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Whether a pro or a beginner, it soon becomes necessary to keep your photo library organised for sanity and professionalism. Here are some quick tips to get you started keeping track.
Keep Image Clutter to a Minimum
When you work with a lot of images, you will end up with duplicates of images you don’t need. Not only will these take up storage space, but they will also cause confusion and make it hard to get things done. You don’t want to have to look through ten different pictures to find the right one because they all look the same when you look at them in a thumbnail view. Apps like Gemini 2 can help you find all of the duplicate photos, saving you precious hours at the end of a long day.
Keep Your Photo Library Organised with Folder Structure
Before you can set up the best folder structure for your photos, you’ll need to figure out the needs and goals of your digital library. This is because the categories you choose for your photo library will depend on the type of work you do. For example, photographers who take pictures at weddings and other events might prefer to sort by date and client name. Or, if you are a travel photographer, you might find it easier to sort your photos by where they were taken.
Determine Between Edited and Unedited Images
If you like to edit your photos to fix flaws or get the best lighting and cropping, it’s a good idea to keep the ones that need to be edited and the ones that are done in separate folders. For example, you can choose the photos that need to be changed in terms of photo retouching or HDR toning and put them in a folder called “Edits” or something similar. Then you can simply move them to the finished folder once you’ve changed them to your liking, ready for upload.
Use Apps to Manage Images
There are a lot of apps that can be used to manage images. Depending on the platform you use, you’ll have access to some great photo organisers with a lot of valuable features. Some of the most useful features you should look for in a photo management app are:
- Search filters based on keywords, filenames and dates.
- Pin images to startup dashboards for quick access.
- Create slideshows for viewings or assessing images.
- Browse locally stored and cloud-based pictures.
- Save copies of individual files incrementally throughout a project.
The most important part of a good image app is being able to sort and find what you need. When you work with hundreds or thousands of images, the quality of how they are shown seems to be less important. All you really want is a quick way to find the ones you like.
Practice Good Computer Habits
Apps are a great way to keep your pictures in order. But you also have some responsibility when it comes to image management. You can’t expect to work quickly and professionally if you don’t use your computer well when you’re at work. You can use folders to organise your photos, keep the OS desktop clear of random files and folders, and use different viewing options to see each image file’s metadata, such as the date, time, and file type, quickly and easily.
Keep Your Photo Library Organised with Labels
Even if you’re just a hobbyist photographer, your library can quickly get too big. Before you know it, you have a lot of SD cards and USB sticks to go through as you look at a lot of pictures. But think about how much time you’ll save if you just put your storage devices in order. Just write on the labels what they hold or what you use them for and store them well. For example, you can use the same SD card to take pictures of animals for weddings or commercial projects.
Always Keep Backups
At least once a month, you should back up your photos to make sure they don’t get lost or deleted by accident. With image cloud apps like Google Photos, you can back up photos right from your phone. But these can be broken into. So cold storage is a good idea as well. It’s also helpful to have a few USB or SD cards on hand. Finally, if you want to save space on your main computer, make sure to back up your images after you’ve edited and organised them.
Summary
There are a number of ways to keep your photo library organised. Some of these are getting rid of duplicate photos, using different apps, and keeping backups on different storage media.