Programs for organizing photographs. The best free programs to organize your photo collection Sort photos on your computer by date
The beginning of autumn is the time to sort through summer photographs, and at the same time organize your family photo archive. For many years, millions of users have used demons to do this. paid program Picasa. But this year you may have to reconsider your habits - as of May 1, Picasa will no longer be downloadable. The popular program suffered the same fate as Google Reader and is now no longer supported. You can only work with Picasa if you have downloaded it previously, but please note that no further updates will be released for it.
It would seem like nothing, but there are enough programs for organizing photos on the market, both paid and free. But despite the huge selection of applications for working with images, finding a full-fledged replacement for Picasa is not so easy. Mainly because, for all its simplicity, this program was multifunctional: with its help you could organize photos into albums, select pictures according to various criteria, perform basic editing operations, and quickly upload albums to the cloud.
Let's not forget that Picasa was a free solution, which means commercial programs should not be considered as an alternative. We also intentionally do not include in this review programs whose main function is to view images. Our goal is to find solutions that allow you to organize large collections of images and upload photos to the Internet.
⇡ Google Photos is the successor to Picasa
For creating backup copy You can hardly find a better solution for a photo archive in the cloud than Picasa's successor, Google Photos.
First, all web albums downloaded using Picasa are automatically transferred to new service from Google. Secondly, as in the case of Picasa, users of the new service receive unlimited storage space for photos whose size does not exceed 16 megapixels. For most people who use their smartphones to shoot, this means they can download their entire photo archive for free, as the number of smartphones with more quality cameras not so large (even the iPhone 6s has a 12-megapixel camera, but Samsung Galaxy S6 - 16-megapixel).
To upload photos to the cloud from your computer, you need to use the Google Photo Backup application. Like Picasa, it allows you to automatically download all photos from memory cards, desktop and standard Windows folders for storing pictures. In addition, you can add any number of additional folders in which photos are stored.
When automatically copying photos to the cloud from memory cards, you can also choose a folder in which to save a local copy of the images. Google Photos Backup can download images at their original resolution or automatically compress them. RAW files are supported, but loading is disabled by default (this can be changed in the settings).
If everything is more or less clear with uploading images online, then many other Picasa functions have not migrated to Google Photos. The online service has rather modest image editing capabilities (and, frankly, the editor interface leaves much to be desired); there are no tags, captions, or comments on photographs that are familiar to Picasa users. So if you've been using Picasa not only as a tool for uploading photos online, but also as a cataloger and editor, it's worth looking for a desktop application with the functionality you need in addition to Google Photos.
⇡ BonAView 1.9.0
- Developer: High Motion Software
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: yes
BonAView is not the most famous program for working with photo archives, but it is undeservedly ignored. In terms of functionality, it is close to Picasa, and in some ways it even surpasses the recently closed program.
Viewing images is possible by catalogs, by albums, or in the Timeline mode so beloved by Picasa users, when photos are automatically organized by the program by time they were taken.
You can use ratings to sort images and create custom albums. BonAView is suitable for working with photo collections of any size, as it supports an unlimited number of albums (including any number of subalbums). The number of photos in each album is also not limited.
You can use filters to sort images. They help to display only photos related to a particular album, having a specific name or a given rating.
Viewing photos is possible in two modes: in the form of thumbnails, the size of which can be easily controlled using a special slider, and in 3D view. The second mode allows you to work with a “carousel” of images, rotating and even editing them as you view them.
By the way, about editing. There are many functions for improving photos in BonAView. There are options for adjusting color reproduction, correcting levels and removing red eyes, tools for automatic settings, tools for sharpening and blurring, about a dozen effects (sepia, negative, shadow, etc.), a good set of frames for different occasions. It is interesting that, as in “large” photo editors, it is possible to apply editing tools not to the entire image, but to part of it, having previously selected the required fragment.
It is also worth paying attention to interesting feature to create visual annotations. Using it, you can add various graphic elements and text.
Let's also mention the excellent built-in search engine. BonAView can search for photos by specified folders, by user albums, by certain properties (size, resolution or file type, date last change, rating).
To quickly select photos stored in different folders and albums, it is convenient to use the ImageBoard tool (analogous to Photo Tray in Picasa). Once photos are placed in ImageBoard, you can add them to albums and perform other operations as a group. But there are no full-fledged tools for batch processing in BonAView - for this, the same developer offers a separate program ImBatch.
Unfortunately, BonAView does not include any means for sharing photos with other people. Perhaps this is due to the fact that latest version The program dates back to 2013, when social functions were not as in demand as they are now. However, BonAView can be used in conjunction with Google Photo Backup.
