Overview of Windows applications to restore order in photo archives
Asking to find all the photos of a loved one, or analyzing photos from the hike, tours, etc. we often start monitoring folders on the computer. However, after just an hour or two, many are abandoning this venture, having gone through less than half of the photo archive and are tired of searching for unnecessary pictures among hundreds of NewNotes and dozens of DCIM.
We are in a hurry to live. Our memories are stored in folders, merged from camera flash drives, synchronized with smartphones and ... forgotten. In this review I will try to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of applications available to ordinary people with Windows, which can give our memories a second life.
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We formulate the requirements for the program, they will be:
Picasa is a long-known program that, unfortunately, has stopped evolving. The latest update 3.9 brought only a few features and syncing with Google+.
Google Photo is Picasa's heir. It has a lot of innovative algorithms. In my opinion, clean, fresh and laconic.
ACDSee 17 is my first photo viewing app since I bought my computer back in 1999. During this time, the company has released a large number of modifications ACDSee. Now the site contains about 12 versions.
Flickr is an updated online service with a neat design and 1 TB (enough for about 150,000 photos) to store photos for each user.
ThisLife is a San Francisco start-up bought last year by Shutterfly.
ZZ Photo - is in beta testing. Beautiful design, but a little damp.
XnView is a popular, free, fast photo application.
Zoner 16 is a photo editor from Czech developers.
Of course, you have all the photos on the D: / disk in the Photos folder, but for many people things are different. The part on the “D: /” disk, the part in “My Pictures”, do not forget your favorite “Temp” folders and “temporary” folders on the desktop. Let's take a look at how our applications can solve the problem of scanning your computer in search of photos.
Picasa
After installing the application, a dialog box appears in which you can select the “Search for all photos on a computer” option.
The application has found all the photos and pictures on the PC.
Bypassed the system folders and directories with installed programs. I made a mistake only once, adding the background files to the collection from one of the installed programs. The import window for adding new folders looks like this.
Google photo
The successor, the online service of Google Photo, the import window is as follows. The application can not solve the problem of finding photos in various places of your PC.
There is a small Windows client for automatically uploading files to Google Photo.
Flickr (Windows uploader)
There is no photo search function on the PC. You need to specify the necessary folder for importing photos, if there are several folders, you will have to specify each one.
Flickr (Web uploader)
Import window in the main, online version of the service.
ZZ Photo
It is possible to find all the pictures on your PC, import your Facebook, Instagram, Flickr accounts. When searching, the application avoids system folders, searches for photo files (.jpg extension) with EXIF ​​(image metadata), which allows you to avoid importing pictures and finding only photos.
Thislife
It is possible to import photos from the folder, as well as Facebook, Shuterfly, Flickr, Picasa, Instagram, SendMug.
The Windows client has an ascetic and simple interface.
As a rule, our memories are associated with an event, location or person. And it is much easier to search for photos by persons who are captured in the photo.
Picasa
After the import, portraits of people without a name appear in the left column. As you add people's faces, a collection is formed.
Portraits of people gather in a common ribbon. Hypotheses for each detected human face are formed at the end of the collection.
While viewing photos in the album on the right, the faces found in the photos line up.
Thislife
Persons are grouped by the algorithm on the threshold of similarity. If an error has crept in, an extra shot can be removed from the collection. If the found portrait of a person is random, the user can ignore his pictures without creating a collection.
After the formation of persons they are collected in the collection.
ZZ Photo
Unnamed persons line up as they are found at the top of the "Persons" section.
If the algorithm, based on already defined people, thinks that a new person looks like, he suggests a hypothesis of coincidence of people.
Hypotheses about the "similarity" of people can be viewed for each person separately. When you enter a person, in addition to photographs in which this person is marked, there is a separate section on the hypotheses below.
Flickr, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
No function.
Picasa
When importing there is a checkbox "Exclude duplicate files", which will help to eliminate duplicates at the initial stage.
There is also an experimental mode “Show duplicate files”. But the second copy of the photo rarely appears on the same screen, which complicates the user's work in removing duplicates.
ZZ Photo
Duplicates are marked with a marker in the upper left corner of the image. You can select and delete those copies of photos that the user considers unnecessary. If there is any doubt whether the snapshot is a duplicate, it is possible to open it in the explorer.
Flickr, ThisLife, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
The function of searching and identifying duplicate photos is missing.
Picasa
The function of defining images of one series is missing.
Google photo
There is no tool for selecting the best shots of one series, but if you are viewing pictures in the “Best” mode, then smart algorithms will be selected from the series
best shots. The criteria are: a collapsed horizon, a histogram of the picture, the presence of a smile on the face, open eyes, white balance and time taken to take a picture, taking into account the geotag and the time of sunset of the sun in the area, etc.
Flickr, ThisLife, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
No function.
