Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

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Archive 2009 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

ourhearts137
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p.1 #1 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

I posted a thread here a few weeks ago mentioning my intrigue in Adobe Lightroom for a file management system for a series of photos that were not taken by me, but by my employers father who recently passed away.

The question was posed: what do I want to do with these photos after I am done with them?

Long story short, I need to find a program or two that can help me organize a multitude of photos, around 25,000, into some sort of logical order. Not for me, but for my employer.

I have minor experience with Adobe Lightroom, but it's not enough to really use it to it's fullest potential, and I wouldn't want to do something potentially damaging to the files. Plus, it needs to be easy enough to browse through by my boss.

There are also a lot of redundant photos, so something that can detect something like that would probably also be beneficial.

I appreciate everyone who helped me in the other thread, and likewise to those who post here.

Daniel

Oct 22, 2009 at 10:22 PM

Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #2 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

LR wont damage your files. but backking them up 'just in case' would be a good idea

Oct 23, 2009 at 09:43 AM

ourhearts137
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p.1 #3 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

Well, they are already backed up, but there is no order to them whatsoever. Some are scans, some are digital photos, some are from different cameras, and I think there are even a few old slides that were imported through some sort of machine.

The problem is that I don't really think my boss wants to pay 250 dollars for LR when he's not going to be using any of the products benefits aside from it's cataloging of photos.

Oct 23, 2009 at 04:18 PM

howardm4
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p.1 #4 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

then your boss is a fool. $250 is short money corporate-wise. He'll spend more than that on just about anything else.

Oct 23, 2009 at 04:20 PM

Bifurcator
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p.1 #5 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

ourhearts137 wrote:

Long story short, I need to find a program or two that can help me organize a multitude of photos, around 25,000, into some sort of logical order. Not for me, but for my employer.

For me that's GraphicConverter. I think it's like $39 or something. Here's a screenshot I took a few releases ago. Here's the site:

http://www.lemkesoft.com/xd/public/content/index._cGlkPTE5Mw_.html

Oct 23, 2009 at 08:03 PM

ourhearts137
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p.1 #6 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

I thank you for that suggestion and I may end up going with lightroom, I think the reluctance is not the cost per se but his reluctance is in learning a new program. I may purchase the Lynda.com lightroom training videos to learn the program and then convey that to my employer. You guys rock !

Oct 25, 2009 at 08:01 AM

Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #7 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

you might want to have a look at the Beta release of LR3. now its in beta it will be only a few months before its a full releas and that will render LR2 out of date

.
Not too bad for you though as I dont think there is a time limit on the LR3 beta download (uptill full release?) and from the quick scan thru I have had now most of the stuff in the Lynda.com vids (very good) is still the same or the update is quite easy to work out. Importing has changed but it didn't take long to work out the new import interface, and once things are in they are in.

Oct 25, 2009 at 05:40 PM

UCSB
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p.1 #8 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

Adobe Photoshop Elements would be an inexpensive and easy to use approach ... they have a demo.

Oct 25, 2009 at 06:43 PM

cordellwillis
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p.1 #9 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

Am I missing something here? You're looking for a program primarily "for a file management system" right? I don't know why most replies thus far are suggesting LR for that task if management is the most important. People have seem to have lost sight of all the other offerings when you rearrange a need in digital photography.

To keep cost down and still excellent image editing consider Photoshop Elements as UCSB suggested above. There also BreezeBrowser, ACDSee, Corel PhotoPaint, and ton of others with much lower cost and can take care of editing when/if needed. Oh, and how about the software that comes with nearly all digital cameras to begin with?

If on the other hand I miss understand this post, I can see how folks are saying LR2/3. But even with that Elements will do things most needed.

Oct 25, 2009 at 11:08 PM

Mark Metternich
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p.1 #10 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

I do this type of work in Adobe Bridge CS4. But yes, backed up.

Oct 26, 2009 at 09:11 PM

peirceman
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p.1 #11 · Alternatives to Lightroom, follow up.

What about Picasa? It does a fine job organizing photos, and it's free.

Oct 28, 2009 at 02:14 PM

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