Organize Pictures

Increase your website traffic for free

vlad — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:00:03 +0000

I decided to run a small project and provide some SEO advice for free for a limited number of people. If you would like me to review your site and give you feedback as to how to optimize your site, then put your website address in the box at the right and submit it. This page is the only place on the site where you can sign up. If you want to get more traffic for your site you can see more details and sign up.

4 easy steps to quickly send pictures by e-mail

vlad — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:25:00 +0000

I am still surprised when I get pictures as attachments in e-mails that I receive. The surprise is that I see humongous file sizes like 3 or 4 Mb. It is obvious to me that those who send me these pictures are sending full size images. Even using DSL, if I have [...]

Talking about why and how people take pictures. An interview with photography professor Stephen Cysewski.

vlad — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:09:09 +0000

Some time ago I had the privilege to ask professor and photographer Stephen Cysewski some questions. He was very gracious to include lots of details in his answers. Stephen Cysewski is Professor of Computer Applications, Emeritus at University of Alaska Fairbanks and has been living in Alaska since 1967.

Use folders and tags the right way.

vlad — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:00:48 +0000

Folders and tags are two complimentary methods for organizing your digital pictures on your computer. I have written in the past about the differences and similarities of folders and tags and people have written and asked questions (Read Tags vs Folders the big debate). This article explores one key difference between the two methods and how to use it for your own advantage.

What’s really cool in Picasa 3.5

vlad — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:25:16 +0000

Picasa has recently released version 3.5 according to the Picasa blog. They have not updated everyone yet, meaning that when you open up Picasa, it would not prompt you to update. However, you can download the new version if you want. I did that yesterday and played with some of the new features. I believe the new version has some cool new things and some that...well, I'm not sure.

3 simple tips for taking great pictures of children

vlad — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:37:55 +0000

I had a great experience working with my friend John the photographer. As I have indicated in my previous article, John Mueller has come and taken pictures of my children. He didn't only take pictures of my newborn son but also of my three year old daughter. I learned a lot of things from John, about taking pictures of children. In my last article I shared the things I have learned about taking pictures of infants. In this article I want to share some things about taking pictures of toddlers.

4 easy steps for taking great infant pictures

vlad — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:00:51 +0000

I normally don't write much about how to take pictures because I'm not an expert photographer. I love photography but I'm not a great photographer even though I have learned a lot of things. I believe I have improved my photography greatly (read 5 simple things that will improve your photography) but I am so much behind in the creative department. I write this article however, because it is rare when I have the chance to see a good photographer up close and be able to learn a few things from him.

Use Flickr and Facebook to gain traffic for your photo website.

vlad — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:40:16 +0000

Flickr and Facebook are great ways to make your pictures more "visible" on the internet. This way is not very direct but it can be very beneficial. Flickr is the largest photo sharing website (Facebook is catching up quickly) in the world and you can take advantage of its popularity if you do a few things right.

Write a photo blog and make your pictures famous

vlad — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:50:33 +0000

Over the years I have accumulated many travel pictures that I wanted to share on the internet. It was pretty easy to get my pictures published on the internet at first, but then I noticed that hardly anyone was finding my pictures on the internet. Even though I didn't know anything about SEO or page ranking, I realized pretty quickly that having the pictures published on the internet and having people actually come visit my site are two entirely different things.

Adding the right text in the right place will make your pictures visible on the Internet

vlad — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:53:43 +0000

Since there are so many photographers and photography websites it is very hard to get your pictures noticed on the internet. You may really be a very talented and experienced photographer and you may indeed have many great pictures. But how to you get the word out on the internet? How do you get your pictures noticed? What do you do to have your pictures show up in an internet search like Google, Yahoo or Bing? Fortunately there are some steps that you can take so that your pictures become "visible". Read on and see what I have found out about making my pictures "visible" on the internet.

Picasa is getting pretty good…finally

vlad — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:27:27 +0000

I have had a love-hate relationship with Picasa over the years ever since Google bought the company behind Picasa. I have installed it and uninstalled it many times over the years. Every time a major version would come out I would install it again and play with it but every time I ended up uninstalling it. Recently, however I have installed it again and it might just stay longer on my computer this time. Read on to find out why.

How not to be overwhelmed by lots of baby pictures

vlad — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:42:41 +0000

I find myself today in almost the same situation as when I started this blog. In the summer of 2006 I had my first baby, my daughter! That was three years ago. Now, three years later I had my second baby, my son! This is a great blessing indeed! Because we live in modern times with digital cameras, babies come with...well, among many other things, lots of pictures. And all these pictures need organization. There are a few things about organzing baby pictures that make the task a little different especially if you're only using folders for organizing your pictures.

