Preserved Topic: Archiving Digital Photos (Page 1 of 1)

Okay, so I never bragged about it like I intended, but I finally got my first digital camera. My APS Canon Elph gave up the ghost several months ago -- the camera I loved so much for its portable size, as I could always have it on my hip (as seen on my pixel person). So, a couple months ago I replaced it with a digital Elph. I love it!

Anyway, for the past few years I've been religious with the archiving of all my prints. I purchase archive-quality boxes and envelopes (acid and lignin free) and am annoyingly detailed in writing information on the envelopes -- places, names, addresses, dates, etc.

Now I'm faced with accomplishing the same thing with my digital photos. Dates aren't a problem; the camera records the proper file created-on time and date, which is preserved when I transfer them to my hard drive. The problem lies with the details.

At first, I tried using the file details inherent in Windows (2000). Right click on the file, select Properties and choose the Summary tab -- cool stuff: title, subject, keyword fields, etc.

However, when I tried burning the files to a CD, I got some warning message about there being multiple such-and-such or something-or-other and the extra data I entered under Summary was not preserved.

Okay, so maybe I'll use the features in ACDSee. There's a simple field in the file list that will allow you to enter a short description. But, it's highly restrictive to try to fit everything on one line.

Now, there's something else in ACDSee similar to the Summary info described above. Right click on a file within ACDSee and select Properties, and you'll get Database Info. But, that information is not stored with the file itself, but within an ACDSee-specific database file. With this, of course, my fear is switching to some other program in the future and not being able to transfer over my file details. (Version 4 is already sick with feature overkill; I still use 3.1.)

Anyone have any other ideas?

Option a) There is a nice linux tool called glimpse that not only stores additional information, but let's you search in the images itself (ie you give it an example image, it finds similar ones, stunts like this). Free Open Source Software, actually.
Pro: Very powerful
Con: You'll need a linuxbox somewhere to run it.

option b) I'd write myself a quick little php application that handles the storage and search of the additional information. just use the (I hope unique) filename as the key.
Don't forget to make backups from time to time (using phpmyadmin to pull out the data from the sql database).

Pros:
-Stores exactly what you want to store
-It's available from anywhere
-easy & fast to develop
-you can search without having to enter one cd after the other
(hey, it even could store thumbnails... but that depends on the amount of diskspace your sever has. (a pspong thumbnail has around 3 kb each.)
Cons:
-It's on a webserver
-Someone has do develop it
-Not associated with the file.
-Your webhost might burn down. Make backups of the database(phpmyadmin would help)

so long,

Tyberius Prime

did you know that you can view a lot of details for multimedia-files in windows explorer? (WinXP)

go to: View -> select Details (dont know the exact english) and select the details you want like resolution, author, title, copyright, ...

In Photoshop right click the title bar in an open image and you get 'File Info' you can put a *ton* of information in there...viewing a slideshow sort of thing wouldn't be that great I don't think... The other thing I've been looking into, for a friend who has a nursery (plants) is using 'access' to catalogue all her plants. You can somehow save images in access but I haven't yet figured it out. Then of course you do have the option of incorporating the info directly onto the bottom of the image and there it is every time you view it

"(Version 4 is already sick with feature overkill; I still use 3.1.)"
Amen to that! Pretty soon it's going to be a matter of getting ACDSee 3.1 to be able to view the newer PSD files and other emerging advanced image things.

I don't think there is a way to embed keywords and what-not in image formats. If I remember correctly, the only JPEG supports some extra info, but not much.

Almost anyway you look at it, you are going to have to have a seperate file that is software specific. Choose wisely, Grasshopper.

Open them in PS , expand the canvas size ( down) and add a list of appropriate details in the new space. Save as .tiffs ( no loss). Not searchable, but always there and can be cropped out later when you use them...

TP - Sounds good, but I was hoping not to learn a new OS or how to program PHP to do this.

Grumble - Yeah, I mentioned that, but for some reason the info you enter there won't burn to a CD along with the file.

NoJive - I hadn't really thought about File Info. The only problem is that the images are already JPGs and resaving them as TIFFs would take up a lot more disk space.

db - The key there is that it's not searchable, which defeats one of the reasons I want to add the info.

NoJive mentioned using Access, which I used to use to catalog my video tapes until a bad crash wiped out my files. (Let's not discuss my failure to back them up.) Does anyone know a practical way of using it for this application? Ideally, I wanted to be able to go easily from one image to the next, entering information (like one would with ACDSee). If it becomes too much of a chore, I'll end up avoiding the task and regretting it later.

The file info option is usually the best way to go. We use it at the newspaper and magazine level to maintain all of our archives.

It is usually supported by the main photo cataloguing software packages. I would check out extensis' Portfolio or Canto's Cumulus. They both support IPTC metadata.

Heres the best part: If you use photoshop 7 this metadata is available in the new file browser. This feature could have been implemented a little better, but it does work.

As long as the photo stays a jpeg this data will travel with it, even when you put it on the internet. This can be helpful with copyright disputes.

-tiki, cell 478

[This message has been edited by tikigod (edited 08-02-2002).]

Extensis Portfolio is great, so is Cumulus if you are very serious about managing your assets. http://www.extensis.com/portfolio/

Those both look like good options. $200 for Portfolio seems kind of steep, though. Anybody know if the trial version stops working after 30 days or does it just start annoying you?