[ladyscrapalot]

So I have decided that I MUST get all my photos organized. It's going to be a huge task; but one that must be done. I have all photos on an EHD and most copied on cds/dvds. My plans is to go through them all to decide which ones to keep and which ones can be tossed scary!!! I also figured I should back them up somewhere online, you know just in case.... but I just read today that the fine print with Picasa/Google is that they have unrestricted use of your photos!!! Is this true with all online storage sites? If it is I think I'll pass. Also any tips for sorting and organizing? I'm also going to tackle all my prints too!!!

[Becster]

I began organizing mine somewhat in a way that Ro suggested. I have a Photos folder on my EHD, then subfolders like this:

Photos
->2011
->2012
-->01-JAN-2012
-->02-FEB-2012
-->03-MAR-2012
--->2012-03-24 Family picnic
--->2012-03-27 dog pics

When they are numbered/labeled that way they stay sorted and it makes it so much easier to find. I too have folders on several hard drives- labeled, not labeled, you name it. It's a slow process, but it's getting there.

Never mind the Rubbermaid tubs full of old photos ad negatives .... that's another story.

[tinkerbell11]

I was organizing all my photos in to folders for each event,but I too am moving towards a yearly then monthly for the year.

[PBarnes]

My FIL passed along a nice article that was in the New York Times (I think) recently. Basically they said to do what you are doing, get rid of those you really don't think you'll use or need to start with. They recommended Shutterfly for online storage but I don't know if they have the same caveat of being able to use your photos. I'm going to take a look.

Both PSE Organizer and Picasa have pretty good face recognition which helps with finding people photos. I use both but Picasa mostly for my scrapping supplies.

Edit: I took a look at Shutterfly and it appears that you retain all rights to your images. Your albums are not available to everybody, just people you send links to. The terms of use are a lot of legal gobbledy gook as far as I'm concerned, but that is what I gleaned from it.

[jenrou]

tinkerbell11, on 04 May 2012 - 01:37 PM, said:

I was organizing all my photos in to folders for each event,but I too am moving towards a yearly then monthly for the year.

I also am trying to get mine done this way. I just have several lifetimes of photos to scan and organize. Oh my!

[ladyscrapalot]

Thanks everyone for the tips! Now I just have to jump in and......

Pat, thanks for checking with shutterfly. I've used them before. Picasa might not ever do anything but it just bothers me that they would even have the right. I guess I should sort & organize first. Wish me luck

[ladyscrapalot]

I decided to search organizing photos this morning and found this thread I started last year! EEP! I guess I need to get to gettin' on this. My digit photos are somewhat sorted. But since the wonderful SG designers came up with the Pocket Life products I'm inspired to do this with my film prints. Alas, these are tossed in a big box all willy nilly. Anybody have any tips or words of encouragement to get started on this mammoth project? Hopefully, I won't keep putting this off for another year. I really want to try some of these products but I feel so overwhelmed.

Thanks in advance!

[SandiC.]

Since I'm facing the same organizing dilemmas (and I think a lot of us do) I'll tell you how I'm approaching this. The last few years of digital photos are organized into folders by year, then month, then event and/or date, with a 02-2013_Misc (example) folder for each month to catch those odds and ends photos that don't really fit into a nice, neat folder of their own. I have not backed up to an online site before, but I'm thinking that might be a good thing.

As far as those boxes and bins with prints from pre-digital times. Well, I'll just grab a handful (mostly unsorted). If its worth keeping, I scan, making folders up similar to my digi filing system, then put them into albums. And if I have duplicates I will put them in an envelope to send off to someone who will love seeing them. And many get tossed. I'm not getting too concerned with organized albums right now, just in general groupings. I have one separate album for family holidays, one for travel, and one for each of my sons and their families. And the ubiquitous miscellaneous one too. At some point I'll try to get those a little more organized and ordered, but just getting them into general categories and into albums (using large capacity, mostly loose leaf pages so they can be moved around). I try to work on the sorting project for a half-hour or so weekly, just to keep it moving, though its going very slowly.

[ladyscrapalot]

Thanks Sandi! I like your idea of trying to work on it for 30 minutes or so every week. I'm usually off on Sundays so that might be a good day to try. I'm going to try it tomorrow!

[Wendy J]

I, too, use a year/month/date/subject system of filing my photos (2013-02-16-baby's first birthday). A few years ago I scanned all our photos/slides from the time my father was a baby (OMG what a chore). Now everything is on my EHD and backed up to BackBlaze. Since I do a yearly journal, I can find every picture I need and they're in chronological order. This saves me so much time and frustration! The initial process took me many months. However, I don't delete many pictures - some pictures which aren't the best quality can be used as a background, B/W or in some other capacity.

[ladyscrapalot]

Well it's Sunday and I'm going to start sorting here in a little bit. I did have a question. Do you scan one photo at a time or several at a time. Right now I'm having to share the computer with my dd so I will have to work around homework time. At least I can start sorting.

Thanks again for the tips!

[healthyscraps]

Kelly it is fantastic that you are getting your photos organized. I do as the others, levels of folders,chronological with notes at the end of the folder for a specific event:
2013
01 2013
20130101 new years

When I import my photos to my computer it organises and names the folders, all I need to do is add the note at the end for special events.

