Before I reinvent the wheel...

[Muse]

I have been thinking of writing a program in my database programming software to manage my photos but thought I'd inquire here first. I have quite an accumulation now of JPGs in a directory tree -- about 3500 files and growing. Just about all of them were taken with my Samsung V3 digicam, using the maximum settings, and they are about 1.5 MB each. I'm intending to get a better digicam soon, so I can improve on the 7+ second recycle time of my current digicam.

My problems are this:

1. My current camera gives the files generic names:

SV300001.JPG
SV300002.JPG
SV300003.JPG
SV300004.JPG
SV300005.JPG
etc.

I usually want to rename the files to signify the nature of the shot.

2. When I use the software (Digimax Viewer v. 2.0) that came with my current digicam, and do a Save As, giving the photo viewed the name I want, it changes the resolution obviously. For instance, I just renamed a 1.4+ MB JPG and the result was 285 kb! That's absurd! If I edit any of these JPGs with the software provided by Samsung (MGI Photosuite III), the resulting save is less than 500 kb. There may be settings in these programs to prevent this shrinkage, but I haven't found them.

I have an unopened copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (it's from 2002 or so), and maybe this would have big advantages over what I'm using. It was given me by my sister-in-law, who didn't want to bother with a complex program.

 

[Muse]

Umm... the OP posted before I was done, so I'll continue:

3. I take a lot of shots and some of them I want to delete, naturally. In the program I would write, I would have a field to indicate that any particular record representing a photo would be flagged for deletion, and the program would delete that photo. This program would also rename the photos with whatever I put in the "rename" field. Of course my program wouldn't be so dumb as to decrease the size of my renamed photos.

Well, I'm wondering if there's already a utility or program that will do all this stuff, hopefully integrated with something that will let me do some photo editing (cropping, etc.).

 

[randomlinh]

lightroom is a very nice workflow program. it's $200 though, so not for the faint of heart (I use aperture on the mac side, same type of software, but it's apple's take). It is moreso a great way to manage with raw files if you go that route. Edits are non-destructive. But even still, it is very nice to catalog, tag, etc. You can name whatever you want on import. Lightroom's flagging system is better than Aperture in that you can rate it, as well as assign it different colored flags (5 different ones I think). But I only use "mark as reject" anyway in Aperture. LR is win/mac, Aperture is mac only. Free trial's at their respective sites.

Sticking with windows, you can try playing w/ picasa. it's free, but it might be a bit awkward to use. I found it to be when I used it. I liked it, and it's great for what it is. But it's worth a shot. It's free.

 

[Muse]

Does Picasa allow you to rename, mark for deletion? If not, I'll roll my own program to do this.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Muse
Does Picasa allow you to rename, mark for deletion? If not, I'll roll my own program to do this.

I'm not sure, I left the windows scene a while ago. I'm pretty sure it allows you to name it whatever you want on import. Hell, for just renaming, there are tons of programs out there for it.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Muse
Does Picasa allow you to rename, mark for deletion? If not, I'll roll my own program to do this.

I'm not sure, I left the windows scene a while ago. I'm pretty sure it allows you to name it whatever you want on import. Hell, for just renaming, there are tons of programs out there for it.

I downloaded and installed the latest version of Picasa and it's right now bringing in all the photos on my system. I don't see a way to rename a file in Picasa. Looking at the Help it looks like you can't even make changes to a file without exporting it first, so it seems kind of kludgy. You can make changes, crop, etc. but those changes don't persist outside of Picasa. It just saves the info about the changes you want and applies them to the file when you see it within Picasa, but it leaves the file itself alone. I also don't see a way to delete files within Picasa.

What did you mean by programs to rename the files? I ordinarily do that in Explorer (F2), but want a way to conveniently rename a batch of JPGs. The neatest way would be to edit the name while looking at it. I won't be able to do that with a program I write, well I guess I maybe could if I do something neat in Visual FoxPro displaying the JPG in a control on a form.

 

[soydios]

I'll throw in another vote for Lightroom:

Imports can be renamed however you like.
Photos can be flagged for deletion, quick picks, rated 1-to-5 stars, color flagged, and tagged with keywords.
The library can be sorted via a variety of metadata, including: date range, camera, lens, file type, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, location, creator, and label.
Edits are non-destructive. This means that you choose edits to apply which are stored as actions in the database, and are rendered when the picture is previewed or exported. The original file is never changed, JPEG or RAW.
Batch processing is easy. Simply select the images you want, probably up to thousands at a time, apply the actions, and the hamster starts spinning away. Also copy/paste individual actions between images, such as white balance, dust spot healing, crops, anything.

My workflow usually goes like this:
1) Import files from camera, which I have configured to automatically copy to a date-named folder in my "Imported Pictures" folder using the original file name, and also configured to embed my copyright information in the catalog metadata and apply a keyword for easier sorting.
2) Apply presets to RAW files based on ISO speed rating, including noise reduction, sharpening, contrast, and saturation.
3) Render 1:1 previews in advance to make review process faster.
4) Rate and Flag photos. 5 stars is great, 4 stars is good, 3 stars is ok, 2 stars is don't delete but don't publish ever. Bad photos are flagged for deletion (X), and photos I know that people want emailed to them are flagged in the Quick Collection (B).
5) Delete all photos flagged for deletion (Ctrl-Backspace).
6) Post-process all remaining rated photos. This is everything you can do in Photoshop without using layers.
7) Final touch-up of 5-star photos in Photoshop.
8) Export using presets. "Export" preset is to Exported Pictures folder at full resolution, 80% quality, ProPhotoRGB color space, JPEG. This is my backup, and is mirrored on my iPod and my laptop. "Screen Saver" is to the Screen Saver folder at reduced resolution, 30% quality, sRGB color space, JPEG. These pictures are for the My Pictures screensaver in Windows, and for Facebook uploads. "Copyright" is to the Copyright folder at reduced resolution, 40% quality, sRGB color space, JPEG, and with corner watermark. These pictures are what I publish to my website as previews of photo shoots.

