Now that I'm working on my grandchildren's photobooks, I'm seeing again what a mistake I'd made when I was first saving my photos some 16 years ago.
I started out naming my photo files with the month-day-year, i.e.
April.3.1998
Jan.2.1996
July.4.1997
I did this for a couple of years before figuring out it was not a good idea. In fact, it's a really bad idea because then you'll have your photos organized in alphabetical order starting with April and ending in November.
So then I fixed it with a numbering system, i.e.
01-15-2006
02-13-2008
Now I wouldn't have the alphabetical order problem, but there was still the problem of the year. Everything was being ordered by the month and it was still not organized unless I put them in separate folders by YEAR which is what I did.
Then I moved to Hawaii. My brother saw what I was doing and said I should do what they do at the police department. Sigh...
You should put the YEAR-MONTH-DAY, i.e.
2015-01-13
2015-04-16
And so on and so forth. It's also good to add a little clue to what the photo is about when you name your photo.
I wish, I wish, I wish I'd done this when I started taking digital photos some 16 years ago! Ah well... better late than never.
I started out naming my photo files with the month-day-year, i.e.
April.3.1998
Jan.2.1996
July.4.1997
I did this for a couple of years before figuring out it was not a good idea. In fact, it's a really bad idea because then you'll have your photos organized in alphabetical order starting with April and ending in November.
So then I fixed it with a numbering system, i.e.
01-15-2006
02-13-2008
Now I wouldn't have the alphabetical order problem, but there was still the problem of the year. Everything was being ordered by the month and it was still not organized unless I put them in separate folders by YEAR which is what I did.
Then I moved to Hawaii. My brother saw what I was doing and said I should do what they do at the police department. Sigh...
You should put the YEAR-MONTH-DAY, i.e.
2015-01-13
2015-04-16
And so on and so forth. It's also good to add a little clue to what the photo is about when you name your photo.
I wish, I wish, I wish I'd done this when I started taking digital photos some 16 years ago! Ah well... better late than never.
One of my problems is that I just take them and don't bother to name them. Fortunately for me, the Photos album allows me to put them all in folders that I name. When I changed over from iPhoto, I had to get used to another system. It also has a thing called "faces" which will find all the photos of everyone by face, which is pretty astounding when you think about it! It makes mistakes, but not often. I like the final system of naming you came up with. That's what I would use in your situation. :-)
ReplyDeletewhats that saying ? Live and learn,,,,
ReplyDeleteyou are so organized, so impressive!
Wow, you have been digital for a long time. I've only been digital for about 10 years, the last three completely on my iPhone. When teaching, I always told my students to name their photos something that would make sense when they were searching for the just the right picture. we each have our own way of doing it, and it really should be what works best for the way the photos will be used.
ReplyDeleteGod knows where a lot of my photos are. But I do give them names, like familly, or Peru, or what have you, so I can find most of them with a computer search.
ReplyDeleteI envy your organizational skills. Good tip about using the year first, mahalo!
ReplyDeletegreat job Good luck
ReplyDeleteI have been doing ymd format, actually at the beginning of the month I create a folder 2016-01-01 for example and put photos there that I save for the month. but great idea to add a little clue to what the photo is about.
ReplyDeleteLike the year first approach. I'll use the one to try to bring some order out of my photo chaos.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky can you get. My photos are organized the way you suggest. The digital has made some things very easy and then others very hard.
ReplyDeleteSO true! Great Tip. Happy New Year to all of you, Kay
ReplyDeleteWarm ALOHA to You,
ComfortSpiral
I keep waiting for a rainy weekend to do it (after football season ends)....since this is supposed to be the mother of all El Nino winters here, hopefully the opportunity will arise. :)
ReplyDeleteI have all sorts of systems, too. Only the last four years are on my hard drive now, and those are the ones I'm trying to sort out. I've already dumped a bunch, and reorganized files. Now I just need to remember to cull photos as I add them from my camera. I really need to save less.
ReplyDeleteI never really take the effort to name mine
ReplyDeleteYup, that's what I do. Year, month, day....and name of child or grandchild or what we aare doing. Since I have the family archives, I want to know whaat's what.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea to name them with the year first. I wonder how long it would take for me to go through and change all the files on my hard drive?
ReplyDeleteI label mine year, month and name. Example....2016 1 Antelope Island. And then in that folder I put more folders of dates when I go to Antelope Island. And for misc stuff every month, I put 2016 1 STUFF. That would be pictures of food, pets, just ...stuff. It's worked for me for years.
ReplyDeleteI love photography and take oodles of pics! (Too many)
Antelope Island is 6 miles from us. It's an island in the Great Salt Lake with bison, owls. pronghorn, deer, bobcat, porcupines, birds, and more wildlife...it's such a wondrous place and we go all the time.
I probably drive Myrtle crazy sending her pics all the time. :)
I just saw your photos, Judy and they are absolutely crystal clear awesome, full of color and action! Wow!
DeleteI'll be seeing Myrtle on Friday finally after our winter Zumba hiatus.
Oh! Thank you Kay! And thank you for visiting my site and having a look!
ReplyDelete