Which Image Browser software is best?

[netspots]

Hi guys,

I've got a LOT of pictures sitting on my hard drive... some taken with my Digital Rebel, others taken with my wife's pocket camera. Now I need to go through hundreds of pictures and decide which we keep, which we keep and print, and which get deleted.

I already have the software that came with the Digital Rebel (ImageBrowser, I think), but I'm not sure if it's a keeper or not. So...

Which software do you guys recommend to do this task quickly and easily? Is there something better/easier/faster out there? Or should I stick with the software I already have?

Thanks.

 

[apxmtb]

I've been using it for over 2 years and IMO it is one of the best Photo/Thumbnail organizers out there.

The photo editing tools are plain and simple but work remarkably well considering this application is FREE!

It's the ONLY photo app I have on my PC for my Pro1. Then again, the Pro1's pics out of the camera are usually so good, they rarely need any post-processing.

omission: I also use FastStone to post on forums and auction listings.

http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html

Alex

 

[netspots]

Cool, thanks! I'll check it out...

 

[netspots]

Wow... Picaso is still scanning my hard drive -- but I can already tell that this thing is AWESOME! Thanks for the tip!

 

[apxmtb]

I'm glad you decided to give it a shot!

you can also configure Picasa to scan ONLY the folders you designate to have scanned.

This way, if you dump your pics always in the same folder, it won't waste time scanning the whole drive.

I've got it setup to automatically upload from my card reader and once it has finished, it deletes everything on the card. Saves me a step.

One thing to remember though, any changes and edits you do to a photo in Picasa will stay only in Picasa. That is because it stores all of the editing information in an .ini file located in the folder where the picture is located. In short, the original file is actually never modified.

That is why I use FastStone to edit permanently for auctions and postings.

Have Fun!

Alex

 

[netspots]

One thing to remember though, any changes and edits you do to a
photo in Picasa will stay only in Picasa.

Yeah, I noticed that. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but oh well.

Question: I see that as Picaso pulls up each picture it looks blurry for a second, then I see "Refining", then it looks sharp(er). Is Picaso sharpening each picture? (and if so, does each picture need to be re-saved?)

That is why I use FastStone to edit permanently for auctions and postings.

I'm not familiar with FastStone. I'll hafta look into it.

 

[Archiver]

Since upgrading to WinXP, I have no need for a separate image browsing program. I use the Thumbnail display and that's all I need. If I see something I like, I just double click and it opens.

I use Irfanview to resize, batch rename and crop (probably the easiest and best program for these purposes), but I only need WinXP for image browsing.

I might have a look at Picasa to see whether it offers more goodies, though.
--
Archiver - Recording the sights and sounds of life

 

[netspots]

Since upgrading to WinXP, I have no need for a separate image
browsing program. I use the Thumbnail display and that's all I
need. If I see something I like, I just double click and it opens.

That's fine for viewing, but deleting images that way is a different story. It doesn't automatically move to the next image -- you have to "find" the next image, click on it, then start again. Pain in the butt.

Now that I've used Picasa, I love it. Can't believe it's free!

 

[Hai Vu]

Question: I see that as Picaso pulls up each picture it looks
blurry for a second, then I see "Refining", then it looks
sharp(er). Is Picaso sharpening each picture? (and if so, does
each picture need to be re-saved?)

No, Picasa does not sharpen your pictures. Instead of taking time to display your picture, Picasa will first displays a rough version--that's the blurry picture you mentioned. If you have not moved to a different picture (with left or right arrows) then the program will display the real picture.

The advantage of this approach is twofold:

1) It pleases the impatience because you can see your picture right away, abeit blurry.

2) It renders pictures quickly when you move back and forth with left and right arrows. Try that.
--
-Hai
http://haivu.smugmug.com/

 

[Hai Vu]

One thing to remember though, any changes and edits you do to a
photo in Picasa will stay only in Picasa. That is because it stores
all of the editing information in an .ini file located in the
folder where the picture is located. In short, the original file is
actually never modified.

The non-destructive editing is a mixed blessing. On one hand, you can rest asure that you original is safe. On the other hand, if you want to use your edited picture for some reason (uploading to website, printing, or copying to another media, ...) then you will need to export it.

Exporting pictures are not as hard as it sounds, follow these steps:

1) Select the pictures you want to export (click on the first one, then Control+Click the rest)
2) Click the "Export" button at the bottom right and select the destination

It is that easy.
--
-Hai
http://haivu.smugmug.com/

 

[mamallama]

netspots:

I have Photoshop Album, Picasa, ACDSee7, and several that came with Olympus and Canon digital cameras. I was trying them all out and when I hit on ACDSee7, it was so amazing and exactly what I wanted that I never went back and perhaps didn't give the others a fair chance.

What sold me on ACDSee is that it is a powerful data base that easily put any image file on any HD on your computer into a data base for cataloging, sorting, searching, finding, deteting, etc. by a multitude of Boolean criteria (category, keyword, caption, author, date, etc.) without disturbing the folders they are in. On top of that the associated print program Foto Slate is equally powerful and can print in many ways (single or multiple prints/sheet) the files you have searched and found with ACDSee.

If this is seems what suits you, you can get a free 30-day trial from the ACDSee site.

