Almost every imaging program has organizing tools. You can often find programs that are viewers, editors, and catalogers at the same time. These are, for example, Zoner Photo Studio, ACDSee, Nero Kwik Media and many others. No doubt, all-in-one tools are convenient for many users. But if, among the many of their possibilities, the main ones for you are those related to organizing photos, it may be worth looking at specialized programs.
Firstly, such applications are not overloaded with unnecessary options - and therefore, in most cases, they work faster and more stable than multimedia combines. Secondly, specialized programs usually offer more tools for finding photographs based on different criteria. Read the overview for five apps that make organizing your photo collection easier.
⇡ Daminion 1.0 RC
- Developer: Daminion Software
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: yes
Under its current name, the Daminion cataloger has been in development for over five years, but the experience of its creators in writing applications for organizing photographs is much greater. Previously, the developers of Daminion released the PicaJet program, but later decided to write a completely new application with multi-user access to the photo database and other interesting features. At the same time, the single-user version of Daminion is also available, which is distributed free of charge. The multi-user version is called Daminion Server.
Daminion works with catalogs - databases of photographs, and adding files to the catalog is the user's concern. This means that you need to manually specify the path to the folders with snapshots. In this case, files can be physically copied or transferred to the folder that is used to store data, or they can simply be added to the directory without copying. At the same time, Daminion remembers relative paths to files, therefore, when transferring photos to another drive, all data in the directory will be saved. When adding photos to the catalog, you can immediately assign tags to them, or you can do this later - everything is at the discretion of the user.
As soon as the files are added to the directory, they are displayed in the program window in the form of thumbnails with signatures. In the signature, you can see the basic information about the file: name, resolution, size, exposure, ISO. In addition, each thumbnail contains tools for organizing: you can quickly set a rating, tag an image, add keywords, set a color label, view detailed metadata. The user can change the way of displaying files, displaying only images without additional information, or, conversely, removing thumbnails and calling a list of files with information about them.
If you select an image, you can see more information about it in the Properties panel. There is also an opportunity to supplement this information: indicate the people who are captured on it, the event during which the photo was taken, the location of the shooting, and the category. For professional photographers such fields as "Project", "Client", "Copyright" are provided. You can also fill in the fields in the "Properties" panel in batch mode - for this, you just need to first select the necessary photos. All changes in tags are synchronized with the metadata of the files, so information about the files is always presented both in the database and in the files themselves.
If the right panel is informational and at the same time serves for data entry, then the left panel - "Tags" - is intended for search. All file search criteria are at a glance. For example, you can display only the images located in the same folder, expand the "Date of creation" list and quickly find a photo by the month of shooting, display only the files with the highest rating, and so on. It is very important that, in addition to the user tools for the organization, the program also offers many automatic ones. For example, it is very easy to select images taken with a specific camera using a specific lens and geo-tagged. There is nothing difficult in using several conditions at once.
There is also an advanced search in the program, which allows you to use up to fifty parameters, including operators AND, OR and others.
There are no image editing tools in Daminion, you can only rotate thumbnails for better viewing. If any changes were made by mistake, you can always roll back to the previous version - the program keeps track of revisions. This is especially true for multi-user work with the application.
Daminion works not only with graphic files, but also with video, PDF documents. At the same time, the program is optimized to work with very large collections of images (the test base consists of 500 thousand images), so you don't have to worry about the stability of its work when adding new files. By the way, for convenience, you can use several independent directories that can be opened in the program at the same time - each on a separate tab.
⇡ IMatch 3.6
- Developer: photools.com
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: shareware
- Russian interface: no
Despite the fact that the latest version of IMatch is dated at the end of last year, looking at the program's interface gives the impression that it is already many years old. Indeed, the appearance has always been the weak point of IMatch, and against the background of modern interface solutions, small buttons with graphics in the style of Windows 2000 look scary. The author has long promised to redesign the appearance of the application, but so far he has not done so. However, many users still prefer this particular program.
The main reason is the support of scripts, thanks to which you can connect to the program almost any function that is not implemented in it by default. For example, there are scripts for versioning files, for finding files that have been tagged incorrectly, for checking the correct names, and so on. Scripts do not have to be created manually - many useful add-ons have already been written by other users of the program and are available on the forum.
Another important feature of IMatch is stable work with large collections of files. The program copes without problems with databases, in which hundreds of thousands of photos, does not slow down and works quite stably. In addition, IMatch implements a periodic reminder to create a backup.
Like Daminion, this program works with databases of photographs that need to be manually populated with photographic content. The processes of creating a database and importing images are implemented in the form of a wizard, but despite this, it is difficult to call them intuitive. Too many boxes have to be set along the way. By default, the database is sorted into folders in the program window. You can also browse by category, by saved templates for search, by the history of selected files, and so on.
⇡ MyPhotoIndex 1.24
- Developer: My Photo Index
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: no
MyPhotoIndex is inferior in functionality to its more advanced competitors, but the program has several important advantages. First, the program is free and open source. Secondly, it is very simple, and the user does not need to puzzle for a long time over where to find here or another option - they are all at hand.
The program offers organizing photos by category, by tags and by rating. Tags can be added to a slice when importing images into the program's database; moreover, several tags that are used most often are already added by default.
All main functions are accessed through the context menu. With its help, you can add and remove tags, add and edit comments, change the date of the snapshot, send photos to print, encrypt them, set them as wallpaper on the desktop. Separately, it is worth noting the possibility of data exchange: with one click of the mouse, photos can be uploaded to Facebook, Flickr and other services.
Using the built-in search tools, the user can search for photos by tags, title, and other criteria. A convenient function is to search for images that were taken between two specified dates.
⇡ Photo Event Organizer 1.3
- Developer: GearMage
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: no
Of course, it's very good when you have the time and desire to keep your photo collection in perfect order: set ratings, sort pictures by categories and add tags. But, unfortunately, even a simple parsing of hundreds of photographs into folders for some takes months. Thanks to the large memory cards, we can not think about the lack of space and often copy photos to the computer every two months. And then all the events recorded during this time end up in one heap.