I find it difficult to delete photos as they can be used in so many ways, as Wendy suggested.

When scanning lots of images I scan in batches and separate later. Happy organizing!

[ladyscrapalot]

YAY ME!! So I finally started sorting last evening. Wow talk about a blast from the past! lol I realized this is so important to do because the color in a lot of older photos have started changing color. I haven't started scanning them in yet as I have to share my laptop with my DD. (She'll be getting her own when she graduates from HS in June).

This morning I searched the forum for scanning tips and found quite a few. For example making sure the scan bed is speck free (this is so obvious but a good reminder) and to use coffee filters to wipe down (lint free).

Sandi, in my search I read one of your responses and you mentioned something about you tend to have themed albums instead of chronological order. (if I am remembering what I read correctly). Does that mean you, for example, might put all your Christmas photos together?

Also has anybody scanned polaroids with any luck?

Thank you!!.

[Barb Eugene]

I scanned quite a few old Polaroid photos. After scanning them, I cropped the image so just the photo part, not the "frame" remained. I also had to color correct almost all of them as the color changed a lot more than regular photos from the same time period.

[SandiC.]

ladyscrapalot, on 18 February 2013 - 10:08 AM, said:

YAY ME!! So I finally started sorting last evening. Wow talk about a blast from the past! lol I realized this is so important to do because the color in a lot of older photos have started changing color. I haven't started scanning them in yet as I have to share my laptop with my DD. (She'll be getting her own when she graduates from HS in June).

This morning I searched the forum for scanning tips and found quite a few. For example making sure the scan bed is speck free (this is so obvious but a good reminder) and to use coffee filters to wipe down (lint free).

Sandi, in my search I read one of your responses and you mentioned something about you tend to have themed albums instead of chronological order. (if I am remembering what I read correctly). Does that mean you, for example, might put all your Christmas photos together?

Also has anybody scanned polaroids with any luck?

Thank you!!.

Yes, I do work on themes instead of chronologically. As things are all finished, them I attempt to get them in some sort of chronological order. And yes I do have a Christmas album. Its my favorite.

I don't have many polaroids to scan so can't help you there.

[SandiC.]

ladyscrapalot, on 17 February 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

Well it's Sunday and I'm going to start sorting here in a little bit. I did have a question. Do you scan one photo at a time or several at a time. Right now I'm having to share the computer with my dd so I will have to work around homework time. At least I can start sorting.

Thanks again for the tips!

What I do with small prints is to mount them on a piece of cardstock and then scan several at one time. I use an adhesive that can easily be removed. My scanner can break them up into individual files for saving. Or, I just select them from a sheet of several photos, one at a time to bring into photoshop. I do try to fix color and any damage before saving a final version....its a tedious process, but I only scan a fraction of the number of photos I have, usually 2 or 3 from a roll of film shot at a particular time.. When the photos are dark backgrounds, I use a light colored card stock and if they are light I use dark card stock. I suppose you could use a mid tone neutral....whatever gives good contrast so selections are easier. I use my flip pal for an occasional photo, but mostly for documents. I found a few certificates one of my got in school, scanned them, now they are in a file with his name on my HD, and he gets the originals. If I ever find the photos that go with those events, I'll be able to include them on a LO for him.

I want you to know I will never get this all done, it will be a continual work in progress. He he he.

[candyK]

I use lightroom to organize my photos. I use a master file for each year and file by date. Some events I add a tag to the file name, but I usually can remember about when something happened. Plus I tag.

In lightroom you can add a brief statement to the photo which stays with it,ie "Emma's first day at Montessori and she wouldn't get out of the car." I tag them with: who, what when and where--plus the why IF I can. The tagging and information become part of the metadata of the file. Kayla Lameroux has excellent information on using lightroom. She encourages looking at yourself as the 'curator of a family museum' and believes that organizing and cleaning up photos will be of more value to future generations than scrapped pages. I have many very old pictures I inherited and scanned, but am not sure who the people are and have NO idea what the occasion was. Even a brief story with a picture makes it meaningful.

So I was inspired and scanned over 10,000 slides my father had taken. Oh my! Better to have a root canal. I was able to convert those to DVD for him to watch complete with music. Then via Kayla, I discovered scanCafe. You buy a box, fill it and in weeks they send back, scanned and color corrected images ready for you to tag and file. I've decided to go this route, and NOT spend anymore time scanning.

I use Backblaze to backup and I also upload to Flickr. For $25 per year you have unlimited full resolution storage and download capability. In LR4, there is a very easy upload to Flickr button, or Smugmug, Blurb, etc. I just like Flickr and keep all of my work locked down to 'family only"
HTH

[ladyscrapalot]

Haha, yes Sandi, I will never finish either! I might get them all scanned (eventually) but not scrapped. I'm too slow. But if I get them scanned in they'll be safe. Another project I started was to convert our vhs, to dvds. I was only able to get one done before our desktop crashed. Not sure if we will ever replace it and I don't want to add the program to my laptop right now.

WOW Candy 10,000 slides that's crazy! I couldn't even imagine how long that must have taken. My dad had lots of slides but I don't think that many. I think my sister has them. I know she has lots of slides so I'll have to look into scanCafe for her. Thanks for the tip.

Sure I had started all this years ago! *sigh*