I have a collection of image files (around 4K files) that I'd like to manage better than I am now.

I draw, paint, and sculpt and if I come across an image I think may make for a good reference, I save it.

I want to be able to tag the images and search through them via tags. For example - "back", "nose", "tree", "truck", "can reproduce", "cannot reproduce", etc. Right now, I have them divided up by folders. For ex. "buildings", "people", "anatomy", etc. It's tough because sometimes, an image falls into multiple categories, so I have it in two folders (or more) so I can find it regardless of which category I'm looking through.

But I want to be able to use multiple tags for any one image.

What software do you recommend that will allow me to tag image files, search by tags and preferably view them right there?

9/22/2010 8:02:13 PM

picasa or flickr
upload the files and crowd source the tagging

9/22/2010 8:05:58 PM

Windows Live Photo Gallery http://explore.live.com/windows-live-photo-gallery

It has pretty damn awesome tagging and organization functionality. MUCH better than Picasa. It should fit the bill perfectly for what you need and won't require you to spend hours uploading pictures to the web.

9/22/2010 8:18:07 PM

^^ I don't want to upload the files. Plus, I think picasa doesn't allow more than 1GB without paying. I have > 1.5GB as of now.

^ installed it and it seems to be exactly what i need, and it's free. Thanks a lot.

Open to other suggestions if someone thinks there's something better. But this seems like it will do the trick. It did crash on me a few times, but seems to be working fine after I restarted my machine.

now let's see how long it takes me to tag @ 5,000 images.

9/22/2010 8:54:00 PM

^for what it's worth, I have a very similar image "inspiration" collection that I used to manage manually, and tried Picasa with very poor results.

Let us know how it works for you, because I've got closer to 150,000 images in mine, and I've been eyeing WLPG for a while.

9/22/2010 9:17:05 PM

after about a half an hr of use, I like it a lot.

The interface is intuitive and simple.

I can easily add or remove tags to as many pictures at a single time as I'd like. -- this is very helpful for situations where I have a lot of photos from the same photographer, artist, of the same person, type of thing, etc.

I can see all of the images in the viewer, moving the mouse over a target give me a bigger view, and there's a slider to adjust the size of the thumbnails in the viewer.

The files can be arranged in by various info. Arranging by name is allowing me to get rid of duplicates fairly quickly. It also allows you to edit filenames directly in the info. side panel. -- very helpful considering I haven't been the best about file naming conventions in the past.

it uses a fairly small amount of memory.


So I've only used it for a bout half an hour, but I'm very happy it with it.


This is definitely going to take a while. I couldn't imagine tagging 150k files. But it will make it so much easier to find the right images when it's done.

9/22/2010 9:34:21 PM

I came in to suggest Lightroom; but it doesn't sound like you need any of the awe-inspiring, computer eating editing features.

*moving along*

9/23/2010 1:33:20 AM