Photo Event Organizer is a simple program that helps you easily sort your running photo archives by date. Specify the directory in which all photos are stored, and also set the time interval that determines the duration of one event. After that, the program will show the photos for what period will fall into each folder, and will offer to give a name to each event during which they were taken. If you wish, you can sort the photos simply by month or year.
After completing the operation, you will see new folders with neat names like "October" and "November". Photo Event Organizer can both copy photos to new folders and move them, which is of course faster. If duplicates are found during copying, they will not be transferred to the new folder. Thus, the program can also help free up some hard disk space.
⇡ Namexif 1.6
- Developer: Digicamsoft
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: no
And finally - another simple free utility that helps you organize your photos by adding information about the shooting time to the file names. The information is taken from the metadata written to the file at the time of its creation. As soon as you receive files with names like 2013-04-01-17h56m56.jpg, it becomes a little easier to navigate them.
Namexif is organized as a wizard: first, the user is prompted to specify files or folders. Since the program can look into subfolders, you can immediately select the root directory, and then Namexif will find and rename all the photos at once.
The second step is to choose the renaming format. For example, an application can leave the original name at the end, or add arbitrary characters to all names.
Unfortunately, there is no change preview or rollback functionality, so it's best to practice on small folders first.
⇡ Conclusion
The requirements for programs for organizing images may vary, but the end goal for the user is always the same - the ability to quickly find the desired photo. Each of the programs discussed above helps in this in its own way, so it remains to choose the one that suits you best. Do not forget that the photos that you cannot find are how useless, how long deleted.
An unbridled desire to photograph anything and everything is characteristic of any owner of a digital camera. Therefore, on the computers of the overwhelming majority of users (who among modern users does not take pictures?), An unthinkable number of pictures accumulates rather quickly, which are often located in randomly named folders and have meaningless names. It is quite difficult to find the desired picture in such gigabyte photodebryas, because it is unrealistic to look through the entire photo archive every time. As a result, unique pictures, which captured some memorable moments of life, are likely to be lost among the host of other images.
However, providing quick and easy access to specific photos is not that difficult. To do this, you will need to think carefully about the image storage system in your photo archive and involve specialized software tools in the matter.
Storing pictures on a computer
The first step is to clearly understand that storing all images in a digital camera is not the most convenient and certainly not the most reliable way. It is better to download photos to your computer after each photo session, and do it as soon as possible - while the memories of the events are still fresh in your memory. After that, it is wise to immediately get rid of bad shots - blurry shots, dimly lit photos, shots out of focus, etc. Of course, some of them can be improved by one or another software tool, but if you have the same images of better quality, it is clearly not worth spending time on correcting shooting defects.
Of course, when importing photos to a computer, it is better to drop them not into randomly created folders - otherwise, in the future, you will spend a lot of time looking for the images you need. You should develop some kind of hierarchical image storage system (taking into account the nuances of possible search), and then save the images in accordance with your own system of rules.
There are many options for organizing the storage of images in a photo archive. Most often, when distributing pictures into folders, they are guided by the calendar-geographic principle (in this case, the date and place appear in the folder name - for example, 2011_05_27_Crete), or they divide pictures into folders, taking into account the events on which they were taken (say, 2011_07_31_Birthday), - fig ... 1. You can also take into account the subject of images in the system (landscapes, animals, flowers, etc.), etc. In general, each user will have his own version of the hierarchy in the photo archive, which depends on the importance of certain criteria for him.
Rice. 1. Possible option
photo archive folder structures
In addition, it can be useful for searching if you tag photos with keywords (family, vacation, corporate, etc.), thereby combining them into virtual thematic collections. This will allow in the future to quickly identify (by filtering or otherwise - it depends on which software tool will be used to solve this problem) images, taking into account the keywords of interest. It is faster to assign such keywords immediately when importing images from the camera, although you can do this operation later after saving the photos to disk. Unfortunately, in any case, the initial process of assigning keywords will take some time and effort, although modern software tools allow you to assign keywords to groups of photos at once, which significantly speeds up the process. In addition, you need to approach the assignment of keywords deliberately - with an eye to the intended needs and relying on the software tools that will be used to manage the photo archive.
As far as file names are concerned, not everything is clear. It is advisable to use descriptive file names, by which it would be easy to navigate what kind of picture it is, since it is completely unrealistic to guess by the name of the type DSC_0705 that this is, say, a picture from a family vacation in Thailand. Therefore, it is better to rename pictures using a template. The type of template is determined by the nuances of the search. It seems to us preferable to have a date (possibly only year and month) and a frame number in the name of the snapshot - for example, 2011-09-05_0015.jpg or 2011-09_0015.jpg (15th frame taken on September 5, 2011 or in September 2011 ) - rice. 2. It is also possible to add the name of a place or event to the name of the picture - a variant of the name of a specific photo from the group in this case may look like: Thailand_2011-09_0015.jpg. Such renaming should be carried out in batch mode (manually renaming hundreds and thousands of files is completely unrealistic) - it is better to import files or immediately after loading them into the photo archive.
Rice. 2. Batch rename files
When developing a variant of the hierarchical division of photographs, it is worth being guided by two important principles. First, if possible, place similar photos together - in the future, this will simplify orientation. Secondly, each image should be included in the archive in a single copy, otherwise the volume of the archive will noticeably increase, as well as difficulties will arise if it is necessary to edit images that have duplicates. It should also be noted that it is more convenient (both in terms of orientation and in terms of intended backup) to store your photo archive on a separate disk or in its separate section (ideally, on a separate external disk), where no other information will be saved.
Snapshot management
You can manage your photo archive after setting up a hierarchical system of storing images on disk using a variety of software tools. The easiest and most accessible way is to use the Windows 7 Libraries. Libraries are essentially virtual folders that combine files regardless of their physical location. This makes it easier to find, use, and organize files on your computer or on the network. Libraries are designed by default to better manage documents, music, pictures, and videos, although they can be used to organize other files as well. Browsing files in libraries is done in the same way as in regular folders.
