5
votes
App or workflow suggestion for viewing and selecting photos on PC
As an amateur photographer, I'm looking for recommendations to improve my process for reviewing and selecting the best photos from my albums.
Currently, it goes something like this:
- (after I copy the photos to my PC) I open the folder containing the album
- I open the first photo and start looking at the pictures using the default photo viewing app
- I note mentally, on paper, or in a digital notepad the names of the files that I like the most
- manually select the files that I noted down
My ideal workflow would be something like:
- open the folder, open first photo, look through them all
- each time I see a picture that I like, hit space or some other simple shortcut, which adds the picture to the current selection
- after I am done viewing, I have all the files that I want already selected to do with as I please
I have tried multiple apps over the years but I haven't come across anything that had something similar, or I was too stupid to figure out how to do it. The workflow I described is using windows/linux, on macOS it's even more cumbersome (since one needs to select all photos in a folder before previewing them).
Do you have any recommendations for an app that has functionality like this, or if not, on how I can make my workflow better?
Thanks
Most photography software includes some kind of library functionality where you can tag your photo with stars, color, flag or stuff like that. You can then filter the photo with those tag and do whatever with it.
However most those I know (Capture One, Lightroom, Darktable) operate on some sort of internal database and you're assumed to import your files into the app. Which makes sense since they're supposed to be integrated solution where you do the whole processing in a single app (they assume that you start from RAW files and not jpgs).
There's two app I know that I think operate on your existing filesystem. Those are DigiKam and Photo Mechanic. Note that I never used DigiKam but I know it from reputation. Also, Photo Mechanic is a professional tool tailored for a large volume of photo (think sports, wedding and the likes). It's probably overkill for hobbyist use.
(I would describe my own workflow but am currently at work)
Lightroom Classic? Use reject on all the pictures you don’t like and when you do an export, you will have all the images you have not rejected in a new folder.
On Windows I really like ACDSee. It's super intuitive and lightning fast.
Different modes
Choosing photos
Applying edits across photos
On Linux you could use feh or darktable (filemanager mode and culling mode)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ1iPyh-ny8
With feh you can bind number keys to move files:
With feh it will automatically move to the next image after pressing an action. Pro: if moving to another disk the file copy/move will happen while you are browsing files so you don't have to wait afterwards for things to copy around. Con: if you make a mistake you have to fix it outside of feh
I second Acdsee. It's worth getting the ultimate version so raw editing and photoshop like manipulation is available.
For OP I recommend saving money for a NAS and working directly off that. I don't trust PCs with personal data as they can get broken due to frequent restarts and updates. Also they allow for off site backups while you sleep. 2.5 gigabit connectors or higher is recommended.
Could you clarify what you mean by selecting? Highlighting them on windows explorer (or equivalent)? Copying them to the clipboard?
Yes, marking them in some way so that I can easily bulk copy/move/edit. Currently, that is done by manually highlighting them in the explorer app of the OS.