10 applications for organizing photo collections

1. Adobe Lightroom

platforms: Windows, macOS.

Price: from 644 rubles a month.

Professional application used for retouching, and to manage your images. Opportunities to streamline the photo archive in Lightroom impressive.

There is a convenient file import and export system that will allow you to easily add images to your collection and sort them into folders. There Lightroom and intelligent virtual folders, as well as the assignment of pictures of tags and ratings. You can find pictures in the archive by keywords, metadata and file attributes. Lightroom also supports face recognition function.

However, in the first place - it is a tool for professional photographers and avid hobbyists. For easy organization of home photo archives of its capabilities is clearly too much, and it is expensive.

Adobe Lightroom →

2. Adobe Bridge

platforms: Windows, macOS.

Price: is free.

In Adobe there is another program that is designed to work with media library - Adobe Bridge. Edit photos, she does not know how, but the ability to sort it rife. Tags, ratings, collection, date, keywords - criteria Sea.

It really is a quality tool that is useful as a pro, or just those with large photo archives. Earlier Bridge was part of Creative Cloud, and is distributed by subscription, but has recently become absolutely free.

Adobe Bridge →

3. Corel AfterShot Pro

platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Price: 6300 rubles.

The package for the processing and sorting of photos from Adobe competitor. This application will help you create a neat folder structure, which will be easy to understand. Photos are easily filtered metadata - supported rating, keywords, dates, tags.

In addition, AfterShot can be used to photo retouching - optimization of lighting, contrast, color and other parameters. The application interface is somewhat overloaded elements, but get used to it quick.

AfterShot →

4. ACDSee Photo Studio

platforms: Windows, macOS.

Price: from 59.99 dollars.

It is extremely popular and time-tested cataloger photos. Opportunities to organize collections of images very much: and categories (as preset or manually created), and ratings, and tags, keywords and geo. Unaccustomed all fichah ACDSee can even get lost.

Batch processing, sorting and renaming of files will allow you to bring order even in the vast photo archive for a few minutes. There is also an advanced tool for editing: cropping, retouching, eliminating defects and noise filters.

ACDSee Photo Studio →

5. darktable

platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Price: is free.

A kind of Lightroom from the world of Linux - a free and open source. The program is focused on the automation and useful to those photographersWho handles a large number of images. It supports the import from most contemporary digital cameras, sort photos, reading and geotag metadata, and allows you to assign files label and rating.

In addition, there is support darktable graphic tablets, and functional application, if desired, can be expanded with external modules.

darktable →

6. "Photo" for macOS

platforms: MacOS.

Price: is free.

This is a standard application, which is part of MacOS. And, like other software from Apple, it is convenient, beautiful and impossibly simple. "Photo", in fact, doing everything for you. It sorts the images in your possession for years, collections, people and places, reading and geotag metadata from files and not troubling you with unnecessary questions.

With these same filters, advanced search lets you instantly find photos in your library. A smart albums to automatically collect all the pictures that fit the conditions that you specify, eliminating the tedious searches.

"Photo" for MacOS →

7. digiKam

platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Price: is free.

open source is another free application. It was originally created under Linux, but then received a version for Windows and MacOS.

The app supports importing photos digital cameras, Scanners, and portable drives, convenient sorting them into albums with a hierarchical structure, filtering images by metadata and geolocation, and even facial recognition. Present in digiKam and the ability to assign a mark image, and the option to view the editing. This is one of the best free programs for photo archive management.

digiKam →

8. XnView

platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Price: is free.

Absolutely free, but it is very advanced image viewer and cataloger photos. Of course, in terms of editing pictures it gives way to a professional package, but for the organization of home photo archives XnView missing head.

batch processing feature photos, bulk import and sorting allow structured and folders scattered on thousands of your images without making any effort. In addition to organizing files, XnView can also be used for retouching on little things and converting images to different formats.

XnView →

9. FastStone Image Viewer

platforms: Windows.

Price: is free.

Extremely simple but powerful photo viewer with the possibility of sorting and cataloging images. It includes a converter image formats and simple editing. With FastStone Image Viewer can be applied to photos filters, resize, remove red-eye and perform simple retouching.

FastStone Image Viewer is also able to import your pictures from your camera or memory card, consider them metadata and geolocation. After - organize the files into folders according to a predetermined structure you. Pro, of course, will find FastStone Image Viewer is not particularly heaped up, but with a home archive of photographs - even very voluminous - it cope with a bang.

FastStone Image Viewer →

10. Shotwell

platforms: Linux.

Price: is free.

For dessert - the application for Linux fans. Shotwell is present in many distributions, and in those where it is not, the program can be installed in just a minute. Appendix inferior to the capabilities besides digiKam, but it still remains an excellent tool for organizing home album. It imports photos and videos from digital cameras, automatically grouping them by date, place of shooting and tags.

The program also supports face recognition and upload images into different storage services photos.

shotwell →