How I Organize My Photos
If you’re like me you take a lot of pictures of your kids every month. I take around 1000 in an average month. To some of you that may be a lot. Others might take a lot more. Here’s how I organize and store all my personal images.
1) Since Brayden has been born, I’ve categorized his pictures in folders labeled with how many months old he is. That’s gotten a little harder since he’s gotten older and I don’t count his age in months anymore. But, it worked for a long time. I suspect with Baby K on the way I will switch to categorizing by months.
2) I then go through all the images and sort and rate them in Adobe Bridge. I sort them by images that are unusable, images I want to keep, and my favorites which I will edit. I then delete the unusable images (out of focus, weird faces, bad exposure, etc). No reason they should be taking up space on my hard drive, right?
*** I must note that Lightroom has WAY more efficient ways to organize and sort your images. When I went to Adobe this year, they touched on all the ways you can organize and sort your images. And it’s way more efficient than my current system. However, I am stuck in my ways and have been super busy this year that I haven’t had a chance to change my system yet. I’m thinking that will be a good maternity leave project. Watch this video and this video to find out how to sort and organize your videos in Lightroom… because it’s awesome and will rock your socks.
3) At the end of each month I backup that months pictures. I backup my images in several places:
- On an external hard drive I back up all the files. But because I’ve had external hard drives fail on before…
- I then burn a DVD and back them up there as well. When we go out of town, these DVD’s all go in the fire proof safe.
- I also have a RAID drive where I back up my favorite images and images I’ve edited that month. I don’t backup all my images here to save space. Just my very favorites that I would be so very sad if I lost.
*** Remember, it’s not a matter of IF your hard drive will fail. It’s a matter of WHEN it will fail!
4) At the end of the month I delete everything in that month’s folder from my hard drive except for my favorite images and the images I’ve edited. I HATE deleting things from my hard drive. It makes me so very nervous. But, because I’ve backed them up in 3 other places I know they are safe. And I can’t keep them all on my hard drive. There simply isn’t enough room even with all the hard drive space that I have!
5) Lastly, I actually print out my favorite images every month. I know. Novel idea, right? But, I print out my favorite images and store them in a shoe box. The good old fashioned way. Those are the boxes that I know I would grab if there was a fire. And if all my digital media fails I know I will have a hard copy and not all my memories will be lost. Maybe one day I’ll buy cheap photo albums and store them in there.
I’m not a scrapbooker, but I do make photo books every year for our families! I just need to remember to order a copy for myself as well!
There are online services that backup and archive your images, but the ones I have tried have been SLOW! If you’ve used one that you’ve been happy with leave it in the comments section!
By keeping my images organized, I know where to find them and also know that they are safe and backed up. Just one less thing to worry about at night!
About DrewB
I’ve started this blog as a way to connect with other moms who love photography. Whether you are a professional photographer who is looking for advice on how to manage your own business and your family or if you are a mom who is looking for tips on how to take better pictures of your kids, I hope that you can find some good information and be inspired!
Good info and today (along with next week when school starts) is my photo organizing day. Too many folders not enough organization. I do have to say, I’ve got 2 externals and it still makes me nervous. I still use online backups also. Just don’t want to take any chances. Gayle @ Mom & Camera mentioned Backblaze backups and I’ve been using them for the last 4-5 months and don’t think anything about it. Plus it will backup an external HD! So for $10, it’s backing up my laptop, desktop and external! Not a bad deal. (I’m not sure how long it took to backup everything, but it didn’t slow my computer any while it was backing up.)
Carmen
Carmen´s last [type] ..Black & White
THANK YOU for this post!! This is pretty much what I do as a process. I work in software and KNOW it is a matter of time before everything fails.
For my personal stuff, I use Backblaze for online backups. It is best to have two back ups in independent locations. The initial back up was slow but my monthly photos only take a couple of hours (I ruthlessly delete, if I don’t print it, I don’t keep it). I set it up so that it doesn’t back up my “in process” folders, so I only upload new photos when I move them to my external hard drive. The limiter on the upload is your home’s max upload speed, which can increase with a business class modem (but I haven’t used).
