Photo Management Software

Rcphil8

Hello All!
I'm fairly new to this and need some help on photo management. Can someone recommend photomanagement softawre for a PC that is good for a novice and (eventually) a much more experienced photographer? Thanks!

Ric Grupe

Check these out. Very flexible and easy to use.

Downloader Pro

BreezeBrowser Pro

Great support via online forum and email.

ziggy53

I moved this to the "Finishing School" which deals with photography software.

I also recommend Picasa which I find easy to use and works well for image management and organization. I combine that with IrfanView which has some great tools for moving and copying.

http://picasa.google.com/
http://www.irfanview.com/

sunxsweet

Picasa is probably a good free bet.

I've recently been engrossed with Adobe Lightroom. It kicks butt for me. The ability to keyword, filter, edit w/o making permanent changes and being able to group pictures in many different ways is awesome.

I've been having so much fun in Lightroom I haven't been sharing my pics online. But i'm getting to it...

claudermilk

What you are asking for is known as DAM (Digital Asset Management) software.

DL Pro is an excellent download utility which I also use & helps with management, but isn't a DAM app in itself. Breezebrowser, another excellent app I use is a drive browser and also not a DAM. Same with Irfanview. All good apps, but not quite what is being asked for.

LR is partly a DAM, though IMHO a terminally handicapped one. There are many reports of serious performance hits after the catalogs grow too large. It's also trying to be a RAW converter, printer, and web page generator all at the same time. Decide if that's what you really want (me? not at all).

My personal favorite is IMatch. It's a full-blown DAM app & among the best out there. It does have a steep learning curve at first, but it's well worth the climb & there's lots of help at the support forum.

You also have iView in the same class as well as some coprorate-strength monsters. I'm sure there's a couple out there I have not run across or have forgotten.

Picasa is a good starter app, but for me it was too lightweight. If your needs are and will remain simple, it may be a good one ot look at.

ifocus

Imatch is not friendly user at all so I respecfully disagree; it is build for experienced users. ACDSee 10 is fairly cheap and so easy to use. It does everything I need flawlessly. Give it a try.

JY

claudermilk wrote:

What you are asking for is known as DAM (Digital Asset Management) software.

DL Pro is an excellent download utility which I also use & helps with management, but isn't a DAM app in itself. Breezebrowser, another excellent app I use is a drive browser and also not a DAM. Same with Irfanview. All good apps, but not quite what is being asked for.

LR is partly a DAM, though IMHO a terminally handicapped one. There are many reports of serious performance hits after the catalogs grow too large. It's also trying to be a RAW converter, printer, and web page generator all at the same time. Decide if that's what you really want (me? not at all).

My personal favorite is IMatch. It's a full-blown DAM app & among the best out there. It does have a steep learning curve at first, but it's well worth the climb & there's lots of help at the support forum.

You also have iView in the same class as well as some coprorate-strength monsters. I'm sure there's a couple out there I have not run across or have forgotten.

Picasa is a good starter app, but for me it was too lightweight. If your needs are and will remain simple, it may be a good one ot look at.

Ric Grupe

claudermilk wrote:

My personal favorite is IMatch.

Never heard of it...so I checked it out. I got dizzy just reading the tutorial.

Has some neat abilities, but does not appeal to me.

Here's a review.

claudermilk

Disagree with what? Did I say it was notably easy? Nope. It does have a steep learning curve for sure. It also doesn't (yet) have a sexy UI. However, once you have gotten a handle on it, the app is indeed one of the most powerful and flexible out there. Same problem PS has--it's a deep app that takes time to really learn how to use. Because of this it may not be for everyone, thus why I noted some simpler apps available, several of which I personally think are junk. Heck, it took me two tries before I decided to use it myself.

Anyway, the OP should have several options to look at by now.

xris

Head Up on iView

claudermilk wrote:

What you are asking for is known as DAM (Digital Asset Management) software.

Thanks for the heads-up! I checked out iMatch again and I think I just might give it a serious whirl. I've found simple is seldom best. What I really like is the nod to open systems (software that doesn't claim ownership of my files or force me over to 'the dark side'), the full use of metadata, AND integration of all the most important image editing functions. Certainly is a compelling price, too!

Does anyone else have comments about iMatch?

claudermilk wrote:

... You also have iView in the same class...

Note that iView was purchased by MS in June 06 and is now know as "MS Expression Media." Seems the development may have dissapointed many loyal iView users.

Out of curiosity.... has anyone used Expression Media or even heard of it in the past 20 months?

Ric Grupe

xris wrote:

Note that iView was purchased by MS in June 06 and is now know as "MS Expression Media." Seems the development may have dissapointed many loyal iView users.

Out of curiosity.... has anyone used Expression Media or even heard of it in the past 20 months?

