Photo organizer?

[foxleybob]

Does Affinity Photo 2 have a photo organiser like the "Browser" in Photoshop?

[PaulEC]

Short answer: No!

Long answer: No, but quite a few people have asked for one.

Longer answer: No, but there are third party apps that you can use instead, such as XnViewMP.

[thomaso]

As mentioned, it has been asked various times … and answered with available alternatives for macOS or Windows:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q="image browser"&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=5&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy

Or try an internet search limited to the forum:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=image+browser+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fforum.affinity.serif.com%2F&atb=v373-1&ia=web

[foxleybob]

3 hours ago, PaulEC said:

Short answer: No!

Long answer: No, but quite a few people have asked for one.

Longer answer: No, but there are third party apps that you can use instead, such as XnViewMP.

Could you recommend one, please?

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, foxleybob said:

Could you recommend one, please?

As PaulEC said in the text you quoted: such as XnViewMP.

[foxleybob]

3 hours ago, PaulEC said:

XnViewMP

sorry, I need to go to Specsavers.

[foxleybob]

Just searcing the web....

Wat about Mylio photos, Does anyone use this one?

https://www.facebook.com/100067358641814/posts/799827282272553/?rdid=M55IBjMeOPn0CNYz

[mopperle]

Are you on Windows or Mac?

Also, what are your requirements, what do you need, what do you want to do?

If on Windows, I can recommend IMatch, a real DAM solution, extremly powerfull, independend from other software, not cloud based, no subscription, sticks to standards, not only for photos, but also for videos and other file types which allow a minimum of metadata : https://www.photools.com/

There is a trial version and a excellent support forum

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, foxleybob said:

Just searcing the web....

You don't need to search the web – as mentioned and linked above there are various threads already in this forum and include recommendations and/or links to apps.

If you're looking for software on the web anyway, a link to Facebook seems strange. So why not post a link to the software instead of a social media platform? Or to a website that has tested the software and, for example, reports on their experiences and reviews?

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, thomaso said:

So why not post a link to the software instead of a social media platform? Or to a website that has tested the software and, for example, reports on their experiences and reviews?

Though, having looked at that Facebook post, I see that several users have provided their negative reviews of the product.

[foxleybob]

17 hours ago, mopperle said:

Are you on Windows or Mac?

Also, what are your requirements, what do you need, what do you want to do?

If on Windows, I can recommend IMatch, a real DAM solution, extremly powerfull, independend from other software, not cloud based, no subscription, sticks to standards, not only for photos, but also for videos and other file types which allow a minimum of metadata : https://www.photools.com/

There is a trial version and a excellent support forum

I have windows 10.

just would like a free (if possible) photo organiser.

Will look at iMatch soon as thank you.

[GarryP]

8 minutes ago, foxleybob said:

just would like a free (if possible) photo organiser.

Ask 100 people what they mean by “photo organiser” and you will get at least 100 different answers as everyone has different requirements.

As requested, if you can say, in detail, what you want to do with the photo organiser, and what you don’t need it to do, then someone may be able to point you in the right direction.

Otherwise, with such a vague requirement, you will only get generalised suggestions based on other people’s experience and requirements, and what works really well for someone else may not be anything like what’s good for you.

[mopperle]

As GarryP said, without knowing what you want to do, you will get tons of „recommendations“. You can use Google search for „free Photo organisier“ and you will get a huge list you can try.

[GarryP]

To get you started...

• Which file types does it need to work with? JPEG, PNG, WEBP, JPEGXL, SVG, RAW, AF*, etc?
• Which bit-depth(s) does it need to handle? 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit?
• Which colour space(s) does it need to handle? RGB, CMYK?
• Should it make its own copies of your images or should it work with the originals?
• Should it store the ‘organisation information’ in the image metadata or should it use its own database?
• How well does it need to integrate with the OS?
• Should it have any kind of editing/conversion functionality? And, if so, what?
• Should it have any backup or version control ability? And, if so, how should that work?
• Do you have any ‘en masse’ organisational or editing/conversion requirements? And, if so, what are they?
• Does it need to be able to work with cloud/external storage? And, if so, which one(s)?
• Do you need to be able to access any of the information remotely from a different device to where the images are?
• Do you want a ‘live interface’ or do you prefer using dialogs and confirming user actions?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

[mopperle]

• Do you need batch editing?
• Do you need scripting to automate tasks?
• Do you need face recognition?
• Do you need to work with categories, keywords etc.?
• Do you need autogeneration of keywords?
• Do you need search/filtering capabilities?
• ……..
   

