which software for managing Pictures?

Be prepared for a dozen different answers (it's what makes this forum so valuable).

I too was disgusted with ACDsee v6. I will say that v7 is a huge improvement and works a lot better than v6 did so if you liked it, try out v7. I use it daily and it works for my needs. One shot against v7 is that it still does not support D2X NEF thumbnail display. Since I shoot RAW+JPG this doesn't slow me down but I would have thought there'd have been an update by now...

That said, you may want to check out Photo Mechanic. This is the program I will probably go with when the next version is released (4.4).
http://www.camerabits.com

As for your other request, I'm interested in a program that will treat NEF+JPG files as one myself. PM might in fact do this but their web site is so dismal that there's no where to find it.

Good luck!

_/oe

 

There are a few very powerful ones

Cerius Software ThumbsPlus v7.0 Can edit IPTC fields.
iMatch - extremely powerful photools.com. Can write scripts for just about anything. They have 30 uninhibited feature trial version. Costs less than Thumbsplus, but has "novel" interface. Thumbsplus is mose straightforward while iMatch is significantly more powerful. Uses a category scheme which permits rapid organization of images. Need to do a bit of housekeeping or you can bugger up the links.

If you go on DPR you will find passionate discussions with pros and cons for both. They sell for under $100 US each. Try them out to see which best meets your needs.

Rich

 

I think I've tried them all and frankly I didn't like any of them. It seems that every one is either missing an important feature or has performance problems.

The closest to acceptable I found was Photo Mechanic, my only real complaint with it is that the version I demo'd didn't properly read EXIF info from PSD's (not sure if this has been fixed or not). It was also a bit more than I was willing to pay.

 

I use Photo Mechanic for the sorting of my work.

I catalogue in IView Media Pro, i somtimes use BreezerBrowser to make HTML galleries, but i will stop this soon as the script now works iwht Iview Media.

I have used nearly all of the catalogue software on the market and Iview has to be the easiest to use. I couldnt work without Photo Mechanic.

All of these programs have free trials give them a try and see how you get on.

 

Hi Michael,

I use ThumbsPlus and have been happy with it through several versions (and several cameras).

You might want to compare it to Photo Mechanic and others.

Best wishes,

David

 

You can zoon in Photo Mechanic, double click on an image to load up the image view window, on the right hand side half way down you have a Zoom Option, tick it and move the slider accross to zoom in.

IMHO i would steer clear of ACDSee, having used it and seen it used by the comapny i work for i can tell you that it does slow to a stand still when you have too many images in a folder. We stopped using it for this reason, although its has an excellent feature set.

I would take a lcose look at BreezerBrowser Pro if your not wanting to spend a fortune, but for speed and support Photo Mechanic is the option.

(I now use BreezerBrowser Pro to make online galleries as the script work better with BB than Iview Media Pro.)

So my workflow is like this:

RAW files are transfered using Nikon transfer (So i can caption them)
JPEG files are ingested into Photo Mechanic and captioned as it is very very quick for this.

I view and check in PM and tag and delete bad images,

Load up Iview media and save them to the catalogue i can then find them using the search feature which looks at the iptc caption data so i can find images very quickly.

The biggest problem i have is the time to sort them out! I have 100`s of OOF images on my hard drive and i am too idol to sort them out! LOL

 

Follow-up to Thumbs plus and iMatch

Thumbs plus will only show the NEF file in a tiny window while iMatch will display it full screen...but it takes several seconds.

Rich

 

I like thumbsplus a lot. It has, for my uses, great file management ability.
The pro-version supposedly opens raw...but for what cameras..the Cerious site isn't very specific or I missed it.
When and if I shoot RAW I shoot +.jpg for quick review it Thumbsplus anyway.
Their site allows a 30 day full-feature trial. When I shoot photos fr friends I throw a trial version copy of their disk because so many people dabbling in image viewing lack anything other than Windows viewing software.

 

I'm running Pro right now and it doesn't display NEFs full size. It says in the documentation you have to process it first. If I'm wrong, Id be delighted to be corrected.

Rich

 

I was using ACDsee 7 until I upgraded to PS CS2.

I then learned what it was like to become a minority of one because I actually like The Bridge!!

In fact, I like it so much and it integrates into PSCS and ACR so seamlessly that I've started shooting RAW - something I swore I'd never do.

 

You probebly need to run all your nef files through the large preview generator. The D2hs and D2x dont need to do this becuase large previews are already embedded in the NEF but with with other Nikon DSLRS the embedded file is smaller.

In your Nikon View directory you will have another folder called preview gen or soemthing like that, open it up and find the exe, it wont launch instead you have to drag your nef file onto the exe and a window will appear, or you can drag a folder onto the exe and it will add large previews to the nef files.

 

I generally just access the folders with My Computer/Wndows Explorer. But I do have Google's Picasa2 Software, and when I need to "manage" the files and folders, that's what I use.

Picasa is free from Google. It handles both the JPGs and NEFs. It has lots of viewing and sorting options, post-processing, etc.

Picasa2 is FREE from Google's web site. Try it yourself and see what you think.

 

These are D2X files. Thumbsplus still shows 2" x 2" images in the upper left of the screen

Rich

 

Photomechanic is good as it is very very fast for browsing and sorting, even NEFs.
iView is quite nice for creating catalogues.
Nikon View for creating Jpg and rotating, oh how I hate this prog on a mac, my old pc runs it better!!!

Actually, has anyone any thoughts on alternative progs to replace Nikon View, along the lines of keeping the Exif tags when downloading, rotating (properly not just for one program) and creating JPG for fast viewing of images.

There has to be something I've missed....

~Jerrold

 

I'm using iView Media Pro and it looks like a nice program, although my experience is limited so far. As soon as I get my new PC up and running I plan to catalog my image collection properly.

 

Re: Follow-up to Thumbs plus and iMatch

Rich,

There is a plug-in on the Cerious site that you need to download, then ThumbsPlus displays NEFs in all their glory.....it does take a couple of seconds, though.

(I actually prefer having NEFs displayed in the smaller size -- I believe it's the embedded JPEG -- so I uninstalled the plug-in for NEFs. I shoot RAW + JPEG Fine, so it's fast and easy to browse the full size JPEGS, while still having NEFs viewable in the small quick size.)

Best wishes,

David

 

Rich I use thumbs plus pro and it is showing full NEF previews if I double click it. It was set up by Ron Reznick so damnifno how it is done, but it will. I generally only preview the jpegs as they go full size much faster and the veiw sync mode allows me to put up a number of images at one time, really speeds up things when culling amongst similar (double tap or bracketed shots) images.
One major advantage is that if you move a jpeg or a Nef to another folder it takes all other versions with it to the new folder.

 

I use ThumbsPlus for cataloguing but use a great little program called Pixort for culling. You can give each pic a rating from 1 to 5. I use 1 for the garbage and 5 for the 'gotta edit this one up' shots. Very fast and you can go through 600 shots in fast order. Has many features, including showing histogram, all EXIF info, etc.