You’ve probably got quite a lot of digital images by now, from your camera, tablet and phone, and adding more by the day, so here’s some ideas to help you get organised.
- Set your camera date and time
Do this and you will ensure each image you take is marked invisibly with the date and time (and probably location too). This will allow you to search and sort chronologically on your computer.
- One Photo folder for main storage
Put all your pictures in the same folder, I recommend your Pc’s ‘Pictures’ folder.
A single place for storage means that photos will be easy to back up and move to a new PC.
- Use sub-folders
Within your Pictures folder, organize your photos into sub-folders for instance by year. Under those make sub-folders such as month, topic, or event.
- Backup!
Store your photos are stored in at least two different places, preferably three. For instance your PC and cloud storage or an external drive. You could also safe them to an online photo printing company, but this is a second best solution.
- Edit as you go
Don’t be afraid to delete the blurry shots, the bad ones or duplicates. You really don’t need 20 shots of one subject!. Pick out the best versions to keep and delete the rest.
- Use star-ratings
Each time you import photos from your camera, give star ratings to the best photos, then you can quickly find your best photos.
- One last thing…..
If you intend to print off digital photos DON’T…. I repeat don’t….rely on social media as the only place for storing your pictures. When you download pics to Facebook it compresses them into small files and they will not be suitable for printing later! Google can also be a problem unless you are paying extra for no compression.