Photos are the key ingredient to scrapbooking, so being able to find specific photos when you are ready to scrapbook them is essential!
As a scrapbooker you probably take a lot of photos, and if you’ve gone digital, you probably take even more than those still using film cameras. That adds up to a lot of photos to go through in order to find what you are looking for!
I know that some of you may be avoiding photo organization because the thought of organizing all the photos you’ve taken up to today makes you feel a little faint. No worries! Forget about the past (and put away those smelling salts) for now and focus on organizing the photos you take from this point on. Then, once you get your system down, you can slowly go through your older photos as time permits.
There are two things to keep in mind when organizing your photos:
1. Choose a system that works for you.
2. Stay on top of it by organizing your new photos at every download (from digital camera to computer), once a week, or once a month.
Choose Your System
Choose an organization system that works best for you. One that will allow you to find the photos you want to use both easily and quickly.
Organize by:
- Topic – home, school, kids, friends, vacations, etc.
- Project – organize your photos based on project or scrapbook pages you’d like to create with them.
- Person – each member of your family has their own category.
- Chronologically – if you scrapbook chronologically this is the method for you.
Printed Photo Storage
Whether you shoot with a digital or film camera you probably have printed photos that haven’t been scrapbooked yet.
Organize printed photos in:
- Albums – place your photos in pocket sleeves so you can enjoy them until you are ready to scrapbook them.
- Photo boxes – you can store a lot of photos in these types of boxes and they can be labeled based on your organization style.
- Photo docking system – these boxes make it very easy to organize and access your photos.
- Photo display – use a magnetic board to display the next photos you plan to scrap and simply replace them with new ones as you scrap them.
Digital Photo Storage
Since going digital I’ve found that I take a lot more photos. And while organizing digital photos doesn’t take up physical space, it does take up hard drive space, which fills up pretty quickly with all those digital photos! Here are some tips for digital storage and organization.
When organizing your photos don’t be afraid to delete the bad ones or duplicates. You probably don’t need 20 shots of the same person in the same pose. Pare it down to 5 or 10, or less if you are brave enough.
Believe me, you do not want to learn this the hard way, but it is essential to back-up your photos! You can back them up online or with an external hard drive. It is best to back-up to another location (such as an online option) in case of fire or natural disaster.
There are a lot of digital organization options to choose from. Here are a few worth checking out:
So choose the system that works best for you, schedule in some time to regularly organize your photos, and soon you’ll be able to find the exact photo you want to scrap in no time at all!
For another chance to win a copy of The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker, leave a comment about how you organize your photos!
-Cindy Tobey, contributing writer
Great info as usual – thanks!!!
Currently I keep my digital photos on the computer organized by year then sub cat by topic or event like birthdays, house hunt, friends, vacation, garden, etc. I back this up to an external hard drive approx once a month and we also keep cd copies in a safe deposit box…but probably not done often enough.
You’re right–you don’t want to learn the hard way. (I can say this from experience) Take time to backup your photos and keep them in a safe place.
The simple answer to how do I organize my photos is…. I don’t. I’m terrible for it. I have a great backup system for them (yay for time-machine and file vault) but I have loads of photos just in piles, I scrap the same photo over and over as well – which isn’t very inspired.
I desperately need some help organizing photos—
right now they are chronologically—it works but could definately be better.
I have this HUGE photo box from waaaaaay back when that I store most of mine in. It holds a few thousand pictures! I’ve got them seperated by year and then by month within the year. I also make sure that if I have alot from one specific day, they are all together in an envelope. It’s been a great system so far!
- April W
I no longer print photos until I am ready to scrap them. And then I print them at home right before I put them on my page or project. I organize my digital photos on thumbdrives. One per year (this year I’m going 16G) and then by month and title of event. Each year’s thumbdrive also has a random at home folder also. It’s a simple system that’s worked for me since 2009.
My photos really are not organized! They are stored on my computer in file. They do go in order of download so I guess that is kinda organized.
This is the area that I am having the most problem with. I feel completely overwhelmed by the thought of organizing my pictures.
I use Photoshop Elements for my photo organizer (and editor)…. I love that I can look through my photos easily in the program. This has been especially helpful as I’m starting to write journaling for and then scrapbook my wedding… which was 4.5 years ago now…
I also keep the actual files in folders organized first by year, then by topic/event so that they are easy to find when I want to upload them for printing!
Right now I organize by date…..but could do better. Thanks for the tips!
