This has always been my dream program, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it myself. So I have around 15 GB of images, mostly JPGs and PNGs, many of them high resolution. I would like to find a good way to sort them by how much I like them. I have looked at Adobe Bridge's and Google Picasa's image rating, but they just allow you to rate a pic with a number of stars, and not in relation to other images.
I would like a program that allows me to rate images by comparison. I envision it opening up with an image thumb on the left and another on the right. It may need to have a pane that shows a view of the list (list view/detail view/thumbs as in Windows Explorer?). If necessary, I am able to preview either thumbnail in full resolution, (perhaps through Windows Shell preview?).
Let's say I like the thumbnail on the right best. I pick that one and my preference is recorded (perhaps in a list, perhaps in a db or metadata? I don't know). After I make my selection (the right one in this case), another thumb comes up on the left side and I again select my favorite of the two pictures.
After going through all my pics, I now have them ranked absolutely. There is one favorite, one secondmost fave... all the way down to one least favorite. Subsequent selections refine the list. I would play this as a game kind of, picking favorite pictures. It would be as addictive to me as hot or not, yet have some concrete value in that it orders all my pictures in a pleasing way.
Superficially, this would function like Kittenwar.com. I am guessing there would need to be some sort of algorithm and perhaps a way to deal with conflicting selections.
Also, it would be nice to be able to delete pics to the recycle bin or open them to preview or work on them via the shell or set an image as desktop wallpaper (centered is preferable to tiled or stretch, imo).
The fun part of this would be learning about what your absolute fave pics are and being able to identify them... And seeing what your top pics have in common. I think it would be fascinating.
I know this is an incomplete and befuddled description, but if you think this would be cool, please let me know of any ideas you may have for UI or method of keeping the list. The two tricky parts I can think of are dealing with conflicting selections in a way that doesn't compromise the list integrity and having it operate okay with a buttload of pics. Also, my mind fries when I try to think of the best way to keep a dynamic list, xml, db, etc. I bet programmers can think about list much better. Oh, we might have to consider subdirectories and whether the prog should look at them.
The list is like a stack of pancakes AND Highlander in that at the top, there can be only one.
Thanks! Please ask about stuff where I have not been very clear --M