Photography and Videography produce amazing results together.

vlad — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:32:59 +0000

When you keep your camera steady into one place over a long time and take many pictures over time it's called time lapse photography. Whatever this photography technique is called, when you put it together with videography techniques you get something really, really cool. I love these videos, they show a lot of imagination coupled with great understanding of videography and photography.

Image geotagging goes one step further with Flickr

vlad — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:38:25 +0000

It's only a matter of time until image geotagging will become the one thing that every photographer will have to do for their pictures. This type of image metadata is becoming very useful and desired. Flickr, of course, is the master keeper of over 100 million geotagged images. This means that they can provide a tot of geographically linked images and they can also create all kinds of interesting relationships between images and photographers.

Do you use geotags?

vlad — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:35:46 +0000

I don't want to post too many surveys but this one is important to anyone who is serious about organizing their pictures. Here is the question: Do you use geotags for your pictures? Go ahead, cast your votes !

Image metadata terms definition

vlad — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:08:38 +0000

I have been meaning to put together a list of image metadata terms and their definitions. I have found this list already created by the Metadata Working Group. So, I took it and published it here. Sometimes it's easier to read a list in bullet form. I always try to define the terms before I use them and so, I believe this list is very helpful as a reference point.

Best resource for understanding image metadata standards.

vlad — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Once in a while I find something on the web that makes me say: It's about time! That's what I found a couple of weeks ago. Image metadata and image metadata standards are very important for coming up with any meaningful long term strategy for organizing your pictures. However, with so many standards and acronyms it is very hard to figure out what to do. Do you use EXIF, IPTC or XMP for your strategy? How about all three? I believe I found a really good resource that explains the differences and commonalities between all three standards.

There is one big difference between image viewers and DAM software

vlad — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:58:07 +0000

Many of the conflicts in life originate from misunderstanding. Whether it's between husband and wife, between parents and children or between friends, conflicts can be easily solved if we would all be more careful about what we say and if we would all be better listeners. These things are also true when it comes to photo management. Some people talk about organizing their pictures others talk about digital asset management. Both groups talk essentially about the same thing but using different terms. In this article I will try to outline some of the differences between these two terms and the tools that are used for each.

Why folders will remain the most popular method for organizing pictures

vlad — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:37:09 +0000

Last month I have created a survey among the readers of OrganizePictures.com. The question was very simple: Do you use folders or tags? The answers were pretty much split in the middle. Half of those who answered responded that they use only folders for organizing their pictures, while half of them were using a combination of folders and tags for organizing their pictures. Only two people said they're only using tags for organizing their pictures. One of the conclusions of this survey is that image organization just with folders is very popular. I was not surprised by this conclusion because of several reasons.

How do you organize 35 million pictures ?

vlad — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:56:44 +0000

It is very rare for me to read about photography on blogs that have to do with computer science and programming, but this week I came across a very interesting study that combines computer science and picture organization methods. The study was done by Cornell University faculty and students and was presented at the 2009 edition of the International World Wide Web conference. It was entitled "Mapping the world's photos" (See resources at the end for the PDF link).

Facebook says no to image geotags

vlad — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:20:37 +0000

I have been searching the Internet for a while trying to find how to use the geotags I have in the images I share on Facebook. I was sure I would find an application or some plug-in that would do it. I was wrong !

Reader Survey – Do you use folders or tags?

vlad — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:50:41 +0000

I decided to add a survey once in a while. I'm hoping it will be fun! Surveys can be relevant sometimes, while other times can be meaningless. I think it all depends on the way the survey questions are constructed. So, here is my first poll about organizing your pictures: Do you use folders or tags when you organize your pictures? Go ahead, cast your votes !

Transfer your pictures efficiently in 6 easy steps

vlad — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:23:22 +0000

Usually transferring pictures is the simplest step of any photographer's workflow. However, the results of transferring your pictures can affect your entire picture collection. There are some simple things that anyone can do to transfer their pictures in an efficient way. I can think of five things that proved to be very helpful over the years in the way I organize my photo collection on my computer.

Add precision to your picture collection by adding layers of organization

vlad — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:19:07 +0000

Many times precision is achieved by approaching the target in small steps. This is true also when it comes to your photo collection. It would be great if we could have unlimited free time to add tags and geotags to all of our pictures. Unfortunately, this is not the case and many times we have to choose how precise we want to organize our pictures. So we approach precision in picture organization in layers...layers of organization.

RSS Feed location has changed

vlad — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:40:18 +0000

Since Google has purchased Feedburner, I didn’t notice that they have changed the URL for my feed. For those of you that are subscribing to my RSS Feed, the new location for my feed is: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/organizepicturescom . I have also updated the Subscribe button on this page with the new location. So, please update it in your RSS reader.

