Organize your photos

Develop a system for sorting through multitudes of images

06/06/2002

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

Sure, digital cameras make it easy and cheap to save those heavenly images for posterity. But all hell can break loose once those pictures are moved to a computer hard drive.

In discussion lists and newsgroups on digital photography, dozens of horror stories are told and retold.

There is the poor guy who moved 6,000 family pictures into a proprietary photo album format, then found out he couldn't search it for specific photos. Another amateur, Robert E. Williams, pleaded for help on the Internet newsgroup rec.photo.digital after meticulously storing all his photo files inside folders called "Family and Friends," "Pets and Animals" and "Vacation Pics."

"It worked for a while, but now there are so many images in each folder that I had to create subfolders and sub-subfolders – a real pain in the butt," Mr. Williams wrote. "Organizing them for easy retrieval is more of a chore than I thought it would be."

Recent operating systems such as Windows XP and a host of third-party organizing programs – including the multi-faceted iPhoto for the Macintosh – have made organizing digital images easier. But even professionals spend inordinate amounts of time searching through hard drives for lost images.

"They're like dust bunnies," says Dallas professional Jay Brousseau. "You find these weird things laying around on your hard drive all the time. And, if you haven't done things right, you have to open every one of them up to see what's inside."

Developing a system for archiving and retrieval is essential, Mr. Brousseau says.

Triage first

Only about 12 percent of all digital photos are printed, experts say. Users of digital cameras often take far more snapshots than with film-based cameras simply because there's little cost involved.

Most digital cameras come with software that lets users select the images they want to download. Experts say you can eliminate hard drive confusion by being selective in the download process. Don't download what you won't use.

Making the move

Creating directories and subdirectories using computer system tools is a must when downloading images. The "My Pictures" directories, included within Microsoft operating systems since Windows Me, are a good starting spot. They are already set up to display thumbnails of the contents.

Depending on your picture-taking habits, you may find it makes sense to create date-based folders inside My Pictures – Dec2001, Jan2002, etc. For multiple sessions within each month, experts advise creating subfolders with descriptive names – Graduation or Vacation, for instance.

Once a collection has been deposited on the hard drive – and before doing any sizing or manipulation – immediately make a digital negative archive by copying the new contents to a CD-R/RW, experts advise. That way, if you make a mistake during processing, you've got a backup handy.

Renaming files

Digital cameras are not much help in identifying file contents. Users inevitably wind up with a set of downloaded images named IMG2001.jpg, IMG2002.jpg, etc.

Most digital cameras also store additional information within each image in an Exchangeable Image File, or EXIF, tag that is not viewable as part of the image itself. This data, including date and time taken, helps when searching through pictures stored on a hard drive.

Beyond that, many images have to be rotated into the correct position before use. Windows XP allows users to rotate images within My Pictures with a right-click. However, rotating images can create distortion.

High-priced software such as Adobe's Photoshop 7.0 (www.adobe.com, $609) contains elaborate file browsers that allow both Windows and Macintosh users to change file names and view EXIF data without opening each picture in an image editor and without distortion.

But free and low-cost software programs can accomplish the same task. Many can also rename whole batches of pictures with more helpful labels, add descriptive words to tags, then rotate, size and manipulate photos while in thumbnail viewing panes.

Essentially, they can take over My Pictures and add functions that help avoid archiving anarchy.

Some popular Windows-based programs that handle those chores and more include:

• IrFanView (www.irfanview.com) – a freeware program that allows image manipulation and renaming without opening individual images in a viewer.

• ACDSee Classic (www.acdsystems.com) – a $39.95 download that allows users to view thumbnails in more than 30 image formats and create separately stored descriptions for images.

• IMatch3 (www.photools.com) – more advanced software for $49.95 that permits elaborate searches on EXIF data, matching shapes, textures and colors.

• Thumbs Plus (www.cerious.com) – a $79.95 image manipulation program that includes a hopped-up database for cataloguing and searching through thousands of stored images.

Macintosh computer users with OS X are in luck. Just about any organizing task can be handled with the free, do-it-all iPhoto program bundled with the operating system. The latest release – iPhoto 1.1, available at www.apple.com/iphoto – allows users to see hundreds of photos on the screen at once and quickly scroll through thousands. iPhoto also contains simple tools for organizing photos into digital albums.

E-mail dbedell@dallasnews.com