You have paper photos in boxes, albums, on display, and in other places scattered around your home.
You have digital pix on your camera, cell phone, computer hard drive, and CDs.
Once you've taken (or received) the photos and have taken that first look, how can you organize them so you can actually find the gems again?
Venice Kichura, a freelance writer for suite101.com, offers straightforward tips to help you clean out your photo collections - both hard copy and digital - and organize them so you can find your memories of those special moments whenever you want:
HARD-COPY PHOTOS
Toss and Label: As soon as you get your photos developed for any occasion, review and toss any bad ones. Also, toss the duplicates (or put them aside to give to a relative or friend), saving the gems (your "keepers"). Then label each photo on the back and indicate the date it was taken (month and year are sufficient).
Photo Albums: Select acid-free albums, as they are designed to preserve your photos. Also, make sure your photos aren’t stored in extreme temperatures or areas of high humidity.
Storage Alternatives: If you don't like or don't have time to work with photo albums, then use photo storage boxes. They come in decorative assortments and take the drudgery out of pasting pictures onto pages in an album.
DIGITAL PHOTOS
Delete bad pictures: As soon as possible, start deleting any photos that you’re not proud to share. Although with digital cameras you can delete a picture immediately after taking it, too often we procrastinate de-cluttering the memory on our digital cameras. For example, if you’re flying home from your vacation, delete bad pictures while on the plane.
Download Pictures: Transfer your digital photos from your camera to your computer. Don’t delay after a vacation because you don’t want to fill memory card. (When you’re all ready to take pictures at your child's birthday party, you don't want to discover that your memory card is full.) Select a new folder on your home computer (in your “Documents” directory), labeling it, along with the dates the photos were taken. For example: “Disney World March 2010.”
Tagging Photos: This can help you remember names and places in your photos, and help you search for digital photos later. For example, to tag photos with Windows Vista, double click on the photo, opening it to “Windows Photo Gallery.” Then, select the “Info” tab. Next, right click on the “Add Tags” button, including keywords needed to identify your photos.
Sharing Online: There are scores of online software designed to let you share your photos through e-mail and on the web. Many are free. Not only can you share photos with your online friends, but you can also edit and add personal effects to your photos. What’s more, you don’t need a digital camera to share your photos online, as many photo labs can scan your hard-copy photos into a CD-ROM. This allows you to download images on your computer, sending them by email or placing them on web sites.
Find photo storage boxes at ArchivalMethods, Exposures, or PrintFile.
Store your digital (or digitized) photos at FlipDrive, Mozy, or FilesAnywhere.
Share your photos at Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Flickr.
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Comments
Great article. It is a challenge to organize photos when you take a lot of them. I also recommend Picasa by Google. It is free and user friendly. The three you mentioned are great, too.
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