Today being Tuesday, I’m linking up with the lovely Jess from Diary of a SAHM for IBOT
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Hands up if your digital photos files measure in the thousands and you’ve pretty much got no idea which is which? I have tens of thousands of digital photo files spread over a laptop, my Mac, an iPad, an iPhone and numerous external hard drives. It’s a mess.
Just some of the files I have to organise
Some files are in folders by date, others by event or country we were in at the time. Not very helpful. So, what’s the best way to manage and organise your digital photos?
I’ve done a bit of Googling and asked a photographer to try and find out the best tips and steps to take to sort out the mess. Some of the concerns I had in mind when searching for a solution were:
Security – are my images safe, what happens in case of loss?
Quality – would I print all the images on my computer? How many of them have my thumb over the lens?
Searchability – can I find the images I want to print or post online?
Welcome to my Crash Challenge on how to organise your digital photo files!
Essentially I’ve boiled it down to 5 steps. Today I’m going to introduce the first two, as tackling all 5 would be an absolute mission! I’ll be back next week to report on my progress and introduce the next steps.
Step 1: Managing memory cards and transferring files
Between CrashHubby and I we have broken or lost at least 3 cameras in the last 5 years. In fact, I can’t find the camera I took to a conference last week, with a 4gb card in it. There are heaps of photos on that card, and I hate to think how many of them I hadn’t downloaded.
The larger the memory, the larger the loss
{image credit – Christiano Betta on Flickr}
Lessons learned:
- Don’t use too big a memory card, it just means there are more photos to lose
- Consider a few smaller cards and rotate them
- Transfer images off your camera as soon as possible was a tip offered by Kell Rowe of Black Currant Photography
Step 2: Deleting/Culling
In the process of getting images off my camera into my computer I usually just download the lot – blurry, overexposed, inappropriate ;). However, I tend to run out of disk space pretty quickly. According to Peter West Carey’s article “Delete Ruthlessly” on Digital Photography School, you should do just that – delete ruthlessly. Specifically:
- Delete the obvious bad photos on your camera before you download them
- When downloading, if your program offers a preview mode, use it to only select the photos you want to work with or save
- When viewing your downloaded photos, mark the ones you really want to keep, then review the rest and delete.
- Sometimes I ask myself the question, “Would I print and frame this or publish it on my blog?”, if not, delete.
It's a little blurry, but I can't delete it!
Getting the picture? We take so many more photos than in the days of film. Delete, delete, delete.
So my personal challenge for this week is to go through every folder of photos I have and delete, delete, delete. While I’m at it I’m going to mark for print all those images I had forgotten about that would be great framed or in a photo book.
Are your digital photo files a mess?
Take this opportunity to join me and we’ll get them sorted together!
Laney
Totally in love with this post! I have about 5000 to 7000 photos stored in different places, and I’ve always given up trying to sort them. One of those too hard jobs.
Today I plan to cull!
Looking forward to next steps!
Beck’s last post..Point + Shoot
Happy culling Beck – it’s tough going. I’ve over 15,000 photos on my Mac, that’s before I go firing up our old laptop and going through a heap of CDs I’ve burned too. We’ll all get there though!
My answer sadly, is YES! It’s one of those jobs I never seem to get around to, a lot like my messy desktops and my linen cupboard! So I’m inspired by your ideas and plan to start now.
That’s great – join in and we’ll all get sorted together!
Fantastic advice. Practical and easy to actually do!! (which means I will do it as opposed to just thinking about it). Thanks a million! (which is about the number of photos I have to get through!)
It’s a big job isn’t it? But once we’re on top of it, we can move forward and make the job a lot easier!
My hand is held high. Yes I have millions of them. I actually accidently deleted 6 months of family photos off my memory card a few months back. So lucky a friend new what to do to bring them back. THis has been on my to do list for ever (bout 7 years ~ since i got my first digital camera!!) Looking forward to more tips!!
Caz’s last post..REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Dora the Explorer Enchanted Forest Adventure (closes 11.11.11)
Been there! CrashHubby deleted some of CrashBoy’s newborn photos and a video of his first bath from a memory card. Luckily we have a techie in the family who showed us how to recover them too!
Ah, good for you, Laney! This is something that’s always a WIP on Planet Baby. I used to be vigilant about doing all of the above and printing photos at the end of each month. Then Sam arrived, we had 3 children under 3.5, we moved interstate and I haven’t printed our photos since April 2010. And I haven’t backed up our hard drive since we moved a few months ago. Woops! Thanks for the reminder. J x
Jane’s last post..Celebrating Halloween 2011 on Planet Baby
Kids do seem to throw a spanner in the whole photo organisation works. They increase the number of photos to manage exponentially, yet take up too much of your time that you need to manage them all! Back up is important, and will be one of the steps I talk about.
We have iphoto which means it is easy to just download our photos straight into dates on there. I do need to go through and delete some though. Ok, I’m going to do that today.
