Using folders to select favorite pictures

There are quite a few software programs that allow you to mark your favorite pictures through some kind of sign (a star, a colored square). Then this kind of software allows you to locate your favorite pictures by adding labels to these groups of pictures. The problem with this approach is lack of portability. If you want to give a whole folder of pictures to your friend but he’s not using the same software then all your favorite pictures will not appear on as favorite on his software.

The simple solution is to use folders

One solution is to use folders. For example, I need to three categories of favorites for each one of my pictures folder. I need to select some pictures for printing and others for putting them on my travel website (TouristBee.com). The pictures that go in these categories are quite different because I mostly print pictures with my family in them, while on my website I post pictures with places and buildings.

So, here’s how I fit this breakdown in my folder structure.

  My Pictures
    Family
      2007
        2007_11_17-Malibu_Adamson_house
          selected - favorite pictures
          print - formatted for printing
	  web  - formatted for the web
	2007_12_08-Camarillo_Christmas_Parade
          selected - favorite pictures
          print - formatted for printing
	  web  - formatted for the web

It’s not perfect but it works

My approach to digital pictures is not to delete any originals (except the really bad ones) and then copy the selected ones in the appropriate sub folder according to the structure described above. The only drawback to this approach is that I have two or three copies of some pictures. However, with today’s prices on hard drives this is no longer a problem. I only have to make sure I backup my pictures regularly.

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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