For organizing prints, I use the Creative Memories Power Sort system. This system is awesome for quick access to photos. I sort my photos by theme/event and then by year within that category. Some of my categories are Holidays, Christmas(gets its own),Family/Friends,Vacations. Then each family member gets his own category for every day kinds of photos, school pics, etc. LOVE this system! To organize, I use a long piece of adding machine paper, with categories written in intervals on the paper. Just pick up a stack of photos and sort an entire year’s worth fairly quickly!
I have about a bazillion photos (both printed and digi) and have no idea how to organize them. I’ve started several different ways but get completely overwhelmed each time. I wish I could find the time to go thru the older printed ones. The digi ones are by date and tagged, so I guess that part is okay. HELP!!!!!
I’ve been using Stacy Jullian’s Photo Freedom approach. I do keep my digitals on an external hard drive, backed up to another drive and annual CD’s stored offsite. I like Stacy’s idea that you should find pictures that you like and scrap them! No pressure to “catch up”
I just recently did a blog post about this! Check it out here http://simplyharris.blogspot.com/2011/01/wow-two-days-in-row-im-really-on-roll.html
Digi photos are filed chronologically. Anything that I’ve printed for scrapping is filed by project/event.
my printed photos are in photo cases (Cropper Hopper) and labeled as to what is inside. On the computer, I did have folders for each event, but over teh past 2 years, we have purchased new computers and laptops and photo programs. Needless to stay, my pictures are no longer easy to sort when downloading as my program downloads into a file with at title of that day’s date!!!! It is so frustrating.
The Creative Memories Memory Manager is the best by far for organizing digital pics, video and even audio clips! It allows you to sort in any way you like. You can crop and enhance your images. It will even keep track of which photos you have printed. The feature I love most is that it provides journaling boxes for every photo. No more wondering or guessing later who is in each pic or what was happening. Awesome!
http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/brendateachman/Content/Shop/Catalog.aspx?path=/Hierarchy/Digital%20Scrapbooking
I usually keep a small journal with things I would like to scrap (from funny children quotes to birthdays). I record details on them and the date. Then, when I print the photos that go with the info, I just slide the pictures into the book. When I have time to scrap, I flip through the book and choose whatever I am in the mood to scrap. Some pictures have stayed in there a long time, but I still have the info right with it. It isn’t a perfect system, but so far, it has worked well for me.
Lots of good suggestions here! Photos I’ve printed are kept in photo boxes by year and month. I keep my digital photos on my computer organized in folders by years. In that folder there are numerous folders by the date taken or event. I back mine up online through Shutterfly and also on disks I keep in a fire proof box.
Because I scrap chronologically, I organize by date. Old prints (and related extra documents, like maps/programs/ticket stubs) are in photo boxes by event, one box per year. Digital photos are stored by date (year/month), which is the default download format. I delete dups & unusable pics and run a backup each time I download from camera to computer.
My photos are sorted by Year – Month – Subject. The subjects are often names of people, places or events. My system works really well for me.
I used to keep all my printed pics in photo boxes, organized my year and event, but since I got my digital camera (the best thing ever!!) I put the digital files on my computer on iphoto and back them up on an external hard drive. Since we’re running out of space (too many pics of my baby!), I started saving them on CDs as well. I may look into the online photo storage idea. Sounds promising. I definitely do need to pare down all the digi files I have and delete the pics that are blurry or insignificant. I know I will never scrapbook those.
I’ve been telling myself that I need to rework the photo files on the computer and go through the old pre-digi photos, too. Thanks for some great ideas and a helpful article.
I scrap chronologically,and I never get more than 4-5 months behind. I back up my photos on my computer & on a USB storage device. Every 6 months I make (2 copies) DVD’s of my photos, label them with the date & any special event that they may contain, and store the DVDs on a shelf. I do digital. I only print the best pictures. The printed photos that do not make it to a scrapbook page are stored in a photo box, in order by month, year. I have my pictures printed through Snapfish, so all the important ones are also stored on their website. In doing this I can always go back and have reprints made of past photos.
I organize by year, then month. I also try to give the file a descriptive name, such as “Ian’s school christmas party”, to help me find pics I want to scrap.
My ‘old’ photos (dating back 45 years or so) are ‘loosely’ arranged by child, but still way too many to find easily. My digital photos are divided by year and by family group (i.e, 3 kids+spouses+kids) or by event (vacations,…). I back up to CD regularly as new photos loaded, and print a contact sheet sample; plus periodic external hard drive back-ups. But it’s a challenge! I appreciate this organization emphasis this week. Come fix my space!!
I organize my pics digitally by date and by person. I really needed some ideas for the pics I have printed already though and I love your magnetic board idea! Thanks!
