Organizing Photos between programs

[RozR]

I need some help.

I originally was keeping my photos in the Kodak Easyshare program - which works fairly easily for me to understand.

Then I got a Canon digital camera and that came with its own software which I upload to from my camera.

In my "My Pictures" file these are saved by date. I can access them and when I open any of the pictures they open in the Kodak software.

But now, I have some in Kodak and some in the Canon... And it seems like a really enormous overwhelming task to think of transferring from one to the other.

The other problem is the sorting by date is great except when I don't remember when I took a particular picture and then have to open each individual date file and look.

Is there an easier way. Or is there a way I can upload directly to the Kodak software from my camera?

Also, it is really easy to burn a cd from the Kodak but still trying to figure it out on the Canon... guess I'll have to do some homework on that!

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Roz

[Ron Eggers]

My favorite photo editing software, Adobe Photoshop Elements (now in version 5.0) has an organizer that will search your hard drive for any and all images and allow you to access, organize, edit, share, print, etc from one place. Canon can put the pictures where it wants. Kodak can do the same. And Elements will find them.

I have it set up so that, when I insert a memory card into the reader, Elements will automatically download the images into folders and add them to the organizer. I rarely use the software that came with my digital Rebels.

Elements will even work with the raw (uncompressed) files that are saved by some digital SLRs.

[Dani]

I don't know if this will help, but this is what I do. I had the same problem, as I have both a Kodak camera and a Nikon. And I had the darndest time finding pictures.

When I download the file from either camera, I run through them with PhotoShop and edit as necessary (adjust levels, clone out power lines, etc). Then I run it through NoiseNinja to get rid of any noise. When I have finished, I open the directory in Explorer, and view the thumbnails.

Then, I select all of the similar pictures (i.e., Red Flowers), by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on each one. Then, R-Click and select Rename. Type in the desired filename. I rename it RedFlowers030307.jpg (Subject+Date). Don't forget to type in the file type (jpg). Hit Enter. It will rename all of the selected files RedFlowers030307 (1).jpg, RedFlowers030307 (2).jpg, etc.

I have a directory named APix (so it's at the top), where all of my pictures are stored (or just use My Pictures). In that directory, I have sub-directories of the different subjects. When I have finished renaming the files, I move them to their subject directory (Flowers, or RedFlowers if I have enough of those). By putting the date after the subject name, I know 1) when the picture was taken, and 2) it won't overwrite any other RedFlowers pictures I have.

Then, you can import the directories back into the desired software to edit/view there. This way, you can always find pictures by subject, and date. When you have thousands of pictures (like I do), this was the only way I could find anything, and still remain sane!

Hope that helps!:thumbsup:

[Dave]

It'll even do this with Adobe Photo Album Starter Edition 3.0 which is a free download but has limited manipulation capabilities.

Dave Makielski

[j Paul]

I tried a free demo of Elements 5:0 and the picture saving was pretty neat. Maybe other programs allow the same thing, I don't know.

With Elements for example if you have pictures with little Johnnie in them, you can tag them Johnnie and it will search your whole picture data base and pull up any and all picture that you have tagged Johnnie. You can do the same with Susie. And if you only want to see picture with both Johnnie and Susie you just do your search for both and it will only pull up pictures that have both in them.:thumbsup:

[Framar]

Gee, I have Elements 2.0 - does it do any of these nifty organizing tricks???

The only way I can change file names with my Kodak EasyShare program is to do them one at a time in their program - if I change the names in the My Photos part of the computer - Kodak sez it can't find them!

Plus - I have upgraded the Kodak software three times in as many years and each time it gets worse and worse - more "pastel" and less useful. I wish I could go back to the original program which came with the camera but, as usual, I am afraid.....

*sigh*

The manufacturers who got us into this mess should all be shot (and not with cameras!!!)

[VeluzarStudios]

I use Picasa by Google. It searches your hard drive for most of the well known image/photo formats. It is easy to use and has some editing features...and it's free...
Troy

[Dani]

GIMP is a freeware photo editing tool. I don't use it myself, but I have friends that love it. You can Google it for more info. Just passing on more tools.

[David N Waldmann]

Windows Photo Gallery (included with Vista) finds all pictures on your computer and automatically sorts them by date. It also offers tagging, rating, (limited) editing, and directly connects to a server of your choice (Shutterfly, Kodak/Ofoto, Fuji, Snapfish, etc) for online printing.