You’ve probably got quite a lot of digital images by now, from your camera, tablet and phone, and adding more by the day.
Getting organised can save you heaps of time in the long run, so here’s some tips to help you get organised.
1. 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.
2. Use folders
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.
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.
3. Backup!
Store your photos are stored in at least two different places. For instance your PC and an external hard drive. You could also save them to cloud storage or an online photo printing company.
4. Delete 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.
5. 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. Most editing software will have a scoring system you can use.
6. Use tools to tag and find photos.
You can refine your searching with tags keywords you apply in photo editing software. Most tags will stay with the image and remain searchable, regardless of which brand of software you're using. Metadata is editable in each image file. for instance name and place, plus you can add notes.
7. One last thing…..
If you intend to print off digital photos DON’T…. please don’t….rely on social media as the only place for storing your pictures. When you download pics to Facebook for instance, it compresses them into small files and they will not be suitable for printing later! (and social media space is not yours, it can be removed by the company at any time)