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Discussion: How do you organize your photos?
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tallynt |
How do you organize your photos?
Jun 28 2007, 12:00 PM EDT
So given that we all digitally scrap we all must have lots and lots of digital photos. Mine used to be completely organized and then I switched to a mac and now I'm all over the place. I need some tips and tricks as I expect all of us do. How do you organize yours?Do you find this valuable? |
dutchsparky |
1. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 28 2007, 12:57 PM EDT
Organize??? Is that a word??? *wink*The majority of my pics are "before digital" and they are stored in boxes (in other words: a mess). My digital pics are not organized at all. I upload them to the computer and keep them in a file. When I clear my camera I create a new file and put the pics there, to give the illusion of being organized - lol. I save them to an external harddrive regularly, in case my comp crashes. But that's it. So I'm looking forward to the replies - I really need to get organized! Do you find this valuable? |
meemosa |
2. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 28 2007, 1:08 PM EDT
Nondigi pics are a big ol mess in different boxes around the house . . . Digi pics I am trying to organize like this Folders for each month that go into a folder for each year. For each monthly folder I may have subfolders for a specific event or just separate folders for each time I unloaded pics. Then I use ACDSee9 Photomanager to tag pics by the subject. If it's something that doesn't really need its whole category I put in a note in the Notes field so that I can easily do a search later. Photos that I want to remember to scrap I give a rating of 1. 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
hejeva |
3. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 28 2007, 2:06 PM EDT
I think there are really 2 main things to organizing photos. Creating an order where you can find your photos and creating a system to backup your photos. For organizing photos: I created one folder called "MyPhotos", each year gets a separate folder. Inside that year, there is a month and some other folders. When I upload my digital photos, I always name them with the convention of YYYYMMDDtimestamp.jpg. This is done automatically for me since I use ACDSee Photo Manager and I set it up to do this. I am a very chronological person so this works well for me. If there is a special event, I make a folder inside that month and store the pictures in that folder. ACDSee Photo Manager can also tag your photos with an event also. As for the other folders I mentioned, this contains all the photos that I scanned that pertain to that year. As for finding/using photos: All edited photos are stored in the same folder with the original, NEVER overwriting the original. I also have started to tag my photos with a "Used" category. They get tagged with "Used" when they are a finished scrapbook page. You could also use this same technique with Printing or Backup. Backing up photos: I have my system set up so my photos reside on external hard drive (which isn't the safest), backed up to a second EHD daily and every few months burn a DVD of the past year. This DVD is then sent offsite to my husband's office desk drawer. So I have multiple copies of the same images in case one DVD fails. Backup means having multiple copies of a file on different media (hard drive, DVD, online backup, etc) and some of that media is offsite. 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
poppymom |
4. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 28 2007, 10:13 PM EDT
I don't do anything fancy with my photos. I have a file in "my pictures" labeled with my name. Inside that, I have it divided into years. When I download my camera, I put things into dated folders. I try to download my camera each day that I use it even though I have a 2G memory card in it so it will take over 500 pictures. If it is a special event, I label it "date, event" so I know where my special pictures are. I have just started using Elements so I need to explore it's organization possiblities.
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karooch |
5. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 29 2007, 5:56 AM EDT
My digi photos are organised by in folders by event or time with a 1-12 prefix at the beginning of the file name so they will have some chronological order. Al these folders are stored under a folder for that year. So I can click on a year and get an easy timeline of photos as well as having them organised in a meaningfully named way. I either view them in Microsoft Explorer or I use PicasaMy pre-digi photos are stored in a couple of boxes and I've tried to order them chronologically. But some I just have no hope of working out when they belong. Do you find this valuable? |
faerywings |
6. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 29 2007, 7:11 AM EDT
My regular photos are somewhat organized chronologically. I used to be really good about getting the two sets printed- one set would automatically go into an album, and then the second set would get labeled and put in a photo box. Over the years, I would unfortunately pull out photos to scrap or scan and the loose ones are now sitting in a pile on my desk, waiting to be "filed."My digi-pics are much easier to find. At least the ones I have taken since I started using ACDSee Photo Manager. The earlier ones are kind of scattered in different folders and not in any chronological order. But in ACDSee I'm able to download them into a file by year, then I have sun-folders by date. I really like the option in it where I can change the name of the sub-folder or the file names as they come off my camera card. This is really helpful when I have lots of photos of one event that I get photos from other people on different days. For ex, I have a folder for my Brothers wedding. It is under All My Photos>2007>Wedding 5_26_07. As I get additional pictures from family, I can put them right into that folder. But for everyday pics, I just leave the date as the folder name. ACDsee has really made it so much easier for me to keep track of all my pictures. Do you find this valuable? |
Tassy |
7. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jun 29 2007, 12:36 PM EDT
CM has a great photo organizer for printed photos. It comes in two sizes one that will hold *most* of your photos (2400+) and a smaller version that can be portable, say for scrapbooking :-).
As for digital, I follow the same lines as everyone else who has posted. By year, then month, then specific events if there were any. Do you find this valuable? |
rh_scrapbooker |
8. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jul 2 2007, 10:48 PM EDT
I have a main folder for the year. Inside the main folder, I have a folder for each download from the memory card. Since I often take photos around events, this works for me. I just got Adobe Photoshop Lightroom a few weeks ago and now when I download pictures I am also tagging photos as well. I will be going back to tag photos from previous years. The current year is on my PC hard drive. Previous years are on the external hard drive and also backed up to DVD. As for all the photos I have from nondigi days, there are at least 10 photo boxes in my closet. In addition, DH and I have between us approximately 10-12 2" three ring binders full of negatives, both from my photos and his medium and large format photos.
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Tink2Zoe |
9. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jul 7 2007, 11:54 AM EDT
I have an external drive dedicated to digital photos. I place them in folders according to year, month, date and category, i.e.:
U>Photographs>2007>2007-03-04 #1 Ren Faire U>Photographs>2007>2007-03-04 #2 At Mom's Since I also get photos from various family members I put their photos in their own folder with their name in caps, i.e. U>Photographs>2007>2007-03-04 NUKE Ren Faire Do you find this valuable? |
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Posted Anonymously |
10. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Jul 8 2007, 9:01 PM EDT
Yaay TInk. Welcome to the WIKI. And thanks for the folder structure.I sometimes think I spend more time fiddling around with how I organize my stuff and trying to find it than I do actually scrapping with it. Do you find this valuable? |
ThreeHeartsDesigns |
11. RE: How do you organize your photos?
Nov 6 2009, 9:49 AM EST
Well all of my non digi photos are all in a big box on top of my wardrobe...lol!All my 'pre-parent' digi pics are organised into occasions, locations etc as that's the only time I really took photo's (although I do have a rather large folder simply called 'randoms' lol)...since becoming a parent 99.9% of my photos are now of my son, so they're all arranged from birth to 1 year in month folders, then I have one for 12-18 months, one for 18-24 months....and at the end of the month there'll be a new one - 24-30 months lol! Then I have separate ones for Christmas, birthdays, etc.... Actually, after reading all that, it doesn't sound organised at all!! lol! xx Do you find this valuable? |
