Importing Photos.

[novachic]

I am confused and want to better understand how to import pictures into photoshop elements 6 organizer.
I know when you attach a memory card ect a photodownloader box appears. I need help to understand the options I can use.
What is the create subfolder.
Then there is the re-name files. Should I do this or not. Will it help me find my pictures later. What If I have different bunches of photos I want to group together and name each group different.
Then what is the preserve Current Filename in XMP- what is this- when would you use that.
Do you recommend to use the automatic Download feature.
Do you recommend to use the auto fix red eye and suggest stacks.
Then the make group custom name a tag. What would this do if checked.
Then what is the Apply metadata.

Sorry so Many questions. I what to learn it right and understand what all the options and buttons mean.

Thanks
Cynthia

[novachic]

Also when you download your pictures into the organizer Is it placing the pictures in 2 different spots. Like in My Pictures and in the Organizer. Dosen't this take up alot of memory with them in 2 spots like this.

[emkayess65]

Hi novachic, I am not an expert on the organizer.
One thing though -- no your pictures are NOT in two places.
Your pictures are in My Pictures.
The Organizer only makes small thumbnails of your picture and makes a record of the address where your picture is located. If you move your picture outside of the organizer it will lose track of your picture.

mks

[dj_paige]

I turn off auto-Red Eye fix. I don't think it works very well.

I turn off suggest stacks. I create my own stacks as necessary.

I do use the auto-downloader, I have it use default folder names, which is folder named by photo capture date.

I never bother renaming files. I think it is a weak way of organizing. I think it is a waste of effort. The Organizer has much more powerful features (tags, captions, notes, GPS locations) to organize and to help you find your photos. Apply tags, captions, etc. shortly after you import the photos. Make it a habit, do this religiously.

Lastly...even though you didn't ask...there are usually several posts a week here of poor souls who had some accident and found out that their photos are gone. So, I strongly advise you to back up your photos regularly to a CD/DVD or different hard drive than the one where your photos are stored. To do a backup, use the command File->Backup Catalog.

[dj_paige]

Your pictures are in My Pictures.

Minor correction — your photos are in whatever folder you put them in. They do not have to be in My Pictures.

[gaydenesse]

I said this in another thread, that I stopped using the Organizer. I found myself organizing pictures in the Organizer, and in my folders. They have to be in folders, so I use that. I don't see the point of doing it again in Organizer. I open the pictures just as easy from folders. Maybe I'm missing something.

[dj_paige]

I said this in another thread, that I stopped using the Organizer. I found myself organizing pictures in the Organizer, and in my folders. They have to be in folders, so I use that. I don't see the point of doing it again in Organizer. I open the pictures just as easy from folders. Maybe I'm missing something.

You have to put your photos somewhere when they come out of the camera/scanner. I use default folders, named for the capture date. After that, I put no effort into doing organizing in folders. I don't even know what folders my photos are located in. Why? Because Organizer gives you much more powerful tools to organize and locate your photos. Tools like tags, captions, notes, GPS locations and collections/albums. That's the whole point of Organizer ... it lets you do things that are either difficult or impossible to do in Windows folders.

[BeeKay]

I basically understand the Organizer, but I had a situation last night that I didn't understand. We just got back from vacation and on Monday I downloaded all photos off my Nikon D60. They are all neatly in the Organizer and tagged. Last night I downloaded the photos off my husband's Olympus 820. They also are all tagged and in the Organizer. The situation I am encountering is when I sort by date the photos are in two separate batches. My Nikon photos are in one batch sorted by date followed by the photos from the Olympus, again sorted by date. Here are my questions -- Does the organizer sort by date downloaded (or "created"), because the date created on the Nikon photos is April 6th and the other April 8th, or date actually taken? Is it possible they separated into two batches because they are from two different cameras? In any case I cannot seem to integrate them. Thanks for the help.

[johnrellis]

Which version of PSE?

In all versions of the PSE Organizer, there are different views of your photos that sort differently. In PSE 6 and 7, the Display menu command sets the current view. Display > Thumbnail View sorts by date taken, Display > Folder Location sorts by folder and then by filename, and Display > Import Batch sorts by the date the batch of folders was imported and then by date taken.

It sounds like you may be viewing in Display > Import Batch view. Click Show All followed by Display > Import Batch view.

[BeeKay]

I am using PSE 7. Considering how the Organizer was sorting, the Display > Import Batch option makes sense. I'll try the Date Taken option when I get home tonight. Thanks for the tip.

[BeeKay]

OK, that did not work either. I realized that the photos are in the same order they are in the Windows folder and I can't sort that by date either. Some other column either "camera" or "date created" must be overriding the sort. I'll keep trying to find a solution.