⇡ JetPhoto Studio 4.15
- Developer: Atomix Technologies Limited
- Operating system: Windows/Mac
- Distribution: free for non-commercial use (Pro version available)
- Russian interface: no
JetPhoto Studio combines the capabilities of a cataloger, viewer, graphic editor, and also contains tools for publishing photo albums on the Internet.
To start working with the program, you need to create an album. Then photos from different sources are added to the album (from a memory card, from local folders, from a webcam, etc.). By sorting images in the album, the user can mark them with an asterisk, add keywords and notes (that is, a text description of the photo). It is also possible to edit information in EXIF. All this data can be used when searching for the desired images. And pictures marked with a star can be quickly selected. It is convenient to use a calendar to search for photos. Simply click on the desired date and only photos taken on that day will be shown.
In addition to the usual mode for viewing photos in the form of thumbnails for such applications, JetPhoto Studio offers an interesting feature of displaying images on a map. The program perfectly understands geotags and makes it possible to assign them either manually or based on the downloaded GPS track. It also provides integration with Google Earth, the creation of files KML and KMZ. If information about where the photo was taken is not automatically available, you can easily add it by simply pointing to the location on the map. This can also be done for a group of photographs, having previously selected them.
JetPhoto Studio offers many of the most different ways convenient viewing of images. For example, based on selected photos, you can create wallpaper, flash gallery, screen saver, slide show, web gallery in one of several formats.
But the image editing capabilities are more than modest. There are only a couple of the most simple effects, tools for basic image correction and cropping.
Like Picasa, this program allows you not only to work with photos locally, but also to publish them on the Internet. There are two main ways to do this: using the Flickr service and the JetPhoto Server. The second method involves creating your own website with web albums based on the proposed templates. The user needs to purchase hosting, deploy JetPhoto Server on it, and then upload web albums from the program to the site. Agree that for most this is too complicated and expensive (especially since we are looking for an alternative to Picasa, which means free solutions).
But integration with Flickr is very interesting, because on this photo hosting you can store photos with a total volume of up to 1 terabyte. In order to be able to upload your photos to Flickr, you need to authorize JetPhoto Studio to access account. After that, you can upload both entire albums and selected photos. In this case, you can upload originals or compress images to a specified size, manage privacy settings, and add geotags. Keywords and notes added to photos in JetPhoto Studio will also be transferred to Flickr. For the convenience of users, the amount of available free space is shown before each download.
Among the shortcomings of JetPhoto Studio, it is worth noting a not very responsive interface. The program often freezes when performing certain operations, and importing photos with default settings generally paralyzes the computer. True, if you switch to import in background, you can work with other applications. In an age when even many web applications can simultaneously load data and perfectly respond to any user actions, this looks like an archaism. However, JetPhoto Studio is in a sense a relic of the past, because the latest version of the program dates back to 2013.
⇡ WindowsPhotoGallery ("Photo Album") 2012
- Developer: Microsoft
- Operating system: Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: yes
Some may consider Microsoft's application not the best alternative to Google's product, but Windows Photo Gallery is very close in functionality to Picasa. The application can be downloaded for free as part of Windows package Essentials Windows components"). In addition to the component we are interested in, the package also includes a blog editor, a mail application, OneDrive and a program for working with video files. During installation, you can select only those applications that should be installed.
Immediately after launch, Photo Gallery picks up all the photos stored in the image library (by default, these are the My Pictures and Public Pictures folders). To add other images, you just need to show the program where they are stored by changing the library settings.
If you need to overwrite photos from a memory card, just connect the drive - the program will immediately offer to import pictures.
In the Photo Gallery window, photos are sorted by the time they were taken. In this case, as in Picasa, there may be photos stored in different folders nearby. Their location on the disks does not matter. If you wish, you can choose one of many other sorting options: by folders, by ratings, by drive types, by people depicted in photographs, by title, by geotags. The appearance of the application workspace is flexibly customizable: you can enable the display of additional information about the file, rating, signatures, quickly change the sort order, etc.
A variety of tools are offered for organizing images: ratings, flags, captions, text tags, geotags, information about the people present in the photographs. It is convenient to use the sidebar to add different types of tags. As the user works in the program, a database of tags is compiled, and later one can quickly find photographs tagged with a certain keyword, or those in which the desired people are present. Interestingly, Photo Gallery can help with identifying people: the program itself finds the heroes of photographs and offers to indicate who they are.
All photo information added to the Photo Gallery can later be used in searches. For example, you can search for pictures taken in certain months and tagged with a particular tag. The AND and OR operators are used to define search criteria. The search criteria can also be the type of file (video, photo, Raw file) and whether it was published on the Internet.
Photo Gallery allows you to send photos and video files by mail, as well as upload them to various online services: Flickr, OneDrive, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo. Images can be compressed to the desired size before downloading. In addition to sending them to the Internet, photos can be used to create panoramas, collages, and videos (in the Movie Maker application).
