Organizer

[Stringbean]

Well I have been trying to get the hang of PSE4 Organizer for a couple of months now and have decided to ignore it. The more I delve into it the more confusing it gets. PDE4 is difficult enough to learn so the Organizer will be ignored.

[Wendy]

Hi Stringbean ...

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with the Organiser ... :(

Wendy

[MikeH]

Some people love Organizer and others hate it... It can be a great way of managing your photos. Organizer works well when you have a consistent workflow. There are prescribed ways of doing things though and this is where problems or frustrations can arise with it.

What problems are you having?

Mike

[Stringbean]

What problems? I suspect that my biggest problem is impatience. :( It’s just that I sometimes think that all is well and then something else crops up that confuses me. I am under the impression that a file has been deleted or moved and I find it still in it’s original location. Seems much simpler to use Explorer. Guess I will have to spend more time reading the instructions. “When all else fails read the instructions”. :)

[Norm F]

“When all else fails read the instructions”. :)

Why read when you can watch. Consider the online training. It looks like a great course for $20. Once you catch on to the Organizer, you'll probably like it a lot. I know I do. It took some getting used to.

[MikeH]

Great suggestion Norm... the online course will befar more help then the instructions...

Mike

[Pauline]

go to lynda.com and check out the video tutorials. I know that one of the 'free' ones you can watch is on the organizer since I watched it. It might help you out.

[Stringbean]

Pauline - Thank you for the Lynda site. Checked it out and found it very helpful. Thanks again!!:)

[Pauline]

My pleasure. I've been spending a lot of time there lately. It's well worth the monthly fee to have access to all the videos. I even watched the CS2 ones and they are great. Probably would be too much for a beginner, but I'm past that now so it was extremely informative.

[Hamlet 77]

I LOVE the organiser, when I got PSE 3 I just thought it would be ideal for editting etc.

BUT since I started using the organiser I find it invaluable. I lost a large part of my photos on Saturday. BUT without the organiser I would never have known a)how many photos I had lost and b) if and when I had retrieved them all (which I did).

I have photos in so many different files on my slave drive, and to be honest I am not sure why some of them are where they are. BUT the organiser just gets hold of them (usually).

MAYBE and this is an admission, IF like me you are usually disorganised the organiser is a boon and a heaven sent feature, but the more self assured, 'go ahead' modern users frankly find the organiser a bit of an obstruction to their normality.

[mom to 4]

I must say, I have issues with the organizer too. I think my problem with it is it takes too much time. I have had so many pictures in it (probably nothing compared to most of you out there, but a ton for me!). I also want to keep my pictures in folders on CD's just in case of another lightning strike at my house, and when I tried moving a small amount over to a CD, I couldn't add to that CD. So I have moved them via "Record Now" and now I am afraid to look at the organized and find all those broken pics I will need to delete. I did sign up for the on line instructions, but the first week was all thing I had easily figured out on my own. I do need to go back and watch the whole second week (I am behind and some people are angry that they can only view one day at a time!). Maybe once I watch the entire 21 days I will feel differently, but right now I feel the organizer requires too much of my time (stacking, tagging, etc)......I would rather be in the editor

[Stringbean]

What I would call “organized to death” :) :)

[Wendy]

Oh that did make me laugh :)

Wendy

[Stringbean]

Wendy, I don’t want to stray away from the subject but if you enjoy a laugh check this out.

http://www.laughlab.co.uk/

[Wendy]

Thanks for the link ... I will explore it :)

Wendy

[Mattm]

There's one thing I don't like about the organiser.

The way it seems to show the "as shot" version of a RAW picture, then after a few seconds, it seems to adjust itself and show an "optimum" pic. I accept that this might be the way the embedded thumbnail works - but it's annoying - pity you can't switch it off.

That moan aside, it's an excellent way of organising your pictures - I personally think it's better than having an external program to organise the pictures!:D

Just my tuppence worth!

