Photo management software

[Skyman]

I am looking for good photo management software as I have recently had a bit of a scare that has made me re evaluate what constitutes good software.

I was using Iphoto, and thought that as long as I had multiple copies of the iphoto folder that this was a sufficient backup, however having a hard drive fail on my mac (an ancient g5) i tried to restore this file using a hand me down macbook pro (using an intel chip). This worked in so far as it found all my photos but it didn't recongnise the events, albums and face files that I had so painstakingly created. Also it was lucky that I had that macbook, as I couldn't justify buying a new mac.

So I guess I am looking for an enterprise grade photo management software.

I have a very specific set of needs centred around the ability to retrieve the albums etc across platforms and preferably to other systems if need be. Hopefully it will use a file structure that is intuitive enough that should all I have left be the files and folders the recreation of the archive not be overly complex (like putting each import into a date based folder for example. It should support all the usual tagging options like facial recognition and geo tagging as well as some form of smart albums. It should allow for edits whilst preserving the original file. It should also avoid file duplication where possible.

It should be from a vendor that is likely to stand the test of time and not likely to drop support etc without notice.

I was seriously considering picasa except that google is highly likely to change things without notice and drop support (look at products like google desktop) which whilst you can still get it if you hunt is no longer supported or officially available.

I am hoping it won't be too expensive, but I guess my wish list is very specific.

Still any suggestions?

[SmartWombat]

I would have said Lightroom, except for the face recognition.
It doesn't have a shared catalogue that you can update across the network though, which is a big drawback if you want to access from many systems.

Where the images are filed is up to you, I use a folder structure by year, by event, by day (for multi-day events) and by memory card.
All that is on house NAS 1.
Which is backed up each night to house NAS 2.
And whenever 3T external USB drives go on sale, I buy one and make an extra backup of everything to there too.

The Lightroom catalogue files are also backed up every night from NAS1 to NAS2/Disk.
Plus Lightroom makes a backup to a subdirectory of the same folder each week and that is backed up from NAS1 to NAS2/Disk too.

[Skyman]

I have a 2tb usb drive that will be my automatic backup (tethered and set to backup my system daily). I have two 3tb usb drives that are my redundant backups. One will be held offsite and These will be a backed up once a month.

I considered a Raid drive, but I think with the right software I can configure the two 3tb drives to look at each other as a raid copy and be self healing.

It seems like I can use the manual folder structure then still use picasa for the smart albums. You can export picasa to lightroom and iphoto, indeed the data it saves is in an xml file that can be easily backed up and would be relatively simple to script it to convert for whatever program you needed, including formats like sharepoint or any other database for that matter.(i am no code monkey but I have friends that could do it in 5mins and I am sure that if I hunted around enough I could work out how to do it ok.

I think that will be enough redundancy to keep me happy, now to find a spare week or so to rebuild my photo library :cryin:

[benlinus]

i would say GIMP. GIMP is currently the only freeware package I am aware of that can be called an advanced image editor. It has a steeper learning curve than the previously reviewed editors, but it is feature rich. It's multi-windowed interface makes it a little unusual for a windows program. If you are inexperienced at using image editing programs GIMP will likely be too overwhelming to start learning on, so I would suggest beginning with one of the basic, or mid-level editors above.

[digibroadcastseo]

Photoshop is best photo management software so try it...

[thibcormier]

Paint is very useful and handy, try it

[lizaray]

I use macromedia fireworks and it really helps me in doing all that I need.

[pravin0123]

Picasa
Cam2pc
DigiBookShelf
IrfanView
FastStone Image Viewer

Photography is surely fun, but you’ll really need to rely on softwares and applications to take care of those thousands of digital photos output from your DSLR or digital camera. All those work from editing, renaming, archiving and sharing with other using with other apps will need to be done properly so it ease future retrieving.

[Tyler7576876676]

Try KrojamSoft PhotoViewerPro
It's by far the best Photoviewer I have ever used!

[warmchirping]

Adobe Lightroom 6 or the PaintShop Pro X8 are among the top for the best photo manager software

[laidworry]

Photoshop is best photo management software so try it...

I also agree with Photoshop and Picasa. The latter is simple but a powerful photo organizing application.

[Roshni]

Photoshop is best to go for as it comes with a wide range of features.

[jooeika]

I'm looking for photography hosting for a non-profit organization I work with and it looks like most sites are for individual or professional photographers, not groups of people.
We run a summer program with a small number of employees and new members every summer. We want members to be able to upload, sign, and tag photos. Personnel must be able to administer the system. Guys, can HyperC.com be able to help with this? If not, what service do we need? Thank you all in advance.

[Jane Cooper]

Do not forget about photo editing!

[chia88]

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[Maria2020]

One more point you will probably be interested in is how to create a face-editing app.