My sister has three kids, a dog, several digital cameras, and no time. Her computer recently crashed, her external hard drive is fried, and she is completely overwhelmed by the idea of organizing her digital life. Sound familiar? In honor of my sister’s not-so-unique situation, here are a few tips for organizing an increasingly complex world of digital photographs.
1: Get rid of some images.
You can delete images. Really, you can. You don’t need 100 photographs of your child having fun at your favorite Nashville playground. Pick your favorite 10, and trash the rest. Better yet – don’t take as many to begin with. The resulting image gallery will be leaner and more manageable, and you’ll feel like a better photographer for having kept the best of the best.
2: Name your files with the date first, for easy sorting.
You should be able to organize your digital images, chronologically, without any effort. (Try that with a shoebox of prints!) Name your files with the date first (YYYY-MM-DD), and you’ll be able to sort them quickly and easily. Be sure to use underscores for spaces, and a zero for single-digit months and days – “02” for February, for example. Here’s an example of how I might name three files from a recent trip to the zoo with Sally on February 9:
2011_02_09__Sally_at_the_Zoo_001
2011_02_09__Sally_at_the_Zoo_002
2011_02_09__Sally_at_the_Zoo_003
3: Download Picasa, and let the photo organization begin.
Hands down, my favorite software for managing photos is Picasa. Owned by Google, Picasa is easy to set-up, easy to use (it doesn’t take a professional photographer to operate), attractive, and as feature-rich as any free software on the market. That’s right, it’s free! What’s more, Picasa has one feature that is inexplicably missing from most other consumer-level photo management software options: the ability to watch a folder. If I create a folder of images on my computer, Picasa will know it. I don’t have to tell Picasa that I’ve added images – it already knows. And if I move images around on my computer, or rename them, Picasa won’t miss a step. It will automatically update to reflect the files on my computer. Easy!
4: Avoid the temptation to use Apple’s iPhoto.
If you’re a Mac lover like me, you may be tempted to use Apple’s photo management software, iPhoto. It comes pre-installed on most new Macs, or it’s available for $14.99 on the Mac App Store. Like most Apple products, iPhoto looks glossy and polished. The reality, however, is that iPhoto is a buggy, half-baked, inferior piece of software that Apple should really toss out the window. Yes, iPhoto integrates smoothly with your iPhone/iPod/iPad, and it enables you to easily order a bevy of attractive books, calendars and printed products. But beneath the gloss is iPhoto’s frustration engine: the iPhoto Library that it creates on your computer. Seemingly separate from your image files, this library includes two folders – one with your original images and another with modified copies. That’s right. You may have multiple copies of the same image living in different folders on your computer. What? Too confusing.
iPhoto will frustrate you – if not now, then down the road. If you ever decide to leave iPhoto, you’ll have a hard time knowing where to find your files, many of which will appear in more than one place on your computer. Apple’s strategy is clear: once you use iPhoto, you’re expected to stick around. It’s best to avoid it from the beginning.
5: Get your images off your computer.
If you have a large number of digital images clogging up hard drive space on your computer, you may want to put them somewhere else. Move your image files to an external hard drive, and let your photo management software know that you’ll be storing your images externally. (Most have a setting for this.) When you want to organize or view images, simply plug in your hard drive and start your software. Your computer will run faster, and you’ll have more space for other things.
6: Let someone else organize your images.
Overwhelmed? Or just not interested in all of this digital organization? You don’t have to do it yourself! A number of crafty entrepreneurs would be more than happy to scan, rename, and organize your images for you. It might be well worth the money, if it saves you some valuable time. Contact my good friend Mridu at Memories Organized, and she’ll set you up with peace of mind and terrific service.
7: Share your images with friends, and you’ll feel better about having taken them.
There are lots of great services available for sharing your images online. Three of my favorites are Picasa Web Albums, SmugMug and Facebook. I use all three, in very different ways. Picasa Web Albums (free!) easily integrates with Picasa; with just a few clicks, I can publish and share albums with friends and family. SmugMug is more robust, and allows for greater control if you’ve got a lot of image galleries. SmugMug also boasts some of the best customer service you’ll ever experience. Facebook is Facebook. It allows your images to quickly make the rounds between friends, which is great — if that’s what you want. Privacy is harder to manage on Facebook, so be careful with what you post. These services differ greatly in their functionality and ease of use, and you may need to make use of more than one to adequately meet your needs.
8: Backup your images every day – without lifting a finger – before you regret it.
Backing up images used to involve burning them to a CD every once in a while, which left us with piles of CDs… all of which needed to be backed up, in case of accidental loss. What’s the point of backing something up, unless the backup is backed up? These days, backing up is simpler and much safer. A number of online services like Mozy, Backblaze and Crashplan give subscribers the ability to backup files, online, automatically, without the need to do a thing. Update a file on your computer? It’s automatically backed up online. And if your computer crashes, you’ll have a simple (though not necessarily free) method of retrieving all of your files. Piece of mind and convenience, for just a few dollars a month. Worth every penny.
The ease and relative inexpense of digital photography has resulted in a dramatic surge in the number of pictures being taken, and the amount of organization required to keep up. It’s also increased our stress levels. You can get organized, but you’ll need some strategies for keeping your head above water. Got one that I missed? Share it in the comments!
It would be easy to infer from my recent posts that I spend an extraordinary amount of time watching sunsets on the beach. In fact, this is not the case.
What a summer. Let’s get back to blogging.