Photo Gallery also offers some image editing tools. There are several filters with a convenient preview function, tools for color correction and noise removal, exposure settings and photo alignment. In addition, directly from the program you can rename files, change resolution, and edit information about the shooting date. Conveniently, all changes made can be canceled by pressing one button.
Unfortunately, support for Photo Gallery for Windows 7 will soon be discontinued. This is because Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 have a built-in Photos app for viewing, organizing, and sharing photos online. This application allows you to view photos in different modes: by albums, by folders or by date. Photos is integrated with OneDrive, and all the photos that the user interacts with in the application can be uploaded to the cloud. Albums are created automatically based on the best images or manually by the user. However, in terms of functionality, Photos is inferior to Photo Gallery (as well as Google Photos is inferior to Picasa - simplification is now in vogue).
⇡ Zoner Photo Studio Free 18
- Developer: Zoner, Inc.
- Operating system: Windows
- Distribution: free
- Russian interface: yes
We deliberately placed Zoner Photo Studio at the end of the review, leaving this app for dessert. Despite the fact that the program is the little brother of the professional version of Zoner Photo Studio, it has all the modern important functions for organizing your photo archive, as well as free uploading to your own photo hosting. It differs from the paid version of Zoner Photo Studio Free in that it lacks advanced image editing tools: masks, filters, gradients, selection tools, noise removal, adding frames, perspective correction, working with HDR, and screen capture tools. , batch processing, creating video slideshows. However, the list of what the program has is much longer than the list of missing options.
Zoner Photo Studio Free can work both as a simple tool for viewing photos stored on disk or on any media, and as a cataloger. In order to create a database of photographs, you need to import them into the program from any folder, from a memory card, etc. Photos stored in the database can be displayed as a calendar, by folders or by keywords. There are a lot of viewing modes: from one in which the main part of the window is occupied by one image, to “tiles” (with the ability to flexibly adjust the size of thumbnails). You can also display multiple photos side by side and view geotagged photos on a map.
Image sorting is also great: photos can be sorted by title, rating, date created or last modified. There are also a huge number of advanced criteria that involve all EXIF data. In addition, the program can separately show RAW images and JPEG, giving preference to either the first or the second.
To the right of the viewing area there is an information panel where you can easily edit all the data about the photo. So, it is possible to set a color label, add a rating, title, description, keywords, and change EXIF information.
Zoner Photo Studio Free does not work with third parties cloud services, however, it offers unlimited photo storage space on its own photo hosting site, Zonerama. After creating an account and gallery, a Zonerama item appears in the navigation bar with two folders: “Public Albums” and “Hidden Albums.” It's easy to guess that all photos sent to the first folder become publicly available, and pictures uploaded to the second folder can only be viewed by the owner. To upload photos, simply select them and drag them to the desired album with the mouse.
Although the editing capabilities are limited compared to the professional version of Zoner Photo Studio, the range of editing options is quite impressive for a free program. You can not only change the image resolution and canvas size, but also add text, place one image on top of another, add some effects, perform color correction, improve sharpness, work with shutter speed and white balance.
⇡ Conclusion
In general, as our little research has shown, most free programs that can be considered as a worthy alternative to Picasa have one general disadvantage: They are quite old. Therefore, you still need to think about whether it’s worth switching to an unfamiliar solution or staying with the abandoned, but still working Picasa for some time. The only program that stands out from the rest in that it is actively developing and looks modern is Zoner Photo Studio Free. She, apparently, can be recommended as the best replacement for Picasa.
Free programs for photo collection | Picasa
Picasa, a popular tool from Google, is a convenient free program that will suit the needs of most users. We have a wide range of tools for organizing photo collections and basic image processing tools. The user has the option to sort photos into folders on the computer or create virtual albums to distribute photos within Picasa. A set of tags and geotags allows you to distribute images by the place where they were taken, or by the names of the people depicted on them. Basic editing tools include cropping, scaling, rotating, and red-eye reduction—everything you need to clean up your photos. You can apply various filters and indulge in other fun tricks.
Free software for photo collection | Zoner Photo Studio Free
This program is probably not as organized for organization as Picasa, but at the same time Zoner Photo Studio Free will appeal to those who like to edit photos. This is not just a tool for putting things in order in the archive - it is a full-fledged set of numerous tools for photo editing. The set includes a wide range of retouching and editing tools, quick filters and much more. Zoner Photo Studio includes everything necessary tools to create various photo projects - from panoramas to calendars.
Free software for photo collection | StudioLine Photo Basic 3
StudioLine Photo Basic 3 allows you to sort your photo collection and slightly edit pictures. Photo enhancements include cropping, rotating, scaling, and red-eye correction, among others. From an organization point of view, Photo Basic 3 allows the user to apply tags and geotags, as well as descriptions to images located in a directory, which can be organized into folders. Slideshow and online gallery tools make it easy to publish or share your photos with others.