In the case of working with your own photo archive, it makes sense to create a library specially designed for this, assign it an appropriate name (for example, "Photo Archive"), and then directly from the Explorer indicate to Windows the range of folders that the new library will contain (Fig. 3). It is worth noting that the specified folders with photos can be stored on various media (for example, on the hard drive of a stationary PC and an external hard drive), but, nevertheless, after placing them in the library, it will be possible to view the corresponding images in one window. And the convenience is not only in this - it will also be possible to organize files by properties (for example, by date, type, etc.), sort and group them by a number of parameters, including keywords (Fig. 4).
Rice. 3. Determining the range of folders for the created library in Windows 7
Rice. 4. Grouping images based on keywords through libraries
Windows 7
You can go the other way - use the vending graphics viewer, which has minimal functionality for organizing photo collections - as a rule, support for categories, tags and ratings (similar capabilities are provided in many solutions of this kind). Which solution to choose is a matter of taste and wallet, since both recognized commercial products and quite worthy alternative free applications can be found on the market. As an example, let's name the paid program ACDSee, which is well known to most users, and the free cross-platform viewer XnView, which is gaining popularity. Both of these software products are intended for viewing, organizing and simple editing of images.
Working with images in these solutions is easy and convenient, since the developers have provided different options for viewing images, have included simple tools for performing basic editing operations, thought over functionality for convenient exchange of images, etc. As for organizing a photo archive and getting quick access to images of interest, then the possibilities here, of course, are more impressive than in the Windows 7 libraries (that's what specialized software is for!). For example, image rating allows you to assign a certain value to each image in terms of its value (for example, quality), so that in the future it will be possible to quickly find the most demanded originals of images. The use of color marks also simplifies the organization - with similar marks, for example, you can mark images at different stages of the workflow (with some colors for the original images, others for the images after correction, the third for the images selected for printing, etc.) - Fig. ... 5. It is no less convenient to use categories, thanks to which you can instantly find images belonging to a specific category or even to several at once (Fig. 6).
Rice. 5. Using custom color labels to highlight pictures
in ACDSee
Rice. 6. Quick access to images from two categories at once in XnView
Typically, an even more convenient option for managing your photo archive is provided by photo organizers, which are designed to organize and sort digital photos. Therefore, it is not surprising that these products have more advanced features for organizing photo collections and quickly finding pictures in them. There are many solutions of this kind on the market. Some of them (such as Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, ACDSee Pro Photo Manager, etc.) are quite expensive, difficult to learn and aimed at professional photographers. At the same time, home users also have nothing to complain about - they offer numerous compact and easy-to-learn applications that are affordable or even free. Examples of such programs include Zoner Photo Studio, PicaJet, and Picasa.
Cataloging pictures using photo organizers is as easy as shelling pears - all you need to do is place each photo directly into the logical category intended for it (Fig. 7) or first in a common storage, and then assign categories to the pictures (often with the ability to highlight different categories with icons), ratings and tags, and also assign keywords (this will determine the belonging of images to specific logical groups). Note that you can assign keywords to all selected images at once and not just one keyword at a time (Fig. 8) - this significantly reduces the complexity of this operation.
Rice. 7. Adding files from disc to the PicaJet category
Rice. 8. Assigning keywords in Zoner Photo Studio
All this will allow you to quickly find the necessary photos in the future by searching, filtering, sorting and grouping. It is especially worth noting the possibility of accounting for and filtering keywords, which makes it possible to perform complex search queries (taking into account not only one, but also several keywords) - Fig. 9. In particular, by manipulating keywords, you can effortlessly find in the bowels of hard drives all pictures with a sunset on a river, a son on a bicycle, temples during restoration, flowering apple trees, etc., even if such objects you have carried out along the way, many times and at different times.
Rice. 9. Quick search based on keywords in Zoner Photo Studio
Briefly about the products
ACDSee 14.3
Developer: ACD Systems
Distribution size: 71.8 MB
Work under control: Windows XP (SP2) / Vista / 7
Distribution method: shareware (30 days demo - http://www.acdsee.com/en/free-trials)
Price: US $ 29.99
ACDSee is an internationally renowned graphics viewer (Figure 10) aimed at both professionals and home users. Includes tools for quick and easy viewing of files of various graphic formats, as well as audio and video files and archives. In addition to viewing graphics, this solution can be used for editing and cataloging images, batch processing files, finding duplicates, online image exchange, etc.
Rice. 10. Working with snapshots in ACDSee
The cataloging in ACDSee is based on the use of categories, ratings and colored labels. Categories are created manually (there is a predefined list of basic categories) and can be nested; categories are highlighted with different icons for better orientation. The ratings in this program are basic, but the labels can be edited, which allows you to select images into logical groups in accordance with personal tasks. There is support for keywords and geotags, it is possible to edit EXIF and IPTC data. Images from a variety of devices are imported into the categories: hard disk, CDs, digital cameras, flash drives, scanners, etc. Supports batch renaming of files. With one click, you can send files selected from different places according to some principle to the so-called Image Basket for further editing or sharing. When viewed, images are displayed as thumbnails, full screen or slideshow; if necessary, individual fragments of the image can be easily viewed in an enlarged form using a "magnifying glass". Faster access to the images you want is easy by sorting, grouping and filtering based on image size, date, rating, tags, EXIF data, categories and keywords.
The built-in editing panel, in addition to supporting basic operations (rotation, cropping, etc.), will help correct image exposure, adjust levels and curves, perform color correction, get rid of red-eye and noise, and apply standard filters to the image. These operations can be performed with respect to not only single images, but also several images at once in batch mode. A toolkit is provided for comparing images and converting them to other raster formats. In addition, ACDSee allows you to burn pictures to CD / DVD discs, combine them into slideshows, PDF files and web albums, and easily share pictures by uploading them to social networks, FTP servers, etc.
Zoner Photo Studio 14
The developer: Zoner Software
The sizedistribution kit: Zoner Photo Studio Free - 26.7 MB; Zoner Photo Studio Pro - 87.7 MB
Work under control: Windows XP (SP2) / Vista / 7
Distribution method: Zoner Photo Studio Free - freeware; the other two editions are shareware, 30 days demo (http://www.zoner.com/ww-en/download-free-photo-program)
Price: Zoner Photo Studio Home - $ 34.99, Zoner Photo Studio Pro - $ 69.99, Zoner Photo Studio Free - Free
Zoner Photo Studio is a recently launched, but already well-established program for managing, editing and sharing images (Figure 11). The possibilities of this solution are impressive, many functions are implemented by developers with an eye on professional products, in particular, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The program is presented in three editions: free Zoner Photo Studio Free and two commercial - Zoner Photo Studio Home and Zoner Photo Studio Pro. The features of the free edition are limited by the basic functionality. In addition, this edition does not have a 64-bit version and does not support GPU acceleration, nor does it support dual monitors.
