>  Ever since I bought a digital camera (about 2 years ago) I've been
> taking a lot of pictures. I store them all on my laptop's drive and
> I think this is a bit of a waste of space. I do like having my
> pictures with me, but there isn't any need for full 4-6 megapixel
> images at all times.
> 
> So what I'd like to do is archive all my images to an external drive
> (and DVDs for safety as well). Then I want to downscale my images and
> keep those ones on my harddrive.

Apple's Aperture software can do this.  It keeps a thumbnail of the
image online and allows you to have the original on offline media
(DVD or unconnected external hard disk).

> This project would have two parts...first converting all my current
> images, then coming up with a process that isn't ridiculously arduous
> for the future.
> 
> Any thoughts? I already use Picasa and I know I could use it to scale
> my images...Is it reasonable to get it to do that for a few thousand
> pictures at once though?

Normally, Aperture uploads from a single memory reader at a time.
One professional photographer got a script from the Aperture that
allows him to upload from 8 CompactFlash readers at once, so it can
handle a few thousand images on a daily basis.

Adobe's Lightroom software may have similar capabilities.

						Lee Jones

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