I organize my photo prints chronologically in photo boxes. On my external hard drive, I save my photos by date and then a brief description of the event (for example “1-6-11 – My 24th birthday”). These small individual folders then get saved in a year folder (this example would be in 2011). I also have all my photos backed up in individual folders on scrapbookpictures.com and Snapfish. I think I’m covered!
I like the Creative Memories black storage boxes for the pictures I have printed. I store them using the provided file tabs by the month they were taken. On my computer I have a file for each year and then sub-files per activity, e.g., Christmas, spring musical, choir concert, vacation, etc. I can easily find the pictures I need by going directly to the file for that activity.
I’m pretty good at organizing them online (by year/month/subject. I’m USUALLY good at storing them by book/topic in my cropper hopper photo bit … except when I don’t. I spend yesterday organizing my desk, and came across about 100 photos that I JUST. REORDERED (aarrrggghhhhh!) My girls are happy to get some photos that mom is ‘sharing’.
My husband has just started making back-up CD’s of all the photos we store on our computer. For a while we were also storing them on snapfish but have not been using that site as much.
i just organized all my photo’s in iphoto, and i did categories. There is a folder for everyone in my family, and then things like school activities, vacations, projects, and then other’s are organized as summer 2010 or fall 2010 etc.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Megan
I have gotten very good in organizing my current digi photos, but the older ones from 5 years and earlier are so disorganized!! Good tips here for helping me get a handle on them! thanks Cindy!
unfortunately they are in boxes in different places. I moved so much in the military, then lost half or more of the pix to the ex, and never had the big urge to scrap before now. The VERY precious “Kodak” moments are mine alone
I store mine chronologically on my computer (on external hard drive) by year and then in monthly folders. It works so far since I haven’t taken as many as I used to =) I also keep them in online albums on Kodak Gallery. My printed photos are also chronological in Cropper Hopper photo tubs, works pretty well for me =)
I have mostly followed Stacy Julian’s Photo Freedom/Library of Memories method of organizing photos and try to keep up with the digital aspect of it all in iPhoto.
I use the power sort boxes and dividers from Creative Memories to store all printed photos by date. I use Picasa to help organize the photos on our computer.
My photos are organized on my computer by date. I have a folder per year with 12 folders in it for the months and then each day that I take pics gets it’s own folder, too. Once I print them, though, it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. I need to get some sort of system set up for them.
I use iphoto for transferring than I store them in another hard drive. I print up all the photos I like to scrapbook them. It works wonders for me.
I’m a chronological scrapbooker so I store my photos chronologically, printed ones in photo boxes and digital ones in iPhoto. Of course, iPhoto automatically stores them this way for me when I upload them so there isn’t really much effort on my part.
I keep my pictures in a folder for the year, then sub-folders for each month… 2011 / 01.2011 / then I rename each picture with the date… 2011.01.20-IMG_123.jpg … it seems like a big task, but it is easy to copy and paste the date before each image number. I like to do this because I actually have 3 cameras that I take pictures with and this way all the pictures from that day are in one spot and all in order.
When I download my photos, I organize them in folders by year, and then by month and event. That way I can find the photos easily. For photos that I print out, I keep them sorted in a rectangular toiletry bag that I can take with me to crops.
Most are in chronological order. Sometimes I will divide photos of my boys separately. I need a better organization system.
Right now, I have 19 years of photos in their envelopes with the dates on the back. I really need to organize them!!!
I’m not sure what “works” for me. I currently have it in chronological order by year/month and if applicable by events/occasions(bdays, holidays, vacay…). My printed photos are…somewhere! They’re in boxes. One year I decided to put them in chronological order and that was as far as I got!
Hope I win a copy so I can finally get my photos organized!
I have all my photos stored in albums. They are chronologically put together. For those that I want to scrap, I keep them in a small container, also sorted the same way. I stay pretty current with what I am scrapping, so it works pretty well for me.
I organize my digital photos by the year, then monthly folders and then special occasion folders. (like birthdays, vacations, etc.) Then I can pick the year, month and occasion if I want to scrapbook a specific page. This helps me start at the beginning of the year and scrapbook my way through without missing anything.
Once again, great tips! I used to have all my pics organized on my computer, then I upgraded to a MacBook, so I’m still uploading & re-organizing. Any prints from WM that have a digital backup go in my photo box & prints without negatives or digi copies are in an album waiting to be scanned.
I inherited a large box of unidentified photos. Some from both my Mom’s family and my Dad’s family. I have identified all except 17. I have them sorted by Families (Aunts, Uncles, Cousins) but I have no idea where to go from here. I have pictures of my 3rd Great Grandparents. Any ideas are greatly appreciated
I’ve been organizing my digital photos using Picasa. I need a new solution for those I’ve already printed!