organizing digital photographs

I tend to file mine by project and date...

A good way to archive them is either on CDR or memory stick. Sticks are so cheap these days that you can archive loads in a very small physical space.

Here is an article that might help:

As for a chart, that can be easily made with either a spreadsheet, word processor, or database program. I personally use openoffice.org, but the stuff that comes with microsoft office would work as well. You could probably even do the thing in notepad (basic text editor), but you would have no ability to make charts, hyperlinks to the pictures, etc. There is also digital-photo-organization software. The microsoft digital image library software that is mentiooned in the above article has apparently been discontinued, and it costs money anyway. A very good freeware program for organizing your pictures is called irfanview: As for organizing your pictures into what type of quilt it is, after making the appropriate directories, that will have to be done "by hand." I don't know of any software that is capable of recognizing whether a quilt is a fence rail vs courthouse steps vs whatever pattern.

As for putting information with each individual picture, you can edit the properties:

Basically, just right click on the photo, select properties, then the tab that says "summary". At the bottom of this is a button that should say either "simpe" or "advanced". If it says "advanced", simply start typing in the title, subject, etc in, if it says simple, click on the button, then start typing the information in. This information is for windows XP, because that is what I have on my computer, but the information is pretty much the same for any verion of windows. It is probably pretty much the same for MAC computers, except that irfanview for MAC does not exist, but I a certain that a program that does the same thing is available.

Brian Christiansen

Brian Christiansen

I have complicated or maybe simple wonders about Susan's question. Too many times I've attempted to use programs (?) that my current computer can't read. I wonder if I put my precious pictures on a thumb, stick, usb, pdq (whatever) would the day come when Nothing could retrieve them? Just thinking I'll take the pictures and print them on plain old paper. That worked with the rctq directory. When my computer went wonky and had to be replaced, the printed copy survived. I enjoy this geeky world - but I'm not saying I trust it with anything important. Polly

"Brian Christiansen" Here is an article that might help:

As for putting information with each individual picture, you can edit the

> Basically, just right click on the photo, select properties, then the tab > that says "summary". At the bottom of this is a button that should say > either "simpe" or "advanced". If it says "advanced", simply start typing > in the title, subject, etc in, if it says simple, click on the button, > then start typing the information in.>

I use a software program called Adobe Photoshop Elements. It automatically imports my photos from my camera. I have choices on where to store them on my computer so I create a suitably named folder as part of the import. What I like about this program is that I can add "tags" to the pictures so that I can find every picture of my dog Kirby if I wanted to. I have tags for each of my grandchildren as well as a global tag of "grands". You can view the photos by a number of perspectives including calendar view. It also contains an editor which comes in handy when I have to crop a picture. So, if you wanted to categorize your quilt photos, you could tag them with a block name. You can create as many tags as you need.

Just a suggestion.

You'll get lots of advice about software/sorting, but I'll put my two cents worth in at the beginning.

Never overwrite the originals. Make any edits you want (crop, straighten, color correct, etc.) and then do a "Save as..." (If you use a program that allows tags, use this feature. Very handy!) But the important thing is to leave the originals untouched. Most modern hard drives have more than enough room so storage space is not an issue.

Here's our filing system:

A directory for each year.

Inside each year is a directory for each month. We've named them a- Jan, b-Feb, c-Mar, etc., to make them easy to keep in order.

All photos go from the camera into the appropriate month.

If I want to work on quilt photos I'll grab a copy of the original and make a new directory outside of the annual directory.

So my Photos directory might look like this:

2008 a-jan b-feb c-mar [etc.]

2009 a-jan b-feb c-mar [etc.]

Quilts Finished 2008 Finished 2009 Ideas Shows

Christmas 2008 2009

Family Grandchildren Vacation 2009

Hope this helps.

Bert in Rice, WA

Large hard drives are great for storing lots of photos, especially for me who likes to shoot high resolution photos which take up more room than standard size photos. However, make sure you have a backup of your photos, preferably stored off site. I use an external hard drive to back everything up plus I have copies on CDs sorted by year and category.

Dh just laughed and said many programs will organize your photos right to hell. I am not sure just how he keeps track of them but every once in awhile I get him to order me up some prints of anything that I really like. It is nice to have a hard copy of photos like in the old days. Last year Santa brought me a digital frame. That has been really fun to have and enjoy. Taria

This is also how I do it. Keep them in their original by date and then copy them out and edit into a directory like Quilts. Then I use that pic for posting. Very easy I think especially once it's set up it's easy to keep it up. Cuz your only moving photos you want to play with. Joanna

thanks that is just the type of program I am looking for.

Susan

Keeping it up is the secret! If I wait six months to edit and place in directories the task will be so large I will be discouraged. Susan