It seems like some of you have been using lockdown to get things sorted in your digital storage as well as your cupboards. We’ve had a few messages about digital backups and organising pictures so it seemed like a good idea to pop the information here and share it with all of you lovely lot.
“How should I organise my photos?”
We usually shoot thousands of photos each week! Hopefully you’re not dealing with quite so many files but the same ideas apply…
This is how our folder system for photos from our cameras: we have a separate folder for each day, named ‘YYMMDD description’. Those folders are organised by year and the date means that they line up chronologically. The description gives us a much better chance of finding things if we’re searching without a date or searching by category.
In those folders we’re only storing the final selection of photos which made the cut. (For our work we also keep a back up of the original un-cut selection for a time in case our clients have extra requests).
Picking one system and sticking to it is key!
Backing up your photos
These are the messages that made me finally get round to putting this blog together. When our friend got in touch to ask how she should sort her photos we had no idea her phone would break just a couple of weeks later.
There are heaps of reasons why having 2 copies of your photos is a good idea. Preferably the second copy shouldn’t be in the same building as the first, so an online backup is a great option for that.
Using an auto back up system which works from your phone and your computer is the easiest way to get on top of this and stay up to date. I love Google Photos but its terms are changing so it’s worth looking at other options like Dropbox, Amazon or iCloud. They’re good too, especially if you already have an account with them. We’ll talk about them further down this post.
Google Photos
We’ve been using the free Google Photos account and have found it to be good enough for all our personal photos, but from the start of June Google is changing their terms. Storage will be limited to 15GB and all photos will count towards that (small photos used to not take up your quota).
If you want to take advantage before the limits change install the app on all of your devices and select any folders you want to upload. It won’t take you long to get started, the uploading can take a while but it’ll run in the background.
Google Photos on your phone has a built-in backup and off-load system which is a great way to free up space on your phone while still having access to all your files. I love being able to access all our photos from years ago when we’re out and about.
You can also assign a partner which will link your photo accounts together so you can access all of each others pictures.
making use of your photos
Once you’ve started getting your photos back under control you can have some fun with them!
Have fun with the search feature: you can search ‘cake’ and it will suggest all the pictures which it thinks are a cake without you spending any time tagging pictures! It’s not 100% but it’s pretty accurate. You can also select photos by location to make an album for different trips. It’ll group faces too so you can make a collection for each person in your pictures if you like.
It’s easy to put together a digital album for an event or group. I’ve made a lockdown album of all the weird and wonderful stuff we’ve been up to so far this year. It was really quick to make, and I can easily throw extra pictures in there every so often. It has been a really easy way to reflect on all the highlights of this weird season.
You can use albums to sort photos for printing, making a physical photo book, sharing … or just easy browsing.
Alternatives to Google Photos
Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage on their free account.
iCloud has 5GB of free storage.
Paid options
If you pay for any of the services above that’s a good place to start, you might already be paying for the storage you need. If not, Flickr looks like a good option if you’re only storing jpegs- they offer unlimited storage for Pro Members $59.99 a year.
Amazon Photos If you’ve got Prime you can invite up to 5 family members and all get unlimited photo storage.
Lets get physical
Theres something extra lovely about having physical copies of photos around your home too… so get printing. Hop over here if you’d like some ideas for using pictures around your house.
I’d love to hear where you’re at with storing photos, leave us a comment. Have you got it all sorted or is it something you always put off ‘til later? If you’ve got any questions please get in touch!