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 tips 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
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. For instance your PC and an external drive. You could also safe them to an online photo printing company or cloud storage.
- 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.
- 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.
- Use image management software to tag and find photos
Using Picasa or Windows Live gallery you can refine your searching with tags keywords you apply in the software. Most tags will stay with the image and remain searchable, regardless of which brand of software you're using.