How Best To Organize Pics In Media Center?
Larry
Center to full advantage. Here's what I've got:
1: all original jpegs from digital camera stored on hard drive in
directory, arranged by date taken.
2: backups of above on cd
3: copies of all edited photos stored on hard drive, in chronological
order.
4: copies of above on cd
5: other images stored on cd only--not on hard drive.
Here is my question: should I create an individual album for each cd, and
also for the pics stored on the hard drive? That would result in my having,
perhaps, 20 albums.
One more question: I have not added captions or comments to any photos in an
album--primarily because I'm wondering what will happen if, say, my hard
drive crashed or I upgraded to another computer. Is there some way that I
can save my album information on a cd-rom, so I can restore it completely in
the event of a data problem?
Angela M. Cable
>
> I'm not the world's best organizer, and I can't figure out how to use Media
> Center to full advantage. Here's what I've got:
>
> 1: all original jpegs from digital camera stored on hard drive in
> directory, arranged by date taken.
>
> 2: backups of above on cd
I don't think that storing images by date is the best way to go about
it, unless you happen to have an exceptional memory. I wouldn't want to
have to go through 20 CDs trying to remember exactly when I took a
photo. I have a numbering system for my images (these are film, not
digital photos). When I have my film processed I order a single set of
3 1/2 x 5 prints, negatives and a set of slides. I keep all of this in
three ring binders (six of them at the moment), sorted by roll. For
each roll, there are plastic holders for the prints, plastic holders for
the slides and an envelope three hole punched for the negatives. When I
fill up a binder I give it a single number and start another.
Obviously, it won't be long before I can't find a specific image, or
even remember exactly what I've photographed. Enter Media Center Plus.
I scan my images and give them unique numbers based on my numbering
system. The system is set up into categories and sub-categories of
images, Landscape, for example is 006, sub categories are Wyoming 00601,
Montana 00602, Utah 00603 and Colorado 00604. There are then codes for
month, year, transparency format, and the number of the binder that the
images can be found in. Images are then numbered sequentially as they
lay in the binder, so an image name might look like:
00601CZBN01_0026.jpg
This tells me that the image is a landscape taken in Wyoming, March
2001, I have a negative only (no slide), it's in the binder numbered 1
and is the 26th image in the Landscape category.
I put a sticker on the plastic sleeve for each photo with its unique
number. If I were inclined to submit slides to a stock agency, I could
easily build a spreadsheet using image numbers to keep track of exactly
who has my slides and how long they've had them. I could search my
album for that image number and see exactly which image it is.
On my hard drive I have folders with a single album corresponding to the
main category numbers. I move images into these folders as I scan. I
fire up MCP, add the scans to the albums as I go along, assigning
keywords and comments. Eventually, I'll burn to CDs, but haven't
actually got around to it yet, when I do it, each category will have
it's own CD...all the landscapes on one CD, all the cityscapes on
another CD, etc. Now, if I need to find a specific landscape image, I
can go to folder Landscape_006, open the album, do a Find for say,
Yellowstone, it finds all of my images keyworded for Yellowstone, the
file name tells me what binder I can find the original in. If I wanted
to print a "contact sheet" of just the Yellowstone images, I can do an
Advanced Find, copy the images and then paste into a new empty album for
printing. I could export this same album to HTML if I wanted to display
the images in a virtual gallery.
>
> 3: copies of all edited photos stored on hard drive, in chronological
> order.
>
> 4: copies of above on cd
If you're going to do this, I'd use the same file name as the original
with something like an E on the end. I'd put all of these into the same
directory as the originals, if the file name is the same except for that
E on the end, it should sort all of the images so that they're in order
with the original first and the edited image immediately following.
>
> 5: other images stored on cd only--not on hard drive.
Copy them to your hard drive, add them to the appropriate folders and
albums.
>
> Here is my question: should I create an individual album for each cd, and
> also for the pics stored on the hard drive? That would result in my having,
> perhaps, 20 albums.
Why? Just put everything in one place, sort it out into some kind of
categories and make an album for each category. Burn to CD.
>
> One more question: I have not added captions or comments to any photos in an
> album--primarily because I'm wondering what will happen if, say, my hard
> drive crashed or I upgraded to another computer. Is there some way that I
> can save my album information on a cd-rom, so I can restore it completely in
> the event of a data problem?
The keywords and comments are stored in the .alb file, when you burn the
directory to the CD, the information will be there. Test the CD before
you delete the files on your hard drive, File->Open, find the .alb file
on the CD and make sure none of your images are corrupted. Really
though, if you're not going to keyword and comment each image there
isn't much point in using MCP at all, you might as well just have a pile
of photos in a shoe box.
