«

Hi,

How do you organize your digital photos and index them?

I just recently received thousands of family photos (I'm scanning them),
besides my own collection. Right now I record the filename, date
picture taken, where, and who or what is in it in a text file.

I've been thinking about using JPEG tags to record all this information
in the JPEG image file.

I hear some people use the filename to record all the information, but
some of mine would be too long.

I know there is no best answer, but would like to know what others do.
Please post your reply to the newsgroup.

Thanks,

Tim Lange
(Go Boilers!)

In article <gko3u5$9cl$>, Timothy Lange
<> wrote:

> How do you organize your digital photos and index them?

adobe lightroom

> I just recently received thousands of family photos (I'm scanning them),
> besides my own collection. Right now I record the filename, date
> picture taken, where, and who or what is in it in a text file.
>
> I've been thinking about using JPEG tags to record all this information
> in the JPEG image file.

i'd suggest an app which can catalogue images and add keywords. you
can then search based on multiple keywords, i.e. all pictures with mom
in australia taken in 1988. there are a number of apps that can do
this.

if you are on a mac, you can use the facial recognition in the latest
version of iphoto. you'd would only need to type in the names of
family members in a few photos and it will then find all of the other
photos in which they appear. it can also track where the image is
taken, and you can of course, search based on names or places or other
keywords. google's picasa can also do facial recognition but you have
to upload the images and that can be a problem with a lot of images.

Timothy Lange <> wrote:

> I just recently received thousands of family photos (I'm scanning
> them), besides my own collection. Right now I record the filename,
> date picture taken, where, and who or what is in it in a text file.

Here is a question to ponder:
* How likely is it that the photos will sit untouched for a period of a
few years sometime during the 10, 20, 100 years that you and your
descendants will keep the photos?

If you use a big-name tool like Lightroom, AND if you'll be keeping up
with software upgrades, AND if anyone else who wants a copy of the
collection will have access to the software, that's probably a good way
to go. But if you might not be regularly migrating all your data to
currently-supported software, your present system might be better.

My method is to group the pictures into folders, and keep a text file in
each folder. I can use tools such as Copernic or Windows Desktop
Search to do simple queries. If I want to move the whole business over
to, say, a Linux machine, I can just copy the whole directory tree and
use whatever text-file search tools are available there (grep, perl
scripts, etc).

Yeah, it'd be nice to instantly see the photos when I perform a search,
but it's much more important to me that the photos and metadata be
preserved. I learned this the hard way. Only 25 years ago, I
indexed a few thousand slides using an obscure Apple II program, and
saved the files on 5.25 inch floppy disks. Fortunately, I printed out
all of that data!

Paul

In article <Xns9B94AF91B1A9Dpgcommunication@216.151.153.13> , Paul Goble
<> wrote:

> Yeah, it'd be nice to instantly see the photos when I perform a search,
> but it's much more important to me that the photos and metadata be
> preserved.

save the metadata in standard xmp sidecar files. lightroom supports
that, as do other applications.

Mark Roberts wrote:
> Timothy Lange wrote:
>
>> How do you organize your digital photos and index them?
>>
>> I just recently received thousands of family photos (I'm scanning them),
>> besides my own collection. Right now I record the filename, date
>> picture taken, where, and who or what is in it in a text file.
>
> Adobe Lightroom.
> It's a powerful photo database in addition to being an image browser
> and raw converter. You can easily apply keyword to photos individually
> or in groups (and search on them later). You can group photos into
> collections on a common subject or theme. And much more.
>
> There's a bit of a learning curve, but it's worth it.
>
I to am in the process of scanning family pictures. To get the job done
as quick as possible I scan a "scanner bed full" at a time. This means
that each image has between 3 to 20 picture. I copy both backs and
fronts as the original owners some times wrote information on the back.
When copying the back I keep them in the same position as when I
scanned the front.

I have set up a simple MS Works database that has an entry for each
photo in each image. I make notes in the database to help find
individual pictures, date, subject,comments, etc.. As I finish each
directory, I format a report from the database and then print the report
to a PDF file. I work on the assumption PDF's will be readable longer
than the proprietary database from a print shop type software or similar
picture database software.

As I need individual pictures I cut them from the image and place them
in my genealogy directories.

If you worry about file type then you must consider the longevity of not
only the data file but also the image file. I believe file longevity is
not as important as media longevity. Any file can be read and displayed
with a couple of lines of code.

I use the long file name technique.

Windows allows up to 256 characters in a file name.

I start off the filename with the date then add location and the names of
people in the pic from left to right.

Filename would like this: 1992YellostoneFallsJimMaryJohnDave.jpg

Filename data can never get separated from the picture and can be easily
sorted in a simple directory program.

I expect this data to last hundreds of years intact.

xs




"Timothy Lange" <> wrote in message
news:gko3u5$9cl$...
> Hi,
>
> How do you organize your digital photos and index them?
>
> I just recently received thousands of family photos (I'm scanning them),
> besides my own collection. Right now I record the filename, date picture
> taken, where, and who or what is in it in a text file.
>
> I've been thinking about using JPEG tags to record all this information in
> the JPEG image file.
>
> I hear some people use the filename to record all the information, but
> some of mine would be too long.
>
> I know there is no best answer, but would like to know what others do.
> Please post your reply to the newsgroup.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tim Lange
> (Go Boilers!)

nospam wrote:
> In article <Xns9B94AF91B1A9Dpgcommunication@216.151.153.13> , Paul Goble
> <> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, it'd be nice to instantly see the photos when I perform a search,
>> but it's much more important to me that the photos and metadata be
>> preserved.
>
> save the metadata in standard xmp sidecar files. lightroom supports
> that, as do other applications.

Only for raw files though. Lightroom will also write it to the IPTC data
inside jpegs if you chose that option. I use folders with date & a 1 or
2 word description in the folder name and annotate them with versions
that go up on the web. Google then does a decent job of indexing for me!
I'm trying to figure out how to get lightroom into my system now.

--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam