We normally like to think we're pretty organized when it comes to our digital files, but looking back at the photos from our son's (almost) first year of life - they're a mess! We have two major problems: First, we saved photos and videos haphazardly in file folders that might have made sense in the mental haze after our son's birth, but are indecipherable now. Second, we have fifteen shots of essentially the same thing and haven't yet been able to bear the thought of deleting any. Oy! Heading into year two, we have to get a handle on this! Click through to see what we're doing to clean up our mess and offer your own suggestions. If you are pregnant now - devote some of that nesting energy to getting a system in place - you will thank us later!
Our first plan of attack is to pare down. We were recently informed by our computer that we are running out of storage space and that our last attempt at a backup failed due to lack of space - not good! We could move the bulk of our photos to a dedicated hard drive or even onto dvds, but we really need to tackle this problem head on and do some deleting.
Emotionally, it's hard - using digital cameras makes everyone snap happy and it's tempting to keep every single photo no matter how similar it is to a dozen others you took in the span of a minute or how blurry or how badly lit. Not only does every moment and memory of your child seem so precious, but you are more aware than ever how fleeting time is. But we've got to get real! We've already made a first pass of deletions to get rid of the truly bad photos - out of focus, accidental shots of the ceiling, etc. Now we need to make a second, harder, pass to choose the best few shots of series. It will be tough, but I think we'll appreciate it in the future when we can sit and easily look at all of our favorite memories rather than wade through thousands of images.
The second prong of our attack is to organize our folders so we can find what we want more easily. As you can see from the screen shot above, we're organizing them by year and month. We put a number in front of the month (starting with the month our son was born) so they'll sort quickly.
One more thing: is the date set correctly on your camera? We thought ours was until we found that 80% of our photos have a creation date of January 1st. Fixing that will make it much easier to correctly sort our photos by date in the future.
Okay, your turn - how are you handling the mountain of digital photos and videos piling up on your computer? How do you handle photos of multiple kids? Do you think we'll regret deleting even a single photo?
(p.s. The answer to the question in the top photo is "neither" - we have a third photo that is much better than either of these and it's a keeper!)
I actually started off well with my daughter (week-by-week folders of her until she reached 3 months, then month-by-month..) but I fell of the rails by about 12 months... now there are duplicates all over the place, about a year's worth of photos STILL on the camera (massive amounts of memory are not always a good thing, it would seem)... and yes, I, too, feel that somehow my daughter "knows" when I am considering deleting a blurry or near-double image, and that this will traumatize her somehow (yes, I know, utter nonsense!)
Am looking forward to tackling this problem head-on again.
view Libberator's profile
During upload, I automatically (near ruthlessly) delete all inferior images. Anything out-of-focus or less than steller is axed. Then I sort by month and year. Everything is backed onto an external HD which we use for a few other purposes, too.
This being our first kid, though, we're still drowning in pictures. Am working on not taking the camera everywhere. Only using it for special outings or celebrations. It lets us enjoy her in the moment instead of documenting it.
My faves are posted on Flickr for sharing with family, so if all systems fail I'll still have those. Planning on using the built in Qoop Flickr relationship to print a book of Baby's first year.
view moptop's profile
I also find it easiest to delete images while they're on the camera--if it looks bad on the tiny screen, you pretty much know you don't need a larger version of it stored forever. After that, well, I have a hard time deleting anything. I may not be your poster child for digital spring cleaning--I probably have about 8,000 pictures of my 9 month old daughter--and YES, every one IS precious! ;p
But I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. I try to download pics off the camera no less than once a week, and when I do that I immediately sort them into folders by month (baby 1 month old, 2 months old, etc.), and immediately upload them onto Flickr into month sets as well. If you do it often, it doesn't take long. Then, when I get a chance (usually on breaks at work), I go through the Flickr uploads and add my favorites to a Favorites set. This is the set I show friends and family, and the one that I will print from for photo albums. Really very manageable, actually.
view hyzen's profile
we make a folder for each month of the year then upload at least once a month. for pics of seemingly unexciting events with multiple pictures, i use picasa (which i think they have for mac now too) make a collage then delete all of the pics. i also try and upload the real good stuff to a photo site and once a year make a book.
