• The best program for sorting photos on your computer. Rating of the best programs for sorting photos on your computer

    Almost every person enjoying digital camera, Thousands, and maybe tens of thousands of different photographs have accumulated on the computer. Everyone stores this huge archive differently. Some people have many different folders in one directory with names or dates corresponding to photographs, while others have them all stored on different drives, network storages, in different folders and, quite possibly, some have long been forgotten in some folder named “New Folder” :)

    Of course, when several years of photographs are scattered all over your computer, the mere thought of organizing and searching for them causes negative feelings. But not everything is as bad as it seems at first glance :) Regardless of how you store your photos - The Google Picasa program will help you cope with all this archive. I will try to describe in detail the process of organizing a home photo archive when Google help Picasa.

    In just one hour you can achieve impressive results:

    1. Find all the photos on your computer, even those you forgot about.
    2. Organize them and learn how to quickly find the photos you need!

    Automatic search for all photos.

    Let's start from the first point. As I already wrote, to manage my home photo archive I use very convenient program Google Picasa. It is a free and very powerful photo manager. You can download it at official page: //picasa.google.ru/ . Installation of the program goes smoothly and calmly: launch installation file and agree with everything that we are offered to do.

    Before you start working with Google Picasa, remember two very important and useful things:

    Picasa does not store photos on your computer: When you open Picasa, it simply searches folders on your computer and displays the photos it finds. It displays files of specified types located in the folders selected for search. Source photos always saved: When using Picasa's editing tools, the original files remain intact. Changes you make to a photo are only viewable in Picasa until you decide to save them. Even so, Picasa creates new version photos from changes made, keeping the original file unchanged.

    So, when Google Picasa is installed, launch it. If all the photos on your computer are located in different folders or on different drives, then I recommend waiting for it to automatically search for photos on your computer.

    For example, all my photos are stored in one folder, so after launching I immediately indicated the folder with which the program should work. If you have the same situation, I recommend that you immediately go to the menu Tools -> Folder Manager and check the boxes only on those folders in which photos are stored.

    If you have photos scattered all over your computer, then you can do nothing but simply watch as Picasa finds all your photos and images.

    When the program performs a full scan of your computer, on the left side you will see many folders in which images and photographs were found. Initially, Picasa finds absolutely all the images on your computer.

    We sort and organize photos into collections.

    You need to clear this list yourself. To clear the list of photo folders:

    Finally, when the list of folders is cleared of all unnecessary things, you can combine the remaining directories into Collections. For example, in my archive I found several different folders from my vacation in 2012:

    In this form, the names of these folders are not very informative for me personally. So I combined them into one collection. To do this:


    Now all you have to do is view the entire list of folders and organize them into your collections.

    An unbridled desire to photograph anything and everything is typical of any owner of a digital camera. Therefore, on the computers of the vast majority of users (some of them modern users doesn’t take photographs?) quite quickly an unimaginable number of pictures accumulate, which are often located in randomly named folders and have meaningless names. Finding the right photo in such gigabyte photo jungles is quite difficult, because it is unrealistic to look through the entire photo archive every time. As a result, unique photographs that captured some memorable moments of life will most likely be lost among a host of other images.
    However, providing quick and convenient access to specific photos is not so difficult. To do this, you will need to think carefully about the system for storing images in your photo archive and involve specialized software tools.

    Storing pictures on a computer

    The first step is to clearly understand that storing all your pictures in a digital camera is not the most convenient and, of course, not the most reliable way. It is better to download photos to your computer after each photo shoot, and do this as soon as possible - while the memories of the events are still fresh in your memory. After this, it is wise to immediately get rid of bad shots - blurry photos, dimly lit photos, out of focus photos, etc. Of course, some of them can be improved by certain software tools, but if the same images are available best quality It’s clearly not worth spending time correcting shooting defects.

