I get asked quite often how to deal with masses of digital photos, and I thought I’d post my thoughts here. I use a 6.3mp camera, and take thousands of photos a month, so keeping my photos manageable is a necessity. For my photo organization i use iPhoto 4.0, a Mac product. (I’d like to upgrade to iPhoto 5.0, but haven’t done so yet.)
- 1. Keep Manageable Sized Photo Libraries—First, I separate my photos into digital libraries when I download them. You can always reorganize them later, but it’s easiest to do this from the start. I divide my photos by event (or part thereof), with no more than 500MB or so of data per album, for the simple reason that this is then easily burnable to a CD. I use 516MB CF cards for this reason. One card equals one CD, more or less. Depending on how many photos you take and the size of each photo file, a CD will hold anything from one (or part of one) event to several months of photos. If you fall into the latter category, then group as many months as you can (in order) onto a single CD without splitting any months. This will make it easier to catalogue your images.
- 2. Create A Naming System—You’ll need to create a naming system for your libraries that works for you. Personally, my libraries tend to look like this: iPhoto Library (2005-06 04 Bamburgh Castle) In short it’s an iPhoto Library, from 2005, from June, it’s the 4th CD that month, and the photos were taken at Bamburgh Castle. We started numbering them this way so that they will appear in order on the computer (especially important if you’ve got several years worth of photos sitting on your server). The CD number became useful when I found that i had more than one CD from the same location, and the description of what the photos are is invaluable if you are trying to find something in a hurry.
- 3. Separate Your Good Photos—If your photo management software allows, it’s always a good idea to create a separate album within the library for your “good” photos. These are the photo I plan to print. Although it’s not necessary to separate them, but I find it useful if I need to go back and find an original again. It doesn’t take long to set this up, and it has saved me a lot of valuable time in the past, so I think it’s a good idea.
- 4. Don’t Forget To Delete Your Rubbish—I usually do this at the camera stage, but there are always those photos that make it onto the computer that just don’t make the cut. Unless they are “one of a kind special moments and it’s the only photo you have of it” kind of photos—delete them. They aren’t worth the space.
- 5. Back Them Up OFTEN!!—I highly suggest as soon as you download you photos you make some sort of backup, whether it be on a CD-RW, another computer or server, or whatever… as long as you have some sort of temporary backup while you work on your photos. I know that sometimes I can get busy and certain libraries can sit there for months untouched, so this gives me some peace of mind that my photos are still safe. Once my library has been sorted, and I’ve separated my good photos and deleted my rubbish, I burn two final copies of that library. One stays at home, within easy reach, should I need it. The other we keep at the office. Keeping a copy off-premise, means that if something happens to your home, be it fire or robbery or whatever, you’ll still have a copy of your photos.