What software program to use to organize photos?

[mitchbooth]

I just bought a DSLR Canon d70. I'm not sure what most other canon users use to organize and search photos
The camera came w imagebrowser ex, digital photo professional and Adobe photoshop elements 12.

What would you use or recommend?

Thanks,
Mitch

[amfoto1]

Image Browser works pretty well. (DPP is just for doing RAW file conversions, but works in conjunction with Image Browser).

I need high volume and batch processing, so I use Adobe Lightroom. It's primarily a cataloging s'ware, but also able to do keywording, lite RAW processing, web site gallery maintenance, proof sheets and more. If you shoot a lot of RAW files, I'd recommend it. However, for finish work I always pass images off to Photoshop. Some people make do with only Lightroom, but I don't feel images from it are completely ready for printing or other uses.

If you don't need high volume, I'd suggest start with Adobe Elements. It's reasonably priced and has some features of Lightroom and some features of Photoshop. It's a good starting point, might be all you ever need or could get you started to upgrade to Lightroom and/or Photoshop later on.

There are others... some even free, such as Picassa and Gimp.  

***********
Alan Myers

San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & PRINTROOM 

[ebiggs1]

"The camera came w ... Adobe photoshop elements 12."

This is all you will ever need most likely.  It will catalog and edit all your photos.  Learn it well. 

[TCampbell]

What type of computer do you use and how many photos do you shoot?

There are some programs which really do a fantastic job of management large volumes of images as well as performing image adjustment.

Photoshop Elements lists for $99.  It doesn't "truely" do image management and mostly relies on you create folders on your hard drive for that.  That's basically what ImageBrowser which is included with your camera is going to do -- though Photoshop Elements will allow much more powerful image manipulations (not just adjustments).  

For a little more, Lightroom is $149.  Lightroom has some features specifically tuned to organization of images -- it has better ranking, tagging, filing, etc. capabilities in addition to a very powerful image adjustment engine (especially for RAW workflow).

If you're on a Mac, Aperture is Apple's digital asset management & adjustment program for photos.  Aperture and Lightroom are quite similar in regards to what they let you do (they were designed to compete against each other -- so this is no coincidence).  But Aperture is $79... but only available if you're on a Mac.