Photo import and management, what do you use?

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

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Just a general question really, what do you guys all use to import photos off your cameras onto the PC and managed them (rename, organize, etc)?

For me I used to just use the standard XP Camera wizard (and Bulk Rename Utility), but since moving to Vista I’ve gone off it as it no longer has the ability to preview the photos first so you can select them in groups.

I’ve now been looking at alternatives; I’m not keen on the EOS util that came with my 400D and have just downloaded a preview copy of Adobe Lightroom.

So far Lightroom seems a very fluid way to work with images, loving the basic touch up tools and the fact that it doesn’t update the actual file. Will try and test the import functionality tonight.

PS. I’m guessing there may already be a thread for this but without search I can’t dig it up.
 
Lightroom all the way here, copy & import straight from memory card, touch up in Lightroom & add finishing touches in Photoshop (lanched from within lightroom). Lightroom does all the file management and it works a treat.
 
I <3 Lightroom now I've had a chance to play with it properly.

I keep all my originals on an external hard drive then import into Lightroom, then export as full size TIF's, run them through DXO optics, save again in seperate folder then resize and save again in another folder, bit over the top but saves me a lot of hassle trying to find stuff.
 
Lightroom! Its the best thing since sliced bread. (Infact it might even be better than sliced bread.) All my importing and storing is done in Lightroom, as well as most of my basic image editing. Any sharpening, dodging and burning is then done in Photoshop.
 
Been playing with Lightroom a little more and I'm very impressed, only a couple of minutes spent on each of these images but a fair few adjustments to just give a slight change in look giving me an idea of what can be done so quickly.

Original
Frank01.jpg

LR Edit
Frank01_LR_Edit.jpg


Original
Frank02.jpg

LR Edit (with a quick blast in PS for the clone tool)
Frank02_LR_Edit.jpg


Only thing is the adjustments are limitless so I guess its knowing when to just stop and leave an image alone.
 
I import using Finepix, purely to save them. I then 'manage' them in Explorer and Picasa. Seeing this thread has prompted me to download and try Lightroom for 30 days.
 
lord_scott said:
Lightroom all the way here, copy & import straight from memory card, touch up in Lightroom & add finishing touches in Photoshop (lanched from within lightroom). Lightroom does all the file management and it works a treat.
Click to expand...

Interesting...I've not used it (had it for a while now), how does it organise the folders and photos ?
 
Raymond Lin said:
Interesting...I've not used it (had it for a while now), how does it organise the folders and photos ?
Click to expand...
You can import your existing directory structure and continue to work with that. As long as you do all the file moving in Lightroom you'll be fine, it can resync moves made externally but it tends to lose any adjustments you've made. If you use the optional sidecar metadata files you can avoid this but they make Lightroom really slow.
 
maybe someone can help me out here...

all my photos are organised into folders by the day they were taken. often i'll put the location or something that means something to me into the folder title.

now, a lot of my pictures cross into different categories - i'm looking for something i can use for browsing my pictures, that will view all the pictures as one big album, but then allow me to filter certain images.

for example, if i type in Liverpool - it will show me all my images that i've taken there. Obivously the software would need to add 'tags' to the images, probably in the comment section of the EXIF

anything like that exist, or should i get coding? :D
 
i'll look into it, i didn't want to start installing stuff that wouldn't do the basics that i wanted. i do shoot in raw, so lightroom does sound worth a look.
 
Nikon Viewer for my importing and general browsing. Great bit of software for viewing and very fast.

The all editing done in photohsop. I tried lightroom but didn't find it that great to be honest. It lacks things from photoshop that I use so I always used photoshop as well, so LR just became a glorified image viewer, but for my basic needs Nikon View wee's all over it!
 
As of today (after watching about 3 hours of video Tutorial last night), LIGHTROOM 100%, tweak some in PS if needed but Lightroom 1.1 can do pretty much everything a photographer wants.
 
Raymond Lin said:
As of today (after watching about 3 hours of video Tutorial last night), LIGHTROOM 100%, tweak some in PS if needed but Lightroom 1.1 can do pretty much everything a photographer wants.
Click to expand...
I hear that a lot but just could not see it myself! Maybe I need to go back to it incase I was missing something!?
 
My Computer > Memory card > Select all > Drag to folder on "Photos" HDD > Drop in folder.

I don't like using software to import...don't know why really, I just prefer doing it that way.
 
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