Rice. 11. Organization of photo collection in Zoner Photo Studio
Zoner Photo Studio allows you to create a photo archive as a set of albums based on an existing folder structure or manually. Albums have an unlimited nesting level, and the easiest way to create them is by dragging the corresponding folders with pictures from the Explorer window onto the Albums folder of the program navigator. You can replenish the photo archive directly from devices (from memory cards of a camera, scanner, etc.), as well as by receiving images from websites, PDF files, etc. Images during viewing are displayed in the form of icons or thumbnails; to speed up access to images of interest, it is easy to use sorting, built-in search and filtering. When filtering and searching, EXIF data, keywords, service text information (title, description, etc.), as well as ratings, labels and GPS coordinates (the latter are entered manually or read from Google maps) can be taken into account. There is a possibility of batch renaming of files according to a template.
The editing capabilities are also impressive and will appeal to both novice and advanced users. The former may be limited to basic functions (rotation, cropping, straightening, automatic image enhancement), while the latter may be interested in such advanced editing functions as level adjustment, color correction, exposure enhancement, noise reduction, etc. Any changes can be applied not only to one, but also to several images at once in batch mode. There is also functionality for converting images from RAW formats to raster formats and editing EXIF data. Selected photos can be easily combined into a PDF slideshow or converted to a postcard, even 3D and HDR images are possible. In terms of publishing, it is worth noting the creation of web galleries, recording DVD presentations, printing (using templates and photo calendars), sending by email, as well as uploading to Facebook, Flickr and Picasa web albums.
PicaJet 2.6
Developer: Picajet.com
Distribution size: PicaJet FX - 5.91 MB; PicaJet Free - 4.81 MB
Work under control: Windows 2000/2003 / XP / Vista / 7
Distribution method: PicaJet Free - freeware; PicaJet FX - shareware, 15 days demo (http://www.picajet.com/en/index.php?page=download)
Price: PicaJet FX - 490 rubles.
PicaJet is a handy and very easy-to-use program for cataloging image collections (Figure 12). It comes in two editions: the free PicaJet Free and the commercial PicaJet FX. The free edition includes only a basic set of functions - in particular, the creation of categories is not provided, the possibilities of sorting and searching are more than limited, etc., so we do not recommend choosing PicaJet Free to manage large and complex archives. The commercial edition has all the features necessary to effectively organize photo archives, and it may well suit most home users.
Rice. 12. Photo Collection Management in PicaJet
To organize a photo archive in PicaJet, categories are used, which are created automatically during the addition of images based on the existing folder structure and / or based on IPTC data, or manually. The nesting level of categories is not limited. You can add pictures to your collection from a digital camera, scanner, webcam, CD / DVD, and hard drive folders. To speed up the process of including images in the photo archive, it is allowed to use hot keys; you can also quickly import images from File Explorer using drag and drop. In order to better identify the categories, they can be assigned a variety of icons. Categories are assigned during import or manually by dragging a group of images onto a category. There is functionality for batch renaming of selected files based on templates. If necessary, it is easy to add a description and / or rating to the selected images. Photos can be viewed with grouping and / or sorting by date, rating, import time, etc .; it is possible to display pictures during playback in the form of a slideshow.
The editing plan includes operations such as cropping and rotating, removing red-eye, correcting sharpness, auto-correcting, and more. Supports quick correction of multiple images with one click, as well as resizing and converting to another graphic format on the fly. It is possible to print photos in popular formats (including 9 × 13, 13 × 18, 10 × 15), as well as edit metadata (EXIF and IPTC). As for sharing, it is worth noting that there is functionality for creating photo galleries for publishing on a website, recording photo collections on CDs, sending photos to a mobile phone, as well as optimizing photos for sending them by e-mail.
Picasa 3.9
Developer: Google
Distribution size: 14.5 MB
Work under control: Windows XP / Vista / 7
Distribution method: freeware (http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa39-setup.exe)
Price: is free
Picasa is a popular tool for organizing, viewing, and easily editing photos (Figure 13), best known in no small part for its tight integration with Picasa Web Albums. Such integration expands the possibilities of sharing pictures with other users, and this is a definite plus. And the functionality of this program as a whole is at the level. However, the way of organizing images, implemented by the developers, in our opinion, is not very successful. In addition, the application is quite resource intensive and is accompanied by a very mediocre help system.
Rice. 13. Organizing your photo archive in Picasa
Albums are used to catalog images in Picasa, sub-albums cannot be created. Albums are filled manually, by sorting the images found after scanning or by importing images, which takes a lot of time from the user. Scanning hard disks starts when the program is first launched, while by default all hard disks of the computer are scanned, which is quite long - it is better to interrupt this process, manually adjust the list of scanned directories through the folder manager and start scanning again. Photos from hard drives are added to photo collections automatically as they are scanned, and you can manually add photos by importing images from cameras, CDs, memory cards, scanners, webcams, and more. In addition to albums, Picasa has another cataloging tool, the People collection. With its help, the cataloging of images by the people depicted on them is provided with the connection of face recognition technology. This collection is created in a semi-automatic mode - faces in all pictures are automatically recognized, and the user then needs to indicate the persons of interest in the pictures to create their corresponding albums. During playback, images are displayed in normal mode or as a slideshow, taking into account the specified sorting option (by title, date, etc.). To speed up access to the pictures you want, you can tag your favorite photos with tags, as well as use tags - they resemble keywords and later make it easy to find photos through the built-in search. You can also enter geographic information to link images to Google Earth.
Built-in editing tools allow you to resize, rotate, crop, and perform a number of image correction operations (removing red-eye, straightening, adjusting contrast and color balance, etc.). In addition, you can rename multiple photos and batch edit them, as well as online image editing using the Picnik.com service. There is functionality for printing photos in basic formats, as well as editing EXIF data. If you want, it's easy to create a photo collage from selected photos, burn the photos to CD, create a video by combining photos into a slideshow, or post to Blogger. You can also share your albums with others after adding them to Picasa Web Albums.
