Posted: 3/30/2008 6:11:56 AM EDT
| I've got 1k's of pictures spread across 3 hard drives. Is there any good software that I can use to catalog and move/store/archive all my pictures? |
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Do they have duplicate file names for different pictures? Some software allows you to batch rename gobs of files at a time. This is a lifesaver for those situations where you need to mix up images taken with different cameras, or when the file counter starts over. I use a piece of software called ThumbsPlus Pro. It is a powerful conversion/cropping/resizing tool, does a great job of helping you preview, tag, and compare images, and supports a number of great batch functions, including rename. It isn't Photoshop though, so don't expect a full palatte of image editing tools. It isn't free, but I couldn't get along without it. They offer a 30-day trial if you want to try it. Did I mention it's fast? It will prefetch the next image when you are reviewing in slide show mode, so while you are looking at an image, your next one is already being queued. |
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I use Adobe Lightroom it's great. It's a catalog as well as you can edit them as well. It's not that expensive, but if you know anyone that is in college they can usually get a copy for about $100.00. It's well worth it though. dbnorton www.nortonstudios.com www.huntingky.net |
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I save them to a USB 2.0 hard drive for use, but I back that up to a NAS computer that has two drives. One is the active drive, where everything is mapped, and the second is the backup drive. Every night I run Microsoft SyncToy on the NAS computer which grabs all the updated/deleted/changed files on the active drive and copies them to the backup drive. Once I spend the time going through all the images, deleting, ordering prints, etc, I burn a DVD and put it in the vault at work (I get a personal drawer), wipe the files from the USB drive and move on to the next bunch. I don't use RAID 1 because I don't want both drives to have the same usage cycles. My NAS computer was a home-build and cost less than $500. No monitor, since I use Remote Desktop to access it. |