--
Angela M. Cable
http://www.neocognition.com
PSP Tutorial Links:
http://www.psplinks.com
5th Street Studio, free graphics, websets and more:
http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/alaia/354/
Bill Schnakenberg
There is no need to create 20 albums. JMCP catalogs the files from whatever
source they came from and you can sort the album at any time by name, extension,
size, date, source, CD ID, etc.
Right click in a blank area of your album thumbnails and select 'Sort' and you
can see the various sort criteria.
After making your Comments or Keywords, you can save a copy of the album
anywhere you want, including on any, or all, CD's created.
--
Bill - PSP and Media Center Plus Private Beta Tester
PSP Terrorist - D'Lanok de Caresk chapter - Anti-Troll Unit 235
"If you're not making waves, you're not underway!"
______________________________________________________
The Paint Shop Pro 7 Style Palette:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~willshak/style_palette/
______________________________________________________
The USS Salem, CA-139. The World's only preserved Heavy Cruiser
http://www.frontiernet.net/~willshak/salem/
Gail M. Hall
comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro about "How Best To Organize Pics In Media
Center?":
>I'm not the world's best organizer, and I can't figure out how to use Media
>Center to full advantage. Here's what I've got:
>
>1: all original jpegs from digital camera stored on hard drive in
>directory, arranged by date taken.
>
>2: backups of above on cd
>
>3: copies of all edited photos stored on hard drive, in chronological
>order.
>
>4: copies of above on cd
>
>5: other images stored on cd only--not on hard drive.
>
First of all, I don't have Media Center. I have tried a couple other
"organizers," though.
One big question is: Does Media Center have a database feature where you
can enter keywords? If so, then you will need to store your copies in only
one place and assign keywords to whatever categories you want.
If you plan to edit photos and use those mainly, then you'll definitely
want what you want to USE in some kind of album. Archived files could go
in another album.
Some programs let you have more than one album. You can have all originals
in one album and the fixed-up ones in another.
One huge issue for me and, I suspect for others, is the amount of time
needed to maintain the albums and to keep them up to date.
I found it takes a really long time, so I reverted to just putting my files
into folders based on year and subfolders based on categories in that year.
I give my original photo files names with numbers for the date in the name
of the file, so if I sort by name, they'll be sorted in chronological
order.
I've tried different ways of sorting files in subfolders. I'll put a trip
in its own subfolder. This past year I had such things as spring, summer,
fall. When I move some off my HDD, I may keep some family photos on my HDD
and just call this folder "family2001" or something.
Another big question for me is: How much space does the organizer photo
organizer need for storing the albums. I don't have much HDD space, and I
found that some of the organizers used an amazingly large amount of space
for the albums. That left less space for keeping actual photo files on my
hard drive! Remember, the albums do not contain the actual files. They
contain thumbnails and pointers directed to your files. If you manage your
files with your organizer, you need to use only your organizer to move
files around because if you use Explorer to move a file, your organizer has
no way of "knowing" what you did.
If you don't have a lot of HDD space available, you may want to put a
limited number of your pictures in the albums. Files you have archived
might call for another way to index them.
I'm still pretty much stuck on using Explorer to move files around. I also
use IrfanView. IrfanView doesn't keep track of stuff I do on disk. It
reads folders fresh each time it loads. If you don't stuff your folders
with thousands of files and you have a system of 200mHz or faster,
IrfanView can load the thumbnails pretty fast when you use the Thumbnails
command.
The main advantage of an organization program, I think, is the database
feature. If you can take the time to assign keywords to your pictures,
such as the names of subjects, locations where taken, and the dates or
seasons when taken, then you can call up the database part of your
organizer program and enter the keywords for what you are looking for.
My trouble is that it takes too darn long to enter all that information!!
I find I just don't have the patience for that.
That's why I just ended up storing by year or season and main categories
under those.
>Here is my question: should I create an individual album for each cd, and
>also for the pics stored on the hard drive? That would result in my having,
>perhaps, 20 albums.
I find that huge folders take longer to load in any kind of viewer, and I
suspect that one huge album would, too. Still, you want a way to
crossindex things. Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!
Some people make HTML pages for their CDs and put thumbnails in that page
as "buttons" that point to the main file. IrfanView can generate those
pages. I don't know if Media Center can do that, but if it can put what
amounts to an index on each CD, that makes good sense. You still want some
way of finding the right CD, and that's why some organizers encourage you
to keep a database (album or index) on your hard drive.
>
>One more question: I have not added captions or comments to any photos in an
>album--primarily because I'm wondering what will happen if, say, my hard
>drive crashed or I upgraded to another computer.
