Organize Your Photo Collection
Has your photo collection gone from large to unmanageable? Here's help.Dave Johnson
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Feature: Organize Your Photo Collection
At some point a few years back, I realized that my digital photo collection had gone from large, about a thousand images, to unmanageably huge--almost 10,000 pictures.
In the old days, I could keep track of my photos by arranging them into logically named folders. But with dozens and dozens of subfolders in the My Pictures folder, it was simply no longer possible to quickly drill into the right location to find the picture I need. And let's face it, having to root through several folders in search of a single item is a bad way to work. To solve the problem, I migrated to photo organizer software.
Pick a Photo Organizer
You have many programs to choose from; here are some of the most popular:
A Single View
What makes photo management programs special is that they allow you to break free from the limitations of folders and see all of your pictures in a single, unified view. That way you can scroll through all your image files as if they were stored in a single folder--even if they're scattered across 50 different locations on your drive--making your photos easier to locate.
Use Keywords for Convenience
Even better, most photo organizers use keywords or tags to help you zero in on your photos more efficiently. A keyword, also called a tag, is a kind of metadata--any word or phrase that you assign to a photo to help describe it. So a picture of a family photo during the holidays might contain any of these keywords: family, holiday, kids, snow.
The keywords you assign to your photos are entirely up to you, so your photo organizer works just the way you want it to.
I know what you're thinking: That sounds like a lot of work. You're right, it can take a few hours to keyword your existing images. But once they're done, they're done. And it'll be a lot easier to find what you want later. But don't think that you have to type all of these keywords in by hand. Let me show you how it's done with two of the most popular photo organizers: Adobe Photoshop Album and Microsoft Digital Image Suite.
In Adobe Photoshop Album, there's a Tags pane on the right side of the screen. Find the category you want to add a new tag to (say, the People category) and right-click on the header. Choose Create New Tag in Category, name it, and click OK. Now drag a picture from the thumbnail view onto the tag you just created in the Tags pane. That automatically assigns the tag to the picture. You can drag multiple pictures at once, making it easy to assign the same keyword to a slew of photos at a time.
In Microsoft Digital Image Library, click the Keywords button in the toolbar to open the Keyword Painter. Add a new keyword by clicking at the top of the Painter window and typing a new name. Then select the keyword by clicking the check box and "paint" it on thumbnails to assign it.
You can assign any number of keywords to your photos, making it easy to zero in on just the images that interest you. And your keywords can be as general ("sunset," "camping") or as specific ("Ocean Beach sunset" or "my Ferrari's new paint job") as you like.
Dave's Favorites: Satellite Photos From Google
I never should have told my wife about Google Map. You see, she has something of a satellite photo obsession; when I told her about Keyhole's free trial last year, she lost hours of her life flying over her childhood homes from space. Now, it looks like Google could be fueling her habit: Its satellite maps are free.
Enter any street address in its Search field. A heartbeat later (depending on the speed of your connection), you'll see a computer-generated map with a pinpoint on your desired location. But click the Satellite link in the upper right corner of the screen, and you're treated to a high-resolution satellite map of the same locale. Zoom in, zoom out, pan around--it's fun!
Of course, these satellite photos are free, so there are some trade-offs. For example, you can't zoom in to the highest levels of detail, like you can with a commercial satellite photo site like Keyhole. But the pictures you do get look great. And you can get turn-by-turn directions with the route overlaid directly on the map. That's pretty neat, too. If you love satellite photos of the earth as much as my family does, try out Google's newest site.
Q&A: How Do I Resize Photos?
I've had a Nikon Coolpix 4500 for two years. While I'm still learning how to use all the features, I enjoy sharing my photos and would like to enter your contest. My question is this: Is there a way to take a photo on my computer and resave it in a different resolution, such as 640 by 480? I already have a few programs on my computer for editing pictures. Thanks!
--Valerie Mullgen, Dayton, Ohio
I get this question frequently, Valerie, so it's worthwhile to answer it here in the Q&A section every once in a while.
There are two ways to resize your photos. If you have Microsoft Windows XP and plan to send a picture via e-mail, just open the My Pictures folder, select the pictures you want to e-mail, and click "E-mail this file" from the File and Folder Tasks pane on the left side of the folder window. (If you don't see the File and Folder Task pane, click the Folders button on the button bar at the top of your screen.) A "Send Pictures via E-Mail" wizard will automatically resize the images for you.
A more all-purpose method is to use almost any photo editor--Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, Microsoft Digital Image Suite, even the free Irfanview can do it. In most programs, you'll find it in the Image, Resize menu. Set the dimensions that you want and be sure to click Save As; if you just click Save, you'll replace the original image with the new, smaller one.
Hot Pic of the Week
Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.
This Week's Hot Pic: "Tongue," by Peggy Shamp, Burnet, Texas
Peggy says that she captured this unusual portrait using a Nikon CoolPix 5700. This "pet shot" stands out from the crowd for its virtually three-dimensional tongue.