Simple Program Needed, Can Anyone Help?

I am looking for a program that can take the information I attached to photos and put it in an excel document. I have just got too many photos to keep up with this method and would like to switch to just using an excel sheet that has the file name, location, keyword, description, photo taken on, etc. The problem is I have over 15000 images (photography is a hobby of mine). Anyway, I know nothing about programing or if there is a program out there but would it be hard to make a program to do this?

Oh, the information I added to the photos was by right clicking and going to properties and then adding it in there. Most were created on Windows XP if that matters.

Help, please....

 

I'd be interested in this as well. Actually I would just like something simple so I can throw in keywords while I scroll through my library of images.

 

If you have Adobe Bridge you can sort images in one folder (as fra as I am aware) according to tags.

Maybe have a closer look at the Live Photo Gallery - I didn't so far.

You essentially need software that builds a library like Windows Media Player, iTunes etc. just photographic...

 

I just downloaded Live Photo Gallery and it works pretty well. I don't know if it will export or import keywords though. But it makes it easy to add people and tags. I just did about 200 photos in about 15 minutes.

 

Another idea that just popped into my mind...

Photoshop Elemnts has an organisation feature - that may be useful.
CS4 hasn't - I think Bridge does some of it.
Another piece of Adobe software is Lighroom that may also allow you to organize photographs...

BUT: All of these cost

 

I find Live Gallery is great for finding photos by visual recognition. For keywords, date range, size etc, I just use Explorer's search box.

 

I use Explorer's search box too but have all of my images on two sets of CD's and then an external 320GB hard drive. Since that hard drive isn't connected to my laptop 24/7, I am cautous using any library style program but when the hard drive is connected the Explorer search works fine.

Now since I am on Mac OS X, I am getting behind on adding the information to the photos since Windows and Mac don't add the information to the photos in the same way (so none of the photos are serachable by keywords I put in on windows). I can use a virtual machine for XP and do but just figured it would be easier to convert to an Excel sheet that simply has the picture name, date taken, key words, location, discription. I think Excel will be around for a long time and am wondering how much longer the Exif information will stay the same and such.

My think is, it will take a very long time to convert the information over by hand so a program that can batch process this by me dropping a photo on it and it puts the fields into excel for me would be amazing!

 

Ooops, didn't notice the Macbook in your sig.

That does present a challenge.

Hummm, it has to be a free program, otherwise it would just be as expensive as getting a larger harddrive.........

 

Yeah but my MacBook can act like a PC when needed. Even if I get a program I will still have to retag all of my photos in it and stuff which is the same as me hand doing an excel sheet. I know nothing about writing simple programs (I think this is a simple program) but how hard would it be to write a program to look up this information in the photo and put it in excel?

 

Where is this information stored anyways? If I move it or make a copy, is it part of the jpg?

 

Look into Adobe Lightroom, I think there's a free trial download, you can see if it will meet your needs. THere's student pricing as well, not sure if that's applicable. I'm pretty sure any information you added was stored in the image's EXIF data, so maybe searching the internet for EXIF will help you find a free utility.

 

The information is actually in the IPTC data... I have been fighting this whole OS X doesn't use the same IPTC data as Windows and that is why I am wanting go to go Excel...

 

I just found this program that claims it can Import/Export to Excel and works with IPTC data. Has anyone used it before?

http://www.colorpilot.com/exifpro.html

 

No, I haven't, I doubt anyone else has. You might try a digital photo forum. Not sure what you shoot with, but I'm a regular over at POTN ( http://photography-on-the.net/forum/) which is Canon-based. Plenty of people over there to help you out.

The only program I ever used like that was ExifTool ( http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/) which does export EXIF data, but not sure it's what your looking for.

Good luck though man, sounds like PITA project.

 

It is very much so, I never thought that OS X would handle IPTC different than Windows and have been trying to resolve ways for a while now to either switch over or find a program in OS X for about half a year now.

I shoot a Nikon D70 but post occasionally at dpreview.com so I might take this question there.