Transferring your pictures from camera to computer
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If you’re like me, and love taking lots of pictures, then you need to stay on top of your organization. You can quickly get behind and make the task of organizing a daunting one.
One of the first things you should be doing as you shoot is editing the obviously bad photos. If you do this then organizing later will be much easier. You don’t want to spend too much time doing this, however. After all, you’re out there to take pictures, not edit, right? But get rid of the really bad ones that you know you won’t save.
So now you’re back home and ready to download all your beautiful images to your computer. The first thing I do here is create folders to store my photos.
Here’s a snapshot of my folders:
The folders I want you to look at are the Complete Edit, Original Files, Partial Edit, and Print Ready folders. You’ll also notice that these are in my Photography/Graphic Art Portfolio folder. So what do I do with these folders?
As the name suggests, the Original Files folder is the home to all my original photos. These are the photos that have not yet been edited in any way. Inside that folder, I have more folders labeled according to what the subject matter is. For example, Canyon, FinnSoccer, RedGradeTrip, Signs, etc. This keeps my pictures organized in a way in which I can find them easily later. Also, you’ll want to rename your individual pictures.
The default name of the pictures don’t tell you anything about what it is. Here’s an example of one of my photos: IMG_9195.CR2 Does this tell you anything? Can you tell that this is a picture of Bostalsee in Germany? Of course not! Another benefit of renaming your pictures is that you won’t overwrite any existing files when you’re downloading more pictures later. You certainly don’t want to lose any of your pictures!
The next folder of importance is Partial Edit. The photos that I have begun editing but haven’t finished get put here. This may because I didn’t have time to finish or the editing process is more involved. When saving your work, be sure to use a different file name so that you’re not overwriting your original work!
Next is the Complete Edit folder. If you put a lot of work into editing your photos, you’ll want to designate that they are finished. All of your completed pictures should go into this folder.
The final folder is Print Ready. These pictures have already been printed successfully.
One other folder you may want to add is one for unorganized pictures. Any pictures that you haven’t renamed or categorized would go in here. So if you’re downloading pictures and then are interrupted, you would know that these pictures needed to be organized. You could set up your software to automatically download to this folder. That way, they’re already in there ready for you to organize them. Just be sure to stay on top of this! You don’t want to have to go back and try to organize, rename, and categorize 300 pictures!
Here’s a recap of what was just covered:
1. Choose a photo organization method, and use it effectively.
2. Set up your folder system.
3. As you transfer your images, edit (delete) any you don’t want.
4. Rename your images.
5. When editing, save as a different name and place in the appropriate folder, Partial Edit, Complete Edit, etc.
6. Don’t wait to organize your photos.
NOTE: When saving your photos, save them as either a TIFF (tagged image format) or in your picture-editing program’s original format, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, etc. Do not save and re-save your images in the JPEG format. Not many know that every time an image is saved as JPEG, the image is compressed and picture information is lost. Once that information is lost, it can never be recovered. Luckily you still have your Original File, right?!
Another very important step to organizing your photos is to back them up. You never want to have just one copy of your original files. If something were to happen to your hard drive, your images are lost forever. Believe me, losing photos that you can never get back will make you sick! I would suggest investing in an external hard drive or two. Save your photos to these hard drives and keep them in separate places. And I don’t mean keep one in your office and the other in your bathroom! Store one hard drive at home and the other at your Mom’s house. That way, if something were to happen to your house (let’s hope not!) you still have another drive safe somewhere else.
You could also store your photos on non-rewritable CDs or DVDs. Make sure they’re recordable and not rewritable. If you use this method, there are few things you should consider. First, always place the CD or DVD in a jewel case to protect it. Second, before you delete these image from your computer, make sure that you can open the pictures on the CD. Print an index card of all the images so that you know what’s on the CD. Third, don’t place labels on the CDs. These may come off in your drive. If you write on the CD, use only the recommended pen. Some pens can actually reduce the life of the CD.
Although CDs and DVDs are very common today, they may not be around forever. Choose your best photos, print them, and store them archivally. Prints will always be around so companies will always have a way to digitize them. Just be sure to use archival paper and store them properly and you’ll still have your treasured photos for years to come!
