fenix03
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posted on December 14, 2003 10:28:05 PM new
Help please! I am looking for a archiving program for digital images. Adobe used to make a great one called Fetch but apparently they let it die because the only Fetch program I can find is an FTP program. I think Extensis makes one but can't find it.
I have been informed the only thing my step father wants for xmas is a program that will help him to archive and organize 40 years of slide photography (They bought a Nikon Slide Scanner last year but now just have disk upon disk of unorganized images)
I'm sure someone knows the kind of program I am talking about, you dump thumbnails of all of your images from a disk into the program and assign appropriate keywords, program then will allow you to do keyword searches and tell you what disk the selected file is in.
I seem to remember that someoneeven made one that was web enabled so that the program itself could be operated by anyone online.
Oh yeah - much to my dismay, despite 2 new desktop and a new laptop purchase - they are still Windows based. (although if you know of a Mac compatible I need one for my own decade worth of negatives)
Many thank to all! I am also going to get him some archiviving organizers to get started but its all for naught if I can't find the program.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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JapErTOn
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posted on December 14, 2003 10:36:21 PM new
You may want to start at
http://www.photo.net
Phil Greenspun has created, imho, the best community on the web. There may be something in the forums, or reviews.
My personal use is lot's of well labeled photos, folders and a cd burner. I have a three year old web based journal that is pretty photodocumentary oriented, and I haven't tried any software to reccomend!
J
~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~
All the monkeys aren't in the zoo,
Every day you meet quite a few,
So you see it's all up to you.
You can be better than you are,
You could be swingin' on a star
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kevinbe4822
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posted on December 14, 2003 10:39:44 PM new
Hi fenix03. I use a program called iMatch from these guys.
http://www.photools.com/
It has helped me organize my tons of images. What I liked about it is that it keeps track of images stored on CD or DVD and still allows you to see thumbnails of these images without putting the disk in to read it. I hope this helps.
Kevin Beatty
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sparkz
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posted on December 14, 2003 10:42:14 PM new
Fenix
The software that comes with Kodak Digital cameras may be worth checking out. They are pushing their cameras to be "family photo friendly" oriented and their software is tailored for that purpose. I just recently got my Kodak and use only the basic features of snatching the photos out of the camera. I then move them to one of my Ebay specific folders for editing with another program, so I have not really used the full features of their program, but I know it provides for keywords and custom directory structures. Sorry I can't give you more info on it, but maybe someone in here with a recent model Kodak who has more experience with it can provide some info on it.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
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fenix03
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posted on December 14, 2003 11:01:44 PM new
Japerton - thanks for the nudge - it's Portfolio. Don't think I'l be getting the network/web version for him - its $2500. Think we'll stick with the basic.
Your suggestion work great except we are talking about probably 10,000 images of everything from ancient indian rock art / petroglyphs that need to be able to be brought up by area shot/tribes to wild life to circus sideshow performers from days gone by. The slides need to be well labeled and there will be a lot of CDs but there still needs to be a parent program under which they are all organized.
I'm thrilled to death that he wants this because it already well established that I am the one that gets the collection when he passes so any archiving work he see fit to get done in the meantime is that much less I will have to do. Besides - I hve no idea what tribes were painting in Utah as opposed to southwest Colorado and how they differend from those in New Mexico - he's the only one that can look at a shot and not just remember where it was taken but when and what he had for lunch on the way to that cave 
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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JapErTOn
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posted on December 14, 2003 11:27:34 PM new
Sounds like a fun project, I have four boxes of photos, and just my mom to get them organized. The oral history route only goes so far back to great and great great grandparents!
Best!
ps Yeah, I forgot on Photo.net you will get the glimpse at the high end toys...hehe, ahem!
J
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photosensitive
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posted on December 15, 2003 05:04:25 AM new
Fenix,
Half way into your original post I was thinking of Mac programs (I remember that you are one of the chosen) but when I got to the Windows part it brought me up short. I can feel his pain (about the uncataloged photos). My husband and I both have years of our own work, thousands of vintage photographs and prints, his grandfather's lifetime of prints and slides, and a friend who is a published photographer has decided that we are the ones to receive her photographic archive. I have to get serious about organizing all of them.
Now that I am retired I hope to get the photographs and our other collections organized well enough to start selling some as well as turning a casual sideline of supplying images to publishers into a real business.
The description of the contents of your step father's slides sound like a great source of stock images. I expect that many of the rock paintings are of sites that no longer exist.
Perhaps someone can also address the question of storage media. I just took a no-Zip disk vow when 11 of my disks went bad within weeks. How do I find the drive among the seven I regularly use that is the culprit? I suppose that CDs and DVDs are the only choice but wonder if there is something more archival.
