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Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?
zevel:
Sorry about resurrecting old threads but I am interested to know if something has changed during this time.
I am too looking for an application that will quickly and efficiently organize huge numbers of images (read: over 200,000).
So far I've read recommendations for ExifPro, IMatch and IdImager.
Can anyone suggest how the current versions compare?
Thanks.
tomos:
Zevel,
I 'm not sure about ExifPro, I think probably it's tagging wont be what you are looking for - it is a great viewer.
Here's what I said about it earlier this year
I would say ExifPro is great for looking at an image collection that isn't organised - it loads thumbnails very quickly and has a good viewer as Jim says
but:
I discussed the matter of the IMHO way too limited tagging option with the programmer years ago. It's obviously not one of his top priorities.
Create several tag files, but not too many, don't get tempted to use tags as keywords. Use other software to add exif keywords instead.
-Maggy160 (January 15, 2008, 03:38 PM)
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I think the tagging in ExifPro is to help you select images for printing or moving etc (i.e. short term, limited)
-tomos (March 31, 2009, 05:37 AM)
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'Cataloging' in the programme is mainly aimed at recording images on removable disks or creating 'virtual' collections - images saved at up to 1280 x 1280 pixels
Tagging (IPTC for Jpegs): you can use keys 1 to 9 & 0 as shortcuts for the first ten tags. it cannot tag certain file types - problem here being it chokes on say, a tif file and wont apply tag to any selected files after the tif file - this probably not a problem for most people (me neither, I just happened to be testing iin a 'mixed' folder).
You can give an image multiple tags but there is no organisation/hierarchy of tags - just a list.
You can filter to in include or exclude tags; also based on a 'star' rating; include/exclude by text (partial) in filename; also by filtering rules - see spoiler below.
You can save filters based on combo of all these filters (I think that's new since last time I tried it)
Filtering rulesImage attributes:
img.date - creation date & time (text)
img.expprog - exposure program
img.et - exposure time
img.expbias - exposure bias
img.ext - file extension name
img.fl - focal length
img.fl35 - focal length (35 mm equivalent)
img.flash - flash information
img.fn - F/Stop (F Number, aperture)
img.fovc - field of view crop
img.h - image height
img.iso - sensitivity
img.lightsrc - light source
img.make - camera make
img.metmode - metering mode
img.model - camera model
img.name - file name
img.path - complete path to the image
img.portrait - true if image is in portrait orientation, false if it's in landscape
img.rating - number of stars
img.size - file size in bytes
img.srgb - true if sRGB color space, false otherwise
img.subdist - subject distance
img.tags - dictionary of image tags
img.time - creation time stamp (number)
img.w - image width
String functions: string.lower, string.upper, string.len, string.sub(str, from, to), string.find(str, what)
Mathematical functions: math.abs math.acos math.asin math.atan math.atan2 math.ceil math.cos math.cosh math.deg math.exp math.floor math.fmod math.frexp math.huge math.ldexp math.log math.log10 math.max math.min math.modf math.pi math.pow math.rad math.random math.randomseed math.sin math.sinh math.sqrt math.tan math.tanh math.mod
For a complete list of functions and documentation check www.lua.org
then there's editing of 'File Info'
File information is saved in the XMP format (XML-based), defined by Adobe Corporation. This data is either embedded in photos (in the case of JPEG files) or written to a stand-alone XML file accompanying photograph's file (raw formats).
...
File Info Tool can operate on the currently selected photograph (its name is shown in the window's caption). However if multiple images are selected before entering File Info dialog, then the same set of information will be applied to all of them when the user presses ‘Save to All’ button:
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You can save templates for this data with shortcuts Alt+1 to 9
hope that helps,
Tom
edit/ PS have you also seen this thread: Basic Question on Photo Tagging
delwoode:
[...] tags directly to filenames [...] ok, this can also be done in a one-click fashion using XYplorer's scripting. Like you could set up 20 Catalog items which on a click do whatever you want to the current file name. All imaginable logic and rename artistry is supported. [...] Very soon you will also get customizable toolbar buttons [...] -DonL (August 16, 2009, 02:43 PM)
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Neat! Though by the time I read this I had already done a small standalone AHK tag toolbar that works ok for my purposes. It gets the selected files path from the active explorer/xyplorer/etc window through ctrl+c and then operates on the filenames. (If there's great demand for it -- unlikely! -- then I'll clean up the code later and post it. Drawback: I've found no easy way to re-select multiple files in Explorer programmatically from an AHK script after renaming.) Anyway, I will keep checking XYplorer's development on this front. Customizable toolbar buttons that allow the user to run almost anything is great for many other uses also I suspect. I still like the XY's thumbnail mode a lot so I might use it for that alone with my script - I'll testdrive some more and we'll see. Thanks for all the helpful feedback!
