A place for everything:
How to Manage your Photos
It really doesn't take a lot of work to keep your photos organized, just a little commitment.
by Lori Grunin December 23, 2011
by Lori Grunin December 23, 2011
Photos & Videos
by Date and Location of shoots.
Managing your photos--a lot easier than you think.
What a surprising number of people don't realize is that every device these days pops up as a drive on your system, and that you can drag and drop your files onto your computer--even your phone. (And to those of you saying "everybody knows that already!" trust me; they don't.)
Commit to downloading
First, you have to make the decision--and stick to it--that you'll download (or upload) all your photos and videos within a day or so of taking them. It's a good idea to get in the habit of at least copying your photos and videos off your device and it really takes no time; once you've got a system in place, you can do it while watching TV, eating dinner, or playing with the cat.
First, you have to make the decision--and stick to it--that you'll download (or upload) all your photos and videos within a day or so of taking them. It's a good idea to get in the habit of at least copying your photos and videos off your device and it really takes no time; once you've got a system in place, you can do it while watching TV, eating dinner, or playing with the cat.
Why bother? The last thing you want to
do is run out of space on your card at a key moment or lose your media
if you misplace or break your device. If you want to keep it portable to
share, that's fine. But you also want to be able to hit "delete" or
"format" if necessary. And you need to commit to the plan. If you don't,
you'll end up more confused, having to remember whether you downloaded something or not before you can start looking for it.
Figure out your need to retrieve
Don't just dump everything in your system's default folders (such as My Pictures), though they're fine to use as a root and might be easier to migrate if/when you switch machines. Figure out how you'll need to find them again, and how often. How do you remember? What's the first thing that comes to mind for you--where you shot something or when you shot it? Do you need different systems for different computers? While keywording and tagging are certainly best practices, they do add extra overhead to a process that you might not be able to maintain and you don't necessarily need to do it. And if you think you'll only need to find a given photo every now and then, you don't need to get very elaborate.
Don't just dump everything in your system's default folders (such as My Pictures), though they're fine to use as a root and might be easier to migrate if/when you switch machines. Figure out how you'll need to find them again, and how often. How do you remember? What's the first thing that comes to mind for you--where you shot something or when you shot it? Do you need different systems for different computers? While keywording and tagging are certainly best practices, they do add extra overhead to a process that you might not be able to maintain and you don't necessarily need to do it. And if you think you'll only need to find a given photo every now and then, you don't need to get very elaborate.
Everything's
also organized for easy retrievability using just Windows Explorer.
For example, I (obviously) use the photos I shoot for work
differently than than those I shoot on my own time--and because the two
overlap, I end up with a lot in both locations, but I keep them
organized differently. At work I put everything in folders by camera
name; at home, by date and location of the shoot. For a coarse level of
retrievability, if you just use a utility to rename all the files to
something basic but meaningful, like "stair cats in Queens," (plus a
file number increment, of course) you can search the file system. Then
it's pretty easy to visually scan the thumbnails for the photo you want.
If you'll need to find photos more frequently, then it pays to step up
to a program that, say, lets you flag the photos you like; flagging
quickly narrows down the results of your search when you're looking, but
doesn't take a lot of time up front (especially if you use software
that lets you quickly scan and flag).
Get a card reader if necessary
For cameras and camcorders, it really pays to buy a card reader if you don't have the necessary media slot in your system, though most recent computers have at least an SD card slot. While you can connect the devices directly to your computer, standalone drives or slots tend to be a bit faster, and the goal of this exercise is to make downloading as painless as possible so that you'll actually do it regularly. Phones, on the other hand, tend to have inconveniently located spots for their flash media, and use tiny, easy-to-lose microSD cards. You're better off leaving those in the device. Tablets fall somewhere between, some with only built-in memory, some with easily accessible SD slots.
For cameras and camcorders, it really pays to buy a card reader if you don't have the necessary media slot in your system, though most recent computers have at least an SD card slot. While you can connect the devices directly to your computer, standalone drives or slots tend to be a bit faster, and the goal of this exercise is to make downloading as painless as possible so that you'll actually do it regularly. Phones, on the other hand, tend to have inconveniently located spots for their flash media, and use tiny, easy-to-lose microSD cards. You're better off leaving those in the device. Tablets fall somewhere between, some with only built-in memory, some with easily accessible SD slots.
As a corollary to this, I also suggest you get a second card for your
camera or camcorder if you don't have one already. They're pretty
cheap, and, frankly, once you start downloading regularly you're bound
to forget that you left the card in the reader regularly as well. Always
keep at least one extra card in your camera or bag.
Which software?
Choosing the right software for importing and managing your files is several stories on its own. There are tons of choices--free, cheap, or expensive, with variations in how many features they offer from the ultrabasic to the nuclear option. Though basic downloading and drag and drop are available within the operating system, a utility that lets you batch rename is a helpful complement (I use FastStone Photo Resizer for batch renaming). If you use some sort of cloud-based syncing, such as iCloud Photo Stream or the Eye-Fi system, to automatically distribute your photos from the device to a home hard drive or an online sharing service, definitely make it a habit to rename and move the photos on a regular basis. Services like that tend to organize everything by date, either by default or as the only option. That makes sense, because the date is the only piece of information that software can guarantee it will find.
