of transferring all my vinyl LP's to the computer (after the CNET weekend project appeared!), so I have a great deal of music to store. I solved our problem by purchasing two external 80 gig hard drives. Mine are Iomega, but there are a number of different brands available. They're kept on a shelf just above the computer and I have them labeled on the outside so its very easy to switch between drives. I just plug in the power and USB cords, wait a few seconds for the computer to recognize the drive, and we're ready to go. The price was terrific as there were two rebates available on each drive, bringing it down to about $50 each.
Both my daughter and husband had some folders and subfolders set up on the computer, so I used their designations on the photo hard drive, and ran a search for the main graphics formats they had on our machine - jpg, gif, and tif - and moved the pictures found in other locations. They've both been instructed to transfer any new images to the appropriate folder on the external drive after doing whatever adjustments are needed after downloading the pictures. But I expect I'll need to do a search about once a month to be sure they're following instructions!
Good luck with your problem!
Submitted by: Maggie M. of Alpine, Texas
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Answer:
Without getting into any of the album type software out there The best thing you can do with your photos is to use an organised directory structure and naming convention. Keep all photos in one base folder and create a new sub folder for each set. Always precede the name of the folder with the date of the start of the photo set too. If you use the date format yyyy-mm-dd then your folders will always sort in date order. For example:
Photos\2005-01-01_New years day party
Photos\2005-02-14_Valentines meal
Generally people want to rename their pictures from the camera format (such as PIC001.JPG) to something meaningful. It is always an idea to keep a numbering system in front of the name and always pad with leading zeros so that 11 comes after 10 not after 1.
With those simple rules you can't go wrong and can always find anything you need easily, know when it is and in what order the photos were taken.
Submitted by: Rob F.
my photos
by retired790 - 8/5/05 3:49 AM In reply to: Other advice from our members by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
For my Photos I made a master folder holding all photos and a sub file by year the by month. As I put new photos in I print and a sheet to a folder away from the computer as well as puting them on a CDR also stored away from the computer. At the present time I have just under 5 GB of photos
JIM
Why make life complicated?
by chacho - 8/7/05 9:39 AM In reply to: Other advice from our members by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
All good sound advice, I'm sure, but what a lot of effort! My suggestion for one who would appear to be as unorganised as myself is to download picasa2 from those awfully nice people at Google ( www.picasa2.com , I believe) and it will automatically search your entire hard drive for images, bringing them all together with an easy to use photo organiser/editor/viewer package which also makes emailing images a doddle (automatic resizing etc.). This way it won't matter where you put your photos on your hard drive as picasa will seek them out and retrieve them all for you without you needing to lift a finger.
Image organization
by robinshoods - 8/4/05 11:40 PM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
ThumbsPlus Pro
Also handles RAW images of many different manafacturers
ThumbsPlus rocks!
by avocats - 8/5/05 10:29 AM In reply to: Image organization by robinshoodsSince we went digital, we've started taking somewhere near 3000 pix on an overseas vacation plus lots of other daily type ones. ThumbsPlus is terrific--it finds the pix, finds dupes, does batches, thumbnails, etc.
simple folders & date method
by dez93_2000 - 8/5/05 3:50 AM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dusty, hi. For another simple way (similar to the others):
Open windows explorer (start+E), click 'my documents' then 'my pictures' in the folder tree on the left. Resize windows explorer to take up the right hand side of the screen.
Open a search window (start+F) and do a search on all hard drives for pictures. Hit view>details to get the results into an easily viewable list. Right click on 'name' at the top and click 'date created' if it doesn't have a tick next to it. Once done, single click the grey 'date created' field at the top to sort all the results by date. Since your digicam pics will all have been sequentially created as you uploaded them to the computer from the camera, this will bunch photos in sets which will likely correspond to holidays/outings/whatever.
Resize the search window to take up the left side of the screen, revealing windows explorer.
Hit view>thumbnails to get the view back to a state where you can see the pics. From the top down, look through for sets of images, once the first is found click over to windows explorer and right click>new folder> name it whatever the event featured in the first set of pictures is, ideally with the date as well, e.g. '2005.1.14 France Holiday with Jon and Ali'. Select the relevant pics in the search window and drag them accross.
(Unless i've missed something important, i don't see why so many people have advised copying & pasting these over, since it'll just double the space your pics take up n your hard drive, PLUS make this process more cluttered if you have to do it again, whereby you can simply ignore all pictures in my docs/my pics)
Scroll down the search window and repeat until all pics are in individual folders. Then, if you've got enough, create parent folders for event sets, e.g. a new folder called 'French House' if you've got a second home you go to all the time, or 'Sailing Holidays' or 'Ski Holidays' or 'wedddings' etc. You get the idea, go wild.
