A few years ago, I shared some tips for organizing travel photos. My husband took up photography when he retired and helped me update the following advice.
Have you ever talked about a vacation you went on with someone a few years ago and when you went to look for the photos you couldn't find them? Gone are the days of shoeboxes full of printouts, as almost everyone now leaves home with a smartphone capable of taking stunning digital travel photos. The problem is that we take so many photos and videos that it's not easy to find them when we need them.
Organizing these digital memories is a big task, so I wanted to share my experience. Top 5 Steps to Organizing Your Travel Photos.
Level 1. Back up your precious photos/videos
Some of the best souvenirs you can bring home from a trip are your own photos. Travel photos capture moments you'll want to remember for a long time, especially for families with young children, so you don't want to miss them! Back up image files stored on your device or computer to an external hard drive and the cloud before playing them. If you get hacked or your device fails, you don't have to risk losing all your precious memories. Additionally, because photo and video files are large, storage space on computers, mobile phones, and SD cards will eventually run out. Backing up your files frees up space to take more photos or videos. Smartphones and some newer DSLR cameras have the ability to instantly save to the cloud, but you'll need a backup for that.
Back up your photos to the cloud
An inexpensive paid subscription to an online storage platform like Dropbox, Google Photos, or iCloud may be the best solution for keeping your photos backed up for years to come, even if your hard drive or phone dies. If you're an Amazon Prime member, did you know that your membership includes unlimited photo storage? Amazon photo is an app for your phone and computer that backs up your images at full resolution. However, it is not the best way to back up your videos.
Backup photos to hard drive
Also back up your photos to an external hard drive. Memory prices have come down a lot in recent years, and you can get a 4TB hard drive for around $100 to $200.
Step 2. Classification, disposal and organization
Sort
Once everything is backed up, start sorting all your photos into folders that you want to “organize.” This will be the default folder for all images you import from your phone, camera, etc.
When sorting your travel photos, organize them in a logical order. Fortunately, our smartphones and most digital cameras have information embedded in each photo that identifies the date, location, or collection.
For various non-digital photos To scan your printed photos, use these free Google apps: photo scan. Upload it to the “to-be-organized” folder.
dispose
Go through each photo and delete any images you don't want to keep. It's easy to delete anything that's dark, blurry, or incomplete. These steps will help you reduce your collection to a manageable size. You're likely to only share the best images. The Photosync app can help you find and remove duplicate photos.
organize
The top-level folder should be the year, with entries nested within it for the months and countries visited. Then nest those photos within that folder. If you have too many photos of one place, organizing them by city or experience might suffice.
Photos within the Mexico folder may have subfolders such as Mexico City, Los Cabos, San Miguel de Allende, and Cancún.
Here's an example of what this looks like:
- Month – subfolder of country name/city or region (e.g. 2019-Mexico (subfolders: Los Cabos and San Miguel de Allende))
- Rename the file to indicate when and where the photo was taken (20191112_Guanajuato1 (Represents first photo taken in Guanajuato, MX on November 12, 2019)
It's a little tedious at first, but once you organize your photos, they're easy to find. If you find it difficult to rename all your files one by one, download Adobe Bridge, a free program that helps you manage and organize your images and other files. The batch rename feature allows you to quickly rename multiple files at once.
If you are shooting RAW files, it is a good idea to separate them from the JPG files and store them in a separate folder.
If you're an Apple Photos user, you'll probably want to organize your photos on your laptop/desktop. The computer version of Apple Photos lets you create folders and place multiple albums in each folder. This folder can be read on iPhone and iPad.
Step 3: Edit your travel photos
Once you've selected your images, it's time to edit them to look their best. Some of my favorite editing tools are free (is there a theme here?) and make a huge difference to the quality of your images.
- apple photos: If you have an Apple product, use this app first to easily make adjustments before using other apps. Most of the time, this is the only app I need.
- Google Photos: If you have a PC, this app includes editing tools and smart filters.
- adobe lightroom: A powerful and popular photo editor. Presets can be used in the app or purchased to save time by adding presets to images in a folder all at once. Helpful tutorials are available online.
- Snapseed: Developed by Google, it features 29 tools and filters.
- adobe photoshop For most photo editors who need more powerful tools (available by subscription).
Step 4: Save
Next, you'll need to set up your system to back up your progress and automatically save future images. You can use an external hard drive or a cloud-based service (or both). When choosing a cloud-based service, make sure that compressing your original files doesn't reduce their quality and resolution. Believe it or not, many of them do. Recommended if you are looking for a cloud-based service BackBlaze (starting at $9 per month), offers unlimited storage space and automatic backup features. The bonus is that it backs up your entire computer too! Google Photos backs up an unlimited number of photos and videos for free, up to 16MP and 1080p video resolutions, but reduces the size of high-quality files. If you want to keep the original quality, be prepared to pay extra. Amazon Photos for Prime members can also automatically back up your photos at full resolution for free.
Step 5: Remember the picture
If you're like me, you miss looking through photos in traditional photo albums. Commemorate your favorite digital photos in a printed photo album. Shutterfly and snap fish You have great options for ordering prints or creating fantastic photo books to display your precious memories. Blurb is another popular site that lets you create amazing photo books and feeds them directly within Adobe Lightroom.
I hope you found these tips helpful. If reminiscing about your past vacations has inspired you to plan your next vacation, contact Create your next memorable adventure with Premiere Luxury Travel!