Best program for importing and organizing photos?

[TMR Design]

Hi all,

I user Camera Window on my Mac to import and organize photos. Recently I find I need to be using my PC running Windows XP. The Camera and Scanner wizard is fine for importing, creating a folder, etc.. but it is not comprehensive and then there is no real library or organization other than Explorer.

So what programs are you guys using? Also, is neat image worth the investment? It sounds like a great tool and I use PhotoShop so the idea of a PhotoShop plug in to reduce or eliminate noise is very appealing.

[ssd]

I use a number of softwares for different purposes....like 'Fast Stone pic Viewer' for general purpose viewing and sharpening, 'Irfan View' for batch conversion. These two are freewares. I use 'Arc Soft Photo Studio' for general purpose editing (this was given by Canon with S2). Do have 'Photo Filtre' (a freeware) to resize a pasted part. On the contrary to experts' choice, I find 'Photo Shop' a bit difficult for me. Have no idea about 'Neat Image' but using 'VicMan's Pfoto Editor' and/or 'Image Analyzer' (both freewares) for noise removal (they are good for sharpening too).

[casaaviocar]

I use Breezebrowser for viewing and emailing and Downloader Pro(also from Breeze)for downloading and organizing my photos. I have never used the camera cable to download photos, but have always used a card reader, much easier.
Picasa seems to work for a lot of people and it's free.
Irfanview is liked by some.
Corel Paint shop pro X has a nice browser built in.
edit: opps I must have been asleep when I read your post, I see that you are using a mac.

[coreypolis]

if you were on a pc, you could use picasa2, but for a mac, doesn't iphoto do that?

[TMR Design]

Hello,

I use Macs and have used iPhoto. I also use a card reader and never the USB cable. The problem with iPhoto is that is does not actually place the image in a folder that you can open outside of iPhoto, so you can't email unless in iPhoto and the organization and library capabilities are just ok, not great. I use Image Browser on the Mac to organize and view but Image Browser does not exist for the PC.

I need to be able to grab the photos on my network and have complete freedom. Unfortunately iPhoto is proprietary and you can't use or access the image without being inside iPhoto and even then, if you want to do something else with it you have to use iPhoto to access a thried part program (in my case it is PhotoShop) and then save it and create a folder place it somewhere. That has already become twice as much work and a duplication of effort.

Since I have PhotoShop and ImageReady for both PC and Mac I might just make use of the keywords and library functions within those programs. This way I can have the library located on one drive on the network and access it in the exact same way on either platform. I have not actually tried this so I have yet to see if it actually works and makes sense.