Organizing Thousands of Photos: From Chaos to Order
Organizing Thousands of Photos: From Chaos to Order
So you have thousands of photos that you don’t know what to do with? You’re not alone. My camera roll alone had 38,000 photos, and I’ve found myself sorting through boxes of photos left behind by my grandmother.
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This is no small task, but the results are worth it. I am the family’s historian, so I have not only 40+ years of my own physical and digital photos, but also everything from my parents’ era (slides, negatives, prints) and even family photos going back to the late 1800s. Even thought I had scanned many of the photos some years back, after retiring I spent A FULL YEAR labeling and organizing my digital photo library. It really paid off. I created a naming convention that helps me find photos quickly with the built-in search feature on the Mac. Looking for a picture of my great grandfather? Got it in seconds!
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Anna Swinney Thanks for sharing! You are an inspiration!
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Thanks for this article. Very helpful! Question: Is it preferable to use one’s image software to organize photos into “albums” or might it be better to do a thorough job of dating, locating, labeling, describing, tagging and titling each photo so that every search can essentially create a virtual album each time a search is performed? Just wondering what your thoughts are.
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Marshall L. Smith A combination of both can be helpful in this effort. With the technology on our phones, they can assist you in your efforts. You can search by date, locate, and facial recognition and then label, describe, tag and title each photo, and then you'll know for sure it's correct. When doing this, keep in mind that you have knowledge your descendants won't know after you pass so be sure to add in those details in your titles and desriptions once you have located and grouped the photos. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Image software can be a great help in this effort but it doesn't always get everything 100% correct, so it's good to look over it to make sure it has the right name with the right photo, for example.
As mentioned in the article, focus on one step at a time, and don’t feel like you have to do it all in one sitting. Giving yourself short, simple tasks makes it so much easier to actually get it done!
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