XnView 1.99.1
Developer: Pierre e gougelet
Distribution size: 4.36 MB
Work under control: Windows 95/98 / NT / 2000 / ME / XP / Vista / 7; there are versions for Mac OS X and Linux
Distribution method: freeware (http://www.xnview.com/en/download.html)
Price: free (for private non-commercial or educational use)
XnView is a free cross-platform viewer for images and other multimedia files (Fig. 14) with support for a very large number of formats (currently more than 500). The program makes it easy to view, process and convert image files, and is also equipped with a number of additional features, including the availability of simple tools for organizing photo collections.
Rice. 14. Working with a collection of images in XnView
Photo archive management in XnView is based on the use of categories, the nesting of which is unlimited. Assignment of categories to images is done manually and is possible for all selected or marked files at once. You can add pictures to the photo archive from disk, as well as from scanners and digital cameras. In addition to supporting categories, they can be assigned ratings, color cues, and tagged to simplify orientation among multiple images. When viewing photos, it is allowed to include sorting by date, rating, format, width / height, orientation, description, comment, etc .; the selected pictures can be viewed as a slideshow. A built-in search is also implemented in the program, taking into account the basic parameters of images, including EXIF and IPTC data. There is a possibility of batch converting and batch renaming of files.
The utility is equipped with a basic set of functions for image editing (including resizing, rotating, cropping), allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, gamma and color balance, has tools for automatic level adjustment, removing red-eye, applying simple filters and effects, etc. operations can be applied directly to a group of images in batch mode. Editing of IPTC data is possible. If necessary, the XnView utility can also be used to compare images, print files, create panoramic images, take screenshots, generate multi-page files and web pages, and a number of other actions.
Conclusion
Photo archives are different for everyone, as well as the requirements for working with them, but for all users it takes a lot of time to find the necessary images in the archive. It can be drastically accelerated only by the correct organization of the photo collection, which implies a well-thought-out system of catalogs in the archive and the use of specialized software tools.
Each user chooses a hierarchical system himself, based on the subject of the images and their own priorities - the main thing here is that you feel comfortable. As for the software tools, it all depends on the user's requirements in terms of cataloging and the complexity of the intended search. For some, the capabilities of Windows 7 libraries or a simple free viewer will be quite enough, others will prefer more functional paid solutions: the popular ACDSee viewer or one of the photo organizers reviewed, among which the Zoner Photo Studio program seemed the most convenient for cataloging.
Sorting photos based on the similarity of images on them. The application will sort all photos with the same meaning into separate folders, to which it assigns its own numbers;
Search for similar images / photos according to the sample. All photos similar to the sample will be copied to the folder designated for the output of the result;
Search for a fragment of a photograph. This function resembles whole image search. But here the program will look for matches with the selected area on the test photo. All photos with a similar fragment will be found. This search is useful if you want, for example, to find all photos with one person. Select a face, click find, Sortirovchik will do the rest for you;
Creation of a report on the similarity of photographs. A function similar in meaning to the search by fragment, but with the difference that the found images will not be copied to a separate folder.
The photo sorting software will show statistics in the form of the number of matches, file names, color gamut similarity parameters, color spread, overall match and complete match. It can be useful if you need to compare the degree of similarity of one person to other people.
I have accumulated a huge amount of photos from smartphones. I have to change smartphones often, because for each review I always use a new smartphone as my main phone in order to reveal all the features and nuances.
I finally found a way to rename and organize tens of thousands of photos.
Different smartphones give names to photos according to different principles - some take into account the date and time of shooting, some simply call them DSC_0001, DSC_0002, etc.
At first I just wanted to rename the files according to their date, but it turned out that sometimes when transferring to a computer, the date is lost and replaced with the current one.
Fortunately, JPG files contain EXIF - a block of information with shooting parameters, which contains, in particular, the date and time of the shooting.
The task came down to the fact that you need to rename all photo files so that the name contains the date and time of shooting from EXIF, and at the same time change the date of all files, restoring the shooting date. There was a program on the Internet that can do this: Exifer - http://www.exifer.friedemann.info/index.htm#Download.
It's simple: Select the desired folder, select all files (Edit - Select All or Ctrl + A), go and rename - (Edit - Rename / redate and copy or Ctrl + N), check the box "Redate (by EXIF date fields)" and start the process with the OK button.
All selected files in the folder will be renamed and their date / time will accurately reflect the shooting date and time. For some reason, with a large number of files, the program cannot process several files, which is what it reports. But it doesn't matter - you just need to re-run the conversion for these files.
This can also be automated: the exiftool program http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/, which works in the command line, can arrange all photos in folders by year, month and day of shooting.
