How do you Organize Photos
After They Are in the Computer?

Transferring Images

After capturing image files, you will want to transfer these files from your digital camera to your main storage device (typically, your primary computer) as soon as possible.

The longer the memory card remains in the camera, the more prone it (and your camera) is to damage, loss, and theft. On the other hand, if your primary storage device is not "reliable," you have bigger problems than the potential loss of your image files.

Learning to Organize Photos

Your camera uses some type of file numbering system to uniquely identify each image file.

So unless you have a photographic memory (no pun intended), you're not going to remember that 101_3398 is "Jimmy giving grandma a big kiss."

You will need to organize photos for that. Of course, you can rename your files once you get them into your computer, but I suspect that goal will be quickly forgotten after the 6th file renaming.

Since you're going to have hundreds and eventually, thousands of numerically-named files, it becomes even more important to organize photos in a logical order. Here are a few suggestions:

• Set up individual folders for each photographic event. Name the folder according to event topic, date, or both. For example: "Billy's 10th Birthday Party - 2005."

• Establish a file structure including main and sub-folders. Let's say that Billy is your son. It's a safe bet that you will be taking hundreds of pictures of him over the years. Therefore, you would want to organize photos of Billy by naming the main file "Billy." Sub-folders could be "Billy's 10th Birthday Party - 2005," "Billy's High School Graduation Party," and "Billy's Engagement Party" (yes, they do grow up, unfortunately).

• Main files could be set up for each member of your immediate family and/or group. For example, if you set up a file for "Billy" and one for "Sally," what do you do with the 23 priceless pictures of Billy and Sally together? Those could go into the "Children" folder. Get the idea? (Once you begin to start thinking about how to organize photos, it won't be a big deal.)

• Depending on what's important in your life and where your photographic passion takes you, you may want to consider setting up main folders to organize photos according to categories. Examples could be: "Lake House," "Vacations," "Landscape Photos," "Stamp Collection," "Through My Neighbor's Window" (tsk, tsk).

• Anything else is up to your imagination. Organize photos by what is easy for you. But please, DO NOT ASSUME YOU WILL REMEMBER WHICH PICTURE IS WHICH if you throw them all into the same big folder.

  Get into the habit right from the beginning and organize your photos. You will save so much time, when you want to find them later!

Step #1	Step #2	Step #3	Step #4	Step #5
Handling Overflow	Organizing Photos	Viewing Photos	Photo Prints	Online Printing
Step #6	Step #7	Step #8	Step #9	Step #10
Printing at Home	Preserving Your Prints	Storage	Sharing Photos	Additional Uses

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