I recently have been producing a physical photo album from the 2,500 digital images I have. I used a number of tools in the process, so I thought I would blog about them.

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Tool

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Description

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ImageWalker

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Nice image management tool. I like it because it is fast to use, is file based, and supports image manipulation like red-eye reduction etc.

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JPEGCrops

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Used for cropping photos to 4”x6” for printing as the aspect ratio of the original photos does not match the print format. Has a quick UI for cropping a lot of photos.

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exiftool

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Python script that supports renaming image files to the date the image was created as recorded in the EXIF header. Useful to quickly create a time line for a set of photos.

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JAlbum

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Creates a web album for a set of files. Useful for sharing online. Nice to see a mainstream tool written in Java.

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I did try using the latest Google offering Picasa 2. I ended up not liking it as:

  • It is not file based – it seems (to me) to actively avoid showing a folder-view of your photos. Big deal for me as I manage photos in folders based on date.

  • Modifications to an image is are not stored immediately in the file. Instead you need to export your changes.

  • Not efficient to perform batch cropping.

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