This is another reason I gave up on using an organizer. It's time, not a
matter of losing them because we do back these up if they are important to
us! The ones I tried didn't carry the descriptions along to another
location when I moved a file from one place to another. They also didn't
have a way for me to just print out an index. If you got a database
program with your computer, I'd consider putting the descriptions there
because ordinary database programs have ways of letting you print out
"reports" in a variety of ways.
I hope Media Center allows you to print out the captions with a listing of
files.
>Is there some way that I
>can save my album information on a cd-rom, so I can restore it completely in
>the event of a data problem?
>
Definitely back up your albums. Your computer should have a backup
program, and you always want to back up all your data, including your files
and the albums.
I hope you get answers to your questions. If you already have Media
Center, be sure to look over the manuals and check the online Help. If
their documentation is as good as Jasc did on PSP, I'll bet you can find a
lot of helpful tips on how to do what you want.
Media Center is advertised as a way to manage music and movie files as well
as graphics. It looks like software worth serious consideration. I might
try it after I get a computer with LOTS more space on it.
--
Gail from Ohio USA
Bill Schnakenberg
> On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 18:12:52 GMT, "Larry" <nos...@hotmail.com> posted to
> comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro about "How Best To Organize Pics In Media
> Center?":
>
> >I'm not the world's best organizer, and I can't figure out how to use Media
> >Center to full advantage. Here's what I've got:
> >
> >1: all original jpegs from digital camera stored on hard drive in
> >directory, arranged by date taken.
> >
> >2: backups of above on cd
> >
> >3: copies of all edited photos stored on hard drive, in chronological
> >order.
> >
> >4: copies of above on cd
> >
> >5: other images stored on cd only--not on hard drive.
> >
>
> First of all, I don't have Media Center. I have tried a couple other
> "organizers," though.
>
> One big question is: Does Media Center have a database feature where you
> can enter keywords? If so, then you will need to store your copies in only
> one place and assign keywords to whatever categories you want.
You can have Keywords and Comments. You can sort or search on a number of
criteria.
> If you plan to edit photos and use those mainly, then you'll definitely
> want what you want to USE in some kind of album. Archived files could go
> in another album.
>
> Some programs let you have more than one album. You can have all originals
> in one album and the fixed-up ones in another.
JMCP allows as many as you can make.
> One huge issue for me and, I suspect for others, is the amount of time
> needed to maintain the albums and to keep them up to date.
JMCP has an update option.
> I found it takes a really long time, so I reverted to just putting my files
> into folders based on year and subfolders based on categories in that year.
>
> I give my original photo files names with numbers for the date in the name
> of the file, so if I sort by name, they'll be sorted in chronological
> order.
No problem with JMCP. You can search by date.
> I've tried different ways of sorting files in subfolders. I'll put a trip
> in its own subfolder. This past year I had such things as spring, summer,
> fall. When I move some off my HDD, I may keep some family photos on my HDD
> and just call this folder "family2001" or something.
>
> Another big question for me is: How much space does the organizer photo
> organizer need for storing the albums. I don't have much HDD space, and I
> found that some of the organizers used an amazingly large amount of space
> for the albums. That left less space for keeping actual photo files on my
> hard drive! Remember, the albums do not contain the actual files. They
> contain thumbnails and pointers directed to your files. If you manage your
> files with your organizer, you need to use only your organizer to move
> files around because if you use Explorer to move a file, your organizer has
> no way of "knowing" what you did.
>
> If you don't have a lot of HDD space available, you may want to put a
> limited number of your pictures in the albums. Files you have archived
> might call for another way to index them.
My largest album is one containing 136 photos and is 134 KB.
> I'm still pretty much stuck on using Explorer to move files around. I also
> use IrfanView. IrfanView doesn't keep track of stuff I do on disk. It
> reads folders fresh each time it loads. If you don't stuff your folders
> with thousands of files and you have a system of 200mHz or faster,
> IrfanView can load the thumbnails pretty fast when you use the Thumbnails
> command.
JMCP can move/copy/delete the original files.
> The main advantage of an organization program, I think, is the database
> feature. If you can take the time to assign keywords to your pictures,
> such as the names of subjects, locations where taken, and the dates or
> seasons when taken, then you can call up the database part of your
> organizer program and enter the keywords for what you are looking for.
>
> My trouble is that it takes too darn long to enter all that information!!
> I find I just don't have the patience for that.
There's no way any album program could know what to enter in keywords or
comments. In JCMP, all the other info is entered automatically and each can be
searched or sorted. Name, location, keywords, comments. Also user defines Boolean
searches; find this, but not this, etc.