    Of course, when importing photos to your computer, it is better to dump them not into randomly created folders - otherwise, in the future you will spend a lot of time searching for the necessary pictures. It is necessary to develop some kind of hierarchical system for storing images (taking into account the nuances of a possible search), and then save the images in accordance with own system rules

    There are many options for organizing image storage in a photo archive. Most often, when distributing pictures into folders, they are guided by the calendar-geographical principle (in this case, the date and place appear in the folder name - for example, 2011_05_27_Crete) or they divide the pictures into folders, taking into account the events at which they were taken (for example, 2011_07_31_Birthday) - Fig. . 1. You can also take into account the subject of the pictures (landscapes, animals, flowers, etc.), etc. in the system. In general, each user will have his own version of the hierarchy in the photo archive, which depends on the significance of certain criteria for him.

    Rice. 1. Possible option
    photo archive folder structures

    In addition, it may be useful for searching if you tag photographs with keywords (family, vacation, corporate event, etc.), thereby combining them into virtual thematic collections. This will allow you to quickly identify (by filtering or otherwise - depending on what software tool will be used to solve this problem) images taking into account the keywords of interest. It’s faster to prescribe such keywords immediately during the process of importing images from the camera, although you can perform this operation later, after saving the photos to disk. Unfortunately, in any case, the initial process of assigning keywords will require some time and effort, although modern software allow you to assign keywords to groups of photos at once, which significantly speeds up the process. In addition, you need to approach the assignment of keywords thoughtfully - with an eye to the expected needs and, relying on the software tools that will be used to manage the photo archive.

    As for file names, not everything is clear here. It is advisable to use descriptive file names that can be used to easily identify what kind of image it is, since it is completely unrealistic to guess from the view name DSC_0705 that this is, say, a photo from a family vacation in Thailand. Therefore, it is better to rename pictures using a template. The type of template is determined by the nuances of the search. It seems to us preferable to include the date (possibly only the year and month) and frame number in the image name - for example, 2011-09-05_0015.jpg or 2011-09_0015.jpg (15th frame, taken on September 5, 2011 or in September 2011 ) - rice. 2. It is also possible to add the name of a place or event to the name of the photo - a variant of the name of a specific photo from the group in this case may look like: Thailand_2011-09_0015.jpg. Such renaming should be carried out in batch mode (manually renaming hundreds and thousands of files is completely unrealistic) - it is better during the process of importing files or immediately after loading them into a photo archive.

    Rice. 2. Batch renaming files

    When developing a hierarchical division of photographs, you should be guided by two important principles. Firstly, if possible, place photographs of the same type together - this will simplify orientation in the future. Secondly, each image must be added to the archive in a single copy, otherwise the volume of the archive will noticeably increase, and difficulties will also arise if it is necessary to edit images that have duplicates. It should also be noted that it is more convenient (both in terms of orientation and from the point of view of the intended backup) to store your photo archive on a separate disk or in its separate section (ideally on a separate external drive), where no other information will be saved.

    Photo management

    After setting up a hierarchical system for storing images on disk, you can manage your photo archive using a variety of software tools. The simplest and most accessible way is to use Windows 7 libraries. Libraries are essentially virtual folders in which files are combined regardless of their physical location. This makes it easier to find, use, and organize files on your computer or network. By default, libraries are designed to help you manage documents, music, images, and videos more efficiently, although you can use them to organize other files if you wish. Browsing files in libraries is done in the same way as in regular folders.

    In the case of working with your own photo archive, it makes sense to create a library specially designed for this, assign it an appropriate name (for example, “Photo Archive”), and then directly from Explorer indicate to Windows the range of folders that will contain new library(Fig. 3). It is worth noting that the specified folders with photos can be stored on various media (for example, on the hard drive of a desktop PC and an external hard drive), but, nevertheless, after placing them in the library it will be possible viewing corresponding images in one window. And this is not the only convenience - it will also be possible to organize files by properties (for example, by date, type, etc.), sort and group them according to a number of parameters, including keywords (Fig. 4).

    Rice. 3. Defining a range of folders for the created library in Windows 7

    Rice. 4. Grouping images based on keywords through libraries
    Windows 7

    You can go the other way - use the graphics viewer you like, which has minimal functionality for organizing photo collections - as a rule, support for categories, tags and ratings (similar capabilities are provided in many solutions of this kind). Which solution to choose is a matter of taste and wallet, since on the market you can find both recognized commercial products, and quite worthy alternatives free apps. As an example, let’s name one that is well known to most users paid program ACDSee and the increasingly popular free cross-platform viewer XnView. Both named software products designed for viewing, organizing and easy editing images.

