Once you have moved your images over from your camera (see last post) to your computer you will begin to amass a folder filled with images. They will all be called DCP674648...etc.
Without some system to organize them you'll quickly have an unmanageable "virtual shoebox" on your computer.
For about three years I categorized the images myself using a standard file name convention (monthdayyearsubject.jpg) and folders that I would put each picture into.
But after a while the system broke down. What if you have a picture with both kids in it - which folder does it go into? Also, the subject line was very limiting. I now have over 7000 photos, so clearly I needed to move the next level.
There are several image organizers out there but I've found Adobe Photoshop to be the best. My requirements were that it show thumbnails, was easily searchable, had a way to categorize each image, and was easy enough for my wife to use (DDUS of 3).
The way the categories work is simple. You create a set of categories (Dad, Mom, baby, dog, Tahoe,etc.) and then for each picture you assign a category. This blog has categories as well, which are located on the left column. However, in Photoshop Album you can assign multiple categories to one picture. You would use this if you had a picture of both your baby and your dog. Or your dog in Tahoe. Or some combination thereof.
One discipline you need is that every time you "Get Pictures" from your PC into the album (via card or whatever) you should tag them with categories right then and there.
I keep all of my images on one PC at home in my office. I also scan old photos there and do some retouching. I run Photoshop Album from my kitchen PC, so it is actually referencing images over my wireless network to my office PC. I can search, sort, print, email etc. from that kitchen PC, as well as show a neat screensaver.
I use my office for the "real" images because a) I don't want the kids messing with my core image and music files, b) the office PC uses a CRT which has more accurate color characteristics than my LCD display in the kitchen and C) it's nice and dark in there to get an even more accurate electronic image.
For retouching I have typically used Paint Shop Pro (DDUS of 4), which is familiar to me, but the built-in features of Photoshop Album are decent enough for most jobs. Photoshop Album does support using "third party" editors like Paint SHop Pro as well. I have tried Photoshop Elements and it has a great feature called "fill-in flash" which simulates using a fill-in flash on a picture that had no flash. And thus the name!
Another software product I need to plug is called ColorWizzard - horrible spelling but it's from a company in France. It provides a very accurate tune-up of your monitor and will help make your printouts match your monitor image. Very cool.
One drawback of Photoshop Album is that you can't access the same album from multiple PCs on a network. Therefore the album I see on the kitchen PC is not available to me on my office PC or on my notebook. It would be nice to fire up any PC or notebook at home and see that album - maybe in version 3.0?
I've also had a problem where Photoshop Album communicates with my printer to ask it what resolution it can handle and my printer does not respond correctly. In that case the application barfs and sends a low resolution image to the printer. I went back and forth with Adobe on this for weeks and they were insistent (but helpful) that the cause was my printer driver. My determination was that there was a bug in Photoshop Album 1.0. There is v2 now that has an even cleaner interface so makes sure you go with that one.
Side note - if your printouts look grainy then you may have bought some cheap photo paper. There is a real difference, believe it or not, between the "good stuff" and the "cheap stuff."
So now you can get pictures from your camera to your PC and then categorize and retouch them. In the near future I will discuss "things that can go horribly wrong."
Don't worry - you'll survive.
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