How to organize your photos Million
Technologies / / December 19, 2019
1. create Inbox
It is, quite simply, a folder for all the new photos, which you only have to handle. All in accordance with the procedure Getting Things Done.
When you load a new batch of pictures from your smartphone or a digital camera, they are primarily sent to Inbox. It was only after the treatment - the main archive. This ensures the maintenance of order: unsorted pictures will not interfere with the already structured.
If you are just starting to disassemble its volumetric collection, then submit to the Inbox all the pictures without much thought. And move them to the archive only when the lead in order.
2. remove duplicates
In any large archive sure there will a bunch of takes, that either are identical or differ only slightly. Especially a lot of photos there, if you like to shoot the series, and then lazy to remove unnecessary images. So start organizing your records should be to destroy duplicates.
Layfhaker already collected list best application to remove duplicate files - you can choose from them. Or use specialized programs, it is sharpened under the search duplicate images, for example
AntiDupl. Most programs catalogers for photos like Lightroom, darktable and XnView also have built-in tools to remove duplicates.Those who moves into his archive pictures from mobile devices can begin to remove similar photos directly on the phone with the help of special applicationsThat only original photos off your computer.
3. Remove bad or corrupted images
When duplicates and similar photos are removed, it is necessary once again to walk the remaining manually clean out completely so frank marriage: blurred, blurry, sharp enough, too dark, or simply damaged pictures.
It takes a lot of time, especially if you come for an archive that is not dismantled with the same time as it was placed in the first photo. But you can simplify your task a bit, if you process the files in batches Inbox folder.
4. Sort photos into folders
Manual sorting
Cleared from duplicates and poor quality images collection need to be sorted into folders. The way you organize photos, depends entirely on your needs and fantasies. It can be structured in chronological or thematic order. In the first case, the images are sorted by date - year, month, day. In the second - on the events, places, people and objects that are imprinted on them.
But it is best to combine these two methods. There are more or less universal folder structure that is used by many photographers. It looks like this:
Photo Archive / Year / YYYY.MM.DD - Event or place / Image Files
Thus folder will always be displayed in an orderly manner. And you can easily find the photos you want, if you remember, when they have done or what they depict.
Automatic sorting
Naturally, the fact that manually throw into folders gigabytes of available photos, will leave a lot of time. But it is possible to charge a special program. For example, catalogers like XnView, DigiKam or Adobe Bridge. Or viewer of FastStone Image Viewer. All of these applications have built-in tools to automatically sort image files in folders. The latter are created based on the EXIF-data capture photos. Scatter so thousands of images in a few minutes a lot easier than doing the same work hours manually.
You can also configure how subfolders will be named. Then just need to walk on them and add notes - to some event or object they belong. Do not be lazy: so you will easily navigate in your photo archive, rather than trying to painfully recall what day did this or that picture.
5. Stamped tags and ratings
This step is optional. To tag and evaluation makes sense if you are using a program-cataloguer, for example, ACDSee, Adobe Lightroom, XnView or darktable. Those who use the conventional file manager "Explorer" or the Finder, will do very well this item.
However, in large collections of useful tags. For example, you want to find some photos, but do not remember when it was made. You can say that it is represented and where they filmed, but the exact date is forgotten. In this case, you and help tags. The principle of their organization depends on your imagination. It can be used as the tag names of the people in the photographs, event titles, places and objects, then to easily search for images by association.
It is the same with stars-rated. Although we cleaned frank marriage before ordering the collection, it is not all the images in the archive are you equally like. To select your favorite and dismiss those that do not deserve attention, you can use the rating system.
6. Choosing a storage location
Now, when the file is finally given in order, you should consider where you will store it.
- On a home computer. So what most amateur photographers, since it is the easiest option. In the method has a drawback: in order to gain access to your pictures, you need to include a desktop computer. Not very convenient if you need to quickly show visitors who came a couple of pictures.
- On external media. Volumetric external hard drive can hold your entire collection. It is easy to take with you wherever you go. However, without a computer handy to see photos will not work because not all smartphones and tablets supports external drives even with OTG-cable.
- The cloud services. We have picked the best cloud storage for photos. This is a good choice for smaller collections, but store huge files will be quite expensive, as all services are limited space for free use.
- On the home media server. Option for the most advanced users. Buy a cheap computer in a small package (or adjust it by your old unused netbook - high power is not required), adding a couple of external hard disk and connect it to your home LAN network. Voila. You can view the photo archive with any device - PCs, smartphones, tablets, TVs. Private cloud without monthly fees or subscriptions.
7. we do backups
After all these manipulations configure automatic backup to your computer. It's never over. You can reinstall the system, applications and music downloaded from the network, but the pictures we all are unique. So do not be lazy to make regular backups. This will help our leadership.
see also📸🧐
- 5 best ways to safely store your photos from your iPhone
- 6 best service to store your photos in the cloud
- Not only «Google Photos": 6 app for viewing and sorting photos on Android