How to edit photos remotely?

January 7, 2008 6:23 AM

How best to work with my photo library from two different Windows laptops?

Here's the situation: I use Photoshop Elements 3 to manage my image archive. The archive itself exists on a USB 2 drive (Lacie Porsche 250GB). I don't do much photo manipulation other than cropping and resizing. These are mostly family snapshots that occasionally need to be printed out and framed or uploaded to flickr.

Working with them from my laptop, which is connected to the archive directly via USB 2, is no problem. But what's the best way to give my wife access to them from her laptop. Both laptops connect to the home WiFi network via a Linksys WRT54G. The printer is also wirelessly networked via a Linksys WPS54G print server

I'm willing to buy new gear, if necessary, to make this happen. I'd even consider a different photo management software (or upgrading what I have), if that would help. I eventually plan to migrate to Macintosh, so hardware that plays nicely with Win and Mac is preferable. I've considered buying an AirPort Extreme and attaching my USB 2 drive and the printer to that. But I don't know if that's the best solution or not.

posted by wheat to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Connecting it to the Airport Extreme sounds like a good idea to me too, although you'll definitely want to have a mirroring backup strategy (especially with irreplaceable files like family photos). For management software, have you worked with Picasa? It's good for simple management as you described.

Aside from the Airport Extreme, you're other option would be to find a wireless access point that has similar capabilities, or go all out and set up a cheap PC to host these services. The PC doesn't have to be top of the line, just enough to directly connect to the router and host desired files and services (this would offer the quickest backup strategy for the photos as you can sync your files locally...even better if the PC has two internal drives set to RAID 1). I think due to availability of the laptops, sharing the drive from one could be a possibility...though I'm not sure that would work out well as laptops are not usually left on all the time.

If you really want to go out all geeky, you could have a low-end system without a monitor sporting a linux distro like FreeNAS. (requires some tinkering with config files...but might be a fun venture) I wouldn't say that's the best option, but it's the most satisfying to get working for the challenge-oriented ;)

For price, compatibility and simplicity, the Airport Extreme looks like a winner to me.
posted by samsara at 7:33 AM on January 7, 2008

samsara: as to backups, I do (finally) have a backup strategy. I have a second USB 2 hard drive (LaCie Porsche 500GB). I use the freeware version of SyncBack to copy files over to that one. I usually do this manually, but I need to automate it. There was some issue with automating it, so I've just been running it whenever I add new photos to my library.

I don't mind leaving my laptop (which really functions as a desktop, and will be replaced with one eventually) on if that will facilitate things. I used to leave it on 24/7 so I could hit it via SSH and SFTP remotely. The idea of setting up a cheap box as a file server is interesting. Thanks for mentioning that.

I haven't tried Picasa (not in a long time, at least). That might be worth a second look, too.
posted by wheat at 7:53 AM on January 7, 2008

Picasa has improved a bit from its initial (buggy) release. I generally recommend it to family as a way to catalog all their photos. For myself, if you want to expand on the standalone PC idea, I have a file server that also functions as a DVR (it's a slimline PC that fits in the entertainment center with a LaCie 1gb usb drive attached...running windows XP with mediaportal or linux mythbuntu...haven't settled on the OS/media manager yet). Just figured I'd throw that out there too as most DVR/media management programs offer photo displaying for TVs. Microsoft's Media Center is an easy one...I think even the Apple TV appliance PC sports a USB slot. (hopefully not getting too sidetracked of course...)
posted by samsara at 8:40 AM on January 7, 2008

Though the standalone box would have some advantages, I think the AirPort Extreme sounds like a good fit in that it would be easy to set up and something that could remain in place (the drives are both FAT32) even after replace my laptop with a desktop Mac. It would also mean I don't have to leave my laptop running all the time, which is good since the fan on it is noisy and almost always on. I'll give Picasa another look, while I'm at it. And I'll keep your DVR idea in mind as a possible future project.

Thanks for your help on this. I really appreciate it.
posted by wheat at 11:04 AM on January 7, 2008

I finally rolled out a fix for this. It was stupid simple and didn't require any additional hardware: remote desktop. The box with the USB drives attached is running WinXP Pro. My wife's laptop runs WinXP home. She can connect to mine via remote desktop and access everything remotely (including the USB drives). I even saved a shortcut to the connection as an icon on her desktop so she can connect simply by double-clicking it.

I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I use RD at work and over the VPN when working from home, but I never thought about using it around the house.
posted by wheat at 7:47 AM on June 23, 2008