Most of us have an abundance of digital photographs – so many that we are not taking the time to look through them and organize them. The problem is that when you want to go back and find photos, you might find yourself in a time-consuming and frustrating search.
I was recently looking at an old photo of my brothers, and it struck me that I had a recent photo of my brother and son that was strikingly similar. I had no idea when I had taken that photo, but I had to find it.
Fortunately, it was a cinch for me to find photos since I had tagged them with both of their names and the location.
Brian Chen recently wrote an article in the NY Times about his search for the best software to use that could automate photo organization. Brian calls tagging systems “neurotic”, but also admits that “If you spend tons of time rummaging for a specific photo, then sorting photos may be worthwhile.”
Brian has a point that most people don’t have the time or the inclination to do a lot of photo organizing, and I strongly believe that automating tasks as much as possible is the way to go, but I also believe that automation isn’t where it needs to be, not yet.
You can read Brian’s article here: Zen and the Art of Managing Cell Phone Photos.
Brian recommends using the Google Photos service because of its automated image recognition. When I uploaded my marketing photos to Google Photos and did a search for “computer”, it did quite well at finding photos of computers. But when I did a search on “umbrella”, it found a photo of a camping tent instead. The image recognition is pretty good, finding a photo of a deer correctly, and of a starfish, but missing most of my whale photos.
Image recognition is bound to improve, and I’m looking forward to that, but in order to quickly find photos, I’m not willing to let go of my photo organization system yet.
If you do use Google’s Photos service, I strongly disagree with Brian about deleting your photos after uploading them. You should not delete your photos from your phone until you’ve copied as well to your computer.
You can read my blog post here about backup: Be Sure That Your Memories are Safe.
Getting an organization system in place is something that you should start now for your future photos and that you can implement for your past photos as you have time.
You can read my blog here about photo organization: 6 Steps for a Photo Organization Routine.
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