view gecko's profile
i used to carry my camera everywhere and being that its not a tiny thing it got very annoying. theres just too much to keep track of when youve got children to worry about having your camera charged and ready to go when you are. with that being said, ive probably got about 5 pictures of myself durring my second, present, pregnancy and about a billion of me durring my first. weird how firsts are like that.
view deeboyayay's profile
I also organize by month. I delete the less than stellar ones as I complete each upload, and then I look back again at the end of the month and see if I really needed all 10 from the same morning photo shoot or if some could go.
If you're using iPhoto it's very easy to change to date when your camera has been set incorrectly. Select all the photos, then go to Photo -> Batch Change -> Set Date to _____.
view ksg's profile
I use iPhoto to put my pictures on my computer, which organizes everything for me. And I try to be good at deleting bad pictures immediately. I'm not always good about that. I think "what if I want to remember what they looked like with their eyes closed?" and such...ha ha!
Sweet baby! :)
view pyjammy's profile
I sort into folders by date and event/topic.
My folders are all labeled by this convention yyyy-mmdd event subjects (i.e. 2009-0521 Majorie's birthday).
I also strongly recommend Google's Picasa software for photo editing and management.
My 3 year old loves looking through the photo libraries/timeline with me.
view adrienne's profile
I use iPhoto. It will manage duplicates for you, even recognize facial features and organize them by subject. It'll use the metadata embedded in the digital file and arrange by date. Then you can even click through and have it create a photo album for you or a website to share with family and friends.
In short, it's organized FOR me so I don't have to be!
Love it. :)
view pxlchk1's profile
I've seen collages (symmetrical) of photos that are similar, like the pics you provided, each with unique expressions. It's real cute.
view Lizzykewl's profile
We also use iPhoto and love it. I plan to arrange my favorites yearly into a nice Mac photo book for each year of his life.
view jensational's profile
Hey everyone - thanks for the reminder that I should be letting iPhoto do some of the work for me. I'm really trying to reform!
Carrie
view CMcB's profile
this is something i have yet to get a handle on, even after 7 years and 3 kids. i have no problem deleting the blurry shots, but if it's in focus, it sort of freaks me out to banish it, even if it's a hideous up-the-nose shot. i think i will need to burn a cd of outtakes, just to soothe myself.
i was very organized for a long while, but then got a different camera...with the old one, when i uploaded to the puter, they were automatically divvied into folders by date. with the new one, the folders are sorted by file number, with no regard for the date. i can probably change some preferences (somewhere, somehow) to switch it back, but i have no idea how.
also worth remembering--BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS. once upon a time, my computer crashed and four years of photos went with it. (they were recovered and are now safely backed up in a couple of different places.)
view nickety's profile
I use the same labeling system as adrienne. It's SO much easier to find your photos later. I have also become very ruthless with deleting photos. NO ONE wants to go through millions and millions of pictures later - you might think you do....but I doubt it :) It also really takes away from the good pictures.
view Julia5's profile
Definitely keep the baby-he is super cute, then let a friend borrow the Bumbo seat. Just kidding! That's the first thing I thought of when you posted your question. I say keep both photos--why not?
view amy-in-sf's profile
I also title many of my photos. After about 5, you start to feel a LOT better about deleting.
view nicole612's profile
As a photographer I have the same problem as you, hundreds of versions of the one shot. Keep the first one it looks a bit clearer and he looks happier. You could do what I do, keep a folder for original files (so you dont feel like you ever throw anything out) back these up somewhere other than your computer so you're not constantly tempted by them.
Then get ruthless. On your computer (make sure you back this up too), have a 'Finals' folder with dated folders. Copy in only your favourites from each collection. Limit yourself to one or two and if none are that great dont copy any in. Its easier to be ruthless if you dont feel like you have to totally delete the others, they will always be somewhere if you REALLY need them. I'm guesssing in a few years I'll have the guts to delete that file too! Good Luck. Culling is the key to getting a GREAT image.
view ClaireMcFerran's profile