Free software for photo collection | JetPhoto Studio 5
JetPhoto Studio 5 offers most of the photo editing and storage tools users need: organizing an album, using tags and geotags, but the main advantage of the solution is its advanced photo publishing capabilities. Numerous options include the ability to publish images to Flickr and your own JetPhoto Server, as well as creating a Google Map gallery of geotagged photos. You can even quickly create Flash galleries and slideshows for web design projects, and view images through Flash player and browser.
Free software for photo collection | XnViewMP
XnViewMP is a free tool for quickly viewing images that supports over 500 formats. With its help, you can sort common .jpg or .png files, as well as explore rare formats. XnViewMP is perfect for such tasks. It will not be able to quickly sort files in automatic mode(like Picasa), but XnViewMP has editing tools to change image metadata and tags in batch mode to quickly apply tags to entire image arrays.
Free programs for photo collection | FastStone Image Viewer
FastStone Image Viewer– a convenient image viewing tool with functions for editing and organizing photos. FastStone has a wide range of basic image processing tools, supports label creation, EXIF data viewing, and other annotation and sorting capabilities. Despite the fact that FastStone does not have the ability to upload photos to social networks or cloud storage, this is an excellent tool for viewing, editing and organizing your photo archive if you store it on one computer.
Free programs for photo collection | MAGIX Photo Manager 12
MAGIX Photo Manager 12 is the latest version of the MAGIX Photo Manager software line, combining many functions for organizing, editing and publishing images. Using organization tools, you can categorize pictures and sort them by file name, creation date, or topic tags. MAGIX includes a number of image editing functions. Free version does not support functions such as editing panoramas and automatically sorting images, but, in general, MAGIX Photo Manager 12 copes well with its tasks.
Free programs for photo collection | Phototheca
Phototheca is a free photo organization tool that bypasses complex editing features and instead focuses on getting your photo collection in order. By importing photos into the Phototheca database, they can be automatically sorted by events (for example, if the photos were taken on the same day or are stored in the same folder), placing them on a timeline. You can then tag your images, assign them to other events, or sort them into your own albums. In addition, the Smart Album feature allows you to create dynamically updated collections based on selected criteria, such as camera type, creation date or tag.
Free programs for photo collection | DigiKam
DigiKam– an open platform for organizing photos, ported to Windows and offering a wide selection functionality. Collections of images can be sorted into folders, albums, tags; Thus, DigiKam is a fairly flexible tool that takes into account your preferences when organizing a photo collection. Metadata, including comments, ratings, and other criteria, can be viewed, edited, and stored in an SQLite database or used in files. Support for tables and RAW format greatly simplifies the process of comparing photos, and available as plugins additional features significantly expand the functionality of this instrument. Among the disadvantages of the solution is that this application is still in development and cannot boast of stable operation on Windows.
Sorting photos based on the similarity of images on them. The application will sort all photos with the same meaning into separate folders, which will assign their 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 outputting the result;
Search by photo fragment. This function resembles searching for a whole image. But here the program will look for matches with the selected area in the test photo. All photos that have a similar fragment will be found. This search is useful if you need, for example, to find all photos of one person. Select a face, click find, Sortirovchik will do the rest for you;
Create a photo similarity report. A function similar in meaning to searching by fragment, but with the difference that the found images will not be copied to a separate folder.
The photo sorting program will show statistics in the form of the number of matches, file names, color 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.
Despite the fact that the eLiteSort program is paid, it can also be used in free mode on an ongoing basis. Namely, 2000 files for sorting at once and 50 files for sorting every day. Such restrictions will not limit most users. Use it with pleasure.
I’ll tell you my story, I had several cameras, even more memory cards for these cameras, several people who took pictures with these cameras, several computers onto which pictures from these cameras were transferred. As a result, a situation arose where each computer had its own collections of photographs, i.e. some were common with other computers, some were unique, and scattered in folders with incomprehensible names like "101MSCD", DCIM, etc. " new folder"that is, when there are a lot of them, a natural desire arises to “tidy up.” You can also add cases when photos are thrown off the camera’s memory card, but the card is not cleaned, or only part of the photo is thrown off. All this leads to the fact that as a result you you see duplicate photos, but don’t remember where the originals are, etc., etc. It becomes difficult to navigate the collection, let alone make a coherent whole, taking into account the contents of folders on different computers.
My eLiteSort program will help solve this labor-intensive task for a person (when the number of photographs is more than one thousand), a small digression - the lite prefix only speaks of the ease of use of the program and its logic, Deluxe version, etc. no, maybe someday this will happen, but for now, eLiteSort’s capabilities are enough for me. I must say that I tried to make the program interface in such a way that this instruction did not have to be read.
