Agonizing choice

This post has me somewhat confused.

I assume you are feeding the iPad through iTunes. iTunes will resize to the iPad's screen size, you don't need to "downsample". Any attempt to "zoom" in will result in jaggies. If not iTunes but the camera connector, the Photo app is worthless for edits or slideshow organization. So, I am assuming you will use iTunes and iPhoto (Mac) to feed the iPad. Feeding full res images into a photo frame is a non-starter.

If you want to load 200 shots in an iPad on a daily basis, or anything close to that, you should make sure whatever app you go with has batch resizing capability. Otherwise you will be spending a ton of time simply resizing each pic.

Before you sync into the iPad, use Bridge to arrange them in the order you want, batch rename in PSE to hold that order, create an iPhoto album and set the sort order to name, then sync. If you are on Win, I have no idea what sorting order will result. If I forget to set my iPhoto sort pref for the album, the pics are arranged in no order I can figure out.

On Mac's, I generally use PSE to edit and Graphic Converter to run batch jobs.

Given your output devices, I am a bit confused. The image sizes that come out of your camera will kill an iPad (too limited memory -- I have one -- tried to love it for photography but went back to an Air) let alone photo frames. So you will be resizing them down and likely taking an aggressive compression setting for those going into a photo frame. Now you have 2 batch jobs, with the display quality on the photo frames and the web being of a substantially lower quality than your camera's capability. You also have 3 sets of the same images filling up your drives.

Thank you for the thorough explaination. I knew all that. My original post was not to find an editor for resampling, iPads and photo frames do their own resampling. What I was looking for was an editor and organizer functions. My biggest issue is going through 200 plus photo, making decisions on them, organze them, and then a quick to complex edit. If I resize, it will only be to crop.

HF

Then PSE is a good alternative. I assume you are on a PC. If a Mac, PSE is a bit slow but still is an excellent editor. It comes with an app called Bridge. This is a preview screen of whatever is in the folder. Its the best previewer I know of. That's not to say that's a universally held belief as there are plenty and most are a lot less expensive than PSE/Bridge. However, none can rearrange right in the browser then batch rename (ie. Rome 2009_1, Rome 2009_2, etc) to hold a sequence in whatever viewer you decide to load the photos into.

If you do decide to load images in photo frames, you will still need to batch resize. Or, one by one. I believe you do not understand the issue of allowing the iPad/photo frame to resize. What you are referring to is the ability to take a large pixel count and size it down to screen size. Unfortunately, photo frames can't handle the sort of multi-meg files that come out of cameras. They crash. The iPad can barely handle my Nikon D80 images. Loading them into a slideshow results in about 4 images then crash. Inadequate memory (256 mb). So, they all need to be resized. That's what iTunes does if you sync. However, it does not do it if you load via SD card/camera. Perhaps the photo frames have software that will do this for you. I have no experience with them.

Good luck.

threeOh said:

It comes with an app called Bridge.

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PSE 9, the current version does not. It comes with the Hateful Organizer™ instead. If you want bridge, you need to look for a copy of PSE 8, and of course you will not be able to update the raw converter in bridge to the current version (although you can update the raw converter in PSE 8 itself, still).

I do understand how photo frames and iPads work. Here is the short version:

If loaded on to the iPad directly, the iPad will not downsize and you can use up existing memory very quickly.

When using iTunes, it will optimize the photo for you so that they have the optimum size for the iPad, or the iPhone...works for both. Unless you know what it really wants to be optimum, it is best to let iTunes do it. I like having the photos with enough resolution to stand up to some zoom in on the iPad. That is a favorite feature for most viewers.

If I want to put up photos on the Photo frames that I have in its internal memory, then I will batch process to resize to the frames pixel count. That way I can get the largest count of pictures into the frame as possible.

If I use a memory stick of som type, usually an SD card, then I don't care the size because memory isn't the issue. The photo frame will resize only the picture being displayed, read it in, display, dicard and go to the next.

So again, my original post had to do with what is best to manage and edit photos. I was leaning toward Lightroom, but also did not want to give up the features in PE9. I have since decided, with the help of the folks on this forum, to use Picasa for orginizing and PE9 for editing. That seems it will help me with the next year or more. I might consider other choices at taht time, but right now that is what I will do. My choices have nothing to do with resizing....that subject I understand all too well.

Thank you for your help!

HF

I'm a bit confused. Photoshop Elements has a catalog feature. Have you tried it? Not as fully functional as LR, but there. In some ways I found it easier to use than LR. Plus you can import from Elements into Lightroom. That gives you a growth path later without losing what you've done in Elements.

--
Judy
http://nichollsphoto.com/

Sorry but you do not understand. The issue with the iPad and the frames is not the storage space -- what you are focused on -- but the internal storage (as in RAM). There's not enough in either of these devices to handle your desired "enough resolution to stand up to some zoom" cache requirements of a slide show.

Good luck.

"It comes with the Hateful Organizer™ instead."

Thanks. Took a look at it and its is truly a POS versus Bridge. Puts an end to upgrading PSE for me.

If you would like to understand, go to Apple's App Store and look at the reviews the slideshow apps get. An app separate from the Photo app as you want more res than the iPad's Photo app will give you.

All of these apps get really lousy reviews. Lot's of crashes. That's not because of the app (they are good). Its because Apple restricts any 3rd party app from having more than 25 meg of space to work in. Once the app is loaded, by the third or 4th image, a crash. No more cache.

My objective is not to educate you, its to let you know that what you are trying to do cannot currently be done on an iPad. If this is important to you, perhaps wait until Apple boosts the internal memory (now 256 mb) and loosens up on the amount any developer can use for his app. Apple did the former with the new iPhone. The latter is an unknown but, if the new iPhone is any indication, don't hold your breath. Apple does not restrict their own apps and I expect they will continue this approach for a while.

I don't understand this reply at all. I said nothing whatever about iPads--I don't even have one, so not qualified to say anything pro or con any app---just that you don't get bridge with PSE anymore (which for sure isn't going to run on an ipad with or without bridge).

I did try PE organizer and it seemed harder to use than straight windows. I found it you wanted to change your mind or did something via windows, it created a mess. At least that was my impression. It also locked up on me a dozen time or so. I tried Picasa and had much better luck.

HF

HarleyFrank said:

With digital I find I experiment more....use exposure bracketing (sometimes). Do several shots of the same subject with different settings....and all that crap. I am finding that I make a lot of decisions with post processing (during) and not at the shoot. Your point is well taken and one I plan to take seriously. On the other hand, I am getting a much higher picture count of shots than I did with film. I do a lot more and he keepers are killer. So I have to find that happy workable medium.

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The thing about "photo editors" like Elements and the GIMP is that they are single document processors. I don't even know if GIMP has a multi-image browser like Elements and Photoshop come with. The more volume comes into play, the more you need a tool that can help you compare, inspect, and quickly approve/reject multiple images simultaneously and get you down to the keepers fast. Lightroom excels at this. It's one of the things about Lightroom that saves me time. But since you said that you don't make major edits and you might shoot JPEG, you might not use much of Lightroom's editing power.

Maybe you should consider a combination like the Photo Mechanic utility for fast handling/culling of large numbers of images, and Elements when an image needs edits.