----- Original Message ----- From: "lea murphy" : 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 suggest using the filesystem hierarchy, maintaining the files inside folders ordered by date for a start, then as each file is opened, the EXIF data be amended to include the job name, and a brief description including keywords. (you can also use Irfanview to add comments to files, IPTC or EXIF data a lot more quickly than in other programs) All you need do then to find the image in Windows is to fire up the search tool (or 'agent ransack' if you'd like a better search tool) and search for *.jpg containing the text *whatever*. Narrow the search by date if you like.. Alternatively if you use 'exifer' as I previously described and export to a spreadsheet, the spreadsheet can be searched. k