[PaulEC]

When looking for a photo viewer/organiser one really important thing is to decide if you need to include .AFPhoto files. There's a big choice, but most can't display native Affinity files. Normally I use Irfanview ('have done for years) but it can't display Affinity files, so I also use XnViewMP which can display them.

[mopperle]

15 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

There's a big choice, but most can't display native Affinity files.

Quite normal, as .afphoto is proprietary format and apps like XnView and e.g. my organizer (IMatch) displays the embedded preview. Unfortunalety the embedded prview is quite small and AF does not offer a bigger one.

No idea, why Irfanview (and some others like Faststone) cant access the preview.

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, mopperle said:

No idea, why Irfanview (and some others like Faststone) cant access the preview.

The preview can be accessed using standard OS functions, so they must not be using the standard functions or are simply programmed to only use them for selected known file types.

[foxleybob]

I appreciate all your help on this guys.

I suppose I have to admit I don't really know what I want.🙄

Except to say I did look at  Adobe elements years ago that I didn't bother with (due to no confidence/experience).

but apart from the editing suite it also had something called a Browser ( i think) incorporated with it.

I came to think that this was a photo storage of some kind...Right?.

I will have another look through the links you all have given me though.

Sorry if I come across as a complete idiot

 

 

[GarryP]

I wouldn’t feel too bad about it if I were you.

I went through a similar process a while back and I had the same sort of experience.

There are so many possibilities, and they all do what they do in different ways for different reasons, that it’s often difficult to know where to start.

On top of that, you have to put a lot of work into trialling something like this just to see if it does what you want it to do without any ‘nasty surprises’ later on. (How many photos do you need to organise before you know the software will work the way you want it to work for the foreseeable future? And how many times can you organise the same photos in different software, in different ways, before you get sick of organising them?)

In the end I just gave up and organised my images into folders and I just browse the thumbnails manually. Not a good solution for some people but it’s good enough for me.

[mopperle]

You didnt come across like a complete idiot and it takes some time to define one personal needs. And the longer you think about it the more often your requirements change and makes it harder to make a decision.

I assume that currently you only use the Windows Explorer to organize your files. This is where most people started (including me). But then you start missing certain functionality and look for alternatives. And this is how you should start.

Think about what you are missing and then look for a tool, doing what you miss. But in any case, as appetite grows while eating, make sure to choose a solution that grows with your needs or allows a migration to another solution.

The product you are mentioning above is Adobe Bridge. IMHO it is available without having an Adobe account.

It is not too bad, but quite slow and behaves IMHO sometimes a bit strange, maybe because it is part of the Adobe ecosystem.

But give it a try or any of the other mentioned products.

 

[foxleybob]

Yes, I must admit , it has been quite daunting, not fully in control with my camera yet.

I guess I'll just have to spend time reading through all the links you've kindly sent me.

i'll spend time doing this when back from holiday.

i Tried to like your replies but wouldn't let me anymore today.

Thanks again, guys.😊

[dominik]

1 hour ago, foxleybob said:

Yes, I must admit , it has been quite daunting

Before you leave for your holidays I want to give you a starting point suggestion. All questions and ideas above are very valid. Still, I'd suggest you start out with XnViewMP. It does a lot of what a photo browser does and it is free. You can look at what it offers and play around with it. That way you'll be able to narrow down what your requirements are. It also will help you to understand how these programs work.

Good luck.

d.

[foxleybob]

thanks, Dominic.

I'll do that, along with reading all the info given to me. 😊