Tuesday 24 February 2015

Digital photo management

As we gradually accumulate mountains or terabytes of digital photos, some help is at hand. There is no perfect solution but a consistent and steady approach will help conquer the despair one may feel when looking at many years' worth of accumulated files. Much has been written on this topic and some recent up to date posts are listed at the end of this article. The slide show above accompanies a talk presented at Noosaville Library on 24th February 2015.

There are several issues to consider:
  • Where are all your photos? Phones, cameras, computers, flash drives, CDs, surely not floppy disks!
  • What do you want to do with them? Digital only, photo books, individual prints, keep them to yourself, share with family or with the world - all of these considerations will help you determine best practice for you.
  • Where will you keep them? Locally, off site, in the cloud? 
  • How will you find them? What search capabilities do you need to have, by file name, keyword, tags, people's names, events, dates?
  • What about the future? What if the format of files changes? What media should you use?
Once you have thought about these issues it is time to get started.

1. Gather all photos into one location. Take a critical look and dispose/delete those that could easily be obtained by using a Google search. Is your picture of the Eiffel Tower better than one you can find online?

2. Decide on a file naming system. Probably the most difficult decision but remember the search capabilities of computers are excellent. Most cameras and phones nowadays will have the date embedded and for most purposes, this is an excellent method of naming files.
  • YYYY-MM-DD Event Place Person number 2015-02-15_rain_Gympie_001.jpg 
This method will keep all your images well ordered whichever folder they are in.
If your photos are people focused you may like to consider
  • SURNAME_Firstname_date_event_Place_number        HOGAN_Janet_1912_schooldays_010.jpg 
This method will file all families and relations together. Whatever the method you decide on, write some guidelines to remind yourself every time you save new images.

3. Add metadata, that is similar to writing on the back of the prints like Mum and Grandma did in the photo albums of previous years. Expensive programs are not needed to do this. See examples in the slideshow. Remember to save! 
4. Back up in at least 3 different ways - at least one external HDD and another one offsite in case of natural or other disasters. How often do you hear of someone losing all their files through a computer crash or a disaster such as fire or flood?
5. Load to the cloud for future proofing. When Apple no longer supported Flash files, the online providers eventually moved their files to HTML5. YouTube has now converted customers' online files for them at no cost. Flickr has billions of images from reputable entities worldwide. The British Library alone has more than 1 million images housed on Flickr.

Keeping things organized 

10 free photo editor tools from Make Use Of
Free photo editing software for Windows 7/8 by the Windows Club
How to use Spotlight search like a champ from How to Geek
Which cloud service for you? from CNet
Scan your life Create the photo collection you have always wanted
Clipping magic Instantly remove image backgrounds online
A great post on iPhoneography by Darcy Moore

The options I use to preserve digital photos are detailed in the slideshow. Here's another post on the subject I wrote earlier this year. There are dozens of YouTube videos to help with organising your photos. Is there a major player I've missed? Let me know in the comments what you have found useful.

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2015/02/digital-photo-management.html

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Phone home

iPhone classes - Noosa Library Service

Noosaville Library - Feb 11th, 18th, 25th
Cooroy Library - Mar 4th, 11th, 18th

Puzzled by the features of your iphone? This series of 3 classes is designed to help you get the best from your device. The slides are reminders of material covered/to be covered.
It is recommended that you download the iPhone user's guide available free in iBooks.
If you have attended the class please feel free to post your questions in the Comments at the end.


1. Beginners’ guide to smartphones
2. iBooks Download the iphone User Guide.
3. Grovo iphone tips and tricks Scroll down to see the video titles. These are excellent and all are less than 2 mins long.
4. SnapGuides for iphones Scroll through the pages.
5. YouTube has hundreds of videos to help you get the best from your phone.
6. EverythingIcafe guides
7.  iOS8 25 tips
11. http://osxdaily.com/category/iphone/ 

Request zone from class

Add your questions to the comments below.

How to block a nuisance caller
Learn how to use iCloud
Apple ID support Use this link if you have forgotten details of your Apple ID
iPhone support by Apple. Online webpages covering frequently asked questions
WikiHow 3 ways to print photos from your iPhone
Connecting to WiFi
WikiHow How to create an Apple ID on an iphone
Manage an ipad and iphone on the same Apple ID
How to log out of the Facebook app. Log out of other apps by finding the settings or account details within the app, this will either be three lines close together or a gear type icon.
iCloud support

Useful apps mentioned Weeks 1-3

Tips Pro $1.29 from App Store
Simple Transfer Pro $3.29
CamScanner
Put airline passes and cards into Passbook (app already on your phone)
ABC iView
ABC Radio
SBS OnDemand
Plus7
TuneIn Radio
Google Another option for search by voice, in addition to the Siri searches
The Noosa app
Telstra 24 x 7

Photo apps

Go to App Store - Select Categories, Scroll to Photography. There are many to choos frm,download and play with some free ones.
See slides on Digital Photo management for screenshots
Some of my favourites
Have fun!

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