#1 tip for using Lightroom: use the keyboard shortcuts for things like switching between modules, rating and flagging, and flipping through photos.

 

[pennylane]

Is a new version of lightroom coming out or something?

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: fanerman91
Is a new version of lightroom coming out or something?

yes, it's in beta right now.

but if you want your edits to persist outside of the program, LR won't be for you either.. that's the whole point w/ these programs, not to mess with the originals, hehe.

as for batch renaming.. there are dozens of programs out there that will do that. I used to use a program called RenameMaster. Not sure if it's still available or not. If you want to see pictures names while renaming.. well.. you could just use thumbnail view in explorer... I think the problem is I don't quite understand what you're trying to get at. If you're viewing while editing names, how would that be a batch?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
If you want to see pictures names while renaming.. well.. you could just use thumbnail view in explorer... I think the problem is I don't quite understand what you're trying to get at. If you're viewing while editing names, how would that be a batch?

My idea was just to view the photos and decide on what they would be renamed, type that into a data table and then run a function that would rename all the photos at once. It wouldn't be very nice to use unless I can have a good look at the photos while entering the new names. I have a dual monitor setup, so that might make it better or I could maybe create a single display system where I have a control in a screen that displays each photo (hopefully resizeable?) and be able to rename it in that screen.

Sounds like Lightroom is far more versatile than anything I would create and maybe I should be happy to accept not messing with the originals and just be happy with exporting my changes to new files. I think that Picasa supports that at least for cropping, maybe not renaming. Hard drive space isn't something I lack.

My expertise in digital photography is newbie stage right now, which is plain to me from soydios' post. Thanks for all the comments, and I'm not concerned if people get off topic here.

 

[randomlinh]

if you do get into LR, you could just forgo file names altogether and use IPTC fields (metadata). That's what I do. All the metadata is stored in a sidecar file, which is generally universal, but I'm told that's not 100%. I haven't looked more into it. I think it's more of it's not 100% in understanding all the edits made to a file, but good for metadata like IPTC.

Of course, this puts a lot of pressure on relying on LR. Or whatever program you end up in.

 

[tdawg]

A third vote for Lightroom. I have about 30gb of photos on my HDD and Lightroom keeps them catalogued nicely. I'm very consciensious of organizing photos on my drive as it is, but Lightroom does a nice job of importing images and organizing them on my drive just like I like. Not too mention it allows for quick and efficient raw image processing.

I'd vote that it's worth the $200 and will be great to have for when you step up to a dSLR for raw processing. May want to wait for version 2, though.

Other nice cataloging options are ACDSee Pro and Photo Mechanic, though they aren't much cheaper than Lightroom.

 

[Krioni]

Yet another Lightroom vote... that program rocks... and I know i've only scratched the surface of what it can do.

I would also check into the expected date of version 2.0... if it's close, I'd wait.

Once v2 comes out, you might be able to pick up a used copy of v1 for cheap too.

I'm a developer also, I can say without hesitation that I would NOT take this project on. It's well worth the $200 to buy Lightroom and save yourself the headache and potential loss/corruption of your precious memories.

EDIT:
If Lightroom is just absolutely out of your budget, then Picasa is surprisingly good for the price ($0).

I would like to hear other options though... is there anyone out there using something other than Lightroom to manager this many photos?

 

[twistedlogic]

Originally posted by: Muse
[I downloaded and installed the latest version of Picasa and it's right now bringing in all the photos on my system. I don't see a way to rename a file in Picasa. Looking at the Help it looks like you can't even make changes to a file without exporting it first, so it seems kind of kludgy. You can make changes, crop, etc. but those changes don't persist outside of Picasa. It just saves the info about the changes you want and applies them to the file when you see it within Picasa, but it leaves the file itself alone. I also don't see a way to delete files within Picasa.

What did you mean by programs to rename the files? I ordinarily do that in Explorer (F2), but want a way to conveniently rename a batch of JPGs. The neatest way would be to edit the name while looking at it.

While in Picasa, just hit F2 on the picture you would like to rename, just like you do in explorer to rename a file.

And after you make changes to a file, click the [SAVE CHANGES(1)] button at the top of that folder. This will make a backup in Picasa and change the photo so that all programs will see the edited version. And you can always undo the save, then undo any processing done to the photo.

Are you wanting to delete the files from Picasa or completely remove them from your PC? By right clicking a Photo you can set it to HIDDEN, this way its still in Picasa, just not seen. Or you could simply hit the Delete key to remove the file entirely from your PC. And finally you could go into File...., Add folder to Picasa, and de-select the folders you don't want seen or scanned in Picasa.

Originally posted by: Krioni
EDIT:
If Lightroom is just absolutely out of your budget, then Picasa is surprisingly good for the price ($0).

I would like to hear other options though... is there anyone out there using something other than Lightroom to manager this many photos?

IrfanView is a free, low memory use program that has a neat little Thumbnails view that allows for Copying, Deleteing, and batch renaming of files. It even supports RAW.

There is a Open Source LR type program called BlueMarine. Not sure how it works or if its even finished yet. I can't install and try it because my Java version is too old(need 1.42 for stupid Cisco router).