If you want to rename the pics themselves, a nice way to start is getting yourself a batch renaming prog (download.com'll help you here since i'm out of touch). First off, organise the pics by date in each folder and replace the name with a numerical sequence, so at least they'll be 1,2,3 etc. OR a named numerical sequence so: Spain2005-01.jpg, Spain2005-02.jpg
THEN if you can find or buy a suitalbe prog (check picasa on this one) you could append pics based on characteristics like people in them or views, e.g. Spain2005-01-Marc,Gabi,Steve.jpg
Spain2005-02-CampoVerdeRestaurant.jpg
This way they'll be organisable by date, order, event name, and searchable by all 3 + people and places.
This takes dedication for a big collection, but the first bit (folders, subfolders, Spain2005-01.jpg) you can have nailed in a few hours, irrespective of collection size (assuming your not the lazy curator of the worlds archive of digital photos or anything like that)
Organising your photos - a couple of extra tips.
by douglaspjones - 8/5/05 4:25 AM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dear Dusty,
You have had a wealth of great advice on this, but I have a couple of particular suggestions.
If your digital camera is anything like mine it allocates numerical filenames to each picture (eg SANYO.000, SANYO.001, etc.) This produces a couple of potential problems:
1) When downloaded, it is impossible to tell which picture is which until you view them. When you do so, there will be a lot of pictures. You may wish to delete the poor images first. I suggest you then re-name all the images to something easy to recognise (eg 'Peter in Scarborough 2005'). If you do this every time you download your pictures, you may avoid the other problem:
2) If you didn't already rename your images of a previous download, and you erased the memory in your camera, the camera may allocate the same filenames to your next set of photographs (SANYO.000, SANYO.001, etc). When you download your latest masterpieces, the process may replace all your previous photos with the new ones.
It might not become apparent right away. But if you use the 'Search for files' utility on your computer as almost everyone has suggested, and copy them all into the same folder, only one copy of each filename will be copied. You could lose a lot of pictures this way. Make sure all your images have different filenames BEFORE you copy them into a common directory. This takes a while, but just calling them 1.jpg, 2.jpg, etc will avoid this problem.
By the way, keep a record of the last number you used and don't re-use any numbers in the future unless you wish to deliberately replace selected images.
Hope that is helpful.
Storing your photos
by Laurenksmith - 8/5/05 6:40 AM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I store them in a folder called ''My Documents'' and in a subfolder called ''My Photos''. I then create another folder for each year. I sometimes even make a subfolder for a special event or trip within that year. I do this because I like to scrapbook and I don't want to lose my photos.
I backup ''My Documents'' at least once a month to another network computer drive. Ocassionally I back them up to an external harddrive. ''My Documents'' contains everything I want to save in the event of a hard drive crash i.e. my Quicken database, Turbo Tax databases, photos, resumes, special articles I want to save, scans, my address book, my e-mail folders etc. You get the idea. This means, one file backed up and if I lose my PC's hard drive I only have to restore my backup file and the software and all will be right with the world again. Good luck!
Laurie
Three Essential Aspects for Organising Pictures
by grayja - 8/5/05 6:54 AM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are three main features you need to think about and implement when organising pictures/photos on your PC so that you can easily view them later. These features are:
1. Where to store the image files
2. How to name the files in a meaningful way
3. How to enable easy viewing
WHERE TO STORE THE IMAGE FILES:
There really is nothing more logical or simple than to physically store all your pictures in one place. I established a single directory called GRAPHICS where all photos (and other pictures) are stored. There are several sub-directories within GRAPHICS, but all photographs end up in MY ALBUM. Some other sub-folders within GRAPHICS are:
CAMERA DOWNLOADS, where all photos are first stored for Review, Selection/Rejection, Editing and Naming, before they are finally moved to MY ALBUM
SCAN DOWNLOADS, does the same as Camera Downloads for scans or copies from Web images, etc
The MY ALBUM folder can be thought of a big 'shoe-box' where I just toss all the pictures I want to keep for future viewing.
HOW TO NAME THE FILES IN A MEANINGFUL WAY
The original names assigned to picture files by cameras is purely mechanical in order to give each image file a unique Identity. It is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY that you give each picture a meaningful name that is both Unique, and Descriptive. I could write a small book on this subject, but here's how I do it.
I begin the name with a letter:
E for event, for any picture primarily related to an event such as birthday, holiday, wedding, etc
H for hobby, for pictures specifically related to my many hobbies
P for people, for any picture in which the primary subject is a person or persons
S for scene, where the primary subject of the picture is a scenic view
T for thing, where the primary subject is a 'thing' eg. car, ship, building, pet, flower, etc
A few words/keywords follow to describe the primary subject of the picture. I also add a date in the form 'mmmyy' before the suffix (usually .jpg)
Some examples of this naming convention are:
(P) Mary 6 yrs May04.jpg
(E) Weekend Party Bills Cottage Sep03.jpg
(S) Sunset Lake Placid Jun04
(T) Parthenon Athens Mar04.jpg
(H) Tiger Moth electric Jan03.jpg
It is then very easy to use Windows Explorer to search for and find any single or group of pictures.
