Photo Cataloging and Blindness

Syntactically, "I play by myself," and "I play with myself" aren't too dissimilar.  Their meanings, however, are, at least colloquially, quite different.  Likewise, the phrases "I manage my photographs on my computer," and "My computer manages my photographs," are similar, but can mean two different things.  Either way, with the ill-phrased sayings, the end result is that you might just go blind. 

I have set ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 loose on my system to catalog my photographs.  I wish it luck, as I've gone nearly blind organizing tiny thumbnails of photographs from folder to folder to make sure that the 8.5x11" photographs do not intermingle with the 8x10" ones or that the black and white photographs still have the same heirarchy as do the color photos.  The bottom line is that it's tedious and going through using Windows' meagre image viewer to discern whether a photograph is "good enough" can not only cause your vision to suffer, but your sanity, as well.

So, with that in mind -- do I recommend cataloging your photographs?  Duh.  Do I recommend ACDSee to assist you in cataloging your photographs on your computer?  I do, for the most part.  I've used ACDSee since it's initial release (how scary is THAT?!) and this version, thus far, is much easier to use to keep tabs on photos, as well as filter, arrange and label them.  This isn't a review of the product, though, but it is the software I have tried to use for my photo management, so it's what I'll be talking about.  As to why you would want to use this product or any other, think of it this way -- if you're like me, you take a lot of photos.  The most time-consuming part of the entire process is figuring out which shots to keep and which to throw into the shredder.  Also, if you're like me, you have a LOT of "incoming photos" which need to be further sorted, edited in PhotoShop or what-have-you, and then placed in its proper folder.  With photo management software this is a boatload easier and if you're using one of the Adobe Products (Album, Lightroom), it will do this just as well as ACDSee and it's also intertwined with PhotoShop, so that connection will seem much more seamless.

Since I began writing this entry, two things have become painfully  clear: Vista’s file management code was ripped straight from a Commodore 64’s kernel and ACDSee HATES cataloging more than 5,000 photographs at a time using Vista’s file management code.  It consistently explodes when dealing with the photos and usually dies around the number 5,651.  Sad.  Since this has come about, I sought out Extensis’ Portfolio 8.51.  It’s a solid program as well.  It’s not perfect, either, and can get very frustrating with the amount of room it will take up on your drive should you neglect to turn off the “create thumbnails” feature when generating your catalog.  When cataloging 10.5GB of bird photographs, I really don’t need 1.3GB in thumbnails…really.

So, the bottom line is that cataloging is a very good thing when it works and that it’s very difficult to get a good piece of software to do everything you want it to.  If you have one, great – stick with it.  If you don’t – get one.  It’s not quite as important as a backup program, especially if you already have a fairly organized directory hierarchy, as do I, but still, it DOES make it easier to have a piece of software whereby you can assign keywords and search on photo requirements.  I’ve rambled on long enough, and I hope a point has been made.  Until next time….