lea murphy <lea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > How are those of you who shoot large numbers of images cataloging and > retrieving them? > > I'm considering using the metadata feature in PS CS but am wondering > if there are better systems out there. > > For example, over the past year I've shot over 11,000 digital images > of my niece. These are organized in folders on my hard drive by > date. Say I want to find a particular image which I shot of her in the > studio, I can use the browser to hunt for it but surely there is a > better way. Is the metadata keyword feature the way to go? I'm open to > using other programs. > > I'd like to hear from those who have this issue...how do you do it? Well, I haven't tried to accomplish this in CS; I adopted my current strategy before CS was released, and I haven't seen reason to change it. I'm using Thumbs Plus from Cerious Software. I file the photos (and name the files) by date and "session" (so that if I do two client jobs, say, on the same day, there's a clear difference in the shot codes!). I attach keywords to the files to make database lookups possible. However, I have nothing remotely like 11,000 images of a single subject. My existing system is grossly inadequate for that -- I don't attach detailed enough keywords, and I *do* attach a name keyword even for shots that aren't the best. I've been thinking about defining for myself some addtional keywords to let me refine the searches somewhat; but right now, what I really have to work with is mostly the date and the subject name. The obvious hole in my scheme is that, while I'm putting IPTC location information in JPG, TIFF, and PSD files, Thumbs Plus doesn't make that information searchable. (It does make IPTC keywords into Thumbs Plus keywords automatically, which I like a lot). So I have no way to sort by location, which is one of the things I'm most likely to remember if I'm looking for a particular photo. I could add the location as a keyword, but I'm hoping Thumbs Plus will fix this for me soon, and then I won't have to go back and rework my whole index. I'll be fascinated if you come up with a system that really lets you find specific photos effectively. -- David Dyer-Bennet, <mailto:dd-b@xxxxxxxx>, <http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/> RKBA: <http://noguns-nomoney.com/> <http://www.dd-b.net/carry/> Pics: <http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/> <http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/> Dragaera/Steven Brust: <http://dragaera.info/>