    Working with images in these solutions is easy and convenient, since the developers have provided different options viewing images, included simple tools for performing basic editing operations, thought through functionality for convenient exchange pictures, etc. As for organizing a photo archive and getting quick access to images of interest, the possibilities here, of course, are more impressive than in the libraries of Windows 7 (that’s why there is specialized software!). Thus, rating images allows you to assign each image a certain value in terms of its value (for example, quality), thanks to which in the future it will be possible to quickly find the most popular original images. The use of color marks also simplifies organization - with such marks, for example, you can mark images at different stages of the workflow (in some colors - original images, in others - images after correction, in others - images selected for printing, etc.) - Fig. . 5. No less convenient is the use of categories, thanks to which you can instantly find images belonging to a specific category or even several at once (Fig. 6).

    Rice. 5. Use custom color markers to highlight photos
    in ACDSee

    Rice. 6. Quick Receipt access to images from two categories at once in XnView

    As a rule, even more convenient option Photo archive management is provided by photo organizers, which are designed to organize and sort digital photographs. Therefore, it is not surprising that these products have more advanced capabilities for organizing photo collections and quickly searching for images in them. There are many similar solutions on the market. Some of them (such as Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, ACDSee Pro Photo Manager, etc.) are quite expensive, difficult to learn and focused on professional photographers. At the same time, home users also have nothing to complain about - they have at their disposal numerous compact and easy-to-learn applications that are affordable or even free. Examples of such programs include Zoner Photo Studio, PicaJet and Picasa.

    Cataloging pictures using photo organizers is as easy as shelling pears - just place each photo immediately in its designated logical catalog category (Fig. 7) or first in shared storage, and then assign categories to the images (often with the ability to highlight different categories with icons), ratings and tags, and also assign keywords (this will determine whether the images belong to specific logical groups). Note that you can assign keywords to all selected images at once and not just one keyword at a time (Fig. 8) - this significantly reduces the complexity of this operation.

    Rice. 7. Adding files from disk to the PicaJet category

    Rice. 8. Assigning keywords in Zoner Photo Studio

    All this will allow you to quickly find the photos you need in the future by searching, filtering, sorting and grouping. Of particular note is the ability to take into account keywords when searching and filtering, which makes it possible to perform complex search queries(taking into account not only one, but also several keywords) - fig. 9. In particular, by manipulating keywords, you can easily find in the depths hard drives all photographs with a sunset on the river, a son on a bicycle, temples during restoration, blossoming apple trees, etc., even if you took photographs of such objects along the way, many times and at different times.

    Rice. 9. Quick search based on keywords in Zoner Photo Studio

    Briefly about the products

    ACDSee 14.3

    Developer: ACD Systems

    Distribution size: 71.8 MB

    Work under control: Windows XP(SP2)/Vista/7

    Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo - http://www.acdsee.com/en/free-trials)

    Price:$29.99

    ACDSee is a world-famous graphics viewer (Fig. 10), aimed at both professionals and home users. Includes tools for quick and convenient viewing files in a wide variety of graphic formats, as well as audio and video files and archives. In addition to viewing graphics, this solution can be used for editing and cataloging images, batch processing files, duplicate search, online image sharing, etc.

    Rice. 10. Working with images in ACDSee

    Cataloging in ACDSee is based on the use of categories, ratings and multi-colored labels. Categories are created manually (there is a predefined list of base categories) and can be nested; For better orientation, categories are highlighted with different icons. The ratings in this program are basic, but the labels can be edited, which allows you to separate images into logical groups in accordance with personal tasks. There is support for keywords and geotags, it is possible to edit EXIF ​​and IPTC data. Imported into categories are images from the most different devices: hard drive, CDs, digital cameras, flash drives, scanners, etc. Batch renaming of files is supported. With one click you can send selected from different places according to some principle, files into the so-called Image Basket for further editing or exchange. When viewed, images appear as thumbnails, full screen, or as a slideshow; If necessary, individual fragments of the image can be easily viewed in enlarged form using a magnifying glass. Get more quick access It's easy to get to the photos you need using sorting, grouping, and filtering based on image size, date, rating, tags, EXIF ​​data, categories, and keywords.

