I can tell you that I've used Adobe Album and Photoshop Elements 1, 2, 3,
and 4 (they started to incorporate Album features around v. 2).
I used Album since I was archiving thousands of pictures and wanted a clean
way to catalog the photos.
Now using PE 4.0 I have over 9000 photos archived and cataloged with tags
and subtags. Searching is simple, backing up, burning disks, DVD, etc, is as
easy as it could be.
For me it has been well worth the money. Adobe has done their homework and
their user forums are excellent and you can get a response to a query
usually within 15-20 minutes.
Good photo editing as well, as well as nice presentations (which I've never
used).

(By the way, I tried Picassa, ACDSee, and a few others and have always come
back to PE).

Picasa works well and the price is right.  

Tom

I use a combination of myalbum irfanview faststone and Windows
directories and subdirectories.

I wish I used fewer programs.  But each does something that the
other don't and none do everything.

Hi, Mike.

Adobe's organizers are very feature-rich - you can catalog pictures
under more than one category without actually copying the picture. You
can also create both PDF and VCD slideshows with PSE 3 and 4.

However, if you use it as your default organizer, every picture you
transfer from your camera is included in that organizer, even if you
save the photo somewhere else. You also have to delete unwanted
pictures from the organizer, or there'll be an image of it in the
organizer, but no actual picture. You kind of have to forget about the
My Pictures folder, and do most of your photo management through the
organizer.

Right now, I'm still using folders in the My Pictures folder to
organize my photos. I've got a folder for Flowers, Animals, Religious,
etc, and that works for me. After I download the photos, I move them
into their respective folder before I unplug the camera.

If you take a lot of people shots, though, you'll probably want
something more sophisticated so you can search for all pictures that
include Mike regardless of the category. I don't take too many pictures
with people in them.

Hope this helps.

Karen

Per Mike:

There is no single "best" way.... my best way might not fit somebody else's
requirements.

Having said that.....
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1) Store the images in directories that reflect the source.

  Put the direct-from-camera images in one parent directory
  and create a new subdirectory named for the date each time
  you upload a batch.  e.g. "2006 04-20" or even "2006 04-20a"...
  "2006 04-20b".. if you're a heavy user.

  For scans from film/slides use a different parent directory
  and name the sub directories for the physical location you
  keep the originals in.   That way you can easily re-scan
  if needed.

2) Name the images in three parts:

  - In the front, the date the pic was taken.  e.g.  "2006 03-17".
    This enables you to do a search on somebody's name and have the
    results come up sorted chronologically.   Nice to see the changes
    in somebody's appearance as they mature/age.

  - In the middle, freeform descriptive text.  
    e.g. "Ange Steve Steff Easter"

  - At the end, the camera's original name.  e.g. "DSCN2056".  This
    automatically distinguishes  between pix that might have the
    same people in them - so you don't have to tax your mind trying
    to come up with subtly different names.

 Full name e.g.:  "2006 03-17 Ange Steve Steff Easter DSCN2056.jpg"

3) Spring for a full-featured software tool.

  I chose ThumbusPlus (http://www.cerious.com/thumbnails.shtml).
  It does everything I want and much more.   It's especially friendly
  when printing: sizing, different orientations, many per page,
  and so-forth.

  I can even store photos offline on DVDs, yet still search/preview
  them without having to mount the DVD that they are on.

  It also lets me slice and dice photos many different ways.
  Using keyword searches on the name, I can see all photos of "Ange",
  or all photos taken at "Easter", and so-on...

4) Do not use the software tool's annotation feature.   Instead, keep
  your information embedded in the picture's name.

  This way you're not hostage to the software.  If something better
  comes along you can switch without losing whatever you've typed
  into the software's proprietary DB.   Also, databases fail
  occasionally and you're immune to that if you keep the info
  in the file name.
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