2 simple examples of using image geotags

vlad — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:19:16 +0000

Yeah, image geotags are cool, they're the latest buzz...but who cares? Should you really care just because everyone else cares? Well, it takes a lot of time to create image geotags and put them in your images, then some sharing sites may use them while others may not...so what's the use? In this article I'll show you two of my own examples of using image geotags: Picasa Web Albums and Flickr...then you can decide for yourself if image geotags are the next thing you'll be staying up late for.

How to use your image geotags in Flickr

vlad — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:59:44 +0000

Geotagging images is soon becoming the hottest topic in photography primarily thanks to Flickr. Flickr is such a popular photo sharing site (apparently after Facebook) that whatever Flickr does it spreads very quickly. Flickr has embraced image geotagging around 2006 I believe, and they have tailored their tools to make the picture geotagging process very easy for the user. It is surprising however, that Flickr doesn't do image geotagging according to what it's expected...but rather in a roundabout way.

Geotagging and Geocoding – friends forever.

vlad — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:29:06 +0000

As I have promised in my article about Geotagging, today I'm writing about Geocoding. I won't get too deep into Geocoding because you can find all the information you would want on Wikipedia. I want to write more about the relationship between Geocoding and Geotagging.

2 simple methods for geotagging your pictures

vlad — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:45:56 +0000

When photography which is an art, intersects technology which is...not an art what do you get? You get some weird buzz words. Today's star is Geotagging ! Think of it as Geographic Tags, or Geographic keywords. The thing that makes it weird is that GeoTags are actual coordinates, so they're not related to tags or keywords at all. They're not keywords...'cause they're not even words.

What is a photoblog good for ?

vlad — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:35:14 +0000

I have argued in my previous article about simple marketing for photographers, that a simple website specific to your photography niche can be very powerful, even more powerful than a full fledged photoblog. That being said...what is a photoblog good for then? Well, I don't believe a photoblog is suited for every kind of website, but it can be very well suited for certain web sites. Read along to find three ways to successfully use a photoblog.

10 things to look for when shopping for web hosting.

vlad — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:59:17 +0000

When talking about publishing pictures online, the discussion inevitably goes towards web hosting companies. There are so many companies out there, from small to large, from cheap to expensive; they all say the same thing: we're the best ! How can one choose? Well, I have been publishing online for over eight years and I have tried several web hosting providers...so my opinion is somewhat qualified. If you're looking for a web hosting provider, I'm hoping that this article will help you choose a good company.

How to turn a simple website into a powerful marketing tool for your pictures.

vlad — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:55:31 +0000

I find many good photographers on the web. I love browsing through Flickr because I see lots of great pictures; there are some great photographers on Flickr! Sometimes I think that they're making lots of money with their great pictures but when I research a little more I find out that they probably don't. On the other hand on Flickr I find other good photographers that actually make money from their pictures. What is the difference between these two groups of photographers? While the quality of their pictures is certainly a factor there is another simple difference: publicity...or in other words...marketing.

One simple strategy to optimize your photography workflow

vlad — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:24:15 +0000

Now that you have asked the right questions, figured out your purpose and defined your photography workflow steps, what do you do to make everything more efficient ? Is there something extra to be done to tie everything together in a nice and smooth process ? While I believe that there is nothing you can do to eliminate hard and repetitive work, there is one thing you can do to make all that hard work...easier.

The ABCs of an efficient photography workflow

vlad — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:41:23 +0000

In my last two articles I have written about basic questions to ask when creating or modifying your photography workflow. However, what do you do after asking these foundational questions ? Where do you start analyzing your current workflow? This article will explain the simplest steps of a photography workflow...this is the "ABC" of photography workflow. These are the steps that are part of any photography workflow no matter how simple or complicated. This is where all photography workflows start, this is the birthplace of a photography workflow.

Is your photography workflow good enough ?

vlad — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:12:05 +0000

You'll probably ask immediately: good enough for what? Well...that's exactly the question to ask when it comes to your photography workflow. While my last article deals with similar basic questions, this article is a variation on the same theme but with a twist. I hope you like the twist :)

How to define an efficient photography workflow

vlad — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:48:09 +0000

It is my belief that while there are general steps in a photographer's workflow, each photographer will have his/her own workflow customised to fit his or her purpose. That being said, I also believe that there a few questions that each photographer should ask when contemplating changes to their photography workflow. I don't know about you, but it has happened to me a few times when I read about someone else's photography workflow and I just quickly adapted it only to find out later that it's not working that great for me. This forced me to ask some really simple questions before changing anything. ( Photo credit: SXC )

Is there a perfect photography workflow ?

vlad — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:23:09 +0000

Workflow is a new buzz word that appears everywhere from making cars to mowing your lawn. Photographers also love to talk about their workflow and how their workflow is more efficient than another workflow. In this article I want to take a step back and look at what a workflow is and in particular to see its application to photography.

