How can I save and organize a large number of digital photos?

With the popularity of digital photography tools, now everyone has a lot of photos to save, and photographers or professional photographers need to save their digital photos safely and orderly. I summed up some methods and experiences by sorting out and combining my own experience, hoping to help you or give you some inspiration.

In the past, people might fill those boxes with photos that we often saw in grandparents' closets. Now we can't see these scenes. Digital photography seems to be an elegant solution to an old problem. In fact, we just saved it in a "messy" way: unknown folders and file names, and a semi-cloud synchronized photo album mixed with photos of every smartphone we ever owned.

There are many ways to save photos easily, such as cloud storage, folders scattered on your desktop, mobile hard disk, USB flash drive, photo stream and so on. It will be very difficult to organize all the pictures, and as time goes by, the more difficult it will be. The following summarizes 10 simple steps that you can use to organize and manage your photo storage workflow and make your photos controllable and manageable.

Does this sound too simple? However, when you try to name hundreds (or even thousands) of photos one by one, you know that this is a difficult task.

To tell the truth, it is unrealistic to give every photo we take a unique name, because there are too many. But one thing you can do is to give all the photos of a specific date or event the same name and sort them after each photo. For example, you can use Lightroom to export, which helps you to do this easily:

If you use a Mac system, its native photo application can batch process images by selecting the photos you want, right-clicking them, and then entering your information in the correct fields.

These are just a few examples. No matter what program you use to edit or classify your pictures, you will have similar choices. All we have to do is make sure we have a normal name.

When you classify pictures, it's entirely up to you, but the more folders you separate unique events, trips and projects, the faster you can find what you want.

There are many forms that vary from person to person, because everyone's brain works a little differently. Try to imagine your photo gallery as a maze. If your brain wants to cross this maze effectively, it needs to be built in a way that you can predict and understand quickly and easily. Maybe for you, the order of folders is in chronological order:

Or you have many different types of photographs, and you like the more abstract ones:

The point is that your folder is the map in your picture storage maze. No matter what name you give them or how many subfolders you use, make sure it is a meaningful system for your future.

After talking about folders, some people may think that this seems a bit redundant. This is because many people don't really understand how systems like keywords and tags work. Folders are a way to group and classify pictures. Tagging photos with keywords is more like a way to connect different kinds of photos, so that you can easily recall the photos you want when you need them.

This is the same as tagging photos on social media or more broadly. You mark the attribute or theme in the picture, so that you can recall the picture according to one of these things later. More importantly, by naming this property in the form of tags and keywords, you can call any other images in the library that enjoy this property (as long as you take the time to tag them).

Sometimes your camera, computer or photo library will do some work for you. If you use a software with face recognition function, it will be very helpful when you need to organize photos of portraits, family gatherings and other topics. With the development of science and technology, face recognition becomes more and more accurate, no matter what angle or light.

Geolocation can also come in handy if you are trying to determine a suitable folder or category for a particular picture. It will jog your memory. When you open it, the geographic location data of the photo will tell you where it was taken.

Most photo album systems will let you choose your favorite image. In Lightroom, you can press p to add a heart to your favorite photos. Google uses stars, while iPhone allows you to click on hearts. This is a super simple and quick way to mark your favorite pictures and organize them into special folders.

However, the above method also has its problems. You are actually creating a selected set of photos. When it becomes more and more, you also face the problem of sorting. If you don't clean up your favorites often, it will basically become a digital recycling bin.

There are two ways to prevent this from happening:

1. Use favorites only for the most important or commonly used images.

2. Only use favorites when sorting out specific projects, and empty favorites after each project is completed.

It is important to understand that the favorites system is actually just a special type of keyword or tag, as we discussed in the previous section. When you remove a photo from your favorites, you don't actually delete it. It still stays in the folder with all the photos, but you just deleted it from your favorite project group. Photos are emotionless, so don't worry, they won't take it to heart.

Sometimes we tend to keep the whole batch of photos taken at the same time, but in fact less than half of the photos are important. For professional photographers, they are afraid to delete photos they may want to take back for editing. Sometimes, really, you find that you missed an important shot, which led to the loss of important things in the whole series of photos.

But honestly. This situation is really rare. You don't need five similar photos, and you don't need a photo of the bride walking out of the limousine in pain.

The same is true of family photos. Maybe when your child kicks a key ball, 25 photos of him holding a game ball seem to be enough. But after five years, it may be enough to take a few important moments. Don't be afraid to give up those pictures that take up space. Try to browse all the photos you have taken and choose the most important one. This is the key to "breaking up".