    The editing panel built into the program, in addition to supporting basic operations (rotation, cropping, etc.), will help correct the image exposure, adjust levels and curves, color correction, get rid of red-eye and noise, and also apply standard filters to the image. These operations can be performed not only on single images, but also on several images at once in batch mode. Tools are provided for comparing images and converting them to others raster formats. In addition, ACDSee allows you to burn pictures to CD/DVDs, combine them into slideshows, PDF files and web albums, and easily share images by uploading them to social media, to FTP servers, etc.

    Zoner Photo Studio 14

    Developer: Zoner Software

    Sizedistribution: Zoner Photo Studio Free- 26.7 MB; Zoner Photo Studio Pro - 87.7 MB

    Work under control: Windows XP(SP2)/Vista/7

    Distribution method: Zoner Photo Studio Free - freeware; two other editions - shareware, 30-day demo version (http://www.zoner.com/ww-en/download-free-photo-program)

    Price: Zoner Photo Studio Home - $34.99, Zoner Photo Studio Pro - $69.99, Zoner Photo Studio Free - Free

    Zoner Photo Studio is a recently launched but already well-proven program for managing, editing, and organizing photos. sharing to them (Fig. 11). Possibilities this decision are impressive, many functions were implemented by developers with an eye on professional products, in particular Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The program is presented in three editions: free Zoner Photo Studio Free and two commercial ones - Zoner Photo Studio Home and Zoner Photo Studio Pro. The capabilities of the free edition are limited to basic functionality. In addition, this edition does not have a 64-bit version and does not support GPU acceleration or dual-monitor operation.

    Rice. 11. Organizing a photo collection in Zoner Photo Studio

    Zoner Photo Studio allows you to create a photo archive in the form of a set of albums based on an existing folder structure or manually. Albums have an unlimited nesting level, and the easiest way to create them is by dragging the corresponding folders with pictures from the Explorer window onto the “Albums” folder of the program navigator. You can replenish your photo archive directly from devices (from camera memory cards, scanners, etc.), as well as by obtaining images from websites, PDF files, etc. When viewing images, they are displayed in the form of icons or thumbnails; to speed up access to the images of interest, it is easy to use sorting, built-in search and filtering. When filtering and searching, EXIF ​​data, keywords, service text information(title, description, etc.), as well as ratings, tags and GPS coordinates (the latter are entered manually or read from Google maps). Possibility provided batch renaming files according to the template.

    The editing capabilities are also impressive and will interest both beginners and advanced users. The former may be limited to basic functions (rotation, cropping, alignment, automatic improvement images), and the latter will be interested in using such advanced editing functions as adjusting levels, editing colors, improving exposure, reducing noise, etc. Any changes can be applied not only to one, but also to several images at once in batch mode. There is also functionality for converting images from RAW formats to raster formats and editing EXIF ​​data. It's easy to combine your favorite photos into a PDF slideshow or convert them into a postcard, and even create 3D and HDR images. As for publishing, it is worth noting the creation of web galleries, recording DVD presentations, printing (using templates and photo calendars), sending email, as well as uploading to Facebook, Flickr and Picasa web albums.

    PicaJet 2.6

    Developer: Picajet.com

    Distribution size: PicaJet FX - 5.91 MB; PicaJet Free - 4.81 MB

    Work under control: Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/7

    Distribution method: PicaJet Free - freeware; PicaJet FX - shareware, 15-day demo version (http://www.picajet.com/ru/index.php?page=download)

    Price: PicaJet FX - 490 rub.

    PicaJet is a convenient and very easy-to-use program for cataloging image collections (Fig. 12). It is presented in two editions: free PicaJet Free and commercial PicaJet FX. The free edition includes only a basic set of functions - in particular, the creation of categories is not provided, the sorting and search capabilities are more than limited, etc., so we do not recommend choosing PicaJet Free to manage large and complex archives. The commercial edition has everything you need for effective organization photo archives set of functions, and it may well suit most home users.

