Buzz
Maximize the potential of your photos with an effective organizational system, complete with albums and frames for showcasing them.
©2010 Jupiterimages CorporationFamily portraits have evolved from the days of awkward poses behind a black sheet. Nowadays, you're likely snapping countless digital photos without much concern about perfecting everyone's stance.
Just like their printed counterparts once cluttered up boxes in your closet, digital images can accumulate on your computer. Your photo collection might consist of both digital and physical images, and depending on the volume, organizing them can feel overwhelming. Start by determining the purpose of your photo collection – perhaps it's a record of your children’s milestones or a memorable vacation. Once you understand the purpose, it will guide how to arrange them. If you plan to share your photos, consider what might captivate your audience, such as adding captions or curating a traditional or digital scrapbook [source: Sutton].
Properly organizing your photos makes them easier to access, share, and enjoy. Instead of searching through closets or endless folders on your computer, you’ll quickly find the photo you need. Your photos will also be better protected once organized – print photos should be stored in photo-safe sleeves and boxes, while digital images should be backed up in multiple locations. By scanning old prints, you can integrate them into your digital collection, ensuring all your photos are easily accessible [source: Better Homes and Gardens].
Although sorting through your photos may feel overwhelming, it’s a fantastic opportunity to revisit cherished memories. Keep reading for helpful tips on how to start organizing your printed pictures.
Ways to Organize Your Printed Photos
The way you organize your printed photos depends on your goals. You might want to create an album to celebrate a significant event or perhaps find the best way to sort pictures of your children or pets. Consider the reason behind taking the photos and what they represent to you while deciding how to organize them [source: Smedley]. You may prefer to categorize them by subject or arrange them in chronological order.
No matter how you display your photos, it’s important to use the right tools to ensure the presentation is appropriate. Scrapbooking materials like colorful paper and pens can be enjoyable, but be cautious with writing directly on your photos. Some pens contain chemicals that can harm photos over time, so always use photo-safe materials, even if you're just writing on the backs [source: Sutton].
Selecting the right photo album is another consideration. If you plan to add photos to the album in the future, choose photo sleeves that are easy to refill. Consider the size of the album as well—small albums that focus on specific people or events make excellent gifts, while larger albums are perfect for coffee tables or as something to share with guests [source: Williams].
Albums and scrapbooks are not your only options for photo storage. Keep reading for more ideas on how to store your printed photos.
Even though blurred photos might be disappointing, they can still be useful. You could add captions to describe the motion in the image. For instance, if your dog is in constant motion while you’re trying to take a picture, you might write something like "my dog just can’t stay still" or "full of energy" to capture the moment [source: Steveson].
How to Store Printed Photos
There are many ways to store photos, and the possibilities seem endless. Albums, boxes, and frames are all great options. Frames are perfect for photos you want to see often. If you have photos you like to revisit occasionally or want to share with others, albums can keep them accessible. More personal or private photos can be tucked away in a secure box. No matter where you store or display your photos, make sure to protect them for long-term preservation.
Throwing photos into a shoebox might feel like an easy way to store them, but it can lead to damage, such as bending or tearing. Plastic bags and large envelopes are also poor choices for photo storage. Although sticky notes might seem convenient for labeling, leaving them attached to your photos for long periods can cause harm to the images.
When you get your printed photos back from the developer, it may be tempting to leave them in the envelopes they came in. However, these envelopes aren't designed for long-term storage. The acid in these envelopes can actually cause photos to fade over time. To avoid this, make sure you transfer your photos to a safer storage option as soon as possible. Some envelopes are made specifically for long-term storage, so if you prefer to use them, be sure to choose the right kind [source: Sutton].
Printed photos are still enjoyable, but with digital technology becoming more popular, they’re not as prevalent as they once were. For tips on organizing your digital photos, continue reading.
If you're into scrapbooking, you likely have a collection of colorful pens, paper, and various other materials scattered around. Just as organizing your photos is important, so is organizing your supplies. Your storage system should reflect your personal style, just like the way you organize your albums. If you categorize your photos by theme or style, consider storing your supplies in a similar way [source: Smedley].
Organizing Digital Photos
With a digital camera, it's easy to take endless photos without worrying about wasting film. However, this habit can result in a massive collection of images. If you simply upload your digital photos to your computer without organizing them, it’s like dumping printed photos into a shoebox – when you need to find that one special photo, you’ll have to sift through a mountain of others first.
To keep digital clutter under control, make it a habit to upload your photos to your computer after each shooting session. Organize the images into folders, naming them according to a system that makes sense to you. Just like with printed photos, the way you name your folders should be aligned with your purpose for capturing the images. For instance, you could create a folder for each year, and inside, organize the photos by subject, time, or location [source: Northrup].
If you're not using photo management software that allows you to tag your images, name your folders based on keywords you might search for later. It could be helpful to include the names of people featured in the photos in the file names, so that by searching for "Tom," you can quickly find all of his photos. To save time, you can even rename multiple files at once [source: Northrup].
