Six tips for managing digital photos

Digital photography is replacing film as the media of choice for capturing and memorializing important moments in our lives. The following are suggestions for preserving images for future generations to enjoy.

• Move pictures from your camera to desktop often.
• Store all photos in one location. Don’t spread them out all over your hard drive. Storing in a single location simplifies organizing your pictures and makes it easier to back up.
• Don’t dump all photos in one directory. Create a directory structure that’s easy to understand. For example, you may want to create a folder name with the date you transferred the files from the camera or, if your pictures are from the same event, name the folder after that event.
• Use software to organize photos. A good example is Google’s Picasa software, which is free and helps manage your photos. It allows you to view and create slide shows, as well as perform minor touch-ups like removing red eye.
• Back up photos regularly to another source. This may be a secondary hard drive or CD-ROM/DVD. If you’re backing up to CD or DVD: 1) Create easy-to-understand labels. You want them to be understandable when you’re trying to find pictures a year from now. 2) Create a binder to store and organize back ups – and keep the binder in a safe place you can find later. 3) For valuable images, consider making multiple copies and storing them in different locations.
• Regularly clean up your picture directory. Once you’ve backed up your images to another source, remove older pictures from your hard drive to reduce clutter. It’s easy to reload pictures from a CD or DVD if you need them later.

John Hiebert is a technical support staff member for the Canadian Conference, Winnipeg.