[OT] photo cataloging software suggestions

[Jay Dickon Glanville]

Hello all,

This is an off-topic request, but I'd thought I ask on this list as
other photographers would desire similar functionality.

I'm looking for suggestions and recommendations for photo cataloging
software.  My principal requirement is the cataloging of offline
photos.  I have many of my photos archived on CDs, so I'd like to be
able to browse the thumbnails and metadata without having to
repeatedly load the CDs.  Large hard drives only go so far.

The second desire is that it would also support IPTC and EXIF metadata
for both JPG and RAW (Canon RAW specifically).

I've found similar things, like ThumbsPlus and WhereIsIt, but they
have their problems.

I should point out that I like the functionality of DigiKam, but I
realize that it doesn't support offline photos, nor do I expect it to
support it any time soon (I get the impression that this isn't a high
priority for DigiKam developers).  If I can have one tool for
processing and browsing of "current active work", plus a different one
for past work, that's fine for me.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
JDG
--
Jay Dickon Glanville
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[Charlier, Etienne]

Hello,

Just peek at www.photools.com ....
Imatch has all you need/want...
BUT has to "major" drawbacks.....
It's not free and in only run on Win32......

Som folks have had some success with wine but it's far from production
ready....

Cheers
Etienne

-----Original Message-----
From: Jay Dickon Glanville [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: jeudi 13 septembre 2007 15:50
To: DigiKam users mailing list
Subject: [Digikam-users] [OT] photo cataloging software suggestions

Hello all,

This is an off-topic request, but I'd thought I ask on this list as
other photographers would desire similar functionality.

I'm looking for suggestions and recommendations for photo cataloging
software.  My principal requirement is the cataloging of offline
photos.  I have many of my photos archived on CDs, so I'd like to be
able to browse the thumbnails and metadata without having to
repeatedly load the CDs.  Large hard drives only go so far.

The second desire is that it would also support IPTC and EXIF metadata
for both JPG and RAW (Canon RAW specifically).

I've found similar things, like ThumbsPlus and WhereIsIt, but they
have their problems.

I should point out that I like the functionality of DigiKam, but I
realize that it doesn't support offline photos, nor do I expect it to
support it any time soon (I get the impression that this isn't a high
priority for DigiKam developers).  If I can have one tool for
processing and browsing of "current active work", plus a different one
for past work, that's fine for me.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
JDG
--
Jay Dickon Glanville
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Op Thursday 13 September 2007, schreef Charlier, Etienne:

> Hello,

>

> Just peek at www.photools.com ....

> Imatch has all you need/want...

> BUT has to "major" drawbacks.....

> It's not free and in only run on Win32......

I used to use Imatch on Wine. It's great software, but the incompatibilities with Wine got to me in the end.

What i do now is I just use DigiKam with off-line images. Yes, it can be done with some tinkering.

I run a shell script which produces a (large, high quality) JPEG preview of all my Raw-images and then moves the raw image into a sub folder.

DigiKam then indexes the Jpegs, which always stay on my file system, even after I move the originals to DVD.

I made some shell scripts that operate on the original raw files, but associate them with j[peg files. Whenever I right click any Jpeg I get these extra options (ie: "NEF to 10x15". "Nef to web", "Nef to Gimp", Nef to Ufraw", "Kill Nef and Jpeg"). In case a NEF is not found I just copy the data back from DVD and try again.

This setup has been working fine for me these last three years. It doen't give me the feature set Imatch has, but is a killer solution for storage and performance.

Dennis

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Op vrijdag 14 september 2007, schreef Dennis Meulensteen:
  > Op Thursday 13 September 2007, schreef Charlier, Etienne:

  > This setup has been working fine for me these last three years. It
  > doen't give me the feature set Imatch has, but is a killer solution
  > for storage and performance.
I agree. Dennis published his scripts here a while ago. I adapted them
for my own use, and it works great.

Caspar.
--
Individualisering heeft de coherentie van morele opvattingen
doorbroken.  --Hans Boutellier (Alert, 2006)
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[Bill Sanders-5]

On 9/14/07, Caspar Maessen <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Op vrijdag 14 september 2007, schreef Dennis Meulensteen:
>   > Op Thursday 13 September 2007, schreef Charlier, Etienne:
>
>   > This setup has been working fine for me these last three years. It
>   > doen't give me the feature set Imatch has, but is a killer solution
>   > for storage and performance.
> I agree. Dennis published his scripts here a while ago. I adapted them
> for my own use, and it works great.
>
> Caspar.

wow... sounds great?

I don't suppose I could get a link or something to them?

This sounds like a workflow I'd like to try.

Bill
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[Arnd Baecker]

On Fri, 14 Sep 2007, Bill Sanders wrote:

> On 9/14/07, Caspar Maessen <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > Op vrijdag 14 september 2007, schreef Dennis Meulensteen:
> >   > Op Thursday 13 September 2007, schreef Charlier, Etienne:
> >
> >   > This setup has been working fine for me these last three years. It
> >   > doen't give me the feature set Imatch has, but is a killer solution
> >   > for storage and performance.
> > I agree. Dennis published his scripts here a while ago. I adapted them
> > for my own use, and it works great.
> >
> > Caspar.
>
> wow... sounds great?
>
> I don't suppose I could get a link or something to them?
>
> This sounds like a workflow I'd like to try.

Sounds like this type of workflow is not that uncommon ;-)
Would it be useful/possible to integrate more tightly
into digikam?
If so, is all what is need already stated in the
current wishes in the BKO?
(I am thinking of
- Wish: Offline manager for Digikam
  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=114539
- handle existing read-only photo trees without copying (i.e.
  virtual albums):
  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=126821
- add service menus functionality
  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=88932
)
If there is anything missing from these wishes, it would be nice
to either add that information there or
open a separate entry, if it is different ...

Best, Arnd
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[Geoff King-4]

I used photools for a couple years before switching entirely to
linux/digikam.  Photools is a nice program, but can be complicated at
times and the UI is looking old.  It does handle the off-line media
well. That is what I'd use if still on Windows.

That's a good idea from Dennis.  That should work - assuming you can
get the scripts written. Depending on how many photos and cds you
have, you could probably create a new album (CD1, CD2, etc.) for each
CD, then use digikam batch converter on each CD and put it into that
album.

Geoff
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Op vrijdag 14 september 2007, schreef Bill Sanders:

  > I don't suppose I could get a link or something to them?
Have a look at this thread:
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/digikam-users/2006-November/002431.html

Caspar.
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