Thank you!
I’m using iPhoto too. At the moment I’m going through deleting or tagging each photo. iPhoto is good in that you can bulk select and tag too. Good luck with your lot!
OOh Laney you are my hero! So on my to do list!
Mr Nutshell has got two programs I can choose from for saving and tagging and etc etc, just have to pick which one. I swear our photos aren’t saved well due to not having an office, that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.
Love your tips and I love how you crash test the things we need to get to. love how you go first! hope you get some choc and wine for your bloody awesome effort Laney! xxx
Gemma @ My Big Nutshell’s last post..When my child started BIG school: The Orientation
I love crash testing – the blog keeps me honest and I actually get stuff done! So far I’m up to November 2002 – just 9 more years of photos to go :/
There better be some chocolate in it for me ;)
good luck!
cate’s last post..100 days to Christmas | numbers in October
Thanks Cate!
I obviously needed some sort of permission (or telling off) to delete. I will take your challenge and get happy with my delete key! I just find it so hard, as, like you, we have lots of overseas pictures and I think even if the photo is crap maybe it will remind me of that time and place (or weird thing you’d never see anywhere else…) but I also keep filling up the hard drive, so… Will your tips include how/where to clean up little videos – they’re what take up a lot of room for me. Maybe I need to make a monthly or annual montage and be done with them. I mean how many minutes of a cooing newborn do you need? But I could never delete them.
I feel like every time I delete a photo of the kids a puppy dies! Video does take up a lot of space. One of the steps in the challenge is storage. I think you might need a few external hard drives for all the cooing baby footage!
This is so on my to do list too. I haven’t even printed out photos of our 3 year old since her birth! eek! I want to do an album for her and her brother and with 2 laptops and random discs in the family it’s just too hard. You have motivated me to at least start. x
Lee’s last post..My birth stories Part 2. The short one.
I know what you mean Lee. I want to put all of our travel photos into photo books. But you’re right, you just have to start ;)
Om you have inspired me to download some photos. It’s sounds awful but Ava is 15 months old and all the pics I’ve taken of her are still on the camera. I would be devastated if I lost them.
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Get those photos off the camera now! Then file them and back them up – these steps coming soon!
I’m so glad I’m not the only person who “forgets” to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer…
I found my partner’s digital camera in the center-console of his car the other day, with a memory card full of previously unseen-by-me pictures of the day Squiggle was BORN!
You’d think these would be incredibly important photographs that my partner would want to keep, share and display! Well, it turns out he’d forgotten they existed at all. He thought the pictures that came off his iPhone were it for the day…
*sigh*
Chantelle @ The Fridge Door Blog’s last post..Hey… It’s Okay!
Glad you found them! My husband accidentally deleted our newborn photos, but we got them back – phew!
My husband is a very organised photographer.
I, however, am appalling at it. I used to download and name files meticulously, but now I CBF. I ‘roughly’ know where everything is…
Your twitter update made me laugh earlier… only 9 years to go :P
Jayne’s last post..Saying no to NaNoWriMo
I know, but this challenge is keeping me motivated, hopefully motivated enough to get through the next 9 years ;)
This is great Laney! I have photos across 2 computers, several phones and a couple of cameras, especially now that I blog and use Project Life I take photos of everything, most of which are useless and blurry given how quickly Skye moves.
Putting on the list!
Erin @ Eat Play Bond’s last post..Having A Baby Helped Me Heart My Body
Great – all you need to do is get started :)
great post Laney! I totally need to do this, I am bookmarking this for my first task after we move house!
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I think moving house is the only thing I would hate doing more than organising my photos ;)
Oh my goodness, I’m not sure I could delete them (except for the really crap ones). But I can see the benefit. I just checked iPhoto on my MacBook to see how many photos and videos I’ve hoarded – 38,305 items over 2,920 events. EEEEKKK!!! Ther are some more on huby’s laptop, the desktop and various disks. Before I freak out st the enormity of the task, I might just try to figure out where everything really is and find a place where they can all be systematically stored. Then I might pluck up the courage, when I find the time, to start deleting. I must say, I have started better sorting and categorising each time I download for the last couple of months. There are just the previous numerous years to go back over.
Veronica @ Mixed Gems’s last post..Wordless Wednesday – Journey to the Midnight Sun
I find organizing photos by year / month – ‘Event name’ is good – but always remember to use a long and descriptive folder name. I now have 10 years worth of photos ( about 70,000 pictures ) and the only way to now share my organised photo collection is via an online Photo Service called http://inmyphotofolder.com – They have an application you can install and it will upload your entire collection. Once the collection is online – you can share with friends and family. Their search facility is blindingly fast. It never takes me more than 2 seconds to find a folder or tag. I use different tags to mark my favorite pictures of my children – so by searching for the tag – I get an overview of them over the years. The uploader is available for Windows and MAC. When you add to or change your photo collection – just re-run the uploader – and it only sends the updates to the online system.