Exiftool "-Directory command Exiftool "-Directory command Renaming all photos according to the date and time of shooting and organizing them in folders with dates will turn the huge photo washer into a convenient archive. Try it! It takes very little time. 2016, Alexey Nadyozhin The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. And I also make reports from interesting places and talk about interesting events. An unbridled desire to photograph anything and everything is characteristic of any owner of a digital camera. Therefore, on the computers of the overwhelming majority of users (who among modern users does not take pictures?), An unthinkable number of pictures accumulates rather quickly, which are often located in randomly named folders and have meaningless names. It is quite difficult to find the desired picture in such gigabyte photodebryas, because it is unrealistic to look through the entire photo archive every time. As a result, unique pictures, which captured some memorable moments of life, are likely to be lost among the host of other images. The first step is to clearly understand that storing all images in a digital camera is not the most convenient and certainly not the most reliable way. It is better to download photos to your computer after each photo session, and do it as soon as possible - while the memories of the events are still fresh in your memory. After that, it is wise to immediately get rid of bad shots - blurry shots, dimly lit photos, shots out of focus, etc. Of course, some of them can be improved by one or another software tool, but if you have the same images of better quality, it is clearly not worth spending time on correcting shooting defects. Of course, when importing photos to a computer, it is better to drop them not into randomly created folders - otherwise, in the future, you will spend a lot of time looking for the images you need. You should develop some kind of hierarchical image storage system (taking into account the nuances of possible search), and then save the images in accordance with your own system of rules. There are many options for organizing the storage of images in a photo archive. Most often, when distributing pictures into folders, they are guided by the calendar-geographic principle (in this case, the date and place appear in the folder name - for example, 2011_05_27_Crete), or they divide pictures into folders, taking into account the events on which they were taken (say, 2011_07_31_Birthday), - fig ... 1. You can also take into account the subject of images in the system (landscapes, animals, flowers, etc.), etc. In general, each user will have his own version of the hierarchy in the photo archive, which depends on the importance of certain criteria for him. Rice. 1. Possible option In addition, it can be useful for searching if you tag photos with keywords (family, vacation, corporate, etc.), thereby combining them into virtual thematic collections. This will allow in the future to quickly identify (by filtering or otherwise - it depends on which software tool will be used to solve this problem) images, taking into account the keywords of interest. It is faster to assign such keywords immediately when importing images from the camera, although you can do this operation later after saving the photos to disk. Unfortunately, in any case, the initial process of assigning keywords will take some time and effort, although modern software tools allow you to assign keywords to groups of photos at once, which significantly speeds up the process. In addition, you need to approach the assignment of keywords deliberately - with an eye to the intended needs and relying on the software tools that will be used to manage the photo archive. As far as file names are concerned, not everything is clear. It is advisable to use descriptive file names, by which it would be easy to navigate what kind of picture it is, since it is completely unrealistic to guess by the name of the type DSC_0705 that this is, say, a picture from a family vacation in Thailand. Therefore, it is better to rename pictures using a template. The type of template is determined by the nuances of the search. It seems to us preferable to have a date (possibly only year and month) and a frame number in the name of the snapshot - for example, 2011-09-05_0015.jpg or 2011-09_0015.jpg (15th frame taken on September 5, 2011 or in September 2011 ) - rice. 2. It is also possible to add the name of a place or event to the name of the picture - a variant of the name of a specific photo from the group in this case may look like: Thailand_2011-09_0015.jpg. Such renaming should be carried out in batch mode (manually renaming hundreds and thousands of files is completely unrealistic) - it is better to import files or immediately after loading them into the photo archive. Rice. 2. Batch rename files When developing a variant of the hierarchical division of photographs, it is worth being guided by two important principles. First, if possible, place similar photos together - in the future, this will simplify orientation. Secondly, each image should be included in the archive in a single copy, otherwise the volume of the archive will noticeably increase, as well as difficulties will arise if it is necessary to edit images that have duplicates. It should also be noted that it is more convenient (both in terms of orientation and in terms of intended backup) to store your photo archive on a separate disk or in its separate section (ideally, on a separate external disk), where no other information will be saved. You can manage your photo archive after setting up a hierarchical system of storing images on disk using a variety of software tools. The easiest and most accessible way is to use the Windows 7 Libraries. Libraries are essentially virtual folders that combine files regardless of their physical location. This makes it easier to find, use, and organize files on your computer or on the network. Libraries are designed by default to better manage documents, music, pictures, and videos, although they can be used to organize other files as well. Browsing files in libraries is done in the same way as in regular folders. In the case of working with your own photo archive, it makes sense to create a library specially designed for this, assign it an appropriate name (for example, "Photo Archive"), and then directly from the Explorer indicate to Windows the range of folders that the new library will contain (Fig. 3). It is worth noting that the specified folders with photos can be stored on various media (for example, on the hard drive of a stationary PC and an external hard drive), but, nevertheless, after placing them in the library, it will be possible to view the corresponding images in one window. And the convenience is not only in this - it will also be possible to organize files by properties (for example, by date, type, etc.), sort and group them by a number of parameters, including keywords (Fig. 4). Rice. 3. Determining the range of folders for the created library in Windows 7 Rice. 4. Grouping images based on keywords through libraries You can go the other way - use the vending graphics viewer, which has minimal functionality for organizing photo collections - as a rule, support for categories, tags and ratings (similar capabilities are provided in many solutions of this kind). Which solution to choose is a matter of taste and wallet, since both recognized commercial products and quite worthy alternative free applications can be found on the market. As an example, let's name the paid program ACDSee, which is well known to most users, and the free cross-platform viewer XnView, which is gaining popularity. Both of these software products are intended for viewing, organizing and simple editing of images. Working with images in these solutions is easy and convenient, since the developers have provided different options for viewing images, have included simple tools for performing basic editing operations, thought over functionality for convenient exchange of images, etc. As for organizing a photo archive and getting quick access to images of interest, then the possibilities here, of course, are more impressive than in the Windows 7 libraries (that's what specialized software is for!). For example, image rating allows you to assign a certain value to each image in terms of its value (for example, quality), so that in the future it will be possible to quickly find the most demanded originals of images. The use of color marks also simplifies the organization - with similar marks, for example, you can mark images at different stages of the workflow (with some colors for the original images, others for the images after correction, the third for the images selected for printing, etc.) - Fig. ... 