We’ve talked about the hundreds (or thousands) of digital photos you have sitting on your phone or computer, and about how they deserve to see the light of day. But how do you keep track of all the photos you take, especially if they’re on different devices?
This post will share a few tips for keeping your digital photos organized, easily accessible, and for getting them gathered in one place when you’re ready to print them all.
Organize as you go.
Don’t wait until you’re ready to create an album to start organizing your photos. And don’t wait until you’re getting a new phone or computer to go through all the pictures you have saved on your device. Create a system that works for you and stick to it. Sorting photos as you take them and know you may want to print them later is much easier than going through a year’s worth of photos all at once.
Keep it simple.
An organization system doesn’t have to be complicated. The word “system” might sound intense but you really just need to know where to put your pictures and how to find them in the future. The simpler, the better. Something simple will be easier to keep up with.
I like to have a folder on my computer for each “event” labeled by date and a quick description. I format the date as year-month-day (so July 26, 2022 would be 2022-07-26). That way the folders automatically sort into chronological order. All photos from each event go into their designated folder so they’re easy to locate whenever I need them.
Cloud storage is your friend.
Having an easily accessible central location for your photos is super helpful. That makes it easy to upload from multiple devices. It’s especially helpful if you create a shared folder so others can add their photos too, which saves you from having to gather them all manually. It also acts as a backup in case something happens to your computer or phone.
Google Photos or Google Drive are great options for this, as they’re just as compatible with Windows and Android devices as they are with Apple products. Dropbox is another option, and there are plenty of others. And, as I mentioned in my previous post about Creating Your Own Family Photo Album, many online print services can import photos directly from these storage sites.
Get photos off your phone.
You can set up your phone to automatically back up your photos to your chosen cloud storage site. If you use Google Photos, you can sync photos automatically or upload your favorites one by one, you can create shared folders for others to add to, and you can also import directly to Mpix when you’re ready to print.
These are just a few tips to help you think about getting your digital photos organized. If it feels like too much of a mess to organize all your past photos, just set up a system and use it going forward.
Look for part two of this post coming later this week! I’ll talk about how to decide which of your photos (out of the hundreds you have on your phone) are worthy of printing.
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