Author Topic: advice on tagging photographs?  (Read 6207 times)

hiccup

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With music files, the principle of tagging is more or less standardized, so that different hardware and software will usually be able to handle the most common tags reasonably well.

I now started working on a photo project, assembling and organizing (thousands of) photographs.
I would much like to use tagging on them, similar to what you can do with music files and MusicBee, so I don't have to worry about folder and file names too much.

But this work is largely done for posterity and other people, so if I am going to put in the effort of tagging them, I would like them to be fairly standardized, preferably usable on different software and hardware platforms. (for example both on Windows & Apple)

If there are MusicBee users who have some experience and advice on this matter it would be greatly appreciated!

phred

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Just about every app I've seen for photo tagging includes a photo editing module. I've been looking for a year or so and still haven't found anything I like.  I'm sure you've used Google to search, but here's a pretty good (but slightly out of date) list that might have something you like:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/412-best-free-photo-management-software.html
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

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hiccup

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thnx phred, that is a very useful list.

Indeed I googled, saw many suggestions and comparisons, also tried out some software, but nothing got me very enthusiastic.
There seems to be some consensus on da internetz that Lightroom is sort of top-dog for this, but I don't like the interface at all, and it is far too overweight for what I want to use it for. Managing and tagging is my main purpose here, and editing has a very low priority.
Also some less computer-savvy people should be able to quickly navigate around without such a steep learning-curve.

One suggestion from your link does trigger some enthusiasm with me.
Phototeca might be a very nice candidate.
testing 1,2,3, testing....

edit:
found another promising candidate: FotoAlbum 7
Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 03:52:11 PM by hiccup

phred

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I agree about Lightroom. It's overkill for what you (and I) want to do.

I guess it's time to (at least consider) restarting my attempt to organize the thousands of photos I have. I'll give the two you mentioned a looksee. FWIW, I have discovered that Phototheca from the linked list I sent is v1.5.x and from Phototheca's site is v1.7.x. 1.7 is trial and then buy. I haven't installed 1.5 yet to see if it's totally free.

EDIT:
- Both versions of Phototheca are 'trial' versions, so I updated to 1.7 and will continue my testing there.
- FotoAlbum makes many calls to various Google IPs so it's been uninstalled.
Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 05:16:23 PM by phred
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

Zabir

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If only tagging, Key-wording and managing ,Then will suggest you go for free:
  • Lightroom Free (Wihout Develop Module and Map Module, Means without editing capability, all other staffs, Key-wording, tagging, managing, publishing etc can be done)
  • digiKam Very handy, open. also have non-destructive editing capability.
  • Picasa (Discontinued though but you can use it, also have non-destructive editing feature)
  • DaminionStandalone (Free Version Limited To 15,000 image )
And if want for paid version:

and all those (most photo apps) can work on standard photo metadata format like IPTC, XMP etc (http://www.photometadata.org/meta-101-metadata-types , https://iptc.org/standards/photo-metadata/). So you don't have to worry about standardization. You can write the changes in app database or directly to photos, or with exported photos, as you wish. and only for tagging, Key-wording, there are so so many apps. But when comes for management, you have to search some. I think above list would help you.
Last Edit: August 10, 2016, 11:42:30 PM by Zabir

hiccup

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thnx Zabir!

That's a lot of good info.
I already made a choice a couple of weeks ago, and I choose for Picasa desktop for doing face-recognition when needed, and Daminion as my photo manager.
It's interesting to see how much common ground managing music with MusicBee, and managing photo's with Daminion has. That makes it easier to learn and understand it.

Your links to the tagging standards are very useful. But I learned that similar to the standardization of music tagging, with images it is also not completely universal and interchangeable.
For example, the tags for faces/people that Picasa writes are not recognized by quite a few other programs.
Still, I am quite happy with what I am using now.

Thnx!

boroda

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somewhat old thread, but here are my 2 cents. i'm using picasa for face recognition and then write involved people with picasa to keywords (to files). then i'm doing all other tagging with lightroom (using subset of iptc). i've renamed 'keywords' tag to 'displayed people' (translated to russian, sorry for my english) and have read this keywords into lightroom database. lightroom ui is very user friendly for me. also i've automatically renamed all photos accordingly to used tags, so apps like musicbee can just infer tags from filenames (though mb currently cant import photos, but i hope will be able in future).

hiccup

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(though mb currently cant import photos, but i hope will be able in future).

That would indeed be fantastic. MusicBee has everything in place to be one of the best photo managers there could be.
(or "Digital asset management system" as others seem to be calling such)

Or perhaps you could create a PhotoBee plugin?  8)
Last Edit: August 21, 2016, 12:06:18 PM by hiccup

boroda

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Or perhaps you could create a PhotoBee plugin?  8)
hmm. nice idea. i need to think if its possible at all at the moment.