Photo Management/Archive Questions

[coplan]

So I've been doing the Digital Photography thing for a little over two years now and my collection of completed works is growing. Up until now, I've been using Adobe's Bridge to manage most of my collection, but realize that it's a bit limited for larger collections. I'm looking for a new solution and I'd be curious as to what you all think. Asking around, I've come across a couple different schools of thought, but I'd like to hear from a wider audience.

For starters, let me explain a bit about my setup. I use Photoshop CS3 with Bridge (and of course Adobe Camera RAW). I shoot mostly RAW files (Nikon's NEF, specifically) and convert to JPG for my websites and so on. The finished products are always high quality JPGs, but I keep the RAW files as an added backup. So I generally need something that will read RAWs. I do own a dated copy of ACDSEE, but it doesn't support RAW or Tagging (again, don't know if newer versions do or not). I should mention, I use Windows.

Suggestions I've recieved thus far are all over the place. A professional photographer recommended Extensis Portfolio which is fine and good, but I'm not very familiar and unless someone convinces me otherwise, it seems expensive for my needs. A hobbyist friend suggested I use Lightroom - but he doesn't have CS3/Bridge and after all I've read, I fail to see how Lightroom is much better than CS3/Bridge. Another friend said simply uses Picassa - but I don't have any interest in its quick-edit solutions and I'm not sure it supports RAW. I'm sure there are other solutions and I'd love to hear them.

Ideally, I'd love to have something with built-in backup solutions, but that's not a must. I'm pretty disciplined with maintaining backups.

So let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear them.

[Sixpak]

I voted Lightroom 2. I tried using Bridge (Elements 6) which is great for editing. Prior to that I had all my files in various folders labeled by year and month. Made it hell trying to find a particular photo.

Lightroom 2 was designed with storing and archiving photos in mind. Everything is tagged, handles raw files without a hitch, is speedy, organized, non-destructive edits, exports jpgs faster and easier than anything else I've tested, allows you to build and modify collections, automates backups (I have it backup the original .nef to a 2nd external drive while I import the photos off the camera) and best of all it's inexpensive when compared to the rest of your photography equipment

Besides being a great organizational tool, it does fantastic light editing tasks. So much so that I very rarely have to break out Photoshop Elements.

[coplan]

Sixpak - I don't know if there are different levels of Bridge, but the version I have (which came with CS3) supports tagging. It doesn't allow low-level editing without opening CS3, but that's less of a concern.

Maybe Adobe isn't doing a good job explaining what's different, but I just don't see what advantage (aside from low-level edits) Lightroom has over CS3/Bridge.

[Sixpak]

I believe that the bridge with Elements is the same as used with CS3. I realize that CS3 has tags, I just can't seem to explain it right. For ME the workflow and organizational tools are much more intuitive. Lightroom can't replace what CS3 does for you as far as editting, but I find it does make organizing much easier for managing my photo collection. Which is what your poll was about

My best advice, download the free trial from Adobe and see if it floats your boat.

[OsmosisStudios]

I do all my managing manually. Ive never had a good experience with software doing my organizing.

[coplan]

I've been experimenting with the trial versions of both Lightroom and Extensis. Lightroom has some nice features, but I think that the keywords engine isn't that much of an improvement over Bridge. And while the easy-editing functions are useful, the improvement over my current workflow is minimal at best. Especially since I'm an in-the-camera type of guy. I don't think that I'll be opting for Lightroom.

That leaves Extensis. It seems to integrate well with Bridge and Photoshop. The downside is that it's keyword system doesn't embed in Metadata like Bridge/Lightroom. But the plus side is that the database searches photo descriptions and metadata as well (not just keywords). I'm not sure if this is ideal.

I'd like to continue hearing your thoughts.