ZZ Photo
When viewing photos in albums at the bottom of the screen, a collection of snapshots of one series is built. For each, you can make two decisions: confirm the value of the image, or delete.
I think everyone has pictures that we don’t want to show to anyone who accidentally can access your computer. The reasons are different: from a valuable snapshot in which you have a bad exit, to photographs from a past marriage.
Picasa / Google Photo, Flickr, ThisLife, ACDSee, Zoner 16
When uploading to a web resource, you can limit the privacy settings. The ability to limit viewing photos on a PC is missing.
ZZ Photo
From any viewing mode, you can drag the photo onto the Privat icon, and the snapshot will be available only in this mode after entering the password.
XnView
The ability to limit viewing photos on a PC is missing.
Picasa, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
It is possible to copy selected images. The ability to move all the images found on a PC to one place is missing.
GooglePhoto, Flickr, ThisLife
The online resource solves the issue of collecting and storing all the photos by default. The ability to move all the images found in one place on the PC is missing.
ZZ Photo
It is possible to copy selected images or all found images to one place on a computer. There are several methods for exporting: copy to one folder, copy by date (year / month) and copy without changing the names of the original folders.
Picasa
Photos can be tagged when viewed using the side right pane. Tags are added manually, or selected from a collection.
Search mode allows you to find photos by specified tags. The green bar in the header reminds the user that the photos shown are limited to a search query.
GooglePhoto, XnView
No tagging functionality.
Flickr
When importing photos, it is possible to assign a text tag, mark a person, add to an album or group. These actions can be applied both to a separate photo and to a group of shots (by default).
Tagging is also possible when viewing a snapshot. Possibilities are available to add a text tag, geolocation and person.
To search for photos by tags, just enter them in the search field (top right). If you need to clarify all sorts of criteria, Advanced Search is available with a variety of options for fine-tuning a search query.
Thislife
To add a tag to a snapshot, you need to enter it, or choose from the list of prompts. If the tag is missing, the program will ask what type the tag is: text, person, or geolocation.
A separate mode "Tags" allows you to see your tags and photos on the collections.
Photo search allows you to search by people, geolocation tags and text tags. For a more flexible request setting, there is Advanced Mode, in which you can customize the type of displayed content (photo / video), the period in which photos were taken and some other options.
ZZ Photo
You can tag with three types of tags: text, geolocation, and noting faces in photos. In the left panel there are preset text tags (Family, Friends, Work, Study, Travel, Hobbies). If you wish, you can create personalized tags. Photos tagged automatically form virtual albums for quick access to pictures of one category.
The search is carried out by text tags, persons and geolocation tags. Tags can be both expanding the search (find "Friends" and "Family"), and clarifying (find "Family", only "Travel").
ACDSee
Explicitly there are no text tags in the application. There are rating labels (from 0 to 5) and a color palette (5 colors).
Zoner 16
The file marking mechanism is similar to ACDSee. No tags. There are color tags and photo rating levels (from 0 to 5).
The search mode allows you to quite flexibly search for possible parameters using the mathematical conditions "equal", "more", "less".
Picasa
The new version has the ability to synchronize with GooglePhoto.
GooglePhoto
Stores all photos on its own service, GoogleDrive. Ability to store on third-party cloud services is missing.
Flickr
Stores all photos on its own service. Ability to store on third-party cloud services is missing.
Thislife
Uses only its external storage, which is significantly more expensive than popular clouds. Ability to store on third-party cloud services is missing.
ACDSee
Uses its external storage, ACDSee 365. Storage is not available on third-party cloud services.
ZZ Photo, XnView
Does not allow.
Zoner 16
Provides the ability to export: Zonerama (own cloud service), Flickr, Picasa Web Albums.
Picasa - Freeware. Is free.
Google Photo - Shareware. Photos less than 2048 Ă— 2048 pixels can be stored on Google Drive in unlimited quantities absolutely free. For larger photos - 15 GB free. Over it, from 2 $ / month for 100 Gb.
Flickr - Adware. Free with ads. Disable advertising - $ 49.99 / year.
ThisLife - Shareware. Free up to 1000 photos. More: $ 7.99 / month or $ 59 / year.
ZZ Photo - Free.
ACDSee - Shareware. From $ 49.95.
XnView - Donateware. There is an opportunity to help the project by donating.
Zoner 16 - Shareware. Free use of the full-featured PRO version for 30 days. HomeEdition $ 44, ProEdition $ 89.
For more convenient analysis, I collected all the characteristics in one table.
We are in a hurry to live. Our memories are stored in folders, merged from camera flash drives, synchronized with smartphones and ... forgotten. In this review I will try to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of applications available to ordinary people with Windows, which can give our memories a second life.
')
We formulate the requirements for the program, they will be:
- Search for photos scattered on the PC.