5. It is no less convenient to use categories, thanks to which you can instantly find images belonging to a specific category or even to several at once (Fig. 6). Rice. 5. Using custom color labels to highlight pictures Rice. 6. Quick access to images from two categories at once in XnView Typically, an even more convenient option for managing your photo archive is provided by photo organizers, which are designed to organize and sort digital photos. Therefore, it is not surprising that these products have more advanced features for organizing photo collections and quickly finding pictures in them. There are many solutions of this kind on the market. Some of them (such as Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, ACDSee Pro Photo Manager, etc.) are quite expensive, difficult to learn and aimed at professional photographers. At the same time, home users also have nothing to complain about - they offer numerous compact and easy-to-learn applications that are affordable or even free. Examples of such programs include Zoner Photo Studio, PicaJet, and Picasa. Cataloging pictures using photo organizers is as easy as shelling pears - all you need to do is place each photo directly into the logical category intended for it (Fig. 7) or first in a common storage, and then assign categories to the pictures (often with the ability to highlight different categories with icons), ratings and tags, and also assign keywords (this will determine the belonging of images to specific logical groups). Note that you can assign keywords to all selected images at once and not just one keyword at a time (Fig. 8) - this significantly reduces the complexity of this operation. Rice. 7. Adding files from disc to the PicaJet category Rice. 8. Assigning keywords in Zoner Photo Studio All this will allow you to quickly find the necessary photos in the future by searching, filtering, sorting and grouping. It is especially worth noting the possibility of accounting for and filtering keywords, which makes it possible to perform complex search queries (taking into account not only one, but also several keywords) - Fig. 9. In particular, by manipulating keywords, you can effortlessly find in the bowels of hard drives all pictures with a sunset on a river, a son on a bicycle, temples during restoration, flowering apple trees, etc., even if such objects you have carried out along the way, many times and at different times. Rice. 9. Quick search based on keywords in Zoner Photo Studio Developer: ACD Systems Distribution size: 71.8 MB Work under control: Windows XP (SP2) / Vista / 7 Distribution method: shareware (30 days demo - http://www.acdsee.com/en/free-trials) Price: US $ 29.99 ACDSee is an internationally renowned graphics viewer (Figure 10) aimed at both professionals and home users. Includes tools for quick and easy viewing of files of various graphic formats, as well as audio and video files and archives. In addition to viewing graphics, this solution can be used for editing and cataloging images, batch processing files, finding duplicates, online image exchange, etc. Rice. 10. Working with snapshots in ACDSee The cataloging in ACDSee is based on the use of categories, ratings and colored labels. Categories are created manually (there is a predefined list of basic categories) and can be nested; categories are highlighted with different icons for better orientation. The ratings in this program are basic, but the labels can be edited, which allows you to select images into logical groups in accordance with personal tasks. There is support for keywords and geotags, it is possible to edit EXIF and IPTC data. Images from a variety of devices are imported into the categories: hard disk, CDs, digital cameras, flash drives, scanners, etc. Supports batch renaming of files. With one click, you can send files selected from different places according to some principle to the so-called Image Basket for further editing or sharing. When viewed, images are displayed as thumbnails, full screen or slideshow; if necessary, individual fragments of the image can be easily viewed in an enlarged form using a "magnifying glass". Faster access to the images you want is easy by sorting, grouping and filtering based on image size, date, rating, tags, EXIF data, categories and keywords. The built-in editing panel, in addition to supporting basic operations (rotation, cropping, etc.), will help correct image exposure, adjust levels and curves, perform color correction, get rid of red-eye and noise, and apply standard filters to the image. These operations can be performed with respect to not only single images, but also several images at once in batch mode. A toolkit is provided for comparing images and converting them to other raster formats. In addition, ACDSee allows you to burn pictures to CD / DVD discs, combine them into slideshows, PDF files and web albums, and easily share pictures by uploading them to social networks, FTP servers, etc. The developer:
Zoner Software The sizedistribution kit:
Zoner Photo Studio Free - 26.7 MB; Zoner Photo Studio Pro - 87.7 MB Work under control: Windows XP (SP2) / Vista / 7 Distribution method: Zoner Photo Studio Free - freeware; the other two editions are shareware, 30 days demo (http://www.zoner.com/ww-en/download-free-photo-program) Price:
Zoner Photo Studio Home - $ 34.99, Zoner Photo Studio Pro - $ 69.99, Zoner Photo Studio Free - Free Zoner Photo Studio is a recently launched, but already well-established program for managing, editing and sharing images (Figure 11). The possibilities of this solution are impressive, many functions are implemented by developers with an eye on professional products, in particular, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The program is presented in three editions: free Zoner Photo Studio Free and two commercial - Zoner Photo Studio Home and Zoner Photo Studio Pro. The features of the free edition are limited by the basic functionality. In addition, this edition does not have a 64-bit version and does not support GPU acceleration, nor does it support dual monitors. Rice. 11. Organization of photo collection in Zoner Photo Studio Zoner Photo Studio allows you to create a photo archive as a set of albums based on an existing folder structure or manually. Albums have an unlimited nesting level, and the easiest way to create them is by dragging the corresponding folders with pictures from the Explorer window onto the Albums folder of the program navigator. You can replenish the photo archive directly from devices (from memory cards of a camera, scanner, etc.), as well as by receiving images from websites, PDF files, etc. Images during viewing are displayed in the form of icons or thumbnails; to speed up access to images of interest, it is easy to use sorting, built-in search and filtering. When filtering and searching, EXIF data, keywords, service text information (title, description, etc.), as well as ratings, labels and GPS coordinates (the latter are entered manually or read from Google maps) can be taken into account. There is a possibility of batch renaming of files according to a template. The editing capabilities are also impressive and will appeal to both novice and advanced users. The former may be limited to basic functions (rotation, cropping, straightening, automatic image enhancement), while the latter may be interested in such advanced editing functions as level adjustment, color correction, exposure enhancement, noise reduction, etc. Any changes can be applied not only to one, but also to several images at once in batch mode. There is also functionality for converting images from RAW formats to raster formats and editing EXIF data. Selected photos can be easily combined into a PDF slideshow or converted to a postcard, even 3D and HDR images are possible. In terms of publishing, it is worth noting the creation of web galleries, recording DVD presentations, printing (using templates and photo calendars), sending by email, as well as uploading to Facebook, Flickr and Picasa web albums. Developer: Picajet.com Distribution size: PicaJet FX - 5.91 MB; PicaJet Free - 4.81 MB Work under control: Windows 2000/2003 / XP / Vista / 7 Distribution method: PicaJet Free - freeware; PicaJet FX - shareware, 15 days demo (http://www.picajet.com/en/index.php?page=download) Price: PicaJet FX - 490 rubles. PicaJet is a handy and very easy-to-use program for cataloging image collections (Figure 12). It comes in two editions: the free PicaJet Free and the commercial PicaJet FX. The free edition includes only a basic set of functions - in particular, the