    Rice. 12. Managing your photo collection in PicaJet

    To organize a photo archive, PicaJet uses categories that are created automatically when adding images based on the existing folder structure and/or based on IPTC data, or manually. The nesting level of categories is not limited. You can add pictures to the collection from a digital camera, scanner, webcam, CD/DVD disks, etc. hard folders disk. To speed up the process of including images in the photo archive, you can use hot keys; You can also quickly import images from Explorer by dragging and dropping. In order to better identify categories, they can be assigned a variety of icons. Categories are assigned during import or manually by simply dragging a group of images onto a category. There is functionality for batch renaming of selected files based on templates. If necessary, it is easy to add a description and/or rating to the selected images. Photos can be viewed with grouping and/or sorting by date, rating, import time, etc.; It is possible to display pictures when viewing them as a slideshow.

    The editing plan includes operations such as cropping and rotation, red-eye removal, sharpness adjustment, auto-correction, etc. Supports quick correction of several images with one click, as well as resizing them and converting them to another graphic format"on the fly". You can print photos in popular formats (including 9x13, 13x18, 10x15), as well as edit metadata (EXIF and IPTC). As for sharing, it is worth noting the presence of functionality for creating photo galleries for publication on a website, burning photo collections to CDs, sending photos to mobile phone, as well as optimizing photos for sending them by e-mail.

    Picasa 3.9

    Developer: Google

    Distribution size: 14.5 MB

    Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7

    Distribution method: freeware (http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa39-setup.exe)

    Price: for free

    Picasa is a popular tool for organizing, viewing and simply editing photos (Fig. 13), which has gained fame in no small part due to its close integration with Picasa web albums. Such integration expands the possibilities of sharing pictures with other users, and this is a definite plus. And the functionality of this program as a whole is at the level. However, the way the developers implemented images is not very successful, in our opinion. In addition, the application is quite resource-intensive and comes with a very mediocre help system.

    Rice. 13. Organizing a photo archive in Picasa

    Picasa uses albums to catalog images; nested albums cannot be created. Albums are filled manually, by sorting out images found after scanning or importing, which takes a lot of time from the user. Scanning hard drives starts when you first start the program, and by default all hard drives computer, which is quite long - better this process interrupt, manually adjust the list of scanned directories through the folder manager and start scanning again. Photos from hard drives are added to photo collections automatically as scanning progresses, in addition, you can add pictures manually by importing images from cameras, CDs, memory cards, scanners, webcams, etc. In addition to albums, Picasa has another cataloging tool - the People collection. With its help, photographs are cataloged according to the people depicted on them with the connection of facial recognition technology. This collection is created in a semi-automatic mode - faces in all photographs are automatically recognized, and the user then needs to indicate the persons of interest to him in the photographs to create albums corresponding to them. When viewing, images are displayed in normal mode or in the form of a slideshow, taking into account given option sorting (by name, date, etc.). To speed up access to the photos you need, you can mark your favorite photos using tags, and also use tags - they resemble keywords and allow you to later easily find photos through the built-in search. You can also specify geographic data to link images to Google map Earth.

    Built-in editing tools allow you to resize photos, rotate them, crop them, and also perform a number of image correction operations (red-eye removal, straightening, adjusting contrast and color balance, etc.). In addition, it is possible to rename several photos and batch edit them, as well as online image editing using the Picnik.com service. There is functionality for printing photos in basic formats, as well as editing EXIF ​​data. If you wish, it is easy to create a photo collage from selected photographs, burn the photographs to a CD, create a video by combining photos into a slideshow, or publish them on Blogger. You can also share your albums with others after you add them to Picasa Web Albums.

    XnView 1.99.1

    Developer: Pierre E Gougelet

    Distribution size: 4.36 MB

    Work under control: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/Vista/7; There are versions for Mac OS X and Linux

    Distribution method: freeware (http://www.xnview.com/en/download.html)

    Price: free (for private non-commercial or educational use)

    XnView is a free cross-platform viewer of images and other multimedia files (Fig. 14) with support for a very large number of formats (on at the moment- more than 500). The program allows you to easily view, process and convert image files, and is also equipped with a number of additional functions, including availability simple tools for organizing photo collections.