- The ability to collect and organize all the photos in one place.
- Support for photos in RAW format (image format from digital SLR cameras).
- Recognition in the photographs of the faces of loved ones.
- Find and delete duplicate photos (photos containing the same image, but placed in different folders on your computer).
- Ability to choose the best shot in a series of similar photos.
- The ability to hide personal photos from outsiders.
- Ability to add tags for quick and easy photo search.
- External backup storage of important photos (synchronization with cloud services).
- Free or moderate cost.
Programs for comparison
Picasa is a long-known program that, unfortunately, has stopped evolving. The latest update 3.9 brought only a few features and syncing with Google+.
Google Photo is Picasa's heir. It has a lot of innovative algorithms. In my opinion, clean, fresh and laconic.
ACDSee 17 is my first photo viewing app since I bought my computer back in 1999. During this time, the company has released a large number of modifications ACDSee. Now the site contains about 12 versions.
Flickr is an updated online service with a neat design and 1 TB (enough for about 150,000 photos) to store photos for each user.
ThisLife is a San Francisco start-up bought last year by Shutterfly.
ZZ Photo - is in beta testing. Beautiful design, but a little damp.
XnView is a popular, free, fast photo application.
Zoner 16 is a photo editor from Czech developers.
Search for photos scattered on PC
Of course, you have all the photos on the D: / disk in the Photos folder, but for many people things are different. The part on the “D: /” disk, the part in “My Pictures”, do not forget your favorite “Temp” folders and “temporary” folders on the desktop. Let's take a look at how our applications can solve the problem of scanning your computer in search of photos.
Picasa
After installing the application, a dialog box appears in which you can select the “Search for all photos on a computer” option.
The application has found all the photos and pictures on the PC.
Bypassed the system folders and directories with installed programs. I made a mistake only once, adding the background files to the collection from one of the installed programs. The import window for adding new folders looks like this.
Google photo
The successor, the online service of Google Photo, the import window is as follows. The application can not solve the problem of finding photos in various places of your PC.
There is a small Windows client for automatically uploading files to Google Photo.
Flickr (Windows uploader)
There is no photo search function on the PC. You need to specify the necessary folder for importing photos, if there are several folders, you will have to specify each one.
Flickr (Web uploader)
Import window in the main, online version of the service.
ZZ Photo
It is possible to find all the pictures on your PC, import your Facebook, Instagram, Flickr accounts. When searching, the application avoids system folders, searches for photo files (.jpg extension) with EXIF ​​(image metadata), which allows you to avoid importing pictures and finding only photos.
Thislife
It is possible to import photos from the folder, as well as Facebook, Shuterfly, Flickr, Picasa, Instagram, SendMug.
The Windows client has an ascetic and simple interface.
Recognition in photos of persons of close people
As a rule, our memories are associated with an event, location or person. And it is much easier to search for photos by persons who are captured in the photo.
Picasa
After the import, portraits of people without a name appear in the left column. As you add people's faces, a collection is formed.
Portraits of people gather in a common ribbon. Hypotheses for each detected human face are formed at the end of the collection.
While viewing photos in the album on the right, the faces found in the photos line up.
Thislife
Persons are grouped by the algorithm on the threshold of similarity. If an error has crept in, an extra shot can be removed from the collection. If the found portrait of a person is random, the user can ignore his pictures without creating a collection.
After the formation of persons they are collected in the collection.
ZZ Photo
Unnamed persons line up as they are found at the top of the "Persons" section.
If the algorithm, based on already defined people, thinks that a new person looks like, he suggests a hypothesis of coincidence of people.
Hypotheses about the "similarity" of people can be viewed for each person separately. When you enter a person, in addition to photographs in which this person is marked, there is a separate section on the hypotheses below.
Flickr, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
No function.
Find and delete duplicate photos (photos containing the same image, but placed in different folders on the computer)
Picasa
When importing there is a checkbox "Exclude duplicate files", which will help to eliminate duplicates at the initial stage.
There is also an experimental mode “Show duplicate files”. But the second copy of the photo rarely appears on the same screen, which complicates the user's work in removing duplicates.
ZZ Photo
Duplicates are marked with a marker in the upper left corner of the image. You can select and delete those copies of photos that the user considers unnecessary. If there is any doubt whether the snapshot is a duplicate, it is possible to open it in the explorer.
Flickr, ThisLife, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
The function of searching and identifying duplicate photos is missing.
Ability to choose the best shot in a series of similar photos.
Picasa
The function of defining images of one series is missing.
Google photo
There is no tool for selecting the best shots of one series, but if you are viewing pictures in the “Best” mode, then smart algorithms will be selected from the series
best shots. The criteria are: a collapsed horizon, a histogram of the picture, the presence of a smile on the face, open eyes, white balance and time taken to take a picture, taking into account the geotag and the time of sunset of the sun in the area, etc.
