How to File Your Digital Photos

Digital photography offers many fantastic advantages.  You can use your camera to take great family pictures, clear pictures of pets, or artistic nature shots.  There are no more long waits and expensive cost of developing film to discover your picture did not turn out as you hoped.

It also means, however, that you are taking many more pictures than previously.  With the ease of picture taking and storage that digital photography offers us we take many more pictures!  As the number of pictures multiply so does the need to learn to be better at filing photos.  You need a home filing system for your pictures.

When filing photos it is important to have a system so they don’t disappear into a big black hole on your computer.  A home filing system will keep them organized so you can easily search for a favorite picture, or find your photos from a specific event or day.

Where are the files stored?

Understanding how your computer’s files work is the first step to filing photos.  This is how your files work (biggest to smallest):

·         My Computer

·         My Documents

·         My Pictures

·         Folders (You will create and name these)

·         Files (These are your pictures)

My Home Filing System, organized.

I recommend filing photos chronologically.  There are several advantages to this.

·         It makes searching for specific events, children at specific ages, and many other things very easy to locate.

·         If you choose to file by subject or location when you add to your picture folder and want to create a backup CD of your pictures you will be recopying your older pictures again and again.  You’ll need a lot more CDs. 

Start the Process!

The first thing you will need to do is create your folders.  Find your “My Documents” or “Documents”, there is typically a shortcut in your Start Menu.  From there click on your “My Pictures” or “Pictures”.  Inside of your My Pictures you will be able to create Folders. 

You can use layers of folders.  For example begin with a folder labeled 2011.  In your 2011 folder create a folder for each month 01, 02, 03, ect.  A quick tip, including a zero in front of the months’ number will ensure your folders are listed in numerical order. 

Want to be even more organized when filing photos try adding more details to your folders’ names.  For example, “01 New Year Party” or “10 Apple Picking”.  This way when you search for apple picking this folder will be easy to find. 

Saving them once, twice, three times!

You’ve taken great pictures, saved them into your home filing system, perhaps gotten prints of your favorites, what’s next? 

You need to create backups for your pictures.  One option is burning CDs containing your pictures. You’ll want two copies.  One should be stored in a separate location from your computer and first copy.  This way your pictures are safe from computer crash, flood, fire, or any other disaster.  

An external hard drive is another option for backing up your picture files. 

You can back your pictures up online.  Many online sites allow you free picture storage.  Depending on which you choose some of them offer tools to edit your pictures online.  Others make it easy to share your photo albums with friends and family.

You spend a lot of energy taking your pictures, filing photos, and editing them perfectly.  Back them up!  However you choose to do it backing up your pictures will save them from natural disasters, computer viruses, and from children playing on your computer!

A home filing system for your computer stored images is a great use of your time.  Being organized makes it easier for you to find pictures and for you to share them with friends.