Matt

[ClickCardo]

Just found this forum and thread. I also just installed PSE 4.0 and the first thing I tried was loading a few Camera RAW (NEF) pics from my Nikon into it. I take NEF+JPG shots right now and notice my NEF's once loaded in the organizer look much better (optimized) than the jpg's. In Nikon View software they look the same.

Does the PSE 4.0's Organizer permanently modify the NEF's I've loaded or is it just for display?

[Norm F]

Does the PSE 4.0's Organizer permanently modify the NEF's I've loaded or is it just for display?

The files are not modified. I believe that the "auto" settings are applied on import. You can make any adjustment that you want when you open them in ACR.

By the way, welcome!

[ClickCardo]

I'm glad the NEF settings+files are not applied. When you say the settings are applied on import do you mean into the "Organizer" or into ACR? See I'm planning on using Nikon Capture instead of ACR and importing 16-bit TIFF's into the Adobe Editor only when needing stuff that Capture cannot do. I'd like the Adobe Organizer to keep track of ALL my picture files and doing no modification's to the RAW (NEF)'s other than tagging, organizing,searching, backing up etc., but make NO CHANGES to my Capture modified NEF's so I can go back back and use Capture again on them if desired.

Any more insight appreciated.

Thanks
CC

[CarolLHB]

Great link, Stringbean...still giggling!:)

[Norm F]

I'm glad the NEF settings+files are not applied. When you say the settings are applied on import do you mean into the "Organizer" or into ACR? See I'm planning on using Nikon Capture instead of ACR and importing 16-bit TIFF's into the Adobe Editor only when needing stuff that Capture cannot do. I'd like the Adobe Organizer to keep track of ALL my picture files and doing no modification's to the RAW (NEF)'s other than tagging, organizing,searching, backing up etc., but make NO CHANGES to my Capture modified NEF's so I can go back back and use Capture again on them if desired.

Any more insight appreciated.

Thanks
CC

CC,

As I understand it, your NEF files will be as pure as when they were shot when you bring them into Capture. My understanding of RAW is that the images never really changes, you just adjust the way it's displayed. If you want to avoid ACR though, you will have to convert your RAW files to TIFF before you open them in PSE. When you open a RAW file in PSE it automatically opens in ACR. Do your RAW adjustments in Capture and then save as a TIFF.

Somebody kick me if I'm wrong here but I think that's how it works.

[PaulH]

I'm glad the NEF settings+files are not applied. When you say the settings are applied on import do you mean into the "Organizer" or into ACR? See I'm planning on using Nikon Capture instead of ACR and importing 16-bit TIFF's into the Adobe Editor only when needing stuff that Capture cannot do. I'd like the Adobe Organizer to keep track of ALL my picture files and doing no modification's to the RAW (NEF)'s other than tagging, organizing,searching, backing up etc., but make NO CHANGES to my Capture modified NEF's so I can go back back and use Capture again on them if desired.

Any more insight appreciated.

Thanks
CC
ACR/PSE will not change the NEF files - it is not capable of writeing a .nef file

[ClickCardo]

ACR/PSE will not change the NEF files - it is not capable of writeing a .nef file

Thanks Paul H & Norm F

Both your comments have reassured me that I can use the Adobe organizer for my NEF's and output from Capture in TIFF to PSE Editor when I want to work on it some more.

In this mode I'd always use the TIFF file as just a transfer mechanism and delete that large file after I save it in PSE Editor as PSD. Does that workflow make sense?

Thanks
CC

[Norm F]

Thanks Paul H & Norm F

In this mode I'd always use the TIFF file as just a transfer mechanism and delete that large file after I save it in PSE Editor as PSD. Does that workflow make sense?

Thanks
CC

CC,

Well it makes sense to me. I normally save the file as a PSD when working with it in Editor. When I am completely satisfied that no further adjustments will be required I normally save as a high quality JPEG. Works for me. Hopefully, you don't find the additional steps too cumbersome.