Photos photos everywhere - how to start sorting them out?

[toxicated]

Can't believe I'm the only one to suffer from this but couldn't find an answer using search.

I have photos on 4 computers, 2 mobiles and a couple of dead hard drives which I hope to resurrect.

The trouble is some are duplicates, some saved in different formats - kind of a big mess really as I'd like to have them all organised, I assume using EXIF data.

But I'm not sure how to go about this. Is there an online service I can upload them to that'll sort out into chronological order or at least identify duplicates? Happy with a paid-for service as I'll use it as a backup to my DVD copies. No idea how many photos I have - they're just normal family photos taken over the last 10 years or so.

Or is there a program that'll do the same thing if I put all of them onto a single computer? There seem to be quite a few possibles but a lot seem to write their own reviews...

Thanks!

[xrrr]

toxicated said:

Can't believe I'm the only one to suffer from this but couldn't find an answer using search.

I have photos on 4 computers, 2 mobiles and a couple of dead hard drives which I hope to resurrect.

The trouble is some are duplicates, some saved in different formats - kind of a big mess really as I'd like to have them all organised, I assume using EXIF data.

But I'm not sure how to go about this. Is there an online service I can upload them to that'll sort out into chronological order or at least identify duplicates? Happy with a paid-for service as I'll use it as a backup to my DVD copies. No idea how many photos I have - they're just normal family photos taken over the last 10 years or so.

Or is there a program that'll do the same thing if I put all of them onto a single computer? There seem to be quite a few possibles but a lot seem to write their own reviews...

Thanks!

If you upload your pictures to Flickr then you can create groups (i.e. folders) where you can sort by date taken. That could take a very long time to upload everything though.

If you can get all the images onto the same disk then this free tool looks like what you need:
Amok Exif Sorter
http://www.amok.am/en/freeware/amok_exif_sorter/

I haven't used it though - I personally use Lightroom to organise my pics. In LR they all import into date stamped folders and I use tags to catalogue and subsequently search.

[Simpo Two]

toxicated said:

Is there an online service I can upload them to that'll sort out into chronological order or at least identify duplicates?

How about putting them all in one big new folder and choosing 'view by date taken'? That would be a start.



If you can't organise your stuff how can something online do it for you?

[Silver Smudger]

If you get them all on the same PC, Picasa (free from Google) is pretty useful for this sort of thing