Photo Management - HP Photosmart Essential 2.0

[Capper]

Modern Windows operating systems handle digital image organization fairly well. The “My Photos” folder in XP, for example, is set (as default) to display image files in filmstrip mode. This allows you to race through and preview images. You can hover over a thumbnail of the image and get detailed information such as camera used, date taken, and image size. You can change the mode of the folder to thumbnails only, if you wish a contact sheet type view. With a few exceptions, you can view thumbnails in any folder. If you are dealing with a hundred or so images, this functionality is all you really need.

Professional photographers, and folks who work in settings that require extensive photography/imagery, are in a different class than most of us. They know the usefulness and downright need for image cataloging tools. They may have thousands of images, and keeping them organized warrants purchasing tools that can cost from a few tens of dollars, for the budding professional, to systems for established commercial photography that include hardware and cost in the thousands of dollars.

Photo Management - HP Photosmart Essential 2.0

[screwballl]

great review, I may have to try this out when I get home...

[MantaBase]

I was actually pretty impressed with it. For a home user that doesn't want a lot of hassle, it's pretty good. I rank it #3 in the freeware/bundleware arena (basically, I rank these by power and ease of use and lack of annoyment):

iPhoto (Mac only - to bad)
Picasa 2.0 (Has no exif data though)
Essential 2.0 (not much on the fluff factor but has exif)

I tested about 8 of these, including ones from Adobe and Nero. If its not on the above list, there is a good reason for it. So far, those are the only 3 I recommend.

Manta

[Jokerswild]

Thanks Chris !!! I downloaded this software and I have to say I really like it. The software is easy to use and has some very good features also. Very good review but We've come to expect nothing less from you anyway.

[gvblake22]

Wow, HP software that isn't proprietary and works well?!?! I never in a million years thought such a thing would ever exist. Thanks for the review! :wavey:

[screwballl]

after playing with it for an hour or so, I do not like it. If you have pictures in multiple places, you have to choose the main directory folder and then go through the pain of importing the rest from other folders. I had almost 3000 from various locations that I had to choose the folder, Add to Library, go to next folder, add to library.... just a pain to start with.
than when viewing them all in the full screen slide show thing, most of the pictures even at higher resolutions look grainy as if it was a 640x480 picture blown up to like 1280 resolution.

then the program kept crashing on me every 5 minutes or so.....

this program is getting taken off of my computer as I speak...

then when trying to remove it, I got an "abnormal program termination" about 75% of the way so part of it is still there...

it reminds me of vista, looks pretty but useless for every day use

[MantaBase]

Originally Posted by screwballl

after playing with it for an hour or so, I do not like it. If you have pictures in multiple places, you have to choose the main directory folder and then go through the pain of importing the rest from other folders. I had almost 3000 from various locations that I had to choose the folder, Add to Library, go to next folder, add to library.... just a pain to start with.
than when viewing them all in the full screen slide show thing, most of the pictures even at higher resolutions look grainy as if it was a 640x480 picture blown up to like 1280 resolution.

then the program kept crashing on me every 5 minutes or so.....

this program is getting taken off of my computer as I speak...

then when trying to remove it, I got an "abnormal program termination" about 75% of the way so part of it is still there...

it reminds me of vista, looks pretty but useless for every day use

Odd, I put it through 4 uninstalls and reinstalls even while running (it does not uninstall as clean as I like - but passable and better than most software). I didn't see that problem. Also, I didn't have the resolution problem you had, but my images are all (well, not all - many) 7 megapixels or > (I work with 1.5GB file+ often - no, thats not a typo - - but thanks, I'll remember to try more normal sizes in the future) - I'll check.

Thing is, Like I implied in the article, if you have 3000 images, you might not like Essential. Try Picassa from google I say (EDIT - you cantry Adobe Photo Album as well - but try Picassa first IMO). If you don't like that, I suspect you will need to pay for a solution. What do you use now?

Crash wise, I had no problem on two systems - one that is likely far less advanced than your own. I did notice (because I had many of these types of programs installed at once) that these programs don't like other on their turf. Might be your problem.

Sorry it didn't work for ya - but hey - its free - nothing ventured nothing gained :).

[screwballl]

Yeah it just didn't work for me...

I already have PS8 on here which shouldn't be any problems...
also even for larger images that are 2048x1536 and 800-1500KB apiece, I still was forced to scroll right and down just to see the image which it seemed to somehow shrink to 800x600 plus place an extra few hundred white pixels around everything... PITA

Ps8 works fine for me

[Jokerswild]

I haven't found any problem with it yet and I've been using it quite a bit since I installed it.

[Quakindude]

I'll have to give this a shot. I've been using Irfanview for a long time for basic photo editing and batch processing, but it has no management features at all.