If you’re wondering how to organise your digital photos and would like to know how to access and file them easily, Sarah Pinel at Tekkie Help has some advice. “Sorting your photos can be a chore, but there are plenty of mistakes you can avoid to maintain a neat and ordered collection. We’ve come up with this list of the top mistakes people make with their photos. Some are easy fixes, and some require a bit more work, but they’re all worth rectifying.”
#1 You don’t have a centralised digital photo hub
A digital photo hub is the one place where all your photos can live safely together. This centralised hub can be backed up to protect your precious memories. A digital photo hub is generally a computer with a big enough hard drive capacity to store all of your photos on – we recommend at least 1TB of storage for an average-sized photo library.
SOLUTION: Check the storage space on your computer; if you don’t have enough space, you may wish to consider upgrading the hard drive (we can do this for you), buying a refurbished computer with a large hard drive (tekkiehelp.com/shop) or buying a new computer.
#2 You have photos scattered all over the place
When you have photos all over the place, it makes it incredibly difficult to manage and easily access the photos you want, let alone ensuring they are safely backed up.
SOLUTION: Make an appointment with yourself to transfer your photos off your phone, camera and social media on a regular basis. You can even scan any printed photos into your photo library using apps such as Google Scan.
#3 You’re not deleting the rubbish
We all have hundreds, even thousands of photos that aren’t worthy of printing or even keeping. These can clog up and clutter our digital photo libraries.
SOLUTION: Take the time to delete photos you don’t want as you import them, or even better still, as you take them.
#4 You don’t label your file
Adding any information to the metadata of photos can help identify and organise photos, for ease of searching at a later date.
SOLUTION: Immediately after you transfer your photos, either rename the files or add labels to the metadata. We recommend bulk tagging photos from a particular holiday and labelling the ones that are your favourite or you know you will need to access easily in the future. For example, scans of your passport or “Bali 2020”.
#5 You don’t have a robust backup
What if your computer crashes? What if you lose your phone? Do you have a backup strategy for your photos? Not many people do. Natural disasters, tech crashes and theft can jeopardise your photos. Be cautious about the Cloud. iCloud is not a robust backup solution; it’s a synchronising software. If you accidentally delete photos off a device, it will delete on all devices if set to synchronise. Many customers fall into this trap and the results can be devastating.
SOLUTION: We recommend implementing a 3-2-1 backup strategy whereby you have three copies of your data, in at least two different formats with one in a different “offsite” location (for example, in the Cloud or in another physical location).
If you need help implementing a good photo management strategy or need guidance on how to get the most out of your photo management software, Tekkie Help runs workshops on just this! For more information and to book, visit tekkiehelp.com/it-training or call Sarah on 8113 8682.
This article first appeared in the May 2020 edition of Expat Living. You can purchase a copy or subscribe so you never miss an issue!
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