Choosing the right software for importing and managing your files is several stories on its own. There are tons of choices--free, cheap, or expensive, with variations in how many features they offer from the ultrabasic to the nuclear option. Though basic downloading and drag and drop are available within the operating system, a utility that lets you batch rename is a helpful complement (I use FastStone Photo Resizer for batch renaming). If you use some sort of cloud-based syncing, such as iCloud Photo Stream or the Eye-Fi system, to automatically distribute your photos from the device to a home hard drive or an online sharing service, definitely make it a habit to rename and move the photos on a regular basis. Services like that tend to organize everything by date, either by default or as the only option. That makes sense, because the date is the only piece of information that software can guarantee it will find.
Personally, I'm not comfortable with using an online service as my
only photo storage option. I use an online photo-sharing service as
"backup" for a subset of my photos. The rest live on my computer and
various hard drives. But keeping at least part of them online makes them
retrievable from anywhere.
Bottom line: You don't need to spend a lot of money on software or a
lot of time tagging and keywording. If you simply make sure you download
photos and videos religously, and at the very least rename them to
something useful, you'll significantly increase how findable they are.
Senior
Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging and all types of
tech for two decades and photographing for four, but the stat she's
proudest of is the approximately 5,000 photos she's taken of cats (and
some dogs) for the animal rescue where she volunteers.
A short
history of digital photography
There
is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is very true
but to get this thousand word picture you need really high quality
cameras or digital cameras. While many of us take for granted the
presence of digital cameras and the many marvelous things that they can
do we have forgotten the history of digital photography.
This history of digital photography is not that long but the events that took place have changed the way that we take our photographs.
In 1969 October 17th George Smith and Willard Boyle invented the charge coupled device or the CCD as we know it. This device was originally made for use in computers as a semi-conductor memory. These inventors of the CCD were also thinking about ways to incorporate their device into video phones.
With all of their plans and sketches finalized Smith and Boyle finally built the CCD into the world’s first CCD camera. This changed the history of digital photography altogether.
The camera that was built by them was a solid state video camera. During 1975 the CCD camera with its image sharp pictures was shown on television for the first time. The image that was shown was clear enough to be seen by the viewers of television.
In the history of digital photography the first prototype of the digital camera was created by Sony in1981. This digital camera was called Mavica which meant Magnetic Video Camera. The Sony Mavica was essentially a video camera that was used to capture video freeze-frames.
In 1986 Kodak scientists invented the first megapixel senor. This senor was capable of recording 1.4 million pixels. These were capable of producing a 5 x 7 inch digital photo quality print. In 1987 Kodak released 7 products that had the ability to manipulate digital images.
In 1991 Kodak in partnership with Nikon, released the Nikon F-3 camera. This camera was equipped with a 1.3 megapixel sensor by Kodak. This shows how the history of digital photography merged scientific know-how to produce a digital camera.
At about this same time Logitech produced and released their Dycam model with black and white images. Apple produced a digital camera that could transfer images to the computer from the camera.
This is the short version of the history of digital photography. Today 30 years after the first digital camera was produced and released digital photography has changed our lives. The next time that you buy a digital camera you might want to see what other information you can find out about the history of digital photography.
This history of digital photography is not that long but the events that took place have changed the way that we take our photographs.
In 1969 October 17th George Smith and Willard Boyle invented the charge coupled device or the CCD as we know it. This device was originally made for use in computers as a semi-conductor memory. These inventors of the CCD were also thinking about ways to incorporate their device into video phones.
With all of their plans and sketches finalized Smith and Boyle finally built the CCD into the world’s first CCD camera. This changed the history of digital photography altogether.
The camera that was built by them was a solid state video camera. During 1975 the CCD camera with its image sharp pictures was shown on television for the first time. The image that was shown was clear enough to be seen by the viewers of television.
In the history of digital photography the first prototype of the digital camera was created by Sony in1981. This digital camera was called Mavica which meant Magnetic Video Camera. The Sony Mavica was essentially a video camera that was used to capture video freeze-frames.
In 1986 Kodak scientists invented the first megapixel senor. This senor was capable of recording 1.4 million pixels. These were capable of producing a 5 x 7 inch digital photo quality print. In 1987 Kodak released 7 products that had the ability to manipulate digital images.
In 1991 Kodak in partnership with Nikon, released the Nikon F-3 camera. This camera was equipped with a 1.3 megapixel sensor by Kodak. This shows how the history of digital photography merged scientific know-how to produce a digital camera.
At about this same time Logitech produced and released their Dycam model with black and white images. Apple produced a digital camera that could transfer images to the computer from the camera.
This is the short version of the history of digital photography. Today 30 years after the first digital camera was produced and released digital photography has changed our lives. The next time that you buy a digital camera you might want to see what other information you can find out about the history of digital photography.
http://digitalphoto.asuccessformula.com/articles/digitalphotographysoftware.html
No comments:
Post a Comment