Photo Software – Forumite.site

This topic has 14 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 4 months ago by The Duke.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

Author

Posts
October 25, 2020 at 5:34 pm #62991
Drezha
Participant
@drezha
Forumite Points: 0
I’m looking for software to replace macOS’s Photos.

At the minute, I do use Moments and Photos on the Synology, but it’s not the best option for what I’m after – I’m looking for an easy to use software so I can view all my files from “one page” as a continuous scroll. However, I’d also like to have saved search folders, that can return all items that match a certain criteria (such as camera model).

I reinstalled Picasa but it doesn’t appear to have saved searches.

I’m beginning to think about trying macOS in a virtual machine or snap, just to get it back!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett
October 25, 2020 at 6:59 pm #62994
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
For Windows try Irfanview. (free). I find it useful enough to throw them a donation, and it has a big, and productive user base for file conversions.

Use the option to view thumbnails, select a head folder e.g. Photos, then choose option show thumbnails from all sub folders.

It has other options such as slideshow of course.

To be honest that option just drives me scatty as it gives me ALL my digital photos for the last twenty+ years with no sorting or classification! I could however just choose Family->2018 as the head folder for a more rational view.
October 26, 2020 at 9:42 am #63004
Drezha
Participant
@drezha
Forumite Points: 0
Thanks for the idea – I didn’t know Irfanview could do that, as I’ve already got it installed. However, it’s still not quite what I’m after, as that only shows items within the folder, similar to XNView that I’ve tried.

Shotwell would be the Linux equal to what I’m looking for. I’m downloading Digikam to try – I didn’t realise it had a Windows client.

Though I did note that Picasa runs still at the weekend, and I think I found how to search EXIF data.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett
October 26, 2020 at 4:22 pm #63015
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
I’m still not 100% sure what you want. To help me understand, what is missing from the Win10 app – Photos?
October 26, 2020 at 5:47 pm #63017
Dave Rice
Participant
@ricedg
Forumite Points: 7
The first thing that sprang to mind was Google Photos.
October 26, 2020 at 7:11 pm #63023
Drezha
Participant
@drezha
Forumite Points: 0
Google Photos displays the images like I’d like – in a long continuous timeline, regardless of the folder they’re in. However, it doesn’t do saved searches (i.e. show me all photos taken by iPhone.)

Irfanview seemed to only show me in each folder – which I can do by browsing to the folder in Explorer and view via Large Icons.

Digikam does this – see below images for what I’m after and how I’ve set it up:

I can perform a search and then save the results and come back to it at a later date.

Here I’ve got the photos arranged in a timeline across a range of different folders.

I can also view the images on a map, which I don’t think Google Photos does.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett
October 26, 2020 at 7:30 pm #63025
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
Other than the map, M$ Photos does those things as far as I can tell.
October 26, 2020 at 9:07 pm #63029
Drezha
Participant
@drezha
Forumite Points: 0
Ed P wrote:

M$ Photos does those

I didn’t realise MS Photos was an app – I’ve just opened it. I thought you were referring to the default program when you double click on an image. :wacko: I’ve opened this then for the first time ever!

It does do the timeline view and quite well. However, I can’t see a method to search by EXIF data or to save the search. However, with Digikam and Photos, then I should be set!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett
October 27, 2020 at 10:42 am #63039
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
If you explore Photos does ‘folders’ as well.

I’ve not tried sorting on exif data in Photos as you can do it perfectly well in Windows Explorer. Open a photo folder, using the ‘Details’ view. Find a ‘blank’ area on the top of a column and right click.

You should get a dialog box with ‘Size all columns to fit’ at the top, and ‘more’ on the bottom.

Click on ‘More; and you will find that you can display and sort on more info than you can throw a stick at! These use the ‘properties’ tab on a file which for a photo is where all the exif stuff resides. Select the fields you want displayed and you can subsequently sort etc on the columns.

If you are a super organised person you can use the properties-details tab on any sort of file see link for a generalised kludge. As I understand it these kludges tend to fail if the file is copied or moved as added meta data is stored in different locations and do not get copied/moved.

Having this sort of metadata file facility could have been really useful in my last job, but I never discovered it!
October 27, 2020 at 10:49 am #63041
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
I tried to add an edit but was timed-out!

A very simple way of adding data is to use the meta data ‘comments’ field. This can be edited in free format and gives you about five lines of comments.
October 27, 2020 at 10:59 am #63043
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
Same problem!

Do not wish to ‘teach Granny’, but if you then use file explorer to sort on your required exif data, you can then switch to large icon view and your photos could be sorted into GPS coords etc.
October 27, 2020 at 11:44 am #63045
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
After thought – I should have probably added this link on GPS data.

link
October 27, 2020 at 3:56 pm #63053
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
btw – if you have old photos or a camera without GPS try Geosetter to manually add the data.
October 27, 2020 at 5:10 pm #63056
Ed P
Participant
@edps
Forumite Points: 39
Just for completeness, M$ Windows Explorer (Details) does not show the GPS data that is available in the file properties. This seems to be a major oversight. :negative:

You can however display the comments property and edit there as a manual solution
October 27, 2020 at 9:20 pm #63058
The Duke
Participant
@sgb101
Forumite Points: 5
I find the search I’m Google photos never lets me down. And I have 12 years of snaps on there .
Author

Posts

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.