-Nod5 (August 18, 2009, 03:12 PM)
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Id love to try out your AHK script if you post it I can just copy and past it.
StCroixSkipper:
I still haven't found anything that does what I'd like. I'm a developer so I've written my own. I've outlined the major features below and I'd appreciate anyone's feedback. I know there are more good ideas out there and I'd like to hear them. Understand that this is a work in progress. I'd be happy to make functional versions available for review if we can figure out how to get it to the folks who are interested.
Here is what it does today.
I copied most of the UI of Microsoft's Vista Photo Gallery.
Left pane has folders and tags, middle pane has thumbnails, you can adjust the size of the thumbnails with a slider.
If you fly the mouse over the thumbnail, it brings up a large window with the image metadata.
You can drag selected thumbnails to folders and it copies or "moves" the image files to the new folder.
If you double click on a thumbnail it shows the fullsize image with metadata and allows you to modify the metadata
It uses the Desktop Search Engine to store the metadata and perform searches
My application looks much the same as Photo Gallery and has the same features mentioned above but it also does the following:
1. The folder icons are graphics that tell you if there are images and/or audio and/or video files in the folder. You can instantly tell if you have a) photos only, b) photos and music, c) photos and videos, d) photos, music and videos, e) music only, f) video only or g) music and video files. I look into the folders as you open them to see what kinds of files it contains and choose which folder icon to display.
2. Photo Gallery only lets easily you look in "special" folders like "My Pictures" or "My Videos" by default. You can look in other folders by "adding" additional folders that reside anywhere on your system.
My app lets me see and navigate to all my drives both fixed and removable upfront. I can plug my camer into a USB port and see the photos directly from the camera.
3. I hate the P1010485.jpg names my camera gives image files. When you drag one or more selected thumbnails from the middle pane to a folder, it not only moves the image file to the new folder but it renames the file to the folder name with a unique suffix (_0001.jpg). Then it updates the image metadata by removing the keyword that contains the old image file's folder name and adds the new folder name as a keyword to the metadata.
4. If you rename a folder, it will create a new image file name with the new folder name. It removes the old folder name from the image metadata keywords. And it adds the new folder's name as a keyword in the metadata.
5. Photo Gallery only lets you add keywords (tags), modify Rating and specify a title. I expose and edit Title, Keywords, DateTaken, Author, Subject, Rating, Comment and Copyright. I also show you which camera was used to take the picture.
6. I don't like the way Photo Gallery lets you remove tags. You need to select them and then get a context menu and select the only option: "Remove Tag". I show you the metadata fields in text. When you fly over the text with the mouse, I make the text editable so you can quickly make any changes you want. Keywords are shown together separated by semacolons. you can double click on a word and it is selected. The delete key removes it or you can start typing over it. Ctrl-z undoes the previous action. I'm working on a way I can make the same changes to multiple photos.
7. Photo Gallery doesn't let you change the DateTaken. My wife and friends are always sending me pictures taken when their cameras have bad Date and Time values set. I allow you to change the date and time the images were taken so when you sort by DateTaken you'll see the photos in the order they belong.
7. When you drag one or more thumbnails onto a tag, Photo Gallery applies the tag as a keyword to the metadata of all images selected. I do the same but I've added a check box to each tag so you can select one or more tags and dragging a thumbnail to one of the checked tags adds the text of all the checked tags to keywords in the metadata of each image file.
8. I have trouble find my photos in Photo Gallery. It gives me the filename but not the full path in many cases. I have thousands of photos. I hate struggling to find them. I display the full path of each file with the metadata.
9. Many times I want to do more than just "Auto Adjust", "Adjust Exposure", "Adjust Color", "Crop Picture", or "Fix Red Eye". I have an Edit menu option which brings up GIMP if it is installed so I can really manipulate the image. I could as easily bring up another photo editting application like PhotoShop but it costs hundreds of dollars for much the same functionality. GIMP is OpenSource and free.
10. I haven't done it yet but I'm considering breaking up the tags into categories. I'll let the user define his categories and then when he adds a tag he can specify which category it belongs in. I'll probably add Places, People, and Events tag categories by default.
11. I really want video and music included. I'm working on the video and audio files now. The folders show whether they contain audio or video but I haven't written the code yet.
12. I use the desktop Search Engine to find images that match a certain criteria just like Photo Gallery.
13. I don't organize the photos by date taken yet but I will. I've done it before and its easy.Change To:
Suggestions:
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Lutz_:
Mr Skipper, sounds like you have implemented some very neat ideas.
Congratulations !!!
How about some screenshots?
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