I had one simple goal last night- to get all my digital photos on the same computer and to get rid of duplicates (i.e. clean up the giant mess that is my photos folder) and to find a photo management program to stick to. Currently, my photos are on two different computers with lots of duplicates- it’s a huge mess.My first job was to get all the photos in the same place. Sounds easy, right? I decided to move everything to the portable hard drive until I decide what to do with them- but copying large image files, as it turns out, is a slow process.
While files were copying, I researched photo applications (again). I do this every once in a while- but I have never found anything that was perfect. I would be willing to pay for software, but I don’t think the perfect program actually exists. You’d think I would be at an advantage, being able to choose from linux and windows software.
Here is my list of wants:
- Allows upload to Flickr in the most painless way possible.
- Allows tags, and those tags must also upload to Flickr so I don’t have to tag twice. It must also embed tags in the photo itself in some kind of standard way.
- Allows me to view photos by date, or by folder, by camera, or other metadata.
- Allow for easy import and sorting of incoming photos (including tagging on import if possible).
- Allow for basic fixes- color correction, cropping, brightness/contrast, etc.
- Not 100% necessary, but I really like some kind of straightening feature (Picassa and F-Spot have this) because I tend to take crooked pics.
I was thinking the new Windows Live Photo Gallery would do most of this for me. They released a new version that allows uploading to Flickr, but it messes with the metadata- in particular, the tags don’t come through and the “date taken” metadata changes to the date uploaded on Flickr, which would be really annoying. (Maybe this stuff works on Vista, but it didn’t for me on XP.)
So, I’m back to F-Spot, the program I have been using for some time on Ubuntu. It does most of the above. I really wanted to use the Windows computer for photos, because Geoff and I both do photo editing, but no luck. F-Spot will work just fine if I use it to directly import pics from the camera- though I have not checked to see if it has RAW support yet (a lot of my older photos are in RAW format.) Maybe I’m naive in trying to use one program to do it all. I just want to simplify my workflow and make it so I can actually find my photos. The nice thing about F-Spot is that it will embed metadata right in the photos, so I can find them in my system by using Beagle. (And yes, mac people, I know iPhoto can probably do everything I want. Maybe someday I’ll be able to afford one…)
Assuming that eventually I get all my photos cleaned up and in the same place, I plan to use Rsync to back them up to the Windows computer.
If anyone has any other recommendations on photo management or backup solutions, I’d love to hear them. If you have a mac, feel free to tell me about all the great features iPhoto has (or another mac program)- at least maybe I could look forward to a day in the future when I can have one program to do it all.
February 13, 2008
Great topic!
No two of us will have the same workflow, but I thought I would share mine. It is not perfect, but it suits me very well for personal use, as well as my little ‘ol photography biz dirtroadphotography.com .
For the record, you could obviously do this workflow with alternate applications - just substitute the title of the one you have access to.
1) After shooting, I go from camera to hard drive using Adobe Bridge’s import tool. That helps a lot to get photos named in a way that makes sense, and imparts the metadata (copyright & such) at step one. I place them into a folder by Month and a subfolder by occasion. Pretty straightforward.
2) I use Photoshop’s batch processing to save out a copy of all of my .RAW files as .jpg. I immediately upload all of them to Flickr (Pro) marked as “private”, unless they are family photos which I instead mark for “family only”. Not out of fear, but out of a realization that no one I am not related to wants to see 100 pictures a month of my wife & daughter. This is my first and most permanently accessible backup. Using the Flickr Upoadr I also make sure to tag all photos by Month, year, state, and the names of people in the photos. This makes it tremendously easier to find photos later on.
3) As time allows I go through and develop any of the RAW files that have promise into images I am pleased with. I upload the ones I am satisfied with to Flickr as publicly viewable pics.
4) The final .jpg version of any photos deemed “salable” are uploaded to the gallery over at my business website. I also copy them into a single folder on my hard drive for easy access.
5) Every month or so I burn two DVDs of the .RAW photos and final .jpgs sitting on my hard drive. I place one into a binder at my home. The other goes into a binder at my desk at work. Another layer of backup and disaster recovery. In 3 years of using this workflow I have only needed to refer to DVD one time.
Upon rereading, my process sounds elaborate and involved, but I assure you it is as easy as can be once you are in the mindset of backup & tagging.
Hope that helps someone!
February 13, 2008
Chris - your process sounds great! I think the truth is that I just need to pick a system and stick to it.
Basically, I need to stop being so lazy about applying metadata when the pics come in. I’m also trying to get better about deleting the bad pics right away, but for years I just kept everything, which has made a mess. It’s weird, after pictures have sat on my hard drive a few years, I’m reluctant to delete them, even if they’re crappy.
One question - you tag everything in Flickr, but it’s not tagged on your hard drive, right? I suppose since everything is in Flickr it doesn’t matter- you can just search by tag there and then find the pic you want locally by date- or just download the Flickr version.
I really want my tags to work locally because I never really trust web services will last.
February 13, 2008
PS- thanks to a Tweet earlier, I am going to check out Adobe Lightroom too. It uses the same metadata standards as F-spot (XMP) so I can wait a while and when I’m ready my metadata will switch over. Sweet!
February 19, 2008
You are right - I only tag in Flickr.