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Organizing Digital Photography
by Andrea Steed
(Apr 17, 2004)
As the quality and power of digital technology improves, digital photography is becoming a more mainstream method of photography. One of the benefits of digital photography is the ability to take a nearly infinite number of photos. While they may not all be the perfect shot, being able to find what you need when you need it is very important. Even if you haven’t completely made the switch to digital, you may have a need to organize your scanned photographs. Weeding through hundreds or even thousands of photos in one folder on your computer is not very efficient. Organizing digital photos in a logical way is simple, and there are many options available.
There are many ways to set up a folder structure. Finding the one that is right for you will depend on variables such as how you take photos, whether you are archiving older photos or adding new ones, and how you will most often be searching for them. Considering all of these aspects will help you decide how to organize your photos. To demonstrate one example of how to organize digital photos, Figure 1 shows the system that I use to organize my digital and scanned photographs. All of my photos are divided into folders chronologically. Each year, starting in January, I create a new photo folder for the year. Within each folder, each event that I photograph is given its own folder where the photos from that event are stored. Old photos from my childhood that I’ve scanned for various reasons are stored by subject, rather than chronologically, since it’s not always possible to remember when or where they were taken. Those folders (Andrea Childhood and Ben Childhood) are listed separately from the yearly photos. For large events with many photos, such as a wedding, sub-folders help me keep a large number of photos from one event organized by subject. While this system has worked well for me, your organizational needs might be better met in a folder structure and naming system that is based on subject or type of event. For instance, you might create folders for each member of your family and include sub-folders for events and activities that they are involved in. You may also want to have a holiday photo section where you can easily find photos from various holidays. The options are limitless. Think about how you most often access your photos to help you decide which method will work best for you. Naming
A file naming system will also help you remember what each photo looks like, before you even open the file. Our wedding photos had many pictures that were very similar. Using letter codes helps me know what each photo looks like. For instance, the original photo amy.jpg was resized to be small enough to email to a friend. I called the new image amy_sm.jpg so that I would know it was a smaller version of the original image. In the same fashion, to a photo that was changed to black and white, I add a “bw” to the end of the filename to indicate that it is a black and white version of the photograph. Other codes you might use are “s” for sepia-toned or “c” for cropped. Being consistent in your file naming will be extremely beneficial to you when browsing through your photo folders. Searching
A couple of possibilities for other keywords that you might use are:
Archiving Organizing your digital photos will help you more efficiently and effectively access them over and over again. Knowing where to find them is usually half the battle, but with a system that works for you, you’ll never have trouble finding the right photograph again. Article originally printed in the Ivy Cottage Creations March 2004 issue.  Shop at the Scrapbook.com Superstore for all your Scrapbooking Supplies!Enjoy 5-Star service, HUGE selection and LOW prices! Click here to start shopping! Featured Scrapbooking Supplies (from Scrapbook.com):
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Folder Structure 
Determining a naming system for your photographs also requires some forethought. My photos are already sorted chronologically, but occasionally I like to search for photos of certain people--regardless of when they were taken. To make this an easy process, I assign filenames to the photos that include the names of the people pictured. For instance, a photo of me, my mom and my brother would be called andrea_audrey_jake.jpg. This allows me to use the search features in Windows® to find any photos that include “jake” in the filename to find all of the photos of my brother.
To assign keywords to a photograph means that it can be labeled with various attributes such as a person’s name, the location, the event, or the type of photograph it is--regardless of the filename. These keywords will help you when searching for photos at a later date. For example, the photo audrey_andrea.jpg might have the keywords Audrey, Andrea, and Paducah (the location). I would then be able to search and find that photo by using any or all of those keywords in a search. The ability to include a combination of many keywords to narrow your search is a fantastic feature of these photo organizing programs. Assigning keywords and using photo organizing programs makes finding a baby photo of everyone in your family take only seconds.
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