It took me a while because I had work (you knew that already) and also because I was having an inefficient time editing and managing my photos. So I finally sat down and worked it all out.
I'm a Mac user so I have iPhoto. I use it to download and keep all my photos from my cameras. However, while it has greatly improved through the years, it still cannot deliver on all that I need for editing. The most I can do with it is organize, duplicate, and crop photos.
For other editing like adjustments, effects, text, and borders, I have tried a lot of programs:
Lightroom (which costs money, and way too professional for me)
Photoshop (which costs money, and also too much for the simple editing I want)
Aperture (which costs money, although it integrates well with iPhoto. however it requires a separate plugin if I want to put text on my images)
Picasa (free but for some reason I find its interface, file management, and export style rather unwieldy and inefficient; I love its editing capabilities but it does not help me at all in file management)
And then I discovered PicMonkey through the Google Chrome Web Store. It's free. It has all the editing tools I want. It loads my photo locally on the browser for editing and saves in my computer so no worries about my stuff suddenly being out there in public. The user interface is easy and efficient and simple, and it allows me to resize and export my files with full control on how I want to keep them.
So I have overhauled my photo system and now this is how I go about it:
1) Use iPhoto to download, keep, organize, duplicate, and crop. It keeps all my originals intact.
2) Use PicMonkey for all other editing plus export to various sizes (for blogging and printing) directly into organized folders.
Thus I keep my files down to the essentials and they are all properly foldered, edited, labeled, and easy to access (yes I do have strains of obsessive-compulsiveness). :)
What's your photo system like?
I should probably get myself a system. Right now it's get my photos into a hot mess of folders on my computer and hurry to edit them on Sunday before I leave again for the week for work. For editing I use photoshop though. Although, I've got to tell you, you're talking up this Pic Monkey thing pretty awesomely... my favorite part is the word-a-licious fonts.
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