Why and How You Should Organize Your Photos

Have you ever taken a photo, filed it away on your computer, and then wanted to see it or post it for some reason?  But couldn't find it?  Maybe you wanted to share it on FB or show it to a friend, but there is no way to know where it might be.  Well, there is software available to help you.

I use LightRoom.  I had been using it for post production editing of photos originally, and it works great for that.  But you can also give your photos keywords, and then search using those keywords.  You can further use a rating system from 1 - 5 stars, 5 being best, to further narrow your searches.
So, for example, let's say I just shot this photo, imported it into LightRoom, and want to add keywords.  One of them would be "Oz," another might be "HotAirBalloon," "Gondola," PurpleDress," "Hat," "BeautifulGirl," etc.  I already have my folder for Halloween 2013, but if I didn't, I would also add that keyword - "Halloween2013."  If I had several years of Halloween, and I do, I would have a folder with "All Halloween Years" and then the individual subfolders with the different years.  Then I could search all the folders by searching the main folder, or the years individually.

I just searched the My Pictures folder (19,582 photos) for "hotair," and this photo came up instantly.  You can also add a picture "label," "title," and "caption" and search by those or by all three plus the keywords.  But the keywords lets you get very specific.

There is a lot more to LightRoom, but this alone makes it worthwhile.  Of course, you have to remember what, or who, was in the photo, so it's important to use any many keywords as possible.