I recently started using Adobe
Briefly comment on the organizing software you currently use, or how you track and catalog your digital images.
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I've found most organizing software to be cumbersome, so I simply create a directory under "Photographs, Digital" in Win XP labeled with year, month, day, image number range, and subject/event/etc. Example: "06 01-22 2421-2484 Org Wilderness" represents 2006, January 22, images base numbers #2421 through #2484 at Orange Wilderness Trail. When I edit, I keep the image name/number that the camera creates but add key words and save in a non-compressed form. Archived in a CD or DVD, depending on collection.
I actually like the approach that Apple is taking with Aperture - it fits my workflow very well. But it has a lot of room for improvement. And Apple needs to respond faster when new cameras are introduced - one of my cameras is the Nikon D200 which I've had for 6 weeks and Aperture still can't handle RAW files from the D200.
It's much easier to organize each downloading rather than wading through a mass of pictures to find the one you just know you have somewhere on the harddrive. Another step should be to then save the images to disk immediately in the event of computer crash or who knows what else.
I burn a CD and place it with a contact sheet in a loose leaf binder. Everything is arranged by date and subject. What I need to do is make up a master list of subjects and dates for filing purposes; just what I did in film days. This works for me without a huge hard drive to handle the pix.
I currently use ACDSee. I have a major client that requires huge numbers of documentary photos on commercial properties. I use it to sort by property, rename by property, and to resize by property. One stop for all of my organizational needs.
I don't use any add-on software. I use my own naming system through Windows and PS. I start with the date (YrMoDy) a space and a name for the folder. Each image is named within the folder and meta data is filled in with keywords, discription and title. I have over ten thousand images in my system and never have a problem finding a specific image by using Windows search feature. All images are saved as PSD and JPG.
Currently I do not use a program to do it. I manually organize my shots according to date and location. Although the date is my main focus when organizing the shots. I usually just list the location where the most shots were taken. I have tried Lightroom's beta and as of beta version 1. I like how some of the options that they offer for organizing my shots. The one thing I don't like about it is having to "import" my files into the program. I would rather just point to the files and that be it. Much like I do with one of the programs that came with my Canon SLR. I hope this info helps.