Photo Browsing/Organizing

[KingBubbaTruck]

I've used a program for pictures for years called ThumbsPlus. I Just upgraded to a Canon T2i and I'd like to do something that works a little better with the RAW Format.

For the life of me I can't get used to the organizer that came with PSE8

So my question is 'What programs do you use for managing your archives and why do you like it?'

Thanks!

[KingBubbaTruck]

Well, if nothing else, at least posting this inspired me to dig into the PSE8 organizer a bit more. Found a tutorial or two and I'm working through my 'issues'.

Now all I have to do is tag and categorize 30,000 images....

[ElCapitan]

If it is in your price range, Lightroom. I used to scoff at Lightroom saying I had everything I needed in Bridge and PS. While I still don't feel I truly need Lightroom, it is a great piece of software. It does a great job of organizing and viewing photos, and it had PS Raw built right in. It does have a lot of presets to ease your editing process, but do take a bit of the control out of your hands. It seems at least to me, you really need something like PS to go along with it to make the most of your photos.

EDIT: Also. while there many things have discovered about Lightroom, there are still things I only want to use Bridge for that Lightroom cannot do or I have at least not found out how to do it in Lightroom yet. Basically, some batch processing for different file types while at the same time applying actions.

[KingBubbaTruck]

Thanks ElCapitan.

Downloading Lightroom right now to give it a shot.

Seems to be pretty highly recommended.

I'm just at the point where my whole mish mash of handling things at the file system level seems to be a little ridiculous.

[Dhanu]

Google Picasa supports RAW.

[KingBubbaTruck]

Downloaded LightRoom.

Was able to get in and play around and it seems to work great. Lots of presets and I really like the non-destructive editing...

Santa might just be stuffing a serial number in my stocking for Christmas...

[KingBubbaTruck]

Alrighty then, looks like LR is going to win. Got to the end and I really liked the way it created web sites suitable for publishing.

Guess I might as well pony up the cash and get a serial number...

[inkista]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Lightroom free trial/betas => Adobe gateway drug.

BTW, I really like Julieanne Kost's LR tutorials.

[KingBubbaTruck]

Thanks Inkista!

The tutorials are just what I was looking for!

I'm in for it now...

[JohnT]

Ok call me the whiner, but the prices on CS and Lightroom (for non student but not professional) is ludicrous. Just the same reason I don't use Microsoft Office. The general multitudes don't have that kind of money to toss around. Even prior to retirement when I was making six figures I would not spend my hard earned money on high priced software. No wonder open source does so well.
I have used them and they are solid, but unless a person is a pro and can take a tax deduction for work related expenses than it is highly unlikely that the majority will pay those big prices. And as I live within 30 minutes of Adobe I also know that they are in fact struggling a little. So why not sell the products at consumer competitive prices and they would make some great profits, IMHO