Program features
This is actually the sorting of photographs and video files captured on a camera. Video files shot on a camera usually contain information about the image in the form of a (.THM) file, this file makes it possible to correctly judge the date of the video, but usually video files (not from a camera) do not contain information about the shooting date, so it is impossible to reliably sort such files .
To properly sort photos and videos, it is required that the time and date on the camera be set correctly, I think there is no need to explain why.
For ideological reasons, the program does not contain the ability to configure a new file name (photo or video), because This change makes it more difficult to find duplicates, and to find a file in general. Therefore, all files retain the original name, it changes only if the user wants to save two in one folder different files with the same name.
In the program, you can add events, both periodic and for a specific date; in this case, a photo or video file taken on the date of the event will go into a subfolder with the name of the event.
It should also be said that the program has the ability to independently set folder names and the depth of the path where the video or photo will be located.
Sorting photos
Sorting photos is the main purpose of the program and is done very simply and transparently for the user. When you first start the program, we indicate the folder (top line of the program) where we will put the sorting result. Next, drag the folder in which we want to sort the photos into the main field of the program. The program will automatically select the file types suitable for sorting. All that remains is to click the process button and wait for the result of the work to complete. All! - photos are sorted.
Video sorting
The video sorting process is identical to the photo sorting process, the only difference that is not noticeable to the user is that files with the .thm extension (contain information about the video) are not visible to the user.
Video instructions for sorting video and photo files
This process is completely identical for both video and photos. Therefore, the second video is more of a demonstration character.
Sorting photos
Program settings Adding an event
Adding an event
The need to add an event may arise if you want to create a separate folder for some photos, for example, such holidays as a birthday, wedding, February 23, New Year and other dates. Adding an event itself is a very simple procedure - to do this, click the “add event” button, select a date, decide to check the “frequency” box or not, in the case of a birthday you can check the box, but on a wedding day you don’t need to check the box, although this is whom as. Editing an event - double click on the event, save the adjustment. Deleting an event - select the desired event and press the delete key.
Setting up your photo folder structure
The structure is configured in the photo hierarchy block of the program settings. The number of lines in the main field is equal to the number of resulting folders, counting from the top. By default, the program has two lines in this field:
- $YYYY year
- $MM_$month
List of placeholders:
- $YYYY - Four-digit year, for example 2011
- $YY - Two-digit year, for example 11
- $MM - Two-digit date month, for example 09
- $M - Month, without zero padding, for example 9
- $Month - Name of the month with a capital letter, for example October
- $MONTH - Name of the month, all capital letters, for example NOVEMBER
- $month - Name of the month, all letters are small, for example July
- $DD - Two-digit day of the date, for example 09
- $D - Day of the date, without padding with zero, for example 9
Other program settings
The program interface language can also be changed in the settings; for the changes to take effect, you need to close the program and start it again.
Video files in a separate folder - when this checkbox is selected, all video files transferred to the program for sorting will be placed in the specified subfolder, inside the main path. Those. the entire hierarchy will be created in the specified directory. By default, the video directory is selected, and this solution, in our opinion, is preferable. Although there are users who put video files captured on a camera in the same place where they put photographs. This option also has the right to life, and is not something bad.
Smart sorting in the absence of EXIF information - when this checkbox is selected, if there is no information about the date of creation of the photo or video, the date will be taken from the file attributes, and the smallest date will be taken, usually it is also the date of creation of the photo or video. If this checkbox is not checked, photos and videos that do not contain EXIF will be stored in the folder specified below.
Registration and payment for the program
Purchasing a program through the website website
Purchasing the program through the website is quite transparent. The buyer goes to the program purchase page, enters his name and email, after which he is redirected to the payment acceptance service. Which in turn offers a payment option. After the program is paid for, payment system informs the server about the success of the payment and transmits information about the paid invoice. And on the website, the buyer is given activation details, which he must enter in the program in the activation section.
Purchasing through the program interface
Purchasing a program through the interface differs from purchasing through the website only in that as a result you receive an activation key that is only suitable for the computer from which the payment was initiated, and in the paragraph above you receive an invoice + email, which is suitable for activation later on any computer on which activation will occur. This does not matter for registration, and two methods are used to provide payment alternatives. Those. You can choose any of the options.
Manual payment
Payment in manual mode comes down to the fact that the buyer transfers the required amount to one of the wallets indicated on the website, and notifies the author of the program with any of available ways. Manual mode payment is not automatic. When the required funds are transferred to the specified wallet, I receive a notification about the transferred funds, after which I send the registration data to the buyer that he provided in the notification.