Thanks for starting his thread. I'll keep my eye on it for suggestions I may be able to use.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 15, 2003 07:07:47 AM new
Fenix,
I think you were on the right track when you started thinking Adobe. They create a product called Photoshop Album 2.0. These program allows you to archive all your photos, include search tags, search by date, etc... For more info, go to
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/main.html
This program, I believe, only works with Windows... (too bad) However.... the reason for this is probably because Apple has a FREE program that lets you do the same stuff! iPhoto 2 will let you do basically the same things as Photoshop Album. For more info, go to:
http://www.apple.com/iphoto/
Both Adobe and Apple are some of the best software companies out there. I've used iPhoto with great results, and have received high recommondations on Photoshop Album from colleagues. Hope that helps!
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fenix03
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posted on December 15, 2003 09:17:36 AM new
Photo - I highly recommend CDs. When I was on the ball and was archiving my work I would actually burn two CDs. The system I was using is one that I am going to try to set up for him.
I scan the digitial image at 5x8 72 dpi. (large enough to view on screen because that's all you really need - you can always rescan the image to correct dimension if it is needed later - now you know where it is  )
All images are given a numerical name - (it's way too hard to be sure that the name you just gave the pic of Uncle George is not the name you gave a simlar pic you found and scanned three months ago)
Once the image is scanned I put it in archivng pages.
Once I have enough scans to fill a CD - I burn TWO of them.
One CD is placed in a sleeve and stored with the original images, the other in an organizer that is just for digitial images.
The idea is that once a CD is burned I then use the archiving program to add the images to the program. in which case the program will also tell me what disk it is on.
Then you just spend a smal fortune on archiving books so that everything looks nice and neat on your shelves.
BTW - Good call on the No Zip Vow. I took my no rewriteable media vow when I had a SyQuest disk go bad with a poster size image that we had just paid $200 to have drum scanned on it. Not only lost the image but lost the nearly $200 disk itself when I took it out of the drive and threw it against the wall in an extreme case of 3 am/ deadline in the morning frustration.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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fenix03
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posted on December 15, 2003 09:48:04 AM new
EAM - I took a look at Photoshop Album and ended up on the phone with Adobe (Why did they think that they had to have my phone number and address to give me product info?)
My beloved Fetch has become Portfolio - apparently they sold it to Extensis back in 96 (you know, it's stupid things like that that suddenly make you feel that you are getting older).
Album sounds very promising - the only question they were not able to help me with is the programs ability to function and work with high volumes of images - it sounds like a gret program for personal use but the girl I spoke with gave me no confidence of professional type useage.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 15, 2003 10:20:16 AM new
Fenix,
You probably are going to be better off with Portfolio. Even though it's 4 times more expensive than Adobe Photoshop Album... it does offer you a lot more. It has definately been used in professional settings as well! One great thing, is that it is cross-platform... which means you and your step father can both use it and help each other with the learning curve. It also has a better search feature (including boolean search.. I belive) that should perform faster and more efficiently. All in all... I think this is probably the way for you to go. But.... make sure you look around a bit more before you decide. The last thing you want to do is find a better program AFTER you've already filed 1,000 images or so with tags! Good luck!
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fluffythewondercat
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posted on December 15, 2003 10:41:03 AM new
I found iPhoto to be completely unsuitable for the organization of tens of thousands of images. It is clearly intended for home use by persons just wanting to keep albums of their family photos.
I'm still looking for a Macintosh solution to organizing a huge collection of images. Haven't found one yet.
--
"What does the 'O' stand for?"
"Nothing."
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 15, 2003 10:46:44 AM new
fluffy,
Extensis Portfolio should do it for you. Look them up at the following link:
http://www.extensis.com/portfolio/
[ edited by eauctionmgnt on Dec 15, 2003 10:47 AM ]
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photosensitive
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posted on December 15, 2003 11:09:22 AM new
I have been trying to love iPhoto without much success. I took two Apple workshops trying to get answers to my concerns. The second one was better but the program still seems clunky and slow to me and I hate the way it buries the files in multiple layers of folders. I had Fetch back in the old days when I worked in corporate communications and would like to find something like it. I'll take a look at extensis portfolio.
Do any of you have a suggestion for a Mac database for cataloging several thousand books? We tried Filemaker a while ago but never seemed to get into it.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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fenix03
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posted on December 15, 2003 11:23:03 AM new
Fluff - You can download a trial at the Extensis site. It doesn't look like hey changed too many details of the original Fetch - just tweeked and upgraded them. Take a gander- or i'm sure you can find a freebie on Limewire
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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fluffythewondercat
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posted on December 15, 2003 01:08:00 PM new
Wish I could help you with the book cataloguing s/w.
FileMaker Pro is a great back-end; if you can get someone else to design the front-end (user interface) and set it up for you, it's a powerful tool. I didn't like diddling with forms and such.
I'll take a look at Portfolio. Thanks.
BTW, there are way too many pieces of software (each of which does something different) called "Fetch".
--
"What does the 'O' stand for?"
"Nothing."