You might also want to create a folder specifically for photos that still need to be renamed or organized. This way, if you can't complete the task in one sitting, you can easily come back later and finish organizing them. When you're done, you can move on to editing your photos [source: Hendricks].
After establishing a solid organizational system, ensure that your photos are stored securely. To learn more about storing digital photos, keep reading.
Like most people, you likely take several photos of the same subject to make sure you get a good shot. However, there's no need to keep them all. It's not enjoyable to sift through countless photos of the same thing, so choose your favorites and delete the rest. You won’t miss the ones that turned out poorly or are just plain uninteresting. By doing so, your digital collection will be less cluttered, easier to manage, and more fun to share [source: Hewlett-Packard].
Storing Digital Photos
Computers are prone to crashes, viruses, and the occasional mishap like spilled coffee on a keyboard. With these uncertainties in mind, it's risky to rely solely on your computer's hard drive to store your digital photos.
Once your photos are organized, it's crucial to back them up. There are several options for doing this, including copying the photos to CDs, transferring them to an external hard drive, or uploading them to an online photo-sharing platform [source: Hendricks]. Each of these methods provides greater portability and protection. Sharing your photos becomes easy, whether you drop a CD into a friend's computer or send someone a link to your online gallery.
Certain CDs can hold up to 700 megabytes of data, and saving your photos to a CD is as simple as transferring them to your hard drive. Once your photos are organized on your computer, their file names and organizational structure will remain intact when you burn them to a CD [source: Kodak].
There are various digital photo organizing programs available that can help you back up your images, protecting them from potential data loss if your computer is compromised. To learn more about these tools, check out the next page.
By scanning old printed photos, you can create digital copies to preserve them, consolidating your entire photo collection in one location. Some scanners can even process negatives, and even if your negatives are damaged, many of these devices come with software that can fix issues like dust or scratches on both the photos and negatives. Prices for such scanners range from $200 to $700, depending on the features you need. [source: Desmond].
Photo Organizing Software
While you can certainly organize, store, and share your photos manually, photo-organizing software streamlines the process, making it much more efficient.
Instead of just naming your photos based on what they depict, photo-organizing software allows you to tag them. This enables you to search for photos featuring a particular person or event. You can add multiple tags to a single photo, so if you have an image of Kim in St. Louis, you can tag it with both "Kim" and "St. Louis" to make it easier to find [source: Hendricks].
For more advanced digital photography, you can even tag your photos with specific camera settings. This way, if you need to find images taken with a particular aperture, you can easily search for them by their tags [source: Desmond].
There are free photo-organizing software options available online, while more advanced programs can cost upwards of $300 [source: Pash]. The best choice for you will depend on your needs, much like choosing an organizational method. If sharing photos online is a priority, free tools like Picasa or Flickr could be ideal. However, for professional-grade photo editing, software like Adobe Lightroom might be the better choice.
These programs can help you back up your digital files, whether they were captured with a digital camera or scanned into your computer. But if you're also concerned with preserving your original print photos, keep reading for tips on photo preservation.
Do you love the creative layouts you can make when scrapbooking with printed photos? Going digital doesn’t mean giving up that creativity. Photo editing software offers just as many, if not more, customization options for presenting your photos -- and you can even print your creations when you’re finished [source: Coleman].
How to Preserve Photos
You’ve managed to rescue your old print photos from the shoeboxes, organized them, scanned them into your computer, and integrated them into your digital albums. Now, you might be wondering what to do with the physical prints you still have left.
Unfortunately, photos are not immune to deterioration and will eventually degrade. However, there are steps you can take to extend the lifespan of your prints. Ensure that pages in photo albums or scrapbooks remain flat and aren’t overloaded, which could cause them to bend or distort when the album is closed. Most photo album pages are designed to be photo-safe, but it’s worth checking for certification. Avoid using pages or paper storage boxes with acid, as they can cause discoloration over time [source: Davis].
It’s also important to consider the environment where you store your photos. For maximum preservation, they should be kept in a cool, dry space. This may require relocating them from a crawlspace to a more accessible area, such as a hall closet. Keep photos out of direct sunlight as well—feel free to display your favorite framed images by the window, but make sure to keep duplicates in case the sunlight causes fading [source: Davis].
Finally, if you prefer shooting with film instead of digital, black-and-white film could be a better choice than color. Due to the nature of the film, black-and-white photos tend to outlast their color counterparts by up to double the time [source: Davis].
For more helpful advice on how to preserve, organize, and store your photos, visit the links on the following page.
In the digital era, you might not have thought about using a microfilm machine, such as the ones once common in libraries. However, microfilm is one of the most reliable methods for preserving precious photographs. It can last up to 500 years and is becoming a preferred choice for some professional photographers [source: Hesseldahl].
