With an estimated 375 billion photos taken each year, there’s no wonder we’re feeling overwhelmed! Even if they’re just sitting on our computer’s hard drive – or on our camera’s DS card – these digital memories still take up psychic and emotional space. If we don’t figure out an effective way to process, organize, and store these photos, they may as well not exist. Here are a dozen ways to organize your photos so you can enjoy and share them:
- Don’t be afraid to hit the “delete” button. Most of us grew up in the days of actual 35mm film cameras, where a roll of film was a precious thing and not to be wasted. As a result, we’re reluctant to delete photos from our cameras or hard drives, or to toss overexposed or blurry – or just plain unflattering! – prints. It’s time to get comfortable deleting these excess photos. A good rule of thumb is to delete at least a quarter of the photos you take right from your camera.
- Figure out your goal. Do you want photos to enjoy now, or for posterity? Do you want to capture everyday life or just special occasions? How do you imagine using and accessing these photos in the future? All these answers will drive what you photograph, how many photos you take, and how you will want to organize them.
- Have a process. Schedule a regular time to download your photos from your camera to your computer – once a week is great if you’re a constant photo-taker; once a month is fine if you’re less of a shutterbug.
- Back them up! Just as it’s critical to back up all the data on your hard drive, you also want to make it a habit to back up your photos. Uploading them to a photo developing site is sufficient, if the site will store them indefinitely for you (some delete unviewed photos after a few months).
- Create a filing process that works. Many people become paralyzed with the digital photo filing process because they aim for perfection rather than a usable system. Sure, it would be wonderful to label each image with a descriptive title, but I’ve found that’s rarely necessary. Instead, I create a file folder for each month of the year and copy my pictures directly to that folder. Then at the end of the year, I have a folder that includes each month. I typically can remember within a month or two when an event took place, so it’s easy to locate the photos I want.
- If you have more time, use tags. Want a more extensive organizational system? Then use a photo management software program like iPhoto (comes installed on Macs), Picasa (a free web-based program), or Photoshop Elements (a purchased program, but very robust). You can add tags for people, events, or anything else you’d like.
- Don’t forget to print! Online photo processors like Shutterfly.com, Kodak.com, and Ofoto.com make it easy to print photos, create photo books and gift items, and more. Printing photos allows you to truly interact with them and enjoy them. And at only a few pennies a print, you can make copies for friends and family.
- Store them safely. When your prints come, sort through and toss the yucky ones. Hand off the duplicates to friends, and then take the best and put them away in a photo album (NOT the magnetic kind – they’ll damage your photos!). The easiest way is to dedicate a single photo album to a single year.
- Use creative ways to display your favorites. Photo canvases, digital frames, photo collages, screensavers, scrapbooks, photo books and gift items are all fun ways to put your favorite photos on display. Think beyond the photo album!
The thing to remember is that photos are a tool. They are not your memories, they are not your master, and they are not real life. Don’t become so obsessed with organizing, labeling, and sorting your photos that you forget to live!
12 Photo-Sharing Sites and Apps:
- Facebook.com. A free way to share photos with friends and family.
- Flickr.com. Another free photo- and video-sharing website.
- Shutterfly.com. The leader in online photo processing. You can create a blog-like “share” site and allow others to upload their own photos.
- Photoshop Elements. The program of choice for scrapbookers to edit photos – take out red eyes, eliminate old boyfriends, correct over- or under-exposure, etc.
- Picasa.com. A free online photo editing and storage tool.
- Instagram. A great free iPhone app to take photos and add filters for different looks.
- Hipstamatic. A paid iPhone app that also allows different “lenses” for different effects.
- Photoshop Express. A Free iPhone app for simple image editing.
- Diptic. A paid iPhone app that allows you to splice together two or three images in a single collage.
- BigHugeLabs.com. A fun online site that enables the creation of photo mosaics and other photographic creations.
- Twitpic.com. Post videos and photos to your Twitter stream with this free share site.
- GIMP.org. A free image manipulation (in English, that’s photo editing) software.
About the author: Lain Ehmann is the author of several books on family memory-keeping and scrapbooking. Through her online videos, classes, and blog, she inspires others to create – and keep – their memories.
Learn more at http://www.layoutaday.com.
Hi Lain,
Great article. I’m a big advocate of what you’re talking about here as I myself am a digital media management authoritarian.
For my personal photo library I have all of my pictures on an external hard drive. You can get one at Best Buy starting at $50 and they are available in all kinds of different sizes from 320 MB and up. They simply connect to your computer through a USB cable so it’s very easy to install and take on the go with you.
I organize the photos very similarly to how Lain describes. I create a folder for each year, and then within that year’s folder I have subfolders for each month, and then within the month folders I have subfolders for specific dates and/or events. It makes it very easy to find what you’re looking for. Doing this also makes re-naming each individual photo almost completely unnecessary.
When a year comes to a close I back up all of that year’s photos on to a DVD for safe keeping in the event the hard disk were to ever fail.
I also make it a strict rule to upload all photos off of my camera and onto the computer before I take the camera elsewhere and use it again. It’s very easy to wind up with hundreds upon hundreds of photos in your camera and forget what photos are from what date or event.
Hey again,
I meant to say that the Hard Drives are available in sizes starting at 320 GB and up. D’oh!
David,
We just bought my dad a 2TB external hard drive for his photos (he’s set for life). I think we’ll get one for ourselves and do the same so I can get them off of the computer. I imagine they are hogging up lots of valuable space.
Good rule to upload photos from the camera before taking it elsewhere.
Awesome tips, Lain! I always laugh at hubby because he’ll keep thousands and thousands of photos even if they are blurry, etc. Me, not so much, the delete button is my friend.
I do like how you organize, might have to start doing it that way. Right now, I have main folders like business, family, etc. Then within those I’ll have folders. So under family for example, I have one for our pets, one for my stepson and stepdaughter, holiday’s, remodel projects and things like that.
Now if I could get my office organized like my photos, I might be able to find our digital photo frame *wink*
Great Article!!!
Great overall tips!
One thing I would like to add. Creative Memories has a wonderful program called Memory Manager. You can download your pictures and edit them there, create folders, everything like you were talking about. It keep track if you have already printed them too, which I love. Also, there is another program call Storybook which you can do cute books, cards and so much more. Contact a Creative Memories Consultant for more information or go to http://www.creativememories.com/
to learn more about their program.
The nice thing is you can be traditional or digital with our program, or like me Hybird – - a little of both. It is flexable to meet everyone’s needs. This isn’t your mom’s Creative Memories stuff. This is a new wave of stuff. If you haven’t check out Creative Memories in a while – you really should give me another change. It is under all new management and leadership. Nancy Odell has partnered with them and the new direction is amazing.
And, yes…. always back up and when your not 150% sure if you did, back up again! LOL
Kim