Photo Sorting

Are you new to the hobby of scrapbooking? Does this look like fun but you are unsure where to start? Everyone seems to know what they are doing but you? How much should you buy and what should you do to start scrapbooking? So many questions abound for the newbie scrapper. Good news! This is a really FUN hobby and there are no 'wrong' ways to scrapbook a page. As long as you are putting the photos into acid free and lignin free environments-- and ENJOYING yourself as you go--you are scrapbooking the 'right' way. There is a wide world of scrapbooking advice as well as supplies out there....But don't be overwhelmed.

We are here to help set you on the path to successful scrapbooking! We'll take you from sorting photos and negatives, to buying an album that is right for you, to purchasing your basic tools, to organizing basic items like your stickers and other page additions. In the next installment, we will even show you how to set up page kits and speed scrap. We'll help you get a LOT done in the shortest amount of time possible and yet maintain your own style and create top quality pages. Join in as we take you through step by step and get you started.

Part One: Sort those Photos and Negatives
You won't know what to buy or even where to begin making a page if you don't know what photos you have and how many of them there are for each event. For this reason, I always advise people to sort all their photos FIRST. I know it seems more fun to dive right into page making. But sorting really is a good way to begin. Sorting will help you survey the scope of the whole project. It helps you determine how much you have to do which in turn helps YOU decide how MUCH you feel like doing overall. Some people scrapbook only about 10% of their photos while others scrapbook every photo that they keep in the house. Sorting all your household photos into one place helps you later decide where you fall in this range of choices. Even if you decide NOT to scrapbook them all, the remainder of your photographs will at least be in one place, in yearly order, and safely put away for the next person who has to deal with them.

I sort chronologically to start with regardless of how I am going to do various albums. I figure if I can FIND the photo I can pull it out later for specialty albums or emotion and sentiment pages. My mind automatically thinks chronologically. When I think of a photo and I ask, "Where is that photo of Julia on the little red boat?" My mind answers reflexively "That was last summer (2002)." Or "That was the early 1970's on a trip to Bermuda." Our minds have been trained to think chronologically. So let's use that training to aid us in sorting and retrieval of photos. Even if you do albums by sentiment or emotion or by person instead of working on pages by time period, you will still go FIND the photos based on the chronology of when they occurred. When you think of a photo, you naturally think of when it was taken or how old the child was or when the vacation was in a context of your personal history. Use that personal chronological timeline as a basis for your photo filing system.

HOW TO SORT PHOTOS

Materials needed:

• Oxford 4x6 index cards in several colors


• Rubbermaid photo storage box 4487


• pen


• page protectors if sorting memorabilia or large photos at same time


• negative holders if sorting negatives at same time (see below for further tips)


• time to work on this


• table or floor space to sort


• all your loose photos from ALL around the house.

Step 1 Supplies
Buy your supplies listed above and gather the photos into one room. Get a pack of big index cards. You can use 4x6 or 5x7 cards. I use 4x6 as I get more of them for the same price. Buy several colors.

Step 2 Decade Cards- WHITE
I make a front card for each decade in white. This is just a reference card and all the yearly cards will go behind it for that decade.

Step 3 Yearly Cards
I assign a index card color to each year. If you need to you can use colors more than once in a decade. I think my card pack had 6 colors. Here you can see my sample for 1998-2003. I write the year at the top of the card so it will be visible like a tab above the 4x6 photos.

Step 4 Monthly Cards
In my sample, the year 2001 is assigned pink cards. I will now make a card in pink for each month in 2001. I make similar monthly cards for each year I am sorting.

Step 5 Start Filing
I place my cards in the photo storage box and start filing them in order of date. As I go, I may see that December has many events in it. I will then break down my month of December by creating a card for each event. This event filing helps me go right ot the photos I want later. I may have over 50 photos for December but if I have them sorted by event I can distinguish in seconds between the church candle lighting, the boss's office party, the from the school concert, and the family holiday dinner.

Some people sort their piles onto the cards on the floor or a table instead of a tub like I use. You can set up with them on the table laid out like solitaire by year and start dealing! Take a big pile about 1 or 2 inches thick of loose photos off the top of your big pile of unsorted. Now figure out when they were taken. If you are not sure of the exact year, put them on the first year of the DECADE they were taken. Say something is taken during the great depression. You would file it for now at the 1930 year card. Later you can look closer and try to determine from clues in the photo a more specific year or even year and month. But for now don't get bogged down. Keep sorting.

As you go, determine to toss out BAD photos within reason.... If you have 15 photos of mom and one is bad, toss it. Mom will thank you. But if you only have 2 photos of mom and one is bad, try to fix it with professional restoration, computer fixes, or Kodak Picture maker to make it better.

Keep photos from one event together for now chronologically. If you are sure you want to use a certain photo for an emotion page or album, flag it with a Post It* note on the BACK of the photo. Do not adhere Post It notes to the fronts of photos. You can always later go back and pull the ones you want. But keep in mind you may change your mind or not use them for a long time so it is best to store them chronologically until you really need them. It takes about 2 seconds for each photo to be filed on a pile at this stage. You can see that filing 2000 photos will take about 67 minutes of steady sorting. That is a little over an hour time. Don't worry, you CAN do this!

Step 6 Enjoy!
Reminisce as you go. Don't view it as a big chore. It may be a big job but it can also be FUN! Remember with fondness those who are gone from your life. Laugh at Uncle Fred's hairdo in the 70's. Twirl with imagination to the dance photos at the prom. Enjoy yourself as you sort.

HOW TO SORT NEGATIVES

Materials Needed:

• binder 3 ring notebook


• negative sleeves (ours are by C-Line)


• black Sharpie Marker or Slick Writer that will write well on plastic


• negatives that need sorting

As you sort the photos out of their processing envelopes into safer environments, sort your negatives at the same time! You can get archival negative sleeves made by many companies. Ours are by C-Line and come in several sizes. I use 35 mm film negative sleeves. I just remove my negatives from the processing envelope and make sure they are in order by photo number. I then slide them into the plastic negative sleeves.

Keep the negatives in complete strips and in chronological order. Negatives that are all sliced up into small sections are too easily lost or crumpled and very hard to file. Be sure to take the time to label the edge of the negative sleeve with a black marker. ***image9:right***You will want to label the year, month, and topic of the photos whenever possible. This will save you squinting and handling the negatives unnecessarily later on.

Place the full sleeves into a 3 ring binder and if needed create tabs for various months or years. Store the binder in a cool even temperature room about about 40-60 degrees F with a lower than 30% humidity. Store away from bright light. This will preserve the negatives longer.

http://www.harris-env.com/archival/archiv.html

I store the negatives in my safety deposit box at the bank. To avoid damage by natural catastophe, it is a good idea to store negatives in a separate site than your home. Perhaps trade with a family member or do as I do and store in a bank vault. This way if one site is hit by disaster, the other site is likely all right. You will still have one collection or the other.

There is such a sense of accomplishment that goes along with having your photos and negatives all sorted and labeled and safe. I hope you will take the opportunity to do this task soon. It really is a scrapbooking basic! And it is a great launching point for further scrapbooking. Get started right and you will find you can work much faster too! Finding what you want will be a breeze! Sorting photos and negatives now translates into more efficient scrapping later on! And THAT is a great thing!