I'm a genealogist. One of my long term goals is to scan and catalog about a thousand family photographs from 1870 to 1950. The scanning + digitial editing is old hat, but I'm finding as I go into it that I have no idea on how to properly label and catalog the digital photographic files for archiving purposes.
Keep in mind that some of the photographs depict dozens of people so putting all the names in the file name is not a solution. I want to be able to catalog them by date and by person in the photo so that I may search by either, or by general date or year.
It also has to be a catalog + naming solution that will be transferable. By this I mean that if a software becomes no longer available, I need to be able to transfer my database to something else... either through comma separated files or some other method.
I know this is an issue that others must have hit on. Does anyone have any good solutions, websites, etc.? I'd be eternally greatful for them
2007-02-22 06:42:42 · 4 answers · asked by Lendorien 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Photography
An on the web solution is not doable for me. We're talking some files that are very large in TIF format. It's not practical. Keep in mind that this is an archiving project.
Adobe photoshop's file info is a nice feature, but it's limitied. A need some sort of file labeling/cataloging solution. I know this sort of thing exists because larger photo archives use them. I'm just not sure how to begin with this process or if software exists that will do it for you. Help!
2007-02-22 07:00:58 · update #1
Photoshop "Browse" or bridge program
2007-02-22 06:47:31 · answer #1 · answered by beauxPatrick 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Someone has already suggested Picasa, but I'm not sure if this is going to be sophisticated enough for you. The only options are 'name' 'date' 'place taken' and 'description' If you had a photo with a lot of people in, you would have to list these under description, which I don't think is searchable. Other commercially available cataloguing systems seem as limited. Have you considered making up your own using Excel or Access?
i
2007-02-22 09:10:38 · answer #2 · answered by rdenig_male 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are two ways of looking at the storage issue.
One would be to store them locally on one machine (make a back up/archive of course) and use a program such as Photoshop in one of its various forms.
The other is to use an online photo sharing service to store them. This has the advantage of being able to access from anywhere that is internet accessable and also being able to share with others for colaborating on this project.
Two excellent sites for this are:
http://www.flickr.com
and
http://www.shutterfly.com/
Flickr is part of the yahoo network you use your standard ID to log in there.
Shutterfly does very high quality work if you wnat to make prints of your images.
Both share with others, Flickr's tags would help you in your sorting of all the various family members that are in the group photos.
BOB
2007-02-22 06:54:33 · answer #3 · answered by r_anstett 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most cataloguing programs will allow for a 30 day free trial.
I looked at Imatch, ACDSee PhotoManager, Picasa, and th Adobe offerings.
I went with ACDSee Photo Manager. It is highly flexible, and the bonus is that it will allow for backing up the catalogue, so all those hours of tagging pictures will not be stuck on one machine or lost in case of a crash.
2007-02-25 14:41:02 · answer #4 · answered by gryphon1911 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