Flickr, ThisLife, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
No function.
ZZ Photo
When viewing photos in albums at the bottom of the screen, a collection of snapshots of one series is built. For each, you can make two decisions: confirm the value of the image, or delete.
Ability to hide personal photos from outsiders
I think everyone has pictures that we don’t want to show to anyone who accidentally can access your computer. The reasons are different: from a valuable snapshot in which you have a bad exit, to photographs from a past marriage.
Picasa / Google Photo, Flickr, ThisLife, ACDSee, Zoner 16
When uploading to a web resource, you can limit the privacy settings. The ability to limit viewing photos on a PC is missing.
ZZ Photo
From any viewing mode, you can drag the photo onto the Privat icon, and the snapshot will be available only in this mode after entering the password.
XnView
The ability to limit viewing photos on a PC is missing.
Collect all pictures in one place.
Picasa, ACDSee, XnView, Zoner 16
It is possible to copy selected images. The ability to move all the images found on a PC to one place is missing.
GooglePhoto, Flickr, ThisLife
The online resource solves the issue of collecting and storing all the photos by default. The ability to move all the images found in one place on the PC is missing.
ZZ Photo
It is possible to copy selected images or all found images to one place on a computer. There are several methods for exporting: copy to one folder, copy by date (year / month) and copy without changing the names of the original folders.
Ability to add tags for quick and easy photo search
Picasa
Photos can be tagged when viewed using the side right pane. Tags are added manually, or selected from a collection.
Search mode allows you to find photos by specified tags. The green bar in the header reminds the user that the photos shown are limited to a search query.
GooglePhoto, XnView
No tagging functionality.
Flickr
When importing photos, it is possible to assign a text tag, mark a person, add to an album or group. These actions can be applied both to a separate photo and to a group of shots (by default).
Tagging is also possible when viewing a snapshot. Possibilities are available to add a text tag, geolocation and person.
To search for photos by tags, just enter them in the search field (top right). If you need to clarify all sorts of criteria, Advanced Search is available with a variety of options for fine-tuning a search query.
Thislife
To add a tag to a snapshot, you need to enter it, or choose from the list of prompts. If the tag is missing, the program will ask what type the tag is: text, person, or geolocation.
A separate mode "Tags" allows you to see your tags and photos on the collections.
Photo search allows you to search by people, geolocation tags and text tags. For a more flexible request setting, there is Advanced Mode, in which you can customize the type of displayed content (photo / video), the period in which photos were taken and some other options.
ZZ Photo
You can tag with three types of tags: text, geolocation, and noting faces in photos. In the left panel there are preset text tags (Family, Friends, Work, Study, Travel, Hobbies). If you wish, you can create personalized tags. Photos tagged automatically form virtual albums for quick access to pictures of one category.
The search is carried out by text tags, persons and geolocation tags. Tags can be both expanding the search (find "Friends" and "Family"), and clarifying (find "Family", only "Travel").
ACDSee
Explicitly there are no text tags in the application. There are rating labels (from 0 to 5) and a color palette (5 colors).
Zoner 16
The file marking mechanism is similar to ACDSee. No tags. There are color tags and photo rating levels (from 0 to 5).
The search mode allows you to quite flexibly search for possible parameters using the mathematical conditions "equal", "more", "less".
External backup storage of important photos (synchronization with cloud services)
Picasa
The new version has the ability to synchronize with GooglePhoto.
GooglePhoto
Stores all photos on its own service, GoogleDrive. Ability to store on third-party cloud services is missing.
Flickr
Stores all photos on its own service. Ability to store on third-party cloud services is missing.
Thislife
Uses only its external storage, which is significantly more expensive than popular clouds. Ability to store on third-party cloud services is missing.
ACDSee
Uses its external storage, ACDSee 365. Storage is not available on third-party cloud services.
ZZ Photo, XnView
Does not allow.
Zoner 16
Provides the ability to export: Zonerama (own cloud service), Flickr, Picasa Web Albums.
Cost of
Picasa - Freeware. Is free.
Google Photo - Shareware. Photos less than 2048 Ă— 2048 pixels can be stored on Google Drive in unlimited quantities absolutely free. For larger photos - 15 GB free. Over it, from 2 $ / month for 100 Gb.
Flickr - Adware. Free with ads. Disable advertising - $ 49.99 / year.
ThisLife - Shareware. Free up to 1000 photos. More: $ 7.99 / month or $ 59 / year.
ZZ Photo - Free.
ACDSee - Shareware. From $ 49.95.
XnView - Donateware. There is an opportunity to help the project by donating.
Zoner 16 - Shareware. Free use of the full-featured PRO version for 30 days. HomeEdition $ 44, ProEdition $ 89.
Results
For more convenient analysis, I collected all the characteristics in one table.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/226123/
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