Whether you use just one Head Shot Photo for publicity or product photos to show clients, you need to have your photos organized for easy access. This is not very difficult to do. Today you have many choices so lets discuss a few with the the Pro’s and Con’s of each:
How To Store Photos Files
Hardware Based:
Computer
Pro’s: Always have Easy access
Con’s: If computer breaks, you can lose what you wanted to save.
USB Thumb Drives
Pro’s: Easy access
Good back up that you physically have.
Easy to move between different computers. (Including Mac or PC)
Con’s: Cost Money
They are small, so they are easy to lose.
External Hard Drives
Pro’s: Easy access
Good back up that you physically have.
Con’s: Cost Money
Must be formated for Mac or PC
Cloud Based – Free Storage
Pro’s: Always have access.
Easy access (once you know how).
Can use from Computer, Tablet or Phone.
Con’s: Could be hard to get full size photo files back.
The photo files become thumbnail size, which makes it not usable.
The software sometimes gives a new file name.
Limited Free space for storage
Cloud Based – Paid Storage
Pro’s: Always have access.
Easy access (once you know how).
Can use from Computer, Tablet or Phone.
More security for stored files.
Con’s: Cost Money
Recommendation:
Google Drive for Free. All you need is a google account. If you have “Gmail” you have a google account. This includes 15 GB of storage space, which is good enough for most people. It is easy to view photos plus the photo files retain the full-size image. File naming remains the same for easy idenKficaKon and are viewed along with the photo. One can purchase more storage if needed at a reasonable rate.
I personally like using a combination of USB drives and the cloud. You can use a portable hard drive as well as a USB drive but they are bigger and bulkier to carry. I try to back up to Google Drive. It is free and easy to use. You just need to sign up for a google account. You can create folders with multiple photos and then share the entire folder with your client. This is much easier than emailing a lot of photos.
Just beware, some of the Free online photo storage sites will only let you share thumbnail or low quality images. They allow you to store your photos with the idea you will order prints through them. It is difficult, if not impossible to retrieve a full resolution image from these sites. In business you NEED your full resolution photo files.
How To View Your Photo Files
Windows Operating System
- Insert USB drive into port on Computer
- Navigate to the port where the drive is inserted
- Navigate to My Computer
- Select the port that contains the USB drive
- Locate the folder on the drive with your photos
- Open folder and select all
- Open photo files
- Photos should open into a program called My Picture Viewer
- Use arrow keys to scroll through photos
- Note: photos are labeled with numbers – use these to identify the photos
Mac Operating System
- Insert drive into USB port (may need an adapter for newer Mac laptops
- USB drive should appear on your screen (desk top)
- Find the folder with your photos and open folder
- Select All to and then open all selected
- Photos will open in a program called Preview
- Use arrow keys to scroll through photos
- Note: photos are labeled with numbers – use these to identify the photos
Recommendation: Follow above info for viewing
Beware: Do not copy your photos to your computer, even if it asks you to do so.
Reason: Both Windows and Mac operating systems have built-in programs to view and/or share photos. These programs only use thumb nail size photos, made for easy and quick sharing. They are numbered by how many you have stored. When you download to this program it adds to the numbering and it will take some digging to get to the proper, original photo file number. On the surface it changes the number of the photo. I need the original number when you are requesting the finished photos. Also, do not use photos stored here for business use. These images are very small thumbnails just for sharing purposes. It is best to keep your photo images on the thumb drive or move one selected finished photo to your computer. It should be emailed as a full size attachment.