You’ve got the photos, they’ve been uploaded to your computer. Now what? Let them sit and wait? Print all? Overwhelmed because you have tons of photos and don’t know where to start?
Today I’m going to share my process. I do NOT keep any kind of fancy digital organization system for photos.
While I love the idea of tagging and/or organizing heavily… it doesn’t make sense for the way I work and print. So I save myself time and skip it!
I keep it real simple (think month/year and/or event name/year) and I print any photo I really want. I don’t trust technology, and I like having hard copies ready to go. I’m a “4×6” scrapper, meaning I scrapbook with what I’ve got: 4×6 photos pre-printed. So my process might not work for you. Still, I’d like to take some time and share:
It’s a 3-step program. Once I’ve got photos (I’ll be using my recent Disney World trip as example):
1. I go through them once using the viewer/basic program on computer. I DELETE any that I definitely don’t want. Super blurry, bad, unwanted, excess… anything that I know immediately I don’t want gets deleted. This goes QUICK.
2. I walk away. Then at some later time (at least an hour! clear your mind!) I come back and repeat the process. This time weeding down even further. Do I want to print 6 shots of Rebecca eating a chocolate coin (shown above)? NO. I went back through and deleted the two I liked least. This “second pass” I usually go through twice and pay attention to my worst problem: keeping a LOT of nearly the same/equally good shots of the same thing.
I don’t keep bad pictures, unless there is a story or other reason to. I also don’t save photos I took just for blog/internet/non-print uses beyond when I post them. The above fireworks pictures? I was taking shots FOR FUN – I have no intention of using either and they don’t blow me away. buh bye!!
3. It’s edit time. I do not believe in editing every photo, heavy handed photoshop work, or spending loads of time on it. I don’t want to pretend we all had matching shirts or that the sky was purple… I want to record and document as close to the truth as possible. Basic or Auto-correct, and maybe some light cropping are my most common (if any) edits. I’d say about 75% of the photos you see me use are SOOC (Straight out of camera) and not at all edited. I’d rather have less than perfect pics, and more time for other stuff. If I want some fancy edited, altered, or otherwise “funky” photos I can ALWAYS go back and do that when the mood/project/time strikes. For now, it’s not important.
That’s it – now it’s time to upload, order, and enjoy!! The entire process for all 863 of my Disney World photos (narrowed down to under 400) took about three hours. I order only 4×6 photos, then if I want any enlargements or anything I will re-order. Next up, I’ll share some of my photo-edit “go-to” solutions and rules… and then hopefully next week I will share some comparison of some on-line photo ordering sites. I’ve ordered up my Disney World photos already (split among 3 different sites) and I will continue to share my discoveries, highlights, and tips.
Hope you tried persnickety prints – they are best no question
Nice to see how someone else does it. I usually do the first pass but not the second, maybe I should try that as I have the same problem you do keeping too many of basically the same shot.
Curious to see you’re printing results, I did a comparison once but it’s been a few years ago.
Persnickety, SnapFish, and Scrapbook Pictures are the three I tried this time… will post results. Starting today pics should start rollin’ in here…
It’s a HUGE thing – I usually weed out quite a few photos, and NEVER have I missed those that I eliminate in “round 2”. It’s saved me mega $$$ in printing and the stress of “which of these nearly identical prints shall I use?!” on layouts.
Will share soon as pics start rollin’ in…
Thanks for sharing your process May. I too delete, delete. Do you print photos right away (non-vacation ones) or once a month or what? I too don’t edit – the occasional colour boost and cropping and that’s it. There’s enough pictures to deal with without having to edit each and every one and then scrapbook the majority of them.
I love that you are a 4×6 scrapper – I am too.
We definitely think alike…and as my mind processes it, sometimes I remember photos I saved and forgot about. I’m working on my son’s Senior year and then all of a sudden, thinking I have them all picked out for ordering, I’ll remember another event, a moment, something I need to add. Funny how our mind just needs the time to process things.
I do photos about once a month… it depends on what’s happening/what photos I have/etc. I try to edit/delete/sort photos as I upload them – then when I decide like I want to order I just have to upload.
I love the idea of a second pass around. And I’m so glad the majority of pics you scrapbook are SOOC. I think 99% of mine are!!!