We all love to capture memorable moments in photos. Whether it is to remember a special occasion, a trip, because something is inspirational or beautiful. In this digital age it is so easy to take loads without incurring any costs. The issue that faces us is to find time to sort through the masses of images, how to store them and then to have them readily available when we want to share them.
1. Make it a habit
The best time to sort your images is as soon after the event as you possibly can. At that point everything is still fresh in your mind and you are still enthused by the occasion.
If you have years of photo organising to do start with the most recent and work your way back in time.
2. Organise images into folders
Download images into annual folders to create space on your Camera or phone. Create subfolders according to the occasion or event, e.g. Easter, birthdays, vacations, special days, school, Christmas. Then chronological sort images by the date they were taken.
3. Decisions, decisions
Now the difficult part is to decide what to keep and what to trash? Upload folder by folder into a Photo editing program. I use Photo Mechanic, but you can also try any other that you like. Look at each image and rate it, discard those that you immediately see as being defective, either incorrect lighting, out of focus, closed eyes and funny faces. Pare down on images by choosing the best of similar images and deleting the rest.
Correct lighting, red-eye or crop and enhance the images that you want to keep. Select those and copy or move them into a folder for printing or to be used in a photo book.
4. Print or not to print
There are many options on the market whether one decides on a photo book or a physical album or scrap book is a personal choice.
Should you decide to print images you can either take them to a printing lab or upload them to an online site and have the prints delivered.
5. Photo books or albums
I have created a couple of photo books with an Album Maker and I love the way the software gives you so many creative options. From different page layouts, backgrounds, scrap booking paraphernalia, fonts and much more. You are physically creating a scrapbook or an album without the glue, sticky fingers and the additional expense of buying background paper and embellishment.
You import your folder into the photo book software, drag and drop your images onto the page. Change the size, the form and the layout as you go. Insert overlays or embellishments and use headings or comments in speech bubbles whatever tickles your fancy. Scan in your tickets or maps and use them with your photos just like you would in your album or scrapbook. Save and you are almost ready to order.
I find it wonderful that you can preview your album and still change photos afterwards, not like in an album or scrapbook if it’s stuck down, it’s stuck. You can even send a pdf. as a preview to a client and they can edit headings or suggest changes that they would like to be made all online.
As soon as you are happy with your photo book you can order it, pay for it and upload it online. Within 7- 10 days you get your printed photo book delivered to your door to share with friends and family. I have come to realise that people prefer to page through a book rather than watching a slide show on computer or other electronic media. When one has had enough, you can simply close the book and go back to it whenever you wish. If you were to have to watch a slide show you are bound to the whims of others.
6. Digital albums
Use the same principle as above to sort, choose and enhance your photos. View a slide show of the folder or album with friends and family on your computer or on your smart TV. You can even use the folder that you have created for the photo book and view that as a slide show.
Enjoy your holiday all over again, have your folder of your most recent photos displayed as a screen saver on your digital devices whether it is the TV, Computer or on a digital photo frame.
7. Other Products
There are many options of extraordinary applications of your photos from mugs to T-shirts to calendars and more. Have your favourite image enlarged in the size you want onto Canvas. Print a group of images onto photo blocks that can be displayed as a collage on a wall or have wall paper printed from that special print.
8. Back-up
Make back-ups of your folders onto an external hard drive or onto cloud storage. I have heard far too often that people have lost all their photos through the theft of their devices.
After organising only your special images they should be easy to access and share with friends and family, reliving special moments that might fade with time.
I wish you loads of fun in organising your photos and trust that you’ll relive many memorable moments.