Organizing digital images you have taken is an important process in taking digital photographs. Because digital images are different from negatives, they are stored in a computer or on a back up drive of some kind. The safety concerns with a digital photograph are far different than that of a printed photograph or a set of negatives.
Two Places
Storing your images should take top priority. This is your only ensured method of back up and I will tell you, that trusting your computer to save all your photographs is not a smart move. It is okay to keep them on your computer, but you need to place them at least in one more place. A CD, a back up drive or another computer.
Dates
I recommend dating all of your photographs. Most of the time that I upload my photographs to my computer or back up drive, I do it by date and then by events. I title my photographs as such:
09-01-07 St. Louis Zoo 001
03-15-98 Coming Home From the Hospital 004
The first numbers are of course, the date. The words are the event that took place on that date and the last numbers are the picture numbers. For instance if I took 25 pictures at the zoo, they would be labeled 001-025.
Folders
Creating folders for your images to sit in is the most important part of organizing. Separate photographs by dates and events. Most of today’s digital cameras store the date the photograph was taken in the properties, so if you forgot when a print was taken, you can get it that way. Remember that once an image is altered, sometimes that information will change.
The way that I organize the photographs in the folders is like such:
2007
-09 September
— 09-01 St. Louis Zoo
The main folder is the year. Inside that folder are the months dated as 01 January through 12 December. Then inside there are each event that took place that month, sorted by date order. This is the most effective method I have found, and I have tried a lot. I’ve been digital since 2000.
Please check back in the photography blog as Michele and I continue to teach you everything there is to know about digital photography, film photography and all the tips and techniques you could ever want.
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