Steven,
You really should ckeck out Picasa2, available free from Google. It will
index every image on your system and organize them into a set of (logical)
folders. The images themselves are not touched or moved, so there's no
mucking about with your existing file system. An image can be added to any
number of logical folders without duplication of the actual image, so you
could, for example, have the same image indexed for Project A and for
Project B, in different logical Picasa folders, while only one image is
actually taking up disk space.
Each image can be assigned a label, which contains the label (name shown),
date, image source, and a free-form text description. Additionally, each may
be assigned keywords, which you might use for project names, or
photographers, models, etc. All of these fields, including the text
description, are searchable, and it is very, very fast. It is an incremental
search, so as you type in your search criteria the software zeros in on your
target. As a test, I entered a nonsense term, xilix, into the text
description field of a SQL Server screenshot label. By the time I had typed
"xil" in the search field the software had located the image in question.
Likewise, I entered the word "farquar" into a keyword field, and again three
keystrokes were all that was required to locate the image. Doesn't get much
faster than that.
The software will also create and burn complete backups of your images to
CD, create Web pages complete with thumbnails, etc., create a timeline
display of your images, slideshows, etc., print contact sheets, create
posters, collages, screensavers, and movies. And it has a not too shabby
collection of basic image correction and enhancement tools and effects.
Check it out. It may be just what you need, and you sure can't beat the
price.
Cheers,
Scott
P. S. One note: Taxonomy should not take a slapdash ad hoc approach. As you
mentioned, a consistent and logical method of selecting descriptive criteria
is key to success in such an application. Meet with the all the people
involved who might be either entering images or retrieving them, and set
policies on how images are to be categorized, how to choose keywords,
whether keywords or label fields will be used for certain types of
information about the photos, how images assigned to different projects will
be designated, etc. You will have to do this anyway no matter what software
you adopt for the purpose, and establishing your taxonomy early in the game
will make deployment go a lot smoother, and likely more successfully.
.
Steven Olson wrote:
Hello all -
My database experience it completely out of date, and I'm hoping
someone on
this list can share their experience with me.
We now have an in-house photographer, and we need to quickly develop a
method of keeping track of her photographs. We currently have over
500 "keepers", and , of course, thousands of "also rans". We need to
set up a
database that allows for a free-form type of search, similar to the
type of
search used by Internet search engines. The database should also
allow for
image fields, or links, so that the results will come up as
thumbnails.
As an example: searching for "house rural day snow" should bring up a
screen
with thumbnails of daytime winter shots of country houses. We
understand,
of course, that consistent and logical data entry into the free-form
description field is necessary.
Can anyone on the list suggest an out-of-the-box tool that would work
for
this?
TIA,
/steven
Steven Olson
Alyption Media Group
104 S. Pine Street, Suite C
Sandpoint, ID 83864
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
208.263.5886
208.304.9064 (cell)
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