Activation of the program
The user's activation data can be of two types. The first type is the key, the second type is the account number and email of the buyer. The key is provided for a specific computer, account + email for activation on any computer, but after activation this number accounts and email are associated with the computer on which the program was activated. Thus, any of these two types of registration data provide the ability to activate only on one computer. After reinstalling the system, activation keys usually continue to work. The key may stop working after changing to computer hard disk, network card or motherboard. When you change the unique id of your computer, you can contact the author of the program for help in re-activating the program. But since some unscrupulous users try to activate several computers in this way, the author of the program reserves the right to refuse activation if the new id received, in our opinion, is not a derivative of the old one. Activating the program itself is quite simple - you need to go to the appropriate section in the program and enter the received registration data.
Trial mode restrictions
By default, the program is installed in trial mode, which allows you to understand the capabilities of the program, as well as use it in a limited mode. During the first installation of the program, the program provides the ability to sort 2000 files without any restrictions. After completing the main free quantity, it remains possible to sort no more than 50 files every day. Those. in fact, the program continues to work, but in a limited mode. To operate the program in trial mode, an Internet connection is required. After purchase, there is no need to connect to the Internet.
Technical support The program operates for one year from the date of purchase.
An unbridled desire to photograph anything and everything is common to any owner of a digital camera. Therefore, on the computers of the vast majority of users (who among modern users does not take photographs?) quite quickly accumulates an unimaginable number of pictures, which are often located in randomly named folders and have nothing meaningful names. Finding the right photo in such gigabyte photo jungles is quite difficult, because it is unrealistic to look through the entire photo archive every time. As a result, unique photographs that captured some memorable moments of life will most likely be lost among a host of other images.
However, providing quick and convenient access to specific photos is not so difficult. To do this, you will need to think carefully about the system for storing images in your photo archive and involve specialized software tools.
Storing pictures on a computer
The first thing you should clearly understand is that storing all your pictures in a digital camera is not the most convenient and, of course, not the most reliable way. It is better to download photos to your computer after each photo shoot, and do this as soon as possible - while the memories of the events are still fresh in your memory. After this, it is wise to immediately get rid of bad shots - blurry photos, dimly lit photos, out of focus photos, etc. Of course, some of them can be improved by certain software tools, but if the same images are available best quality It’s clearly not worth spending time correcting shooting defects.
Of course, when importing photos to your computer, it is better to dump them not into randomly created folders - otherwise, in the future you will spend a lot of time searching for the necessary pictures. You should develop some kind of hierarchical system for storing images (taking into account the nuances of a possible search), and then save the images in accordance with your own system of rules.
There are many options for organizing image storage in a photo archive. Most often, when distributing pictures into folders, they are guided by the calendar-geographical principle (in this case, the date and place appear in the folder name - for example, 2011_05_27_Crete) or they divide the pictures into folders, taking into account the events at which they were taken (for example, 2011_07_31_Birthday) - Fig. . 1. You can also take into account the subject of the pictures (landscapes, animals, flowers, etc.), etc. in the system. In general, each user will have his own version of the hierarchy in the photo archive, which depends on the significance of certain criteria for him.
Rice. 1. Possible option
photo archive folder structures
In addition, it may be useful for searching if you tag photographs with keywords (family, vacation, corporate event, etc.), thereby combining them into virtual thematic collections. This will allow you to quickly identify (by filtering or otherwise - depending on what software tool will be used to solve this problem) images taking into account the keywords of interest. It's quicker to assign such keywords while importing images from the camera, although you can do this later, after saving the photos to disk. Unfortunately, in any case, the initial process of assigning keywords will require some time and effort, although modern software 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 thoughtfully - with an eye to the expected needs and, relying on the software tools that will be used to manage the photo archive.
As for file names, not everything is clear here. It is advisable to use descriptive file names that can easily be used to identify what kind of image it is, since it is completely unrealistic to guess from the view name DSC_0705 that this is, say, a photo 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 include the date (possibly only the year and month) and frame number in the image name - 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 photo - 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 during the process of importing files or immediately after loading them into a photo archive.
Rice. 2. Batch renaming files
When developing an option for hierarchical separation of photographs, you should be guided by two important principles. Firstly, if possible, place photographs of the same type together - this will simplify orientation in the future. Secondly, each image should be added to the archive in a single copy, otherwise the volume of the archive will noticeably increase, and difficulties will also 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 from the point of view of the intended backup) to store your photo archive on a separate disk or in its separate section (ideally on a separate external drive), where no other information will be saved.
Snapshot management
After setting up a hierarchical system for storing images on disk, you can manage your photo archive using a variety of software tools. The simplest and most accessible way is to use Windows 7 libraries. Libraries, in essence, are virtual folders, which combine files regardless of their physical location. This makes it easier to find, use, and organize files on your computer or on the network. By default, Libraries are designed to help you manage your documents, music, pictures, and videos more efficiently, although you can use them to organize other files if you like. Viewing files in libraries is carried out in the same way as in ordinary folders.