The most important thing to organize your digital photos is to put them in the same place. We don't mean to put them all in one folder and then call it a day. We are talking about finding a centralized center to store your images. Your choice should meet three important criteria. It should be:

Accessibility-As a practical system, you need to use it continuously, and it needs to be placed in a place where you can access it conveniently. Photo application in Mac, photo folder in Windows, or folder system on desktop are all good choices.

Durable-Needless to say, you want this place to be a safe place and your photos can be preserved for a long time. This means that it should not only be stable and available, but also be able to continue to be used and managed in the future.

Easy backup-you need to establish a reliable workflow, even if your main storage space is damaged, there is a backup recovery version.

Remember, we should not only synchronize the photo albums on the smart phone, but if your friends post photos that you think are meaningful on their social media, you'd better keep one for yourself, because you never know when you will not be able to access them.

Similarly, old photos that are important in your memory should also be scanned and digitally saved. It may take you a lot of time, because if necessary, you must find, scan and polish them one by one. But the extra time is worthwhile because you can put all the important photos in one place.

If you follow every suggestion, your photos will look very organized. However, it is too early to say that they are safely stored. A natural disaster, even just a cup of tea or misoperation, can make what you do go up in flames. So, let's talk about backup.

The backup system allows you to have a ready-to-use storage space (the "workbench" we just built), an independent physical backup (such as a mobile hard disk) and a cloud backup (discussed later). It's not as complicated as it sounds. You can easily back up automatically. Once you set up the system, all you have to do is continue to use it.

You can choose to connect to the desktop hard disk or mobile hard disk of the machine through the data cable. If you use a Mac computer, you can use time machine to automatically back up photos and almost everything else as long as the hard disk is connected to the computer. You can basically do the same thing with file history on a Windows machine.

During the import process, Lightroom users can also save the copy to an external drive. Therefore, if there are any problems between the processes exported from the memory card, you still have room to remedy them.

Cloud is an attractive form of storage because it is convenient. You just need to register for synchronization, and you may need to pay a little money, and then you don't have to worry about the rest. With an Internet connection, you can access it anywhere, and you can easily share photos through it.

But no matter how simple cloud computing is, it is not an independent and permanent solution to store your photos or works. When you need your pictures most, the company may close down, the folder will go offline, and the internet connection will be interrupted.

If you want to back up some family photos, you may get some free storage space, such as Baidu Cloud, Wei Yun, Nut Cloud and iCloud. If you are abroad, you can try Google Photos and Dropbox. And Microsoft's OneDriver can do it. From the convenience point of view, domestic cloud will be more suitable for most ordinary users. After all, there are no access restrictions, but if you consider security and stability.

IOS users can seamlessly synchronize their photo apps with iCloud plans, and Windows users can also use iCloud plans. However, if you are a professional and need as much space as possible, you have to pay. Professionals who share a large number of files, especially large files, may like Dropbox best, which is a matter of personal preference. One thing to be clear: most services that claim to give you unlimited storage space may compress your photos. This may not be a problem for family photos, but professional photographers may not accept such a compromise.

How much storage space do I need?

A lot. Maybe more than you think. Think about how many photos you have now, and taking photos will only get easier and easier. Choosing a cloud plan is more flexible than choosing a hard disk because you can upgrade your subscription.

Because the storage format, file size and image quality are constantly changing, what you can do is to buy the largest storage space you can afford and be fully prepared for upgrading or replacement at any time.

A good organization is actually to maintain a planned and orderly workflow. You can browse each of your photos now and organize them in your way, but if you don't continue to organize the next batch (or even the next batch) of photos, this way will be useless.

Make a process for yourself. If possible, process your pictures immediately after shooting, and add keywords, tags and titles immediately when importing. The longer you wait, the less details you remember. Check regularly to make sure your backup is as planned, just like using your camera or mobile phone, and take care of your equipment. You certainly don't want to meet the demand of using these backups!

We have discussed scanning your photos into digital format, but the fact is that paper photos are usually more durable. Digital photos are easy to take and save, but if you want to see them, you must open them and see for yourself.

Photos are not for hiding in folders. They are for display, experience and appreciation, especially those photos with emotional value. Let's get some canvas prints to hang on the wall. Order an annual photo album and pile it on your coffee table. Put your photography where you can see it, and sometimes you will be touched by it inadvertently. If you like, maybe you can go crazy and buy a big blanket with your favorite family photo printed on it. Remember, photos are for viewing.

Creating a custom workflow for your images can help you organize and store them, which is very important because photography is to be seen. If you can't find it anywhere when you need it, there is a problem.

So, set aside some time (maybe a lot of time) to check all your photos, classify them and back up everything. With the development of technology, we should be ready to replace or upgrade the system! Once you set up a clean and safe system, you can enjoy your photos easily at any time, because you know where to find them quickly!