LauraC´s last [type] ..First day of kindergarten
Thank you for the post!
I’m pretty new at this so you gave me lot of thinking material.
I hope it will be useful on the near future because i going to a long hike in China, so i have a feeling i will be back soon.
Hillel.
Hillel’s last blog http://ecofriendlylove.com/?p=99
Thanks for sharing,
when you said “*** Remember, it’s not a matter of IF your hard drive will fail. It’s a matter of WHEN it will fail!” you got me… I have also 2 external backups and still I have the feeling it is never enough…
Don’t give up, keep printing your favorite photos, you can also make a line up of decorated wall with your baby growing..
Ravit´s last [type] ..Small living room design
This is a great post! So far, I leave my pictures way too long on my hard drive and only back them up in one place. And I never get around to printing! I am not happy with my system and need a change!
Jess´s last [type] ..Master Pizza Chef
So helpful! Thank you for sharing. I have a ton of pics that desperately need backed up on something behind my external hard drive. A friend’s computer just died, and she’s so sad to have lost some precious photos. That, coupled with your post, is a good kick in the pants for me to start backing up tonight!
I use shutterfly and you can get back any pictures you want. You can order prints, make books and all kinds of gifts. it is free and you can share your albums with family and friends and update them as when you update your pictures. Check it out.
Just want to mention if you or anyone is looking for a efficient and effective way to back up and store, check out Drobo.com…my husband is the product marketing manager! I wouldn’t normally plug something, but it’s a great product!
I like this advices! I take pictures of my kids too, all the time and it nice to know what to do with them
Anna´s last [type] ..10 Tips on how to get a girl to like you
thanks drew so helpful!!
Thanks for the info, Drew! Do you just back up your final edited jpeg photos? Or do you also backup your RAW and .psd files? That’s where I’m at – how I should store the different versions of each of my favorites.
Jen´s last [type] ..1 Sunset :: 3 Different White Balances
I have Lightroom installed but rarely use it. It looks “foreign’ to me LOL! Anyway, these are useful tips. I haven’t done much backing up so losing all my files is a terrible thought. Better start now.
Hunter´s last [type] ..Af: Julie
Great post… I used to be horrible about backups until I got the scare of my life, now I have like 5 external drives hanging from my computer and 2 online backups going LOL… I use MozyHome (took forever to do initial backup but now works great, also backs up external drives) AND Backblaze (it has been months and it still hasn’t gotten through the initial backup, but I have over 2TB of data to back up, I like it so far). I am currently, at this very moment, working on reconfiguring my backups (I use GoodSync for a program to do the automatic backups) so that I’m not duplicating, etc. so this was a very timely post! I keep way too many photos… plus I have scanned thousands of family photos… so organization is a hard thing. I organize similar to you only I have put my daughter’s photos in folders by year, and then subfolders inside the year for special events, etc. I have started tagging all my scanned family photos, etc. – this whole thing is a full time job but soooo worth it! I am, today, working on importing a bunch of videotapes that I had sitting around so I can get them on my hard drive and back them up. My wedding, reception, family members and pets that are now gone – it’s been a tearful day just glancing at those videos (sigh). Keep with it, someday your children will marvel at your diligence in preserving all these memories for them!
Great post! It was a previous post of yours that encouraged me to backup in 3 places. I currently back my whole system up with Carbonite, use an external HD, and burn dvds of client and personal work to go in my safe.
BTW, what do you use to label them? I use print out labels that stick on, but sometimes if the weather is humid air bubbles or wrinkles appear. Suggestions?
Danielle´s last [type] ..One Summer Evening . . .
Thank you for the useful tips.
Thank you for sharing
Shahar´s last [type] ..The day after…
I use backblaze. The initial backup took a long time but it works in the background. I have an external HD but i think it’s on its last leg and I need to get a new one. I do a birthday book every year for my kids but really need to do a family album as well as just getting some prints in my hands. Gotta do it before they disappear!
I love this! My photos are a disaster – I SO appreciate your help!
´s last [type] ..Moments.
Melissa