[johnrellis]

Which view are you in? Thumbnail, Import Batch, or Folder Location?

Make sure you've clicked the command Display > Thumbnail View, and you've selected View > Details and View > Filenames. Then select a larger thumbnail size so you can see both the filename and date under each thumbnail.

Are the photos in strict date/time order as shown by the date/times under the thumbnails? If not, can you post a screenshot at www.pixentral.com (http://www.pixentral.com) (free)? That way, we can be sure we're talking about the same thing.

[BeeKay]

It does not matter which view I am in. The Nikon pictures are first in date order followed by the Olympus pictures. I tried renaming them in Windows and did manage to group all the photos in correct date and time order reimported them and still the Nikon pictures are first followed by the Olympus. I'll post a picture.

[BeeKay]

Are you talking about posting a picture of my screen? How do I do that?

[BeeKay]

Hopefully this will work. The two photos at the end were taken by the Olympus. All preceding were the Nikon. This is just one day. The photo second from the last is not in time order. You can see that I renamed them all. If you look closely the last two are (105) and (114). This is just an example. For all two hundred pictures we took the 28 from the Olympus are always last, but they are in the correct order for the Olympus:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=10j6nqBd1IVlm1qEL0y0SbgcGbuQ (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=10j6nqBd1IVlm1qEL0y0SbgcGbuQ)

[johnrellis]

Hmm, that is very curious -- I've never seen that before. Could you post "2009 PV (113).JPG" and "2009 PV (105).JPG" on www.pixentral.com (http://www.pixentral.com)? I'd like to see if I can replicate the problem with my PSE and examine the photo's metadata. I might be able to understand what's going on (or at least file a bug with Adobe).

[BeeKay]

I can when I get home tonight. I'm not at all convinced it is an Adobe problem, unless the program can somehow override how Windows XP sorts this kind of data. I can't sort on the date in the Windows folder either. The Olympus photos are always together at the end. Have you ever loaded photos from two different cameras into the same folder in Windows? I played around with custom folders options and that also didn't solve the problem. On the other hand, at least someone from Adobe might have a clue. I'll post a little later.

[johnrellis]

How PSE sorts is mostly independent from the way Windows sorts. They both read the same underlying "date taken" metadata, but besides that, they use their own sorting rules. What's strange is that PSE is showing the correct date taken but sorting by some other criteria.

In my catalog of 12K photos, I regularly intermix photos from several scanners and many different cameras, and PSE always sorts by date taken.

I have one hypothesis about what's going on in your situation having to do with time zones, but I'll only be able to test that by looking at the photo's metadata directly.

[BeeKay]

Interesting you think it may be a time zone thing. Let me know what you find and I will do some diggin here too. Here is 105
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=19w0Q1XSbgGwGDN9fdUBthnOxXqJ8 (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=19w0Q1XSbgGwGDN9fdUBthnOxXqJ8)

and 113

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1UW8qSAdG07DTMYx81EqLAPj291YXK0 (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1UW8qSAdG07DTMYx81EqLAPj291YXK0)

[johnrellis]

I loaded the two pics into a test catalog and they sorted "wrong" for me too. It took me a few minutes to see the problem: 105 (Olympus) was taken in 2009, while 113 (Nikon) was taken in 2008, so of course 113 comes first in date-taken order. Because the filenames all start with "2009", we weren't paying attention to the year of the date taken!

I think the Nikon has its clock's year set wrong. You can quickly fix all of the Nikon photos' dates by selecting them and doing Edit > Adjust Date And Time > Shift To New Starting Date And Time, and change the year from 2008 to 2009.

[BeeKay]

OMG, I checked it before we left to make sure it was correct. When I went into the menu just now it said 2009. I am sort of obsessive about the date. I wonder if, when checking I inadvertently set the year to 2008. Since the day was correct I, too, wasn't paying any attention to the year. Sorry for all the time, only to find it was my big mistake! If I change the year to 2009 in PSE will it sort correctly? Thanks for all your help and I now know how to make a screen shot and post it!

[johnrellis]

Yes, if you change the year to 2009, it should sort correctly. Try selecting just two of the photos first and then invoking Edit > Adjust Date And Time > Shift To New Starting Date And Time, to make sure you're comfortable with how it works. (For those of us compulsive about dates, the Adjust Date And Time command is quite handy.)

[BeeKay]

Thanks for all your help. I changed all the 2008s to 2009s and it sorted correctly. I am rather obsessive about time so maybe when I checked it to make sure it was correct I inadvertently changed the year. Lesson learned.

[BeeKay]

Sorry for the duplicate my post didn't show up when I first looked at the thread.