Tutorial: Photo Organization Software

You have converted your slide and negative images into digital form, and you have been shooting new images with your digital camera. There are so many images now! Keeping track of your images using the Windows Explorer or Mac Finder can be quite a challenge. Fortunately, many companies produce software to assist you with the task of organizing your images.

There are two basic classes of image management software: browsers and cataloging software. Image browsers can be very simple (like Windows Explorer's support of images) or more complex. They extract information about your imagers in 'real time' - that is, at the time that you view the images. Cataloging software, on the other hand, analyses the images and keeps a permanent record of the information it extracts.

Why should you care about the difference between a browser and cataloging software? Simply put, you want to make sure that you choose a cataloging application. Cataloging software is much more powerful than simple browsers. It is faster. It allows you to organize your images in a wide variety of ways. It makes mundane (but very important) work like backing up your images to CD or DVD easier. Because of these advantages, we suggest that you focus your attention only on cataloging software.

Some photo editors (like Photoshop Elements) are bundled with a browser, which can be very convenient as it can allow you to do things like run editing scripts without ever directly opening the editor, or open several images at a time easily in your editor. However, these browsers don't provide all the advantages of cataloging software that we describe here.

A significant benefit of digital images over slides and prints, when managed using a photo cataloging software package, is the easy manner with which you can annotate the images with names, dates, places and comments. A photo cataloging software package will help you do this. You can also organize your photos into albums without the usual restrictions of prints or slides; images can be in more than one album simultaneously!

The list below details a few cataloging packages that we like to use. All have free trial version available to try out. We encourage you to download a couple of these packages to see for yourself how they work. Need help choosing the right package for you? Give us a call and we can try to help!

• ACD acdsee* Photo cataloging software with editing capabilities. This program does a great job handling large image collections. An added bonus is that this program understands and can organize files other than photos.
• Photools IMatch* Powerful, flexible image cataloging tool. Very inexpensive for its abilities. Steep learning curve, but it is unlikely that you will ever exceed its capabilities. Full scripting interface and full-featured RAW file format support. Used by many professional and serious amateur photographers.
• Extensis Portfolio* Another full-featured cataloging application.

Questions or comments? Please let us know.