Thursday 21 March 2013

Goal 41. Organize iphoto

Right now Edmonton is experiencing a spring snow storm. I am so tired of all the snow and freezing temperatures and longing for spring. So needless to say, there aren't a lot of outdoor activities going on.



Over the past few months I have been slowly organizing my iPhoto. About 2 years ago my old laptop suffered a hard drive corruption and everything had to be saved by hand. It was a long tedious process, so eventually I just said it was good enough and never really organized it, or checked that this was true. Well fast forward to today, and there is a mess in my iphoto, with pictures of my childhood dated to 2010 and pictures from last year broken and doubled.

But this week, with the terrible weather, I have had time to simply hunker down and clean it up.

I use iPhoto on my Mac, and organize my photos by date. Then I put them into event folders like this: "Jan-Mar '07." For events that have a large number of photos associated with it, such as a wedding or trip, I will use another event folder such as "Wedding '07." Photos from projects gets their own events folder too, such as "Blog" or "Sunflowers."


 To adjust a photo that is in the wrong date I simply use "Photos -> Adjust date and time." By organizing my events by date, this change will automatically move the photos closer to the event folder they belong in. Also remember to deleted the 14 test shots you took before getting the right angle, and anything too dark, blurry or simply ugly. Not every photo needs to be saved!

This is a task that is easy to do while watching a movie or TV show, but it can be a bit tedious. So start now! Especially if you take a lot of photos, things can get ugly quickly so get a handle on it as soon as you can. From then on, photo organizing will be much simpler.

If you have ever thought about scanning in your print photos from before there was digital photography having your digitals organized before you start will make that process so much easier. Use the same organizational structure for photos you scan; choosing the (approximate) date the photo was taken rather than the date it was scanned.


Once you photos are organized think about how you will backup and/or display the photos in your house. A few ways to backup your photos include:
  • back-up services like drop box or evernote
  • external hard drives (we use a Time Capsule with Time Machine)
  • discs (try burning a dvd of photos each year - make sure to label them!)
Once you have organized your photos it is so much easier to display them, from printing photo books, making wall art or saving as a screensaver. Now it is also faster to use photos for projects like this desk top, table runner or these canvases. Have fun!


How do you keep your photos orderly?

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