Flex your folders

I have written last week that it is very important to learn how to use your operating system and your folder structure to organize your pictures, instead of relying on some software that tries to do it automatically. This week I will describe how to name your folders so that you would be able to find your pictures quickly. My method is based on the names you give to your folders. Yes, it takes a little more time but the payoff will be great in the long run.

Use clues that help you remember things.

What helps you remember events? If you think about it, most of the times you need three things: approximate date, place and a short description of the event. So, this is what you need to have in each of your folder’s description.

A simple example of naming your image folders: 07_07_04-church_picnic_beach_july4th will quickly identify the pictures in this folder. Or: 07_07_01-baby_shower_smiths_house will also identify the event and the place together with the date. If you remember to place these three pieces of information in each folder description you will be able to identify them very quickly.

Use the date as an automatic sorting mechanism.

You’ve probably noticed that the beginning of each folder name contains the date in this format: YY-MM-DD. Sometimes you don’t know the day of the event or the event span multiple days. In those cases you don’t have to include the day. The year and the month will be enough to allow your operating system to automatically keep your folders in order. The only catch is that you have to use the same format for each of your folders.

Read more about organizing your digital photos in 5 easy steps.

Essentials for organizing your digital photos

Here are the essential products and services I have come to rely on for many years to keep my media collection organized and safe. Even though these are affiliate links, I wholeheartedly recommend them.

Excellent Lightroom and Picasa alternative. If you need a cheaper and simpler photo manager then ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac (save 20% until Feb 15) or ACDSee Pro for Windows (save $20 until Feb 15) is my preferred solution for organizing all my media. It has a very fast browser, great image editing and it's simple to use.

If you do a lot of image editing like I do, I recommend using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC via the annual Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Lightroom has best photo editing capabilities even though it comes with a steeper learning curve. If you do image editing, Adobe Lightroom is my favorite.

I recommend Backblaze Cloud Backup for affordable & reliable unlimited cloud backup. I have been using Backblaze for backing up all pictures & videos for more than 5 years now. All my invaluable digital memories are safe and secure. This is the best solution especially if you have a large quantity of media files.

Use a reliable & affordable external hard drive for backing up everything on your computer. It is absolutely essential for keeping all your memories backed up and safe.

Start organizing now using detailed, step-by-step instructions and videos:
Personal Coaching (closed) Independent Course Private Lessons
Reference book Basics book Picasa book

YOURS FREE! 10 crucial steps most people miss when organizing their digital photos

Most people want to just organize their digital pictures and ignore these crucial steps right at the beginning...when they are shooting and transferring their digital pictures. Then they wonder why they can't organize their digital photos! Avoid most people's mistakes and start on the right track!

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