Recommendations for photo sorting, galleries, and archiving

GrahamW58

In the past, I have struggled to adequately archive, having sorted, my photos. Now that I am hoping to concentrate more on photography and therefore expect to have more pictures around at any one time, I'd like to get my sorting and archiving along with sharing some galleries.

Rather than blunder in and then have to redo things in a year or so, I wondered if anyone has any recommendations for the best solutions?

So far, I have found that Flikr provides a lot of free storage (1TB), but that's as far as I have got.

I like to use RAW so my files are quite big. Do I keep them all on my Google Drive and then just upload a select few onto Flikr? Do I upload everything to Flikr, including some post-process HDRs etc, and then just share a selection?

Do I upload everything to Flikr and edit it there?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Graham.

PBked

There are dedicated programs to do what you want, and many proprietary image processing programs like Photoshop Elements or Corel PaintShop Pro offer the same facilities.
Yes, Flikr offers 1TB of free storage, but I recently purchased a 3TB external harddrive for just under £40 or $50ish and I keep it in a different location to the computer. My image program archives my RAW files into albums and saves a copy of those albums to the external harddrive, so to access my photos I simply connect the drive and away I go.
I don't use Flikr, but if I did, I would tend to choose a selection, convert them to jpgs and upload them as and when.
Regards,
PBked

GrahamW58

Thanks @PBKED.

I see where you are coming from. I've got so into cloud storage for everything else, I assumed that was the direction in which to go for photos too.

So far, my post processing software has been limited to the stuff provided by the camera manufacturers plus one dedicated HDR processor. I can see that it is probably time to bite the bullet and invest in something more mainstream.

Thanks again, Graham

bruto

I cannot offer much help on the actual organization, as I'm hopelessly disorganized there and my archives are a mess. But I would second @pbked's suggestion of the external drive, if only for a last ditch backup. I like the fact that it can be disconnected entirely, and is thus immune to any attack to either the computer or to the network, and also transferable. It's the new age equivalent of the shoebox full of negatives in the closet.

GrahamW58

Thanks guys. I am a little reluctant to get into Adobe's subscription payment schemes, but that seems to be the way they are going.

Cheers, Graham

PBked

I also dislike Adobe's policy. As I mentioned above there are several good 3rd party image programs at a relatively low cost and, for most amateurs or advanced amateurs, they offer quite sophisticated tools - most of which you will probably never need or use. A friend recently upgraded from a very early version of Paintshop Pro to Adobe's Lightroom and all he ever does is tweak the brightness/contrast or the sharpness. More money than sense. As @Bruto will tell you, all that can be done in a free program like Irfanview.
The reason I like an external harddrive is because I always wonder what will happen when the CLOUD blows away. LOL.
Regards,
PBked

brettprobert

I dislike the Adobe CC plan, but I did buy Photoshop Elements for around $65, a one time fee, and I'm loving it for organization and basic editing in RAW.

GrahamW58

Thanks guys. Sorted. Have bought Adobe Lightshop 5 and I'm reinstating a 500gb robust drive exclusively for pictures. 5 is not cloud based and although I will not benefit from software 'enhancements' I prefer this until I know what I am doing. Cheers, Graham

PS If anyone could check out my other question from the other day, I would be grateful.

Cheers, Graham