Weird! Just ran across this today.

Richard

xris wrote:

Does anyone else have comments about iMatch?

I did a fairly thorough evaluation of iMatch a few months ago. It is a powerful application but you will need to dedicate some time to learning its ins and outs. It has many useful features built-in. If you have a programming background, you can use its scripting language (a VB clone) to automate your workflow. There is also a small, but active user forum to provide support. It is not as slick looking as Lightroom, for example, but has much better functionality as a catalog manager. You can download a fully-functional version for a one-month trial period. Be prepared to be a little puzzled at first, but once you get the hang of it, I think you will like it.

FWIW.

xris

Ric Grupe wrote:

Weird! Just ran across this today.

Good catch! Interesting too. But all the 'new' features appear to be designed to loop us into a Big-Bro-only world. (Is there a reason to want hierarchical key words?) I'll probably take a look at the beta. But I think I'll most likely stick with the Open Systems stuff.

rsinmadrid wrote:

I did a fairly thorough evaluation of iMatch a few months ago.

Thanks for the info! I think I'll give it a look-see this week-end. Sure hope it lives up to the promise.

ifocus

xris wrote:

Good catch! Interesting too. But all the 'new' features appear to be designed to loop us into a Big-Bro-only world. (Is there a reason to want hierarchical key words?) I'll probably take a look at the beta. But I think I'll most likely stick with the Open Systems stuff.


Thanks for the info! I think I'll give it a look-see this week-end. Sure hope it lives up to the promise.

Let us know your impressions. I have iMatch but struggle with it. However, my computer is older and I know nothing about scripting. You may have a better insight because I would love to maximize its use. Tks JY

claudermilk

If you have questions on IMatch (note it's capital I, not Apple's lowercase, Mario was first IIRC), head over to the support forum. Lots of expert advice there. For scripting, there's so many useful scripts already released you might now have to roll your own, or you might be able to tweak something already existing. See the wiki page. On the UI front, check the latest version & open the Side-By-Side (SBS) view for a preview of where Mario's going with that. Much nicer to look at, with even more functionality.

xris, for hierarchial keywords pay attention to the Categories in IMatch when you try it out. I think that's what they are angling at. Cats are one of the more powerful tools in IMatch.

When trying it out, be sure to read the web pages linked at the bottom of the support page. They have invaluable help in wrapping your head around getting things started. As does the Impulseadventure site Ric linked a few posts ago. Even if you don't go with IMatch, they have good concepts you can take with you to whatever DAM you end up using.

OK, I think I've advertized enough for today.

Richard

xris wrote:

(Is there a reason to want hierarchical key words?)

This is a lot more complicated than it appears. I have my keywords arranged hierarchically in Bridge as a UI convenience only...I can get large groups out of the way when I want to and that speeds data entry. However, I do not export the keywords in hierarchical notation because neither Smugmug nor my catalog application support it. I considered adding it to my catalog, but decided that it was going to be a lot more trouble than it would be worth, given that it already supports keyword1 or keyword2 or...keywordN searches. There are intractable ambiguities lurking under the hood unless you impose artificial constraints.

dusty-dog

IMatch
I just downloaded IMatch, as I am looking for a good DAM program, costs very little or nothing, and one that is faster than Bridge, which can be sickeningly slow. IMatch is blazingly fast. But, unless I'm missing something (which may be quite likely), it doesn't download my .nef files. Only the .tif and .jpg. This is hugely disappointing, and basically sucks. Also, I already have a rather extensive keyword setup in Bridge, but it doesn't import any keywords at all. Another thumbs down. It doesn't import any metadata at all. In order to use this, I'd virtually have to start over, and frankly, the thought of that makes me ill. For those who are just starting out, this may be good. Otherwise, forget it. Unless, of course, I am missing something.

Richard

dusty-dog wrote:

I just downloaded IMatch, as I am looking for a good DAM program, costs very little or nothing, and one that is faster than Bridge, which can be sickeningly slow. IMatch is blazingly fast. But, unless I'm missing something (which may be quite likely), it doesn't download my .nef files. Only the .tif and .jpg. This is hugely disappointing, and basically sucks. Also, I already have a rather extensive keyword setup in Bridge, but it doesn't import any keywords at all. Another thumbs down. It doesn't import any metadata at all. In order to use this, I'd virtually have to start over, and frankly, the thought of that makes me ill. For those who are just starting out, this may be good. Otherwise, forget it. Unless, of course, I am missing something.

Hi Diane,

IMatch's specs say that it does support .NEF, so I'm not sure why you are having problems. Regarding metadata, the situation is a little harder. I believe it is a two-step process. You need to set up the import process to support data-driven categories for your keywords. The information is in the help files, but it is a little hard to understand. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is ready-made import-from-Bridge function available, though someone may well have created a script to do that. I would post the questions on the IMatch user forum and see what the users recommend.

