photography : how to save and file your photos

Confession: my past attempts at filing photos were absolutely diabolical. So bad that Daniel recently took a look at my external hard drive and realised that I had four different folders titled: autumn. For the record, I wouldn’t recommend filing your photos according to the season they were taken. Instead, embrace a very methodical, Type-A personality approach to filing; you will be forever grateful.

There’s a few things you need to consider when saving your photos:

size – if you’re publishing online and plan to one day print your photo, it’s best to save both a web and print version. For example: when it comes time to save my weekly portrait of Poet, I save the following files:

Poet 7/52 – web (740px wide – the width of my post column on my blog | resolution = 72dpi aka low-res)
Poet 7/52 – print (no resizing required | resolution = 300dpi aka high-res)

For those of you new to photography, dpi = dots (or pixels) per inch. If you were to print a web resolution/low resolution file it would be very pixelated and not worth keeping. And on the flipside, if you were to publish a print resolution/high resolution photo to the web, it would use up a lot of space and generally, take a long time to load.

location – in terms of maintaining some semblance of organisation with your photo filing, it’s essential that you create a filing system. Saving by date is the most logical choice but it is, of course, a personal choice.

For The 52 Project I have a folder titled: 2015 – The 52 Project and each week, a web and print file is added.

If you are editing in a program like Lightroom, it will automatically file your photos year – month – day and give you the option to personalise even further, if you wish.

editing – dipping my toes into the editing side of photography now which, undeniably, is a world unto its own. However, if you are looking to improve your photography I highly recommend you download the free 30-day trial of Lightroom. Generally, most photographers use Lightroom to import and edit their photos. But, one of the best things about Lightroom is that it automatically files and saves your photos to your computer. There are free programs like Picmonkey that you can use to edit but personally, I would go straight to Lightroom. Yes, it is complicated at first but there are countless tutorials online and, before long, you’ll find it’s quite intuitive.

When creating diptychs (two photos side-by-side) or a grid (as seen here) I use Photoshop.

This is a very basic guide to filing photos and whilst it works for me, you may take an entirely different approach. As per usual, I’m more than happy to answer your questions within the comments.

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Showing 14 comments
  • remaliah
    Reply

    Thanks for this, Jodi. I also need to work on my organised saving methods! Just a quick and maybe rookie question…what programme do you use to change sizes of your photos? I don't have Lightroom (yet), so only iPhoto. Thanks for your tips!

    • Jodi
      Reply

      silly me, not mentioning that in the post (I'll blame my mushy pregnancy brain). Yes, I use Lightroom to change the size of the files. So, when I have finished editing a photo I will export it to its original (year-month-day) folder or to a specific folder (2015 The 52 Project) and alter the size accordingly x

    • remaliah
      Reply

      Thanks! All the more reason to consider getting Lightroom ;o) No worries…I understand pregnancy brain well and I'm only at 20 weeks! All the very best for your little one's arrival xx

  • Hannah
    Reply

    Hi Jodi, do you shoot in raw, then upload and resize the photos? I have loved photography for a long time, and used to shoot in raw + jpg, but because I only ever made minor edits, I stopped shooting in raw as it took up so much space on my memory card. However, towards the end of last year, I was looking at the jpg file sizes of my portraits from the 52 project, and realised they had got smaller and smaller – as my memory card had got rather full, it automatically compressed them in a lower resolution. I want to avoid that happening again this year, so that I will be able to print them into a book, but not sure of the best way to do this. I currently only have Adobe PSE 7, and unfortunately because it's an older version, it is not compatible with my raw files! Do you have any suggestions? Sorry, that feels like a very long winded question! Many thanks for sharing your knowledge with us : )

    • Jodi
      Reply

      No, I don't shoot in raw. I, too, only make minor edits and therefore I can't justify the space that raw takes up. I do use a 32g memory card though and take the photos off regularly….hence, I've never experienced (or heard) of the card compressing the files. When it comes to the technical side of photography I'm still very much an amateur – sorry for not being able to answer all your questions! x

    • Hannah
      Reply

      Thank you Jodi, that's helpful to know!

  • Hannie Blaise
    Reply

    This was so helpful! Thanks so much.

    Hannie at // CHAPTERS LIKE THIS //

  • tales from a bungalow
    Reply

    Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! Now lets see if I can save the files and resize as you said! x

  • tash @ Little Bit of Thyme
    Reply

    Thank you for this! It just happens to be on my to do list for this week!

  • Jessica Doll @ Team Wiking
    Reply

    These are great tips, I love to see how others organize their files to see if I can improve on mine. I write about my organization + backup on my blog here: http://www.teamwiking.com/2014/01/24/photo-tips-organize-backup/

    jessica / http://www.teamwiking.com

  • Christie R
    Reply

    I'm enjoying this series so much. Was going to ask about RAW, but Hannah beat me to it!

  • Lee Andrews
    Reply

    Great article. Do check out this great tool to send many photos called Binfer. I have sent many pictures with Binfer. It’s a nifty little tool. See http://www.binfer.com/solutions/domains/file-sharing-solution-for-professional-photographers.

  • Kylie Purtell
    Reply

    I absolutely LOVE Lightroom. I got it last year as part of the Adobe CC when I was doing an introductory Graphic Design course, but have only started using it recently. I am studying Photo Imaging at Tafe and part of the curriculum is learning how to use it and now that I've started I wish I'd been using it forever. I love it!

  • tales from a bungalow
    Reply

    Hi Jodi
    Me again! I am trying to work out how to save images when uploading to my blog, at the same size as my column post. I just can't work it out.
    I have also just downloaded Lightroom. It seems a minefield, is it just a matter of practice practice practice!? Or should I go on some kind of course?
    Best of luck with the birth xxx

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