    Rice. 14. Working with a collection of images in XnView

    Photo archive management in XnView is based on the use of categories, the nesting of which is unlimited. Assigning categories to images is done manually and is possible for all selected or tagged files at once. You can add pictures to the photo archive from disk, as well as from scanners and digital cameras. In addition to supporting categories, you can assign ratings, color tags, and labels to make it easier to navigate among multiple images. When viewing photos, you are allowed to enable sorting by date, rating, format, width/height, orientation, description, comment, etc.; You can view selected pictures in slideshow mode. Implemented in the program is a built-in search, taking into account basic parameters images, including EXIF ​​and IPTC data. It is possible to batch convert and batch rename files.

    The utility is equipped basic set functions for image editing (including reducing size, rotating, cropping), allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, gamma and color balance, has tools for automatic settings levels, eliminating red-eye, applying simple filters and effects, etc. Many operations can be applied to a group of images at once in batch mode. IPTC data can be edited. If necessary, the XnView utility can also be used to compare images, print files, create panoramic images, take screenshots, generate multi-page files and web pages, and a number of other actions.

    Conclusion

    Everyone’s photo archives are different, as are the requirements for working with them, but for all users, searching for the necessary images in the archive takes a lot of time. It can be dramatically accelerated only by proper organization of the photo collection, which implies a well-thought-out catalog system in the archive and the use of specialized software tools.

    Each user chooses the hierarchical system himself, based on the subject of the images and his own priorities - the main thing here is that you are comfortable. As for the software tools, it all depends on the user’s requirements in terms of cataloging and the complexity of the intended search. There will be enough opportunities for some Windows libraries 7 or simple free viewer, others will prefer more functional paid solutions: popular program to view ACDSee or one of the reviewed photo organizers, among which we found the Zoner Photo Studio program to be the most convenient for cataloging.


    August 18, 2016

    Arriving from vacation or returning home after a weekend filled with pleasant moments - which, of course, were captured in photos - you once again vow to sort all the pictures into folders. The next oath you make to yourself about the same thing is when you urgently need to find “that photo of Aunt Marina, where she is at Uncle Leni’s birthday with a cactus and wearing a hat.” And one more - when you decide to illustrate your story about a change in your vacation spot compared to last year, but you still can’t find the right photo in a dozen of last year’s folders.

    In the meantime, it won’t take much time to systematize the archive. And in most cases, you don’t even have to do this manually. You just need to turn to programs and applications for help that will do everything for you. Well, or almost everything. And today we present programs for organizing photo archives on a computer.

    Daminion STANDARTLONE 4.6.

    Daminion works with photo catalogs. This means that you need to manually specify the path to the folders with images. At the same time, Daminion remembers relative paths to files, so when you transfer photos to another drive, all data in the directory will be preserved.

    As soon as the files are added to the directory, they are displayed in the program window in the form of thumbnails with captions. In the signature you can see basic information about the file: name, resolution, size, shutter speed, ISO. In addition, each thumbnail contains tools for organization: you can quickly set a rating, tag the image, add keywords, set a color tag, and view detailed metadata.

    If you select an image, you can see more information about it in the Properties panel. There is also an opportunity to supplement this information: indicate the people who are depicted in it, the event during which the photograph was taken, the location where it was taken, the category. For professional photographers, fields such as “Project”, “Client”, “Copyright” are provided. All changes to tags are synchronized with file metadata, so information about files is always presented both in the database and in the files themselves.

    Daminion works not only with graphic files, but also with video, PDF documents. At the same time, the program is optimized for working with very large collections of images (the test database consists of 500 thousand images), so you don’t have to worry about the stability of its work when adding new files. By the way, for convenience, you can use several independent directories that can be opened in the program simultaneously, each on a separate tab.

    There is a Russian interface. The single-user version of Daminion is free - install.

    IMatch 5.5

    This program works with photo databases that need to be manually filled with content. The processes of creating a database and importing images are implemented in the form of a wizard. By default, in the program window the database is sorted into folders. It is also possible to view by category, by saved search templates, by the history of selected files, and so on.