Regards,

dusty-dog

rsinmadrid wrote:

Hi Diane,

IMatch's specs say that it does support .NEF, so I'm not sure why you are having problems. Regarding metadata, the situation is a little harder. I believe it is a two-step process. You need to set up the import process to support data-driven categories for your keywords. The information is in the help files, but it is a little hard to understand. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is ready-made import-from-Bridge function available, though someone may well have created a script to do that. I would post the questions on the IMatch user forum and see what the users recommend.

Regards,

Thanks, Richard. I may check into the scripting to import my keywords and metadata. If there isn't an option, I just may not bother. I dunno. It's so fast. But without a keyworded catalog, then why bother?

Richard

dusty-dog wrote:

Thanks, Richard. I may check into the scripting to import my keywords and metadata. If there isn't an option, I just may not bother. I dunno. It's so fast. But without a keyworded catalog, then why bother?

Well, you could always do the keywording in IMatch itself. But I fully understand why you would not want to lose the work that you have already done. I am pretty sure there are ways to automate the import, though.

claudermilk

IMatch will indeed handle NEF files. Mario (the developer) is a Nikon shooter, so you can be sure he's supporting what he uses. I know he's mentioned some difficulty with the current set of Nikon DLLs, so that might be related.

I know there have been postings regarding pulling data from/to IMatch & Bridge, so I am sure it can be done. Since I don't use Bridge, I haven't paid close attention. Trust me, IMatch does handle metadata quite well, I have it importing all mine.

I would suggest heading over to the photools forum & ask about these two issues, I'll bet within a day they will have you off & running.

Onrey

Where does PhotoMechanic(www.camerabits.com) fit here? I dont edit photos with it, but I use it for onsite sales, viewing, sorting, tagging ect. From what Ive seen its the STANDARD, a must have for most newspapers, journalist. And its Blazing fast. It opens hundreds of Thumbs in a few seconds. Its a bit pricey at $150.00 but well worth it for what I use it for. It works o both PC and Mac, did I say its fast already? Im on PC and its very fast, they say on Mac its even better.

dusty-dog

rsinmadrid wrote:

Well, you could always do the keywording in IMatch itself. But I fully understand why you would not want to lose the work that you have already done. I am pretty sure there are ways to automate the import, though.

Well, I've found out a couple of things since the few days ago that I posted. First, IMatch does support NEF. You need to download the NEF support from the Nikon site. Run the program, and the dll's automatically register the nef capability into IMatch. I'm speaking loosely, because I really don't know this kind of computer lingo. Anyway, it works great.

As for the keywords, it does seem to import the keywords. But, it doesn't really enter them into a library. So, you can't use the keywords from one image for another, without creating a new library of keywords, categories, etc. anyway. Honestly, it's not very user friendly, and I don't know enough about keyword libraries and how they're structured, for this to be an easy exercise. Frankly, I'm tired of the whole exercise for now. I know that I have to figure this out. But, maybe next week..........

Rhuarc

Well, I don't know where it would fall on the ease of use scale, especially now that it has hit the final v4 release, but I am and have been a heavy user of IDImager. Very deep tool, I think it is fairly easy ti learn to do simple things, but it could take a lifetime to master all the intracincies of the program. Very open, lets you use your data how you want to. Also has a very active support forum, and the developer answers support requests very promptly (Usually within minutes or hours)

Just my 2 cents!

dusty-dog

Rhuarc wrote:

Well, I don't know where it would fall on the ease of use scale, especially now that it has hit the final v4 release, but I am and have been a heavy user of IDImager. Very deep tool, I think it is fairly easy ti learn to do simple things, but it could take a lifetime to master all the intracincies of the program. Very open, lets you use your data how you want to. Also has a very active support forum, and the developer answers support requests very promptly (Usually within minutes or hours)

Just my 2 cents!

Thanks for the heads up on this one. I'm downloading it right now. It does look very good. At least, the website does.

claudermilk

What exactly are you trying to do with the keywords? IMatch is pretty darn flexible with that.

An example is how I manage it. I use categories as the main keywording source & assign my RAW images, then I use a script called Manage Versions to transfer those categories to the developed JPEGs, finally I use another script called All Purpose IPTC Writer (aka APIW) to move the appropriate categories into the file's IPTC Keywords fields. It took a little effort to get set up, but it's now just a couple button pushes (I have those two scripts in the 1-click bar) to get my files done.