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photosensitive
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posted on December 15, 2003 01:33:29 PM new
I think software designers like using a dog icon. I read that all the dog realated computer names do not go over well in some cultures.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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fenix03
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posted on December 15, 2003 01:36:15 PM new
That may be why Extensis changed the name of the program : )
Photo- what type of cataloging are you looking for on the books? Call me kooky - but couldn't you use portfolio for that as well? Would keep the cover image saved as book title then assign value range, type, author, etc as key words. Am I nuts here?
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
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photosensitive
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posted on December 15, 2003 01:48:54 PM new
I was thinking about that but I was told that a relational database was what we should be using which (I think) FileMaker is not. I don't know about Portfolio. I am not even sure if we really need to be that elaborate.
Our book collection is really out of hand and my husband keeps buying books we already have. We need a way to locate books, cross reference subjects, and a list to carry along that gives enought details about the book to know if we have it already. Maybe Portfolio would do it.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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eauctionmgnt
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posted on December 15, 2003 02:11:53 PM new
Photosensitive,
Hear's a simple explanation for the difference between relational and nonrelational databases...
A nonrelational database (flat file) stores all information in one table... a list of addresses is a good example of a nonrelational database.
A relational database is used for managing and analyzing complex information. In a relational database, there are multiple tables of information. In most cases, the tables have one or more elements in common, but each table contains information that is inherently different from the other tables.
FileMaker pro IS a relational database and will allow you to in essence, link seperate files together to retrieve relational information if necessary. However... you probably don't even really NEED the functionality of a relational database. It sounds like all the information you're interested in should probably be in the same table.
You could either create it yourself, using Filemaker (I'd recommend getting a simple reference book... maybe Filemaker for Dummies or something similar...) Or, there is a site at:
http://www.bookhound.net/bib455/
that has pre-created a database (based on FileMaker 6). Personally... for what they're charging... I'd design my own... but, it might be quicker and easier to buy it from them. However... their database seems more geared to the book re-seller.
Regardless what way you go with... I'd encourage you to invest in a PDA, if you don't already have one. You can get all sorts of programs that will let you open your database or spreadsheet programs on the PDA. Then, you have instant access to your collection with a device that fits in your pocket! I did this with my comic book collection and have been working on getting my Dad to do the same with his DVD collection. Anytime you have thousands of items.. you need something like that to keep you from buying duplicates! Hope that helps!
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photosensitive
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posted on December 15, 2003 02:36:56 PM new
Thanks Eauctionmgnt,
I actually do know the difference in relational and flat databases but was not sure we needed it to be relational and did not remember if FileMaker was or not. I think a simple database will be fine. The PDA suggestion is a good one. My husband loves gadgets so I may be able to get him to work on the inventory is I promise him one.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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JapErTOn
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posted on December 15, 2003 07:26:39 PM new
iPhoto sucks on soooo many levels!!!
Useless!
My biggest issue is trying to keep the hard copies and the digital intigrated. I am a luddite, I love molecular emulsion: when you are shooting a horse cantering and haven't got the bux for the fat tele lens and your shoeleather zoooom ain't zoomy enough, well, you can crop!!! hehe.
I suppose well labeled photos and a spread sheet of some sort seem like not a bad way to handle those kinds of negatives/prints/slides.
Hmmm
J
~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~
All the monkeys aren't in the zoo,
Every day you meet quite a few,
So you see it's all up to you.
You can be better than you are,
You could be swingin' on a star
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tapatti
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posted on December 19, 2003 02:23:20 AM new
photosensitive: Have you tried Readerware for your book database yet?
http://www.readerware.com/userhome/rwNewsl.html
It's written in Java so it's crossplatform and works great with the free CueCat barcode readers that were given out a few years ago.
It's extremely reasonably priced and works well for Amazon inventory.
As for photos I second the Photoshop Album 2.0 Recommendation.
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photosensitive
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posted on December 19, 2003 04:43:02 AM new
Thanks Tapatti for the suggestion. I will read the specs on Readerware. At first glance it seems the pitch is to automate the cataloging using barcodes. Many of the books I am cataloging are way pre-barcode (18th, 19th or early 20th century). I will study the site to learn how the catalog is stored and accessed.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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profe51
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posted on December 19, 2003 05:52:09 AM new
fluffy et al:
here's a couple of Mac image archiving prog's. I can't personally recommend either, as I still do it the old fashioned way. I burn em on disks and label each one....if you spend some time at versiontracker.com, you may find some more...
BlueBox Basic
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21456
ImageOrganizer X
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18527
Prowler X
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15719
___________________________________
The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.
-- P. J. ORourke (Holidays in hell, 1989)
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tapatti
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posted on December 19, 2003 11:55:35 AM new
Photosensitive: Are you cataloging for sale or for research/library use? If the latter there's a server based project from New Zealand that I worked with that's suitable for antiquarian and research books.
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photosensitive
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posted on December 19, 2003 01:54:26 PM new
Tapatti,
It is for research and for our insurance records. I am a little uncomfortable with a server based system. What happens if the project ends?
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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