Digital File Gathering Methods: A Comparison
The method you use when gathering digital photos and videos from your clients Sources can have a significant impact on the outcome of your digital organizing project.
Expert-level digital organizing requires that all photos and videos are gathered from all your clients’ Sources while preserving folder structure.
This article compares four solutions and methods commonly used by Professional Photo Organizers and Photo Managers. It also includes a method using Duplicate Cleaner Pro 5, which can do so much more than help you remove duplicates.
Comparison: Searching for Identical Duplicates with PhotoSweeper and Duplicate Cleaner Pro
This article compares the Scan Settings or Scan Criteria for identifying Identical Duplicates and examines how the available settings/criteria affect which photos are displayed in scan results.
PhotoSweeper is the most feature-rich duplicate removal application for Mac. For PC users, Duplicate Cleaner Pro is the most powerful. While these two applications perform the same task, there are significant differences in how they work.
Although he biggest difference between the applications is how duplicates can be marked for removal, that topic will be covered in a future article.
Undated Photos Part 2: Identifying Undated Photos
How do you identify Undated photos in your clients’ digital photo and video collections? If you’ve read the article “Undated Photos Part 1 – The Unseen Menace”, you know there may be many more than you previously realized!
No professional photo organizer or photo manager should be delivering a digital collection to a client that includes Undated photos – unless they are identified as such and separated from the main collection.
This article and the corresponding video examine if and how one can identify Undated photos using: Directory Opus, Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Bridge, Mylio, Finder, File Explorer, Apple Photos and Photo Mechanic.
The Megabyte Method Demonstration Series Part 1: File Gathering
The Megabyte Method is a new approach to organizing digital photo and video collections. It is so different that many people are skeptical of it. So, I decided that the best way to get people’s attention was to record my screen while organizing a collection so that people would be able to watch a video of me working.
This article and the corresponding video include different information, so it is best to read the article first. The link to the video is at the end of the article.
I hope you have watched previous videos and read previous articles about the Megabyte Method, as they will help you understand the demonstrations.
About the Megabyte Method Demonstration Collection
The collection I will be working with in the Megabyte Method Demonstration Video Series is a scaled-down version of a large and complex collection I organized for a client a few years ago.
The project specifications are included in this document because without clear specifications, one cannot appreciate the necessity of many project tasks. Specifications are always part of the agreement between myself and my client.
Undated Photos Part 1: The Unseen Menace
Undated Photos are a menace! There have been Undated photos in every digital collection I have ever organized.
If you have never identified and separated out Undated photos in your clients’ collections, you probably don’t realize how abundant they are. They are difficult to identify using applications commonly used by professional photo organizers. They are difficult to separate out while preserving folder names that may include dates or date clues. It is difficult to find dated versions of Undated photos with many duplicate removal applications. If not found, they will be displayed by the Date Created or Date Modified in the client’s organized collection.
Photo Dates and Terminology – An Introduction
If you’re a professional photo organizer or photo manager, it’s essential to understand photo dates.
Unfortunately, most professional photo organizers have been exposed to misinformation about photo date metadata in courses, webinars, blog posts, and YouTube videos. A great deal of that misinformation is a result of misuse and misunderstanding of terminology like Capture Date and Date Taken.
Different software and different systems use different photo date terminology. In this article, I will provide a little bit of information about photo dates, but I will focus on explaining the terminology that is commonly used, and that is commonly misunderstood.
Cisdem Duplicate Finder & Duplicate Cleaner Pro: A Comparison
It is challenging to compare Cisdem Duplicate Finder and Duplicate Cleaner Pro. Though they are used for the same purpose, they work very differently, have a very different user interfaces, and have very different options for Scan Criteria and for selecting duplicates to remove.
This article and the corresponding video are an overview only and do not cover all aspects of the applications. I will attempt to offer as fair and equal a comparison as is possible.
Why I Use Directory Opus Pro Part 1: Viewing Files and Their Metadatalests
Directory Opus Pro is a file management application for PC and is highly customizable. It is the application I rely on most when organizing digital photo and video collections, yet most professional photo organizers have never tried it.
The main reason I have chosen to use Directory Opus Pro for many digital photo and video organizing tasks is that I can access important metadata about the files I am organizing. Being able to access many different metadata fields is essential to an accurate and efficient workflow.
What Does it Take to Master Digital Photo Organizing?
This is the first article in a series about what it takes to master organizing digital photo and video collections.
Mastery requires knowledge, skill, experience, and the right applications. Only those who understand metadata and who use applications that enable them to do tasks accurately and thoroughly can become masters and deliver expertly organized collections to their clients.