Organising digital photos

Greetings Anything Tech clients

This newsletter is addressing a common issue (one which I haven’t yet nailed): how to store /organise digital photos.

With the advent of the smartphone, the ability to take 60 photos in a flash is commonplace. Which means suddenly you have hundreds of photos and it can feel overwhelming. Gone are the days of loading the film, taking the picture and then waiting a month for the photos to be developed. In that instance though, what did you do with that envelope of photos? Did you leave them in the packet with the negatives? Or did you put them in an album, with the location and date?

Even though the medium has changed, the way you sort and manage your photos has not really changed. Digital clutter is similar to physical clutter in the sense that it feels overwhelming and in the “too hard” basket. But ultimately rewarding when you sit down and sort it out.

So, my tips for digital photo organisation:

1.     Have a logical structure for your folders so you can find your photos when you need.

a.     On your computer do something like: Year MonthEvent e.g. 2026  May  Weekend Trip Adelaide Hills

b.     If you’re on the smart phone: the photos are organised chronologically. But you can add them to albums. In this instance: use the above naming convention

2.     Cull aggressively

a.     Yes taking 80 photos is good so you can pick the best one, but who goes back and deletes the other 79 where your eyes are shut? Or blurry? Be ruthless. If you wouldn’t choose that picture to show someone: delete!

3.     Use keywords or tags (or the power of AI)

a.     If you’re using a program like Google photos or Apple photos, you can add keywords or tags to photos. This means you can search for: birds and all your tagged bird pictures come up.

b.     Both of these programs have “smart features” which allow you to search for faces, or things. For example, I asked Google photos to search for “receipts” the other day to try and locate one I’d taken months ago.

4.     Archive vs Recent

a.     If there are too many folders, consider having an Archive folder where you put the older pictures (still precious), but you maybe don’t want to look at them every day. This can help with the feelings of overwhelm!

5.     Do 10 minutes a day…

a.     If you have hundreds to sort through, the only advice I can give is just chip away at it every day. It will get easier! The ultimate goal is you want to be able to find the photos you know exist, when you want them. There is a level of frustration when that doesn’t happen. Plus it’s enjoyable going through the photos and having the memories. It’s why you took the photo in the first place right?

6.     Finally….the back up

a.     Photos are the one thing you can’t recreate if you lose them. When asked what you’d rescue from the burning house (apart from children/pets), most people say the photo albums. So take a moment to back them up! A good rule of thumb is: 3-2-1: 3 copies, 2 different storage types, 1 offsite. So you might have:

1. Computer

2. External hard drive

3. Cloud storage (Google Photos/Apple Photos or Dropbox).

If you have any other thoughts on how to sort/store photos, or maybe what works for you, I’d love to hear from you!

Cheers

Ruth