What's the best software for managing over 100,000 photos?
What do the pros use?
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M$13 Answers
ACD See Pro 3 features include:
- Super fast search
- It retains all metadata/EXIF data on move, copy and manipulation
- Simple non-destructive photo editing features (exposure, color correction, clarity & geometry)
- Tagging, Albums, Categories
- Extremely simple to organize photos
- Rename photos in bulk / batch processes
- Add watermarks, text & captions
- Easy upload to ACDSee Online
- Display Histogram/Levels of photos
- Powerful backup utility, for storing photos & data
- The image previews load extremely fast
- Customizable interface, thumbnail size, and visible tools
There's also a slim version for regular home usage which excludes some of the editing features, and the online publishing.
(This is for windows, but there's a beta "Pro for Mac" available - link in the below sources)
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M$
Traditionally, they use either Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture
http://www.adobe.com/mena/products/photoshoplightroom/
http://www.apple.com/aperture/
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Since you already know the controls and functions of Aperture, you'll feel more at home with Aperture.
iPhoto reportedly has a limit of 250,000 photos. I suspect that you're shooting mostly family and candid event pictures so my suggestion is to archive your iPhoto library and photos into years. By doing this, you'll have your most recent photos on hand. If you want to take a trip down memory lane, it's as easy as telling iPhoto which old archive to open and you'll have access to your photos.
Here is a tutorial that describes how to backup an iPhoto library to an external drive and change the path for iPhoto to look in. Doing this and then deleting the original iPhoto Library folder will accomplish an archive. http://basics4mac.com/article.php/move_iphoto_lib
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Professionals consider this a problem of workflow rather then software. Any piece of software will become overloaded when you try to index hundreds of thousands of photos. Even the fastest computers running the best code will slow down when you throw a ton of large images at them.
I have solved this problem by using Adobe Lightroom. I tried Aperture but found that my workflow along with the Lightroom's integration with Photoshop made it the best choice. Every time that I take a set of Photos (say a trip to Disney), I create a folder (say, Disney 2010). In lightroom, I select the best photos, develop them, and save my "Lightroom Catalog" for that set in the folder along with the images. I upload the finished photos to Flickr for public consumption and consider the set done. When I want to view all of the photos again (not just the ones on Flickr), I open up the Lightroom Catalog and the entire set of photos opens up. I store all of my photos on a Drobo RAID network attached array so that I don't have to worry about loosing any.
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So, the pro's use Aperture or Lightroom. You don't need to switch out of iPhoto if you don't want to. Whatever you decide, you'll need to think about your workflow more then the software that you use.
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If web based applications are OK, smugmug.com's web based service is used by a large number of professional photographers and offers unlimited photo storage (though not free). 988,641,305 of them are open for browsing according to their advertising.
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M$
Lightroom (from Adobe) is another good choice - arguably better in some ways (mostly with regards to editing of images, rather than simple digital asset management). It's also cross platform, so it's also available for windows, and I believe almost identical UI-wise. Integrates with the Adobe suite better as well, of course.
There's a 30 day trial available for both Lightroom and Aperture. Aperture is a *little* cheaper to buy as well, but not so much that that would be a significant factor in your decision.
My suggestion: Aperture.
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One of my favourite plugins is the GPX importer which pulls in data from apps likes MotionX for the iPhone and places your photos on locations that correlate with times and dates of the iPhone and the Camera.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The best-regarded is Expressions Media 2, which was recently sold by Microsoft to PhaseOne. Its easily capable of 100,000 items at a time. You can have multiple database files and share database files across a network. No server required. Another one is Portfolio, but I think Expression Media is the class leader right now.
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M$
GraphicConverter came installed on a premium Mac from Apple. You can keep using the free versions from http://www.lemkesoft.com/download.html
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$My own experience as a professional photographer in the Orlando area from 2005 onward
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M$User
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
See dragon, acquired by microsoft, and it is a "zooming" technology
http://zoom.it/
or photosynth http://photosynth.net/about.aspx
and other splicing technologies that allow your photos to have a certain... connection that are missed trough the legacy method for keeping and storing photos. Though I can't say I've tested it for sorting and organizing, but the TED talk was wicked cool.
-jjj
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