Digital Photos: 6 Organizing Tips

Have you assessed your digital photos lately? Does it need help? My guess is yes!

Here are 6 steps you can take to get your digital photos in better shape. Whether you decide to hire a professional photo organizer at some point or to DIY it, these recommendations will help you achieve your organizing goals, and save you time and money.

1. Start with your digital photo collection. While print photos may appear to be more delicate, digital photos are prone to accidental deletion. Or they live in an old computer’s hard drive, completely forgotten about.
2. Have a back-up copy (preferably at least one external hard drive and one in the Cloud). And have a regular back-up session, depending on how many photos you take. Monthly, twice a year, or whatever works. Consistency is key here.
3. Edit like a pro. Start with your most recent month of digital photos and work backwards. Are there screenshots, blurry photos, duplicates, bursts, or live photos you don’t want or need? Get rid of them if they don’t serve a specific purpose. Then move on to the previous month. This can take time, but small steps taken regularly will yield significant results.
4. Consider metadata. This is the digital equivalent of the handwriting on the back of a printed photo. Images tell stories, and your phone is embedding location info, capture date and device data with each photo taken. But adding personal keywords, tags, and captions enriches the story. Metadata also helps when you search, giving you quick and easy access to specific photos. While adding metadata requires specific software (we use Lightroom) it is a worthwhile investment of your time and money.
5. Merge your images. Most of our clients have their photos scattered on various devices – old phones, laptops, external hard drives, camera cards, etc. We recommend creating one digital hub – a central main library. Once centralized, your photo library can live on a specific hard drive and is much easier to back up (see #2)
6. Remove duplicate images. This is best done with specific software. There are free and paid versions that work with both Mac and PCs. The paid versions are more robust, but free ones do a good job too.

If you are feeling energized and inspired after organizing your digital photos, take it up a notch! Here are some great tips that can be used throughout your home!