In the case of working with your own photo archive, it makes sense to create a library specially designed for this, give 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 different 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 arrange files by properties (for example, by date, type, etc.), sort and group them according to a number of parameters, including keywords (Fig. 4).
Rice. 3. Defining a 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 graphics viewer you like, which has minimal functionality for organizing photo collections - as a rule, support for categories, tags and ratings (similar features are provided in many solutions of this kind). Which decision to choose is a matter of taste and wallet, since on the market you can find both recognized commercial products and quite worthy alternatives. free apps. As an example, let's name the paid program ACDSee, well-known to most users, and the free cross-platform viewer XnView, which is gaining popularity. Both named software products are designed to view, organize and easily edit images.
Working with images in these solutions is easy and convenient, as the developers have provided different options for viewing images, included simple tools for performing basic editing operations, thought out functionality for convenient image sharing, etc. As for organizing a photo archive and getting quick access to images of interest, the possibilities here are, of course, more impressive than in the Windows 7 libraries (that’s why specialized software!). Thus, rating images allows you to assign each image a certain value in terms of its value (for example, quality), so that in the future you can quickly find the most popular original images. The use of color marks also simplifies organization - with such marks, for example, you can mark images at different stages of the workflow (in some colors - original images, in others - images after correction, in others - images selected for printing, etc.) - Fig. . 5. No less convenient is the use of categories, thanks to which you can instantly find images belonging to a specific category or even several at once (Fig. 6).
Rice. 5. Use custom color markers to highlight photos
in ACDSee
Rice. 6. Quickly access images from two categories at once in XnView
As a rule, even more convenient option Photo archive management is provided by photo organizers, which are designed to organize and sort digital photographs. Therefore, it is not surprising that these products have more advanced capabilities for organizing photo collections and quickly searching for images in them. There are many similar solutions 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 have at their disposal 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 - just place each photo immediately in its designated logical catalog category (Fig. 7) or first in shared storage, and then assign categories to the images (often with the ability to highlight different categories with icons), ratings and tags, and also assign keywords (this will determine whether the images belong 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 disk to the PicaJet category
Rice. 8. Assigning keywords in Zoner Photo Studio
All this will allow you to quickly find the photos you need in the future by searching, filtering, sorting and grouping. Of particular note is the ability to take into account keywords when searching and filtering, 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 easily find in the depths hard drives all pictures with a sunset on the river, a son on a bicycle, temples during restoration, blossoming apple trees, etc., even if you took photographs of such objects along the way, repeatedly 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-day demo - http://www.acdsee.com/en/free-trials)
Price:$29.99
ACDSee is a world-famous graphics viewer (Fig. 10), aimed at both professionals and home users. Includes tools for quickly and conveniently viewing files in a wide variety of 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, searching for duplicates, online image sharing, etc.
Rice. 10. Working with images in ACDSee
Cataloging in ACDSee is based on the use of categories, ratings and multi-colored labels. Categories are created manually (there is a predefined list of base categories) and can be nested; For better orientation, categories are highlighted with different icons. The ratings in this program are basic, but the tags can be edited, which allows you to separate 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. Imported into categories are images from the most different devices: hard drive, CDs, digital cameras, flash drives, scanners, etc. Batch renaming of files is supported. 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 appear as thumbnails, full screen, or as a slideshow; If necessary, individual fragments of the image can be easily viewed in enlarged form using a magnifying glass. It's easy to quickly access the photos you need by sorting, grouping, and filtering based on image size, date, rating, tags, EXIF data, categories, and keywords.
The editing panel built into the program, in addition to supporting basic operations (rotation, cropping, etc.), will help correct the exposure of the image, adjust levels and curves, perform color correction, get rid of red-eye and noise, and also apply standard filters to the image. These operations can be performed not only on single images, but also on several images at once in batch mode. Tools are provided for comparing images and converting them to other raster formats. In addition, ACDSee allows you to burn pictures to CD/DVDs, combine them into slideshows, PDF files and web albums, and easily share images by uploading them to social media, to FTP servers, etc.
Zoner Photo Studio 14
Developer: Zoner Software
Sizedistribution: 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; two other editions - shareware, 30-day demo version (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 recent product on the market, but already a well-proven program for managing and editing photographs and organizing shared access to them (Fig. 11). The capabilities of this solution are impressive; many functions were 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 ones - Zoner Photo Studio Home and Zoner Photo Studio Pro. The capabilities of the free edition are limited to basic functionality. In addition, this edition does not have a 64-bit version and does not support GPU acceleration or dual-monitor operation.
Rice. 11. Organizing a photo collection in Zoner Photo Studio
Zoner Photo Studio allows you to create a photo archive in the form of 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 your photo archive directly from devices (from camera memory cards, scanners, etc.), as well as by obtaining images from websites, PDF files, etc. When viewing images, they are displayed in the form of icons or thumbnails; to speed up access to the 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, tags and GPS coordinates (the latter are entered manually or read from Google maps). It is possible to batch rename files using a template.