    The main advantage is the support for scripts, thanks to which you can connect almost any function to the program that is not implemented in it by default. For example, there are scripts for managing file versions, for finding files that have been tagged incorrectly, for checking the correctness of names, and others.

    Scripts do not have to be created manually - there are many useful additions have already been written by other users of the program and are available on the forum. In addition, there is a periodic reminder about the need to create a backup copy.

    Suitable for everyone Windows versions, but does not contain a Russian interface. Distribution is shareware: you can test the program for a month and decide whether you need to purchase it. If necessary, prepare $110. Installation link – .

    MyPhotoIndex v 1.24.3352

    MyPhotoIndex is inferior in functionality to its more advanced competitors, but it is very simple, and the user does not need to rack his brain for a long time about where to find this or another option - they are all at hand.

    The program offers organization of photos by categories, by tags and by rating. Tags can be added to the slice when importing images into the program database, and several tags that are used most often are already added by default. With one click, photos can be uploaded to Facebook, Flickr and other services. Using built-in search tools, the user can search for photos by tags, by title and other criteria.

    The program is provided in the English version, distributed free of charge - download.

    Google Picasa

    If suddenly someone has the Picasa application from Google saved a long time ago, it’s time to take it out, dust it off and use it. It is free and Russified, and very, very simple.

    After the first launch, Picasa scans all hard drives, after which you can see thumbnails in the program window. Using the Folder Manager tool, you can set your own options for each directory: scan once, delete from Picasa, or scan constantly. In the latter case, the program will monitor the folder, and when new photographs appear, they will be automatically added to Picasa.

    During the scanning process, Picasa sorts your photos into folders, and folders by date. Thus, if you remember the approximate time of shooting, you can quickly find the folder with the necessary photographs. In addition, Picasa has the concept of albums. You can enter photos into them manually. The application also groups faces by similarity, creates shared photo albums with one person (collections), and can exclude duplicate files.

    Now instead of Picasa it is offered Google app Photo.

    Google Photo

    This application will not be able to find all the photos on your computer scattered in folders - you will have to collect everything manually. Or use a Windows client. The application will help you choose best pictures from the series, when using a web resource, allows you to configure the privacy of a number of photos. But on the computer there are no privacy settings, so pictures that someone should not see will have to be hidden manually.

    In principle, the application is simple and clear, but Picasa was better...

    Now that you know how to organize your archive, you will have more time for pleasant memories. And remember: photos scattered in unclear places are just as useless as deleted ones.

    I have accumulated a huge number of photos from smartphones. I have to change smartphones often, because for each review I always use new smartphone as the main phone to reveal all the features and nuances.

    I finally found a way to rename and organize tens of thousands of photos.


    Different smartphones give names to photographs different principles- some taking into account the date and time of shooting, others simply calling them DSC_0001, DSC_0002, etc.

    At first I wanted to simply rename the files according to their date, but it turned out that sometimes when transferred to a computer, the date is lost and replaced with the current one.

    Fortunately, in JPG files there is EXIF ​​- a block of information with shooting parameters, which contains, in particular, the date and time of shooting.

    The task boiled down to the fact that you need to rename all photo files so that the name contains the date and time of shooting from EXIF, and at the same time change the date of all files, restoring the shooting date. There was a program on the Internet that can do this: Exifer - http://www.exifer.friedemann.info/index.htm#Download.

    It's simple: Choose the desired folder, select all files (Edit - Select All or Ctrl+A), go to rename - (Edit - Rename/redate and copy or Ctrl+N), check the box "Redate (by EXIF ​​date fields)" and start the process with the OK button.

    All selected files in the folder will be renamed and their date/time will accurately reflect the shooting date and time. For some reason when large quantities files, the program cannot process several files, as reported. But it doesn’t matter - it’s enough to re-run the conversion for these files.

    This can also be automated: the exiftool program http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/, running in command line, knows how to organize all photos into folders by year, month and day of shooting.

    exiftool "-Directory" command

    exiftool "-Directory" command

    Renaming all photos according to the date and time they were taken and organizing them into folders with dates will turn a huge photo trash into a convenient archive. Try it! It takes very little time.

