Photo organising software

Hebrews12

I've got the unenviable task of sorting out years of photos having neglected them over many years. We've got lots from various different cameras and phones and tons of duplicates too. I need some software to help me - something that will get rid of duplicates and organise my photos in to something like year taken and generally just get them in to some kind of order. Can anyone recommend anything?

Thanks for looking

C

Hebrews12

I've just realised that I have Photoshop Elements 12 which I understand has an organiser option. Does anyone know if it's any good?

dipsomaniac

i would put them all into one folder called 'memories' and then split that into 2 sub folders 'photos' & 'videos'. I have mine then sorted into years. i am assuming all duplicates will have the same file name so can be deleted accordingly. i would then install google photos and let google manage and sort.

dipsomaniac

don't know about photoshop. google won't sort your photos on your pc/laptop but will sort/search within the app/webpage

Le_Kirk

Elements 12 does have Organizer (their spelling) and will sort your photos by date or name etc. but only whilst you have it open, it doesn't AFAIK actually move the photos around in the folders.

bob_a_builder

don't know about photoshop. google won't sort your photos on your pc/laptop but will sort/search within the app/webpage

Correct it won't sort them on your PC
But then do you really need/want them all on your PC ?

If you want to share these memories with other family members, then them being in Google Photos might be more useful, more easily accessible to them via phones and tables etc

Google Photos Albums section will auto sort the pictures in to logical groups - Places , Things, etc
And its also possible to get it to group People too like Picassa did
(although you will have to jump through some hoops to get that to work in the UK - for some reason Google think Europe people don't want/need that function)
You can also create your own albums too

Another option for sharing memories/photos is Facebook Albums
(Ok,don't shoot the messenger - its an option !)
Its possible to 'silently' upload photos to those - such that users aren't bombarded with 100's update notifications in their timelines
And then the Albums can be be made available to a 'custom' list - so you can limit to family members etc or whoever as you wish

This has helped with de-duplication although not specifically aimed at photos
http://www.mindgems.com/products/Fast-Duplicate-File-Finder/Fast-Duplicate-File-Finder-About.htm
But would be interested to hear of better options ?

[Deleted User]

Are you an Amazon Prime user? You can load all your photos into their cloud service, and it'll let you browse them in date order, or search for faces/locations.

TBH, I've got thousands of photos, and I've gradually been organising them into date-based folders. There is some software that will do it automatically, from the EXIF information (e.g. you can sort by camera model). I'm trying to find the name of it..

Sorting out duplicates is a completely different, and painful, issue!

Hebrews12

Thanks for your responses. I have tens of thousands of photos and will eventually put some of my favourite ones in the cloud but for now want to have everything I have ordered on an external hard drive. I've been looking at different software options but, as usual with the internet, it's a bit of a minefield. I've ruled out Elements now but need to take the plunge on something.

[Deleted User]

Found it! https://www.advancedrenamer.com/

I've used this to rename/move files based on their name/date/exif information.

I also have a big portable HD of photos.. 10 years worth, and about 100,000 files.

I've organised through folder structure, and backed up to the cloud. Folder structure is king, software/cloud lets me search it.