Tips for Storing Your Digital Pictures
Digital cameras are so widespread these days, that it creates a really interesting problem: with so man digital pictures, it get harder to organize your digital life. The biggest disadvantage of the current situation is that, while you can take pictures of every moment of your life, it gets harder and harder to find them easily.
The solution to organize your digital pictures is based on two simple steps: first, find a method for storing your pictures, and second, be consistent in the way you use whatever method you found.
Storing your pictures is important because you don't want to waste space on your hard drive or thumb drive. Although computers come with large memory these days, it is also very easy to run out of space when you take pictures daily.
There is also the issue that you may lose pictures when you don't have a proper backup. It is not enough to take pictures, you also need to make sure they will last and that you can accesses them later.
Finding a good storage solution for your pictures
The first step you need to put order in your digital life is to find a method to store all your pictures. Good know, though, that there are several services available that allow you to do exactly this. Here are some examples of storage services that you can use to simplify the organization of your pictures:
Google Picasa: Google Picasa is a software that can help you to organize your pictures in a very easy way. The program is able to scan all your hard disk, looking for pictures in any of the recognized formats, and create a virtual library with all your pictures. Google Picasa organizes pictures not only by name, but also by date. Additionally, you can create albums with your preferred photos, so that you can see all pictures that are related at the same time.
Google Picasa also has the advantage of being backed by the largest web company of all. This means that they have the resources to keep your data stored in their servers indefinitely. You will probably never have to worry about what to do when the company is not around -- as you would probably do if you were dealing with a smaller company that could fold out at any time.
The other thing that Picasa provides is access to web albums. You can take pictures from any album and upload them to the web. In doing this, you can share your best photos with your friends and family. And, what is better, the service is completely free up to a generous limit.
Mac me: Apple also has a solution for digital picture storage, and it is based on its Mac me service. The Mac me website updates its photos from an Apple computer using the standard Mac software for digital pictures. The integration of these programs is very good, so you can expect to have a very good solution to store and share pictures with your friends. The only downside of the Mac Me service is that it is not free. However, for just a small monthly fee you can have a lot of online storage, and a gorgeous interface, as is usual with software created by Apple.
Flicker: Flicker is a well know, free web site that you can use to store images for free. The advantage of Flicker is that it has social web features: for example, you can create a list of friends that use the web site, or you can find all pictures related to some keyword (which is called a tag in Flicker). The web site is now owned by yahoo, so you can be assured that there is a big company taking care of its safety.
Photo bucket: Finally, a simpler solution that may be useful for many is using photobucket.com. Photobucket is a web site where you can upload your pictures and share with friends. It allows users to leave comments on each photo, and pictures can be sent to mobile phones easily. It may be just the right choice for you, if you need a free picture upload web site.
Consistency is key
The next step, is to make sure that you consistently use the service you choose. After all, remember that a great part of organization is making sure that you do things in a predictable way, so you can remember where they are.
For example, if you use a service that allows you to create albums, you should create some standard way of naming your albums. For example, you can start naming you albums with year, month, and day, followed by a description, such as "sister's wedding".
The more you use you system for storing digital photos, the more it will be easier for you to find the pictures you want. And, with the knowledge that they will be well organized, you will be more inclined into keeping with the system. Withing a few months you will never need to worry again about where to store your digital pictures, and how to find the photos that you like!
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