creation of categories is not provided, the possibilities of sorting and searching are more than limited, etc., so we do not recommend choosing PicaJet Free to manage large and complex archives. The commercial edition has all the features necessary to effectively organize photo archives, and it may well suit most home users. Rice. 12. Photo Collection Management in PicaJet To organize a photo archive in PicaJet, categories are used, which are created automatically during the addition of images based on the existing folder structure and / or based on IPTC data, or manually. The nesting level of categories is not limited. You can add pictures to your collection from a digital camera, scanner, webcam, CD / DVD, and hard drive folders. To speed up the process of including images in the photo archive, it is allowed to use hot keys; you can also quickly import images from File Explorer using drag and drop. In order to better identify the categories, they can be assigned a variety of icons. Categories are assigned during import or manually by dragging a group of images onto a category. There is functionality for batch renaming of selected files based on templates. If necessary, it is easy to add a description and / or rating to the selected images. Photos can be viewed with grouping and / or sorting by date, rating, import time, etc .; it is possible to display pictures during playback in the form of a slideshow. The editing plan includes operations such as cropping and rotating, removing red-eye, correcting sharpness, auto-correcting, and more. Supports quick correction of multiple images with one click, as well as resizing and converting to another graphic format on the fly. It is possible to print photos in popular formats (including 9 × 13, 13 × 18, 10 × 15), as well as edit metadata (EXIF and IPTC). As for sharing, it is worth noting that there is functionality for creating photo galleries for publishing on a website, recording photo collections on CDs, sending photos to a mobile phone, as well as optimizing photos for sending them by e-mail. Developer: Google Distribution size: 14.5 MB Work under control: Windows XP / Vista / 7 Distribution method: freeware (http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa39-setup.exe) Price: is free Picasa is a popular tool for organizing, viewing, and easily editing photos (Figure 13), best known in no small part for its tight integration with Picasa Web Albums. Such integration expands the possibilities of sharing pictures with other users, and this is a definite plus. And the functionality of this program as a whole is at the level. However, the way of organizing images, implemented by the developers, in our opinion, is not very successful. In addition, the application is quite resource intensive and is accompanied by a very mediocre help system. Rice. 13. Organizing your photo archive in Picasa Albums are used to catalog images in Picasa, sub-albums cannot be created. Albums are filled manually, by sorting the images found after scanning or by importing images, which takes a lot of time from the user. Scanning hard disks starts when the program is first launched, while by default all hard disks of the computer are scanned, which is quite long - it is better to interrupt this process, manually adjust the list of scanned directories through the folder manager and start scanning again. Photos from hard drives are added to photo collections automatically as they are scanned, and you can manually add photos by importing images from cameras, CDs, memory cards, scanners, webcams, and more. In addition to albums, Picasa has another cataloging tool, the People collection. With its help, the cataloging of images by the people depicted on them is provided with the connection of face recognition technology. This collection is created in a semi-automatic mode - faces in all pictures are automatically recognized, and the user then needs to indicate the persons of interest in the pictures to create their corresponding albums. During playback, images are displayed in normal mode or as a slideshow, taking into account the specified sorting option (by title, date, etc.). To speed up access to the pictures you want, you can tag your favorite photos with tags, as well as use tags - they resemble keywords and later make it easy to find photos through the built-in search. You can also enter geographic information to link images to Google Earth. Built-in editing tools allow you to resize, rotate, crop, and perform a number of image correction operations (removing red-eye, straightening, adjusting contrast and color balance, etc.). In addition, you can rename multiple photos and batch edit them, as well as online image editing using the Picnik.com service. There is functionality for printing photos in basic formats, as well as editing EXIF data. If you want, it's easy to create a photo collage from selected photos, burn the photos to CD, create a video by combining photos into a slideshow, or post to Blogger. You can also share your albums with others after adding them to Picasa Web Albums. Developer: Pierre e gougelet Distribution size: 4.36 MB Work under control: Windows 95/98 / NT / 2000 / ME / XP / Vista / 7; there are versions for Mac OS X and Linux Distribution method: freeware (http://www.xnview.com/en/download.html) Price: free (for private non-commercial or educational use) XnView is a free cross-platform viewer for images and other multimedia files (Fig. 14) with support for a very large number of formats (currently more than 500). The program makes it easy to view, process and convert image files, and is also equipped with a number of additional features, including the availability of simple tools for organizing photo collections. Rice. 14. Working with a collection of images in XnView Photo archive management in XnView is based on the use of categories, the nesting of which is unlimited. Assignment of categories to images is done manually and is possible for all selected or marked files at once. You can add pictures to the photo archive from disk, as well as from scanners and digital cameras. In addition to supporting categories, they can be assigned ratings, color cues, and tagged to simplify orientation among multiple images. When viewing photos, it is allowed to include sorting by date, rating, format, width / height, orientation, description, comment, etc .; the selected pictures can be viewed as a slideshow. A built-in search is also implemented in the program, taking into account the basic parameters of images, including EXIF and IPTC data. There is a possibility of batch converting and batch renaming of files. The utility is equipped with a basic set of functions for image editing (including resizing, rotating, cropping), allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, gamma and color balance, has tools for automatic level adjustment, removing red-eye, applying simple filters and effects, etc. operations can be applied directly to a group of images in batch mode. Editing of IPTC data is possible. If necessary, the XnView utility can also be used to compare images, print files, create panoramic images, take screenshots, generate multi-page files and web pages, and a number of other actions. Photo archives are different for everyone, as well as the requirements for working with them, but for all users it takes a lot of time to find the necessary images in the archive. It can be drastically accelerated only by the correct organization of the photo collection, which implies a well-thought-out system of catalogs in the archive and the use of specialized software tools. Each user chooses a hierarchical system himself, based on the subject of the images and their own priorities - the main thing here is that you feel comfortable. As for the software tools, it all depends on the user's requirements in terms of cataloging and the complexity of the intended search. For some, the capabilities of Windows 7 libraries or a simple free viewer will be quite enough, others will prefer more functional paid solutions: the popular ACDSee viewer or one of the photo organizers reviewed, among which the Zoner Photo Studio program seemed the most convenient for cataloging.
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However, providing quick and easy access to specific photos is not that difficult. To do this, you will need to think carefully about the image storage system in your photo archive and involve specialized software tools in the matter.Storing pictures on a computer
photo archive folder structuresSnapshot management
Windows 7
in ACDSeeBriefly about the products
ACDSee 14.3
Zoner Photo Studio 14
PicaJet 2.6
Picasa 3.9
XnView 1.99.1
Conclusion