2 great examples of photography workflow

vlad — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:37:00 +0000

There is so much information about photography workflow on the net that it is very hard to sort through all the articles. Many articles are just being copied and edited from blog to blog and they are not that helpful. On the other hand there are a few articles that will definitely help you in fine tuning your photography workflow. I am posting two links here with the hope that they will help you as they helped me.

ACDSee – You need the Pro version for portable keywords

vlad — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:07:34 +0000

I am continuing my quest for a cheap image organizer software. What I am looking for is pretty simple: I want the ability to create keywords and organize them into categories so I can apply them to my pictures in a somewhat orderly fashion. Then, I also want the ability to save my keywords to IPTC/XMP tags into my image files so that my keywords become portable. This time I am looking at ACDSee.

What makes photo management software tick?

vlad — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:55:21 +0000

Keywords or tags are the hottest topic when it comes to organizing your pictures. The standards used for capturing photo keywords and saving them to the actual image files are XMP and IPTC. It is important to understand what these terms mean and how to use them, but it is also important to understand how the actual keywords end up being added to your image files. So what does an image organizer software do in order to create and add keywords to image files ?

The road frequently traveled…by image metadata

vlad — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:08:07 +0000

Now that I have explained the different types of image metadata there is one more question to answer: how does this image metadata end up in your image files? This article will explain the road very frequently traveled by image metadata. From your camera to your computer and back to your image file, image metadata becomes connected to each image and this way becomes PORTABLE.

Understand and manage your image metadata

vlad — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:47:55 +0000

Tagging your images is so cool, compared with using plain old folders...at least that's what everyone says :) But how do your carefully created keywords get attached to your images? What are EXIF, IPTC and XMP? And most of all...why should you care about all of these acronyms? Understanding the different types of image metadata will help you better manage your pictures.

Lost my comments for the last two weeks

vlad — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:52:49 +0000

I have just returned from my vacation and I looked over the comments that I received in the last two weeks…and I messed up! I have accidentally deleted all of them instead of deleting only the spam comments. I’m still getting used with the new WordPress 2.5 interface…it looks like I need more [...]

All you need to know about organizing your pictures

vlad — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:37:57 +0000

There is a lot of information on OrganizePictures.com. Sometimes it's hard for a first time visitor to find what he or she needs. That's why I created a new page called START HERE ! This page contains most of the core articles I have written about organizing pictures. So it actually contains everything you need to know about organizing your pictures. It's true that there is a lot more on my page, but this is where all new visitors should start.

Inside secrets about OrganizePictures.com

vlad — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:35:10 +0000

PhotoNovice.net continues their project with another phase. Tibor wants to get some answers to questions that have to do with source of readers for my blog.

iMatch – an exercise in frustration

vlad — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:01:39 +0000

In my quest to find an alternative for Adobe Lightroom I was told to give iMatch a try because it would do what I need. So I proceeded to try doing the same exercise in keywording that I have done with Adobe Lightroom. However, I can't really write much about it because I couldn't do it and I got very frustrated with the software.

Adobe Lightroom – an exercise in keywording

vlad — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:43:48 +0000

I have been looking for a long time for some software that would allow me to manage keywords in an efficient manner. What do I mean by efficient? It's pretty simple: all I want is the ability to group my keywords into categories or domains. For example: I want car, boat, ship, carriage, bus and bicycle to all be grouped into a domain called transportation. Can I do that with Adobe Lightroom?

A look at 21 months of statistics for OrganizePictures.com

vlad — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:09:16 +0000

Sometimes it's good to do a sanity check on a blog. You've got to go back in time and see if anyone says anything good about your blog...well at least you've got to find something out there about your blog...otherwise you're writing all to yourself. That's what I did...I went back through my analytics reports provided by Google Analytics.

5 steps to create precise keywords for tagging your pictures

vlad — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:16:31 +0000

Once you get started with Digital Asset Management (DAM) software you will quickly run into another management issue: your keywords. I believe any DAM software user will eventually ask himself the question: how am I supposed to create my keywords? Reading various internet sources on the subject I usually run into two kinds of advice: some say you should just start adding keywords to your images while others say you should be careful and think through your keywords before creating them. Even though it seems that most advice falls in the first category, I happen to fall into the second category. I do believe that you should be careful when you create keywords primarily because if you create too many, then you will have to manage your keywords as well pretty soon...as if managing your pictures is not enough headache. :)

When folders are not enough…tags are your friends.

vlad — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:01:35 +0000

It is rare when a complex problem can have a simple solution. Most of the times however, a complex problem can have a simple solution that only works well for some of the times. When "some of the times" is "most of the times" for you, then the simple solution will work fine. However if "some of the times" does turn out not to be "most of the times" then the simple solution breaks down very easily. This is the case with the folder based method of organizing your pictures. So, how do you know when folders are not enough?