Organizing Digital Photographs - Tips
Creation is almost always messy I have discovered.
People, for some reason seem to think that if you are a photographer you just click once and
there is the perfect shot, one time, one click, perfection ! No, no no, no !
Sometimes you need to shoot a stack of photos before you can even get a feel for your subject.
If you knew how many shots professional photographers take your hair wouldn't need hair gel !
Sometimes they take zillions, well, maybe a slight exaggeration :) but where do you put all these photos ?
Do NOT start off putting them anywhere because you don't have time or worse still in folders labelled something like "photos I don't have time to sort" or similar - dont laugh, I have seen this along with "pic's to deal with soon " or how about "photos I need to dump"
- why not just dump them, now, immediately ?
Sure anyone, if they apply themselves, can have a real tidy hard drive, everything organised, not a single file out of place but pick up a camera and start clicking away until you run out of steam and you will come back to find you have taken far too many shots to edit, sort, caption and put in folders where they can be found again !
At least if you want to eat, sleep and have a life !
SO, what is the point of this post then ? Get yourself a system !!
Its cool to take lots of photos - especially when you are learning and so you can compare various compositions, different light situations, what works and what doesn't, but can you find them all again when you want to ?
Tips to help you deal with that myriad of shots:
- Dump the dead ones straight away - the shots that are fuzzy, out of focus, bad composition, anything you can't edit and make better
- Take a set of related photos at one time
- Take smaller "sets" often to make it easier to batch label and sort
- Label them as soon as you are able to so they don't get "lost" in your hard drive
- Sort, and label when you are not distracted doing multiple things at once
- Keep your mind on the job when you organise your photos, editing is easier as there is always "undo"
- Set up your photos and folders with names that are logical to you, yes, you, not "how it should be done"
- Get some sort of filing system for your photos, no matter how basic it will help you find them again
- Go through your collect and refresh your memory from time to time and ditch the dregs - you will see them differently when you look at a later date
- Whatever you do, label them somehow so you can again find them and don't click off until you know you have put them "somewhere!"
I know this last one only too well - see one of my other posts with the lost photos :(
A cool link for you today with amazing photographs http://www.thedigitaltrekker.com/
Comments
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