HOW TO ENABLE EASY VIEWING
I use FLIP ALBUM (www.flipalbum.com)to view my pictures as if they were in a physical Photo Album. It is far and away the very best way to view your pictures, or to let others view them in a purely natural and intuitive way. It is super simple to create 'quick and dirty' albums, or create very detailed 'portfolios' of selected pictures. Creating an Album of selected pictures from your 'shoebox' does not create a new physical album, but rather allows you to view specific pictures from within the 'showbox' in a sequence which you specify and each picture can be annotated with as much detail feel like typing in. In other words you can create unlimited different
'virtual albums' which you can save for later viewing.
Saving Photos
by tomgraf1 - 8/5/05 7:47 AM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Saving all your photos in a folder on the desktop is good if you only have a small number of photos. I have 20000+ photos. I create the photos folder on my D drive. This is important in the advent of a problem with the C drive. You wont lose your photos and can easily move the drive to another PC or replace the C drive without disturbing your photos.Inside your photos folder I create topic folders, such as History, Nature,etc.
When I transfer photos from the camera to PC using a card reader, I create a folder with the name of where I took the photos, such as Phila, then Phila2 on the desktop.I use Adobe Photoshop Album to review and delete any pictures I dont want. Then I name each photo with a name of what it is such as Grandkids. You can multiple select photos and it will sequentially number them. I leave the folders on my desktop until I have enough to burn a CD. This is your negative or insurance. I drag and drop the folders to my D drive. It is not necessary to attach a bunch of keyword to your photos because you have good file and folder names.
To find the photos I want I use the find files or folder in Windows, such as butterfly. From the find I copy the photos to a folder on the desktop and Use Photoshop Essentials to crop, enhance, resize, and print.
I like the Photoshop programs because they will handle photos from and digital camera. This is not the case if you use the software that comes with the camera.
File Naming Conventions
by Bill_DL - 8/5/05 8:10 AM In reply to: 8/6/05 Simple solutions for organizing your digital photos by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am not going to begin advising on any particular software, because it is largely down to preference.
I tried Picasa, but it took an age to search for and index my image files. That's something I don't need because I have got into the habit of using several programs for specific purposes.
I use Paint Shop Pro's Right-Click on a folder and "Browse" to see thumbnails and to allow me the ability to edit selected photo's using all of PsP's available tools. Sometimes I prefer Irfanview's right-click option to do the same if I want to do a "batch rename" of files in a particular folder.
I use Windows 98se primarily, and I don't like "Thumbnail View", but on XP I like the feature that you can set a folder's "view" to suit the type of files in it.
Picasa is a pretty good utility for those who aren't quite as used to using Windows Explorer to do their organising, and there are others which have been mentioned that are equally good (if not better). I tried Flip Album once and, although I found no compelling need to view images in "albums" or carry on using it, I DID recommend it to my 70 year old Father who found it an easier way to organise his images.
My main reason for posting is in furtherance of the mention by douglaspjones of naming images eg. 1.jpg, 2.jpg, etc. I always recommend naming them 001.jpg (or even 0001.jpg depending on the number of images), 002.jpg, 003.jpg, etc.
The reason for this is the way Windows shows files and folders with names made from numbers. If you had a series of photo's numbered 1.jpg to 31.jpg, A.jpg to Z.jpg, and AA.jpg to ZZ.jpg, Windows Explorer would display them in the following order (descending order) when Windows Explorer is set to display files "By Name":
1.jpg
10.jpg to 19.jpg
2.jpg
20.jpg to 29.jpg
3.jpg
30.jpg
31.jpg
4.jpg to 9.jpg
a.jpg
aa.jpg
b.jpg
bb.jpg
etc.
If, however, you named the images 0001.jpg to 0031.jpg, they would display in the proper order.
Most digital cameras automatically create filenames from various elements including the date and a sequential index number. Usually this can be modified into some other format that might be more suited to the user or the method of organising them once on your hard drive.
It can be a bit confusing, and is something to bear in mind when naming files. There can also be issues with long filenames that contain spaces when burning images to CD-R's for distribution to other people, and it depends largely on your settings in the CD Burning software. I have got into a habit of never using spaces in my file names, and using underscores instead of them.
Hope this info is useful
File Naming Problem for CD's
by grayja - 8/5/05 9:06 AM In reply to: File Naming Conventions by Bill_DLThrough the agonies of trial and error, I have found that filenames longer than 64 characters (including the suffix) can cause CD writing to fail. Seems CD software/hardware designers didn't think people need more than that, whereas Windows allows 255.!!!! Within this limit of 64 characters, spaces don't seem to be a problem. Does anyone have the 'true scoop' on this subject???
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