Digital photo organizing software

Anyone got any good suggestions for digital photo organizing software?

I used to use ACDSee but it just annoyed me and didn't really help me at all. The only useful feature it has is the calendar view where you can see your pictures by date taken.

I just tried Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 (the free 'starter' edition) and that was an immediate non-starter as it gave all my photos a horrible green colour cast. I'm shocked that the same company that makes Photoshop couldn't solve one of the most basic digital image issues (colour profiles). Even the image preview and thumbnail viewer standard with XP does it properly . Nice looking interface though.

Someone suggested Picasa but that just looks too basic, it doesn't even appear to have a basic "tagging" feature.

The main problem seems to be that all these packages are aimed at the "family" user with all their "instant fix" (remove redeye, fix colour etc) options and tacky things like making calendars, mugs, t-shirts etc out of your photos and other features like e-mailing and sharing photos over the net.

I'm looking for something that lets me easily categorize and "tag" my photos and find them by category, tag and date taken. A nice and fast thumbnail viewer is also a must. I don't need any editing features (I use Photoshop) and I don't need any of the other e-mailing/sharing features either.

Surely there must be a package aimed more at "pro" photographers?

Otherwise, I'll just have to stick with Windows XP thumbnail view and image previewer and have no tagging or easy "calendar" view

Michael.

 

Michael, how about this http://www.photools.com/products.php?PHPSESSID=a954808374249248f447e70acbcadf80 haven't personally used it myself as I take so few digital images. No idea if it'll be any better than the other programs you've tried, but there's a free trial so it might be worth giving it a go.

 

Thanks BL21DE3, that looks like just the ticket. Will give it a go. Now why couldn't I find that?

Michael.

 

Try the "File Browser" option in Photoshop CS. It's very useful, fairly powerful and non-amateur. The other alternative is to buy a "professional" image DB or code your own image database.
I think you'll like the PS approach. It's pretty good.

 

Joel - is it the same as File Browser in Photoshop 7.0? If so, I find it rather slow and clunky. Actually, so bad that I prefer to just use XP file explorer thumbnail view .

Michael.

 

I don't remember that far back to be honest It's neither slow nor clunky on my ageing Athlon XP3200...