It’s the time of year to look back on the previous 12 months, and look ahead to all the new possibilities to come.
We may even write down a list of New Year’s Resolutions to help give life a sense of balance and renewal after the busy holiday season.
Is getting your photos organized on your list of 2018 resolutions?
Or do you want to create a photo album, get all your home movies digitized, or “rescue” the album of one of your older relatives?
The best way to make sure you actually stick with your resolutions is to make sure you set small, specific, measurable goals.
Let’s talk about some simple ways you can include photo organization in your plans for 2018.
Organizing Your 2017: Dealing With What You Have
One place to start your photo organization goal setting is to take a look at the photos and albums you already have.
Make a list of what you’d like to accomplish, with your photo organization. Once you’ve set your goal(s), check out these posts in our blog archive to help you with the practical steps:
- Organize your photos.
- Convert home movies to digital.
- Create a photo album.
- Have a photo organizer create an album for you.
- Rescue your old photo albums (this post also gives helpful guideline for scanning photos).
- Give photo gifts or showcase your photos in your home.
Tips for Keeping Your Digital Photos Organized in 2018
When the ball drops and the new year begins, I encourage you to make a vow to take control of the new photos and videos that come into your life.
Here are some ideas for keeping you digitally organized in the new year:
1. Choose the best images and videos to keep. The best thing you can do to stay organized in 2018 is review the photos and videos on your phone as you go. Decide which photos and videos are the best, and only keep those.
For example, I take multiple videos of my two Goldendoodle puppies. Rather than keep all of them on my phone, I try to go through all the videos right away, choose the best one, and delete the rest.
2. Edit your best photos right away. You can do all kinds of photo edits – including eliminating red eye, rotating the image, and using lighting and filters – right on your phone. You can get our best photo editing tips right here.
3. Categorize your photos as you go by creating “Albums” in your Photos app. You’ll stand a better chance of keeping your photos organized if you do a bit of sorting as you go. Add the photos you take to your Albums, so you’ll be able to find them more easily later.
For example, I created an called “Hairstyles, and when I take screenshots or download photos of hairstyles I like from the internet, I add the images to that album.
You can create Albums using titles that suit your projects, interests, and events, like Christmas 2017, Vacations, Kids’ School Plays, Graduations, Weddings, or Pets.
These Albums will also come in handy if you decide to share them (see more information on sharing photos in the section below).
Organizing Your Prints in the New Year
Most of my clients still deal with a lot of photo prints, so if your goal is to get your prints organized this year, here are quick tips:
1. If you have the equipment and want to scan photos yourself, keep track of what you’ve scanning as you go, and make a box for photos that have already been scanned. Scanning all your photos is a time-consuming process, and staying organized will keep you from wasting time scanning photos twice, or accidentally skipping some images when you’re scanning.
2. Consider taking digital pictures of your prints. Most of us find that taking photos of prints and pieces of memorabilia is a helpful way to keep a digital record. If you’re going to do this, I recommend reviewing, editing, naming, and categorizing your digital pictures as you go, to streamline the process and keep you organized. Examples of categories could be:
- Printed family photos.
- Vintage and/or historic photos.
- Photo and memory albums.
- Ephemera (tickets, pamphlets, programs, letters, greeting cards, etc.).
- Memorabilia (posters, kids’ artwork, trophies, ribbons, etc.).
3. If you’re taking pictures of your prints, record that you’ve taken a picture of the item, so you don’t have to try to remember if you’ve already done it on another occasion. You could create a record by:
- Creating a list that catalogues the items and photo names.
- Writing on the back of the photo.
- Labeling the item.
- Creating and labeling boxes in which to store items and photos.
Make Sharing Photos a Simpler, Smoother Process
Finding and saving the photos other people send you via text and email can get confusing and cumbersome, and sharing your own photos one by one with your friends and family can be really inefficient and time-consuming.
The best way to share photos is by using the cloud. Once you have it set up, it’s fast, easy, and incredibly simple!
iPhone users can share directly with people who are (physically) nearby using AirDrop.
You can also create a Shared Album, so others can download your photos directly. There are some tips for setting up shared albums in our previous blog post.
Make Photo Backup a Priority in 2018
Regular readers of this blog know that I always encourage people to back up their photo collections. Nothing is sadder than photos getting lost because of computer failure, theft, or loss.
If you’re not currently backing up your photos, make safety a priority in the new year, and resolve to back up to the cloud, or to an external hard drive (or both).
Here are a few quick tips about backing up:
- Apple devices can be set to automatically back up your photos to iCloud. Turn on iCloud Backup in your phone settings, and make sure you’ve got enough available space in iCloud to complete your backup. Check out this post for other tips and suggestions.
- For Android phones, the Google Photos app can automatically back up your photos and make them available to all devices.
- To back up your computer, I recommend setting up an online backup system like Backblaze, which will alert you that it’s time to back up.
You get more information about the backup process in our previous blog post, Which Cloud Sharing Site Is the Best Option for Backing Up My Photos?
Happy New Year from the Entire Picture This Organized Team
We hope that the ideas and resources in this post will help you meet your photo organization goals for 2018.
If you run into roadblocks or resistance, or just discover that you’d like to get some extra help on a project, we’d love to assist! Reach out to us here to schedule your free consultation.