Scanning family photos - software & workflow?

[jojax14]

Hi all,

I am going to be scanning a large number of family photos. Since a
large proportion of the photos are about people & things that were
before my time, I would like to store some text information (provided
by someone else) with the photos.

Can anyone recommend any software (preferably free) that I could use
to index the photos and do keyword searches based upon text
descriptions?

Also, can anyone make any suggestions for the most effecient workflow?
What I would like to do is continually scan, type text, scan, type
text, scan, type text (you get the idea....). One possible problem
with this is that I have noticed that my scanner software (I am using
an Epson Perfection 1660) holds the calling program 'hostage' until
you close the twain program which would not allow me to input any
text, and if I had to close & open the scanning software, it would
take far to long. Is this a common problem with image software, or is
it just the software I am using (Photoshop elements)? The other
option would be to scan all photos, then go back and add all the text
later.

Thanks in advance,

JJ

 

[Mark]

I am doing this same project this week. Personally, I prefer to
give the image files sequential, non-descriptive names
(image001.tif, image002.gif, etc.) Then I create an Excel
spreadsheet with the filenames and any accompanying
descriptive information. Later on when I get around to it,
I can output the Excel information to a tab-delimited
file, then write a Perl script to generate a web site from it.

-Mark

 

[drietow]

Take a look at a program called flipalbum pro. It allows you to creat
a digital photo book that you can pass out to people. You can add text
in each page. Now the text is not in the photo so when you print them
out you just get the photo.

 

[bluto]

I am doing this same project this week. Personally, I prefer to
give the image files sequential, non-descriptive names
(image001.tif, image002.gif, etc.) Then I create an Excel
spreadsheet with the filenames and any accompanying
descriptive information. Later on when I get around to it,
I can output the Excel information to a tab-delimited
file, then write a Perl script to generate a web site from it.

I've done something similar. I'm organizing family photos
with filename syntax like:
2000.140.####.tif
where 2000 ID's whose group of photos they belong to
(my father), 140 is an era (1940's), #### is a photo in
that era.

I have put information into an excel spreadsheet grouped by era.
I have an "order" column so I can put them in the order
other than the #### sequence number. I have a description,
date, location. I also have facility for scans of notes that are on
the back of photos. I output to a tab delimited file and
I wrote a program to generate the htmls. It takes a bit
of work, but it's the result I wanted.

 

[Bernie]

Hi all,

I am going to be scanning a large number of family photos. Since a
large proportion of the photos are about people & things that were
before my time, I would like to store some text information (provided
by someone else) with the photos.

Can anyone recommend any software (preferably free) that I could use
to index the photos and do keyword searches based upon text
descriptions?

Also, can anyone make any suggestions for the most effecient workflow?
What I would like to do is continually scan, type text, scan, type
text, scan, type text (you get the idea....). One possible problem
with this is that I have noticed that my scanner software (I am using
an Epson Perfection 1660) holds the calling program 'hostage' until
you close the twain program which would not allow me to input any
text, and if I had to close & open the scanning software, it would
take far to long. Is this a common problem with image software, or is
it just the software I am using (Photoshop elements)? The other
option would be to scan all photos, then go back and add all the text
later.

Thanks in advance,

JJ

MyAlbum may do what you require. You can obtain a free copy from
http://pmeindre.free.fr/MyAlbum.html or http://www.myalbumpro.com

You can specify a set of keywords and associate as may keywords as you
wish any picture. You can search on the keywords. Even better, you can
indicate which keywords should be "tabs". You can then select one or
more tabs and only those pictures will be displayed.

You can add free form text to your pictures and search on words in those
comments and have them displayed in slide shows.

Bernie

 

[(Pete Cresswell)]

RE/

Can anyone recommend any software (preferably free) that I could use
to index the photos and do keyword searches based upon text
descriptions?

I've been using ThumbsPlus for a bunch of years now and think it's a really-nice
product. Not free though....

One strategy I'd recommend is naming each picture descriptively. That way if
whatever DB you wind up using gets corrupted, you still have the essential
descriptive info in the individual foldeer/file names.

For instance, I've got a directory called: '012 2324-2388 Makaha, Kaena Point'
This was my 12th upload from the camera and contains photos that the camera
numbered from 2324 to 2388. (I keep the raw photos backed up somethere
else...).

Within that directory are many pics such as:
-------------------------------------
DSCN2338.Makaha Kaena Point memorial.JPG
DSCN2342.Kaena Point Helemanu parking lot.JPG
DSCN2355.Kaena Point dirt road Nanakuli kids in pickup.JPG
-------------------------------------


Alternatively, for scanned pix where the date is not part of the file's
metadata, you might include dates in the file names:

Directory
'Scans\Film09 Maria Stephan Hatteras July 02-18, 1982'

contains
----------------------------------
1982 07 Film09 0009. Stephan, Maria, & PJC eating indoors Hatteras.jpg
1982 07 Film09 0010. PJC yawning with Stephan Hatteras.jpg
1982 07 Film09 0019. PJC sailing King's Point sailboard Hatteras July 1983 .jpg
----------------------------------

The idea is that whatever product you use will probably have a facility for
parsing in the file names as keywords in the DB. Just typing in information
into the DB probably gives you more info per pic...but you are exposed to losing
it via DB corruption.