The editing capabilities are also impressive and will interest both beginners and advanced users. The former may be limited to basic functions (rotation, cropping, alignment, automatic image enhancement), while the latter will be interested in using advanced editing functions such as adjusting levels, editing colors, improving exposure, reducing noise, 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. It's easy to combine your favorite photos into a PDF slideshow or convert them into a postcard, and even create 3D and HDR images. As for publishing, it is worth noting the creation of web galleries, recording DVD presentations, printing (using templates and photo calendars), sending e-mail, 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-day demo version (http://www.picajet.com/ru/index.php?page=download)
Price: PicaJet FX - 490 rub.
PicaJet is a convenient and very easy-to-use program for cataloging image collections (Fig. 12). It is presented in two editions: free PicaJet Free and commercial PicaJet FX. The free edition includes only a basic set of functions - in particular, the creation of categories is not provided, the sorting and search capabilities 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 necessary set of functions for effectively organizing photo archives, and it may well suit most home users.
Rice. 12. Managing your photo collection in PicaJet
To organize a photo archive, PicaJet uses categories that are created automatically when adding 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 the collection from a digital camera, scanner, webcam, CD/DVD discs and hard drive folders. To speed up the process of including images in the photo archive, you can use hot keys; You can also quickly import images from Explorer by dragging and dropping. In order to better identify categories, they can be assigned a variety of icons. Categories are assigned during import or manually by simply 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 when viewing them as a slideshow.
The editing plan includes operations such as cropping and rotation, red-eye removal, sharpness adjustment, auto-correction, etc. Supports quick correction of several images with one click, as well as resizing them and converting them to another graphic format"on the fly". You can print photos in popular formats (including 9x13, 13x18, 10x15), as well as edit metadata (EXIF and IPTC). As for sharing, it is worth noting the presence of functionality for creating photo galleries for publication on a website, burning photo collections to CDs, sending photos to 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: for free
Picasa is a popular tool for organizing, viewing and simply editing photos (Fig. 13), which has gained fame in no small part due to its close 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 the developers implemented images is not very successful, in our opinion. In addition, the application is quite resource-intensive and comes with a very mediocre help system.
Rice. 13. Organizing a photo archive in Picasa
Picasa uses albums to catalog images; nested albums cannot be created. Albums are filled manually, by sorting out images found after scanning or importing, which takes a lot of time from the user. Scanning hard drives starts when you first start the program, and by default all drives are scanned. hard disks computer, which is quite a long time - it is better to interrupt this process, manually correct the list of scanned directories through the folder manager and restart the scan. Photos from hard drives are added to photo collections automatically as scanning progresses, and you can add photos manually 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, 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 - the faces in all the pictures are automatically recognized, and then the user needs to specify the faces of interest in the pictures to create the corresponding albums. When viewing images, they are displayed in the normal mode or as a slideshow, taking into account the specified sorting option (by name, date, etc.). To speed up access to the desired pictures, you can mark your favorite photos with tags, as well as use tags - they resemble keywords and make it easy to find photos later through the built-in search. You can also specify geographic data to link images to Google map Earth.
Built-in editing tools allow you to resize photos, rotate them, crop them, and perform a number of image correction operations (removing red-eye, alignment, adjusting contrast and color balance, etc.). In addition, it is possible to rename several 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 of the selected pictures, burn the pictures to a CD, create a video by combining photos into a slideshow, or publish 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 (on this moment- more than 500). The program allows you to easily view, process and convert image files, and is equipped with a number of additional features, including the presence 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. Assigning 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 a disk, as well as from scanners and digital cameras. In addition to category support, you can assign ratings, color labels, and tags to your many photos to make it easier to navigate. When viewing photos, it is allowed to include sorting by date, rating, format, width/height, orientation, description, comment, etc.; You can view selected pictures in slideshow mode. A built-in search is also implemented in the program, taking into account the basic parameters of images, including EXIF and IPTC data. You can batch convert and batch rename files.
The utility is equipped with a basic set of image editing functions (including resizing, rotation, cropping), allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, gamma and color balance, has tools for automatically adjusting levels, removing red-eye, applying simple filters and effects, etc. Many operations can be applied to a group of images at once in batch mode. IPTC data can be edited. 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, however, for all users, searching for the right pictures in the archive takes a lot of time. The only way to speed it up can be proper organization photo collections, which implies a well-thought-out system of catalogs in the archive and the use of specialized software tools.
Each user chooses the hierarchical system himself, based on the subject of the images and his own priorities - the main thing here is that you are 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 program or one of the reviewed photo organizers, among which we found the Zoner Photo Studio program to be the most convenient for cataloging.