Organize your photos with a simple system

You'll be able to create pages quickly and easily with your photos organized and accessible. I'll first review Photoshop Elements' organization features, but for many of us, event folders still work great. You may want to use Elements' features for new downloads, but handle your backlog with event folders.

The system I recommend here dovetails perfectly with my tips for creating Fusion Albums, which you'll find in Quick Tip #4.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS PHOTO ORGANIZATION includes several features that can become part of your downloading process. On a PC, the photos download automatically using the "Organizer," and on a Mac, they use "Bridge." Photos are downloaded into files based on download date. You can give each photo "keyword tags" that will make finding them later a snap. You can even rate your favorite photos.

That being said, you may not want to take the time to index every photo in your digital backlog this way. So here's a quick, tried-and-true method with virtually no learning curve.

START ANYWHERE. There's no rule that says you must start organizing images starting with your oldest ones. Begin with any year you like. But organize a whole year from January to December for a sense of accomplishment. You are then free to begin to plan the modern digital scrapbook pages for that year, or to tackle another year.

1. Create a folder titled "My Photos" and drag every photo into it.?2. Within "My Photos," create a folder for every year. Title them, for example, "2007 Photos." They will appear in numerical order within your "My Photos" folder.?3. Within each year's folders, create folders for every month. For example "01 January 2007," "02 February 2007," etc. Noting the month number first will keep the months in order.?4. Within each month's folder, create folders for specific events, such as "Olivia BDay 2007." Don't try to keep events in order within each month. ?5. With each month's folder, create an "Everydays" folder for photos not related to events.?6. Within each event folder, create a "Scrap" folder for the best photos and a "Sleeve" folder for the rest. You'll understand why when you read about Fusion Albums (Quick Tip #4). Trash the images that are truly unusable (underexposed, blurry, etc.) or that are nearly identical to other photos.?7. When you have sorted a year's worth of photos, burn two CDs for each year. Store one at home and one offsite.

MORE ABOUT STORAGE. External hard drives can store a lifetime of photos. You should periodically copy your photos to an external hard drive, but remember to also store one copy offsite (hopefully, you won't need it). There are also many "online storage" websites to which you can upload your photos. Some of these are free when you use their services to print (such as Costco.com) and some are fee-based. If I used online storage, I would also have my own storage media physically accessible.

NOTE: Some retail photo printers store your photos online only as long as you are an active customer; they may delete them if you don't order a print in a certain period of time (a year, for example). Be sure to check this out before relying on a retailer for online storage.