    2016, Alexey Nadezhin

    The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share my experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. I also make reports from interesting places and talk about interesting events.
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    Nowadays, computer technology has freed us from the need to store photographs in huge albums on shelves. Now photographs are stored digitally, occupying gigabytes on computer hard drives. A huge number of “New Folders” sometimes make it difficult to quickly find the desired image in the photo archive. We decided to talk about the best programs for sorting photos on your computer, thanks to which searching and viewing photos will be nothing but pleasure.

    TOP 7 best programs for sorting photos on your computer.

    This image viewer is lightweight and allows you to edit photo. IrfanView does not overload the system thanks to only the necessary options and a simple design. The application's performance makes it ideal for use on home PCs. Other benefits:

    • Ability to work with all image formats.
    • Function of adding audio and video files.
    • Convenient options for minor editing (removing red eyes, adding effects, etc.).
    • Batch moving and converting files.
    • Slideshow in a convenient mode.
    • Clear interface.
    • Ability to take screenshots and crop photos.

    In addition, the application is completely free.

    This utility allows you to work with an image database and organize photos on your computer. Daminion is designed like a catalog and stores images even when they are moved to another location. Pros:

    • Convenient display in the form of signed sketches.
    • A complete summary of information about each image (size, extension, exposure, etc.).
    • Various functions (pictures can be tagged, rated, added keywords, etc.).
    • The ability to add information about pictures and indicate the place, people in it, and category.
    • The presence of “Client” or “Project” fields, which is especially convenient for professional photographers.
    • Advanced search (the program searches not only by folders and shooting date, but also, for example, by the camera used, geo-tag and other parameters).

    Daminion is stable even with huge catalogs of images.

    This file manager allows you not only to organize your photos on your computer, but also to convert them to any format. A rich set of tools and a user-friendly interface make the application very popular. Main advantages:

    • Huge number of supported formats.
    • Powerful converter.
    • Ability to work with a scanner.
    • Ease of creating albums, catalogs, slide shows and even HTML pages.
    • Ability to sort by shooting date, weight, name, etc.
    • Clear and easy to use interface.

    The program is free and suitable for both beginners and professionals in working with images. Batch editing and a set of filters are very appreciated by many users.

    Despite the very unfinished appearance of the program, IMatch is still popular among users for a number of reasons. The main one is the ability to connect all kinds of scripts to the utility that are not in the basic version. This allows you to customize the application to suit you. Add-ons are available for download on the forum. Advantages:

    • Stability even when working with huge image catalogs.
    • Reminders to create backups.
    • Convenient sorting of pictures.

    You've probably heard about this image browser. ACDSee has earned its popularity due to its speed, ease of use, and many printing options. In addition, the developers have focused on the interface: it is simple, understandable and equipped with tips at all stages of work. The graphic editor has basic options: applying effects, rotating, compressing and other simple functions. Main features:

    • Wide coverage of formats.
    • High performance with low system requirements.
    • Possibility of printing and recording files on media.
    • Convenient converter and editor.

    This version of the program is free, but there is also a paid version with advanced functionality.

    MyPhotoIndex 1.24 does not have such advanced functionality, but some advantages still make it popular. These include:

    • Open source program.
    • Simple interface and set of functions.
    • Organization of catalogs according to various parameters: tags, categories, ratings, etc.
    • Frequently used tags are added by default when loading into the database.
    • The ability to encrypt images and conveniently add them to sites and servers.

    In addition to the basic options for viewing and adjusting a photo, the utility has a very useful aspect of image recognition. The application scans your computer's hard drive and allows you to manage all found files in a very convenient way. Main advantages:

    • Easy to organize images.
    • Supports a large number of formats.
    • Possibility of batch work with files.
    • The function of setting a password for albums and folders.
    • Clear interface.

    Picasa is suitable for the average user whose goal is to put order in photo volumes, improve quality, create collages and other simple actions. Plus, the program is absolutely free.

    We looked at the most convenient, in our opinion, programs for organizing images. They all differ in their set of options, and each user will be able to choose what they need. What application do you use?