What

Hi guys,

I've got a LOT of pictures sitting on my hard drive... some taken
with my Digital Rebel, others taken with my wife's pocket camera.
Now I need to go through hundreds of pictures and decide which we
keep, which we keep and print, and which get deleted.

I already have the software that came with the Digital Rebel
(ImageBrowser, I think), but I'm not sure if it's a keeper or not.
So...

Which software do you guys recommend to do this task quickly and
easily? Is there something better/easier/faster out there? Or
should I stick with the software I already have?

Thanks.

 

[DylanHoen]

I use ACDSee Classic in stretched full screen mode.

I put 3 fingers of my right hand on page down, delete and enter and quickly go through the images and delete the ones that I don't want.

You can rapidly press page up and page down to flip between 2 similar images to choose which one is the better one.

--
Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Canon PowerShot S30
Canon PowerShot a60 - deceased
http://www.d.hoen.ca/pics/

 

[netspots]

I was trying them all out and when I hit on ACDSee7, it was so amazing and exactly what I wanted...

Thanks... I'll check it out!

 

[apxmtb]

netspots:

I have Photoshop Album, Picasa, ACDSee7, and several that came with
Olympus and Canon digital cameras. I was trying them all out and
when I hit on ACDSee7, it was so amazing and exactly what I wanted
that I never went back and perhaps didn't give the others a fair
chance.

What sold me on ACDSee is that it is a powerful data base that
easily put any image file on any HD on your computer into a data
base for cataloging, sorting, searching, finding, deteting, etc. by
a multitude of Boolean criteria (category, keyword, caption,
author, date, etc.) without disturbing the folders they are in. On
top of that the associated print program Foto Slate is equally
powerful and can print in many ways (single or multiple
prints/sheet) the files you have searched and found with ACDSee.

If this is seems what suits you, you can get a free 30-day trial
from the ACDSee site.

Mamallama,

I agree with your assessment of ACDC. I did try it for a few days and it is powerful but the interface turned me off big time. I may not have given it enough of a test drive though.

Bottom line though:

After 30 days, PICASA is STILL FREE!

Alex

What

Hi guys,

I've got a LOT of pictures sitting on my hard drive... some taken
with my Digital Rebel, others taken with my wife's pocket camera.
Now I need to go through hundreds of pictures and decide which we
keep, which we keep and print, and which get deleted.

I already have the software that came with the Digital Rebel
(ImageBrowser, I think), but I'm not sure if it's a keeper or not.
So...

Which software do you guys recommend to do this task quickly and
easily? Is there something better/easier/faster out there? Or
should I stick with the software I already have?

Thanks.

 

[mamallama]

Alex:

The interface did take a while to conquer because the same terms are used in the Organize and the Properties-Database Planes; one plane is to search and the other to set data base properties. I tried to learn the program by reading the manual and doing the actions on a laptop coming back on a plane from China. Needless to say, I gave up in confusion. When I got home I said forget the manual, just play with it. In about 15 minutes it was all clear and simple.

I didn't give up because I had mastered the ACDSee print program that meshes with it, Foto Slate, earlier and found it exactly what I wanted.

No, I am not associated with ACDSee but thought I'd share my experience because I think the cost and learning curve is worth it.

--mamallama

Mamallama,

I agree with your assessment of ACDC. I did try it for a few days
and it is powerful but the interface turned me off big time. I may
not have given it enough of a test drive though.

Bottom line though:

After 30 days, PICASA is STILL FREE!

Alex

 

[onetrip]

This is what I've been using for a long time.
Still using ver 4.0.
I don't think it's for Macs tho.

http://www.cerious.com/download.shtml

 

[Oren Sarid]

Until recently I too was addicted to AcdSee. But then I decided it became too slow and decided to give Picasa a try. There were many things about it I didn't like, for example the need to acquire the entire folder before you can browse the pictures.

So I gave IrfanView a chance and I love it:
It's really fast.
It uses EXIF data to auto-rotate your pictures.
It's free and small.
It shows great colors, just like Photoshop.
It allows batch processing of photos (like resizing, renaming, etc.)
And more...

Give it a try - http://www.irfanview.com

--
Oren Sarid
Israel

Please click to see my pictures, comment and rate them in my gallery at http://oren.sarid.fotopic.net/

 

[VincentJ]

Faststone is the best. It can even do raw images, and handle ICC profiles. And it's free.

http://www.faststone.org/

 

[Oren Sarid]

RAW, TIFF are good too.

The EXIF data here is much more complete than in ACDSee, including white balance and ISO.

--
Oren Sarid
Israel

Please click to see my pictures, comment and rate them in my gallery at http://oren.sarid.fotopic.net/

 

[jas_the_man]

i remember using irfanview ages ago b4 XP made it easy to view different types of files (back when jpg wasn't supported by standard windows). i now use ACDC and am loving it, but i'm currently overseas for work i can't exactly bring ACDC around easily so i tried to go back to irfanview 'cos i heard it could do batch operations, needed that to downsize files i took on the 300D to email friendly 1024x768... but either i did it wrong or something, the downsized pic had horrible quality, looked like i downsized it to 640x800 and then re-stretching it back to 1024x768. i ended up having to use paintbrush to resize it and it was fine... what did i do wrong?

also i'm not a big fan of the irfanview layouts, but it's small and free and now i have red icons for all my pic files, sigh... may uninstall it if i can't get the batch resize working