Have you mentioned the DLL issue to Mario? The IMatch download is supposed to have the current Nikon set (IIRC part of the past patch was catching up on Nikon's new stuff).

badandy80

Secure Photo Management Question
How does VeriPic fit into this equation? I know it's a enterprise solution and a database. I hear about them often but mostly law enforcement. As far as I can gather they've been around for a while. Anyone have info? Here's the site if it helps. http://www.veripic.com

Thanks - Drew

aktse

Onrey wrote:

Where does PhotoMechanic(www.camerabits.com) fit here? I dont edit photos with it, but I use it for onsite sales, viewing, sorting, tagging ect. From what Ive seen its the STANDARD, a must have for most newspapers, journalist. And its Blazing fast. It opens hundreds of Thumbs in a few seconds. Its a bit pricey at $150.00 but well worth it for what I use it for. It works o both PC and Mac, did I say its fast already? Im on PC and its very fast, they say on Mac its even better.

It is only browser and does not catalog while other DAM softwares can be both.

And it's my software of choice because of the speed (even with RAW files). I can easily select, tag, sort, etc. photos, and then I open up the photos that I want to tweak in photoshop. This is a very usefully software if you have a lot of photos to sort through and works very well for sports photos and PJ stuff, but you don't use it to make edit photos.

And once I'm done sorting, I might catalog stuff using LR.

claudermilk

badandy80 wrote:

How does VeriPic fit into this equation? I know it's a enterprise solution and a database. I hear about them often but mostly law enforcement. As far as I can gather they've been around for a while. Anyone have info? Here's the site if it helps. http://www.veripic.com

Thanks - Drew

Never heard of them. It looks like this is aimed mainly at police or similar applications & they provide both the client/server software as well as server boxes to run it on. Way, way, way beyond the scope of what we talk about on these fora. I shudder to think what the price tag is. One thing I do find interesting is they use MS SQL Server and sound like they pull the image data into the database file--perhaps SQL Server works for this better than I suspected (I still think Access is a poor choice).

dusty-dog

Expression Media v. IDimager
I think this is going to be a no-brainer. It only took me days to figure this out, but better now than later.

I've downloaded both programs and played with both rather extensively. EM seems pretty good, even though it's in beta right now. But, bugs and incompleteness aside, it does seem quite good. But, the big BUT. The beta expires on July 1, 2008. Then, you have to buy the DAM(N) program, or discontinue using it. What about that ton of work I would have invested to just set it up?. Now, I'm not adverse to buying software. But, Microsoft will be asking for $299 for the full version. I flat out refuse to pay that. They can go pound sand.

IDimager seems like it will serve my needs very well. I have downloaded the lite version, which is free. The personal edition is $69, and the pro version is $129. I don't know what the differences are between the three yet, but it's not the steal that EM is. I'm not a professional photographer. My image numbers are growing in leaps and bounds, but I do not forsee the absolute image volumes that pros would accumulate. I do think that IDimager will satisfy my DAM requirements. Besides, that sidebar tab interface is kind of nice.

$300 is a deal breaker for me. My decision is made. I'd rather spend my limited dollars on CF cards or whatever, maybe a pair of binoculars. Certainly not for goddamm DAM software, and particularly not to the likes of Microsoft.

On a related note, I've spent quite a bit of time at the DAM forum. Very, very informative. For those of you who are seriously interested in DAM, it is a very worthwhile site.

xris

ifocus wrote:

Let us know your impressions. I have iMatch but struggle with it. However, my computer is older and I know nothing about scripting. You may have a better insight because I would love to maximize its use. Tks JY

Been gone a while. Now I'm back. Lovin' this thread.

I have taken a look at iMatch. Interesting, to say the least, but I have two initial problems with it.

1/ The renaming feature does not seem as flexible as Downloader Pro, which lets me replace certain strings.

2/ At the moment I can't quite figure out why I need it?

That said, I'm not a keyworder yet. I'm looking into it in preparation for stock sales, but I'm not there yet. The whole topic seems quite complex, actually: with all the existing meta formats and so on. I don't even begin to know which way to turn? IPTC, EXIF, XML?

Perhaps this is where the iMatch strength is?

Anyway. I noticed IDimager mentioned here and am proceeding to look it over too.

claudermilk

In some ways, no the renaming is not as flexible as DL Pro. I use DL Pro as well & get my files named then--I don't need to mess with IMatch's renaming as the files never get renamed once they are saved to their permanent home.

Why you need it? How many images do you have now? How easy is it to find one specific one? Or a small group of them? That is what a DAM is for. The primary way you will do this in IMAtch is by using the excellent Categories feature. It's hierarchial (with parent categories inheriting all children--unless you don't want them to), and just about infinitely customizable. You can even have automatically-generated categories based on file metadata (e.g., cats based on recorded lens used, apreture used, camera body used, etc.).

For keywording, I and several other IMatch users leverage the categories to generate your keywords & automate the generation & saving of the data through a great script written to aid with that.

For what the different metadata is, there has been extensive discussion at the support forum there & IIRC a wiki page has been written to help.