What exactly do I mean when I say “curate” your photos?
Essentially, it’s the process of selecting, organizing and maintaining your photo collection that best tells the story of the people, places and events in your life. It’s about intentionally choosing the best photos, discarding the rest and then arranging the keepers in a way that is meaningful for you.
Make Photo Organization a Priority This Year
Can you curate your photos yourself? Absolutely! All you need is time, some sorting boxes and a willingness to make some quick decisions.
The first step to curation is to streamline your options by removing the superfluous photos.
Begin with getting rid of unnecessary photos. You can’t keep them all – too much of a good thing will only create the overwhelm you likely already feel when thinking about your massive collection of photos.
What to Remove from your Photo Collection
Here are 4 types of photos that you can quickly remove from your photo collection:
Duplicates ~ Remember back in the film developing days where for an additional small fee you could get a duplicate set of your photos? Ya. Now it’s a nightmare that needs to be dealt with. Pull these duplicates out of your main collection and either toss them (more on that later in this article) or set them aside to decide what you will realistically do with them.
Blurry and/or Bad Photos ~ Eyes closed, bad angle, back of someone’s head. Or those blurry, out-of-focus and distorted photos that simply do not add any value to your life story. Maybe you just never got around to removing these mistakes, but they do not belong in your photo collection. Nobody wants those photos. It’s time to get rid of them once and for all.
Landscapes ~ Photos such as travel photos with no people, landscapes, random critters, construction photos, etc., need to be gone. You may need a small number – and I do mean small – of photos without people if they’re needed to establish a place or time, but otherwise, future generations will not care to see that photo you took of the giraffes at the local zoo or some scenery photos you took while driving from one destination to the next. Trust me on this – let them go.
Series ~ Remember when you would hit the shutter over and over hoping to get a decent picture? Maybe it’s that group photo you were trying to get where everyone was smiling and had their eyes open. Or it’s the photo of your kiddo playing sports and you just wanted to get that one special shot. Maybe you took some photos of a scene in both horizontal and vertical. It’s time to pick the best shot of the series and dump the rest.
Using a Curation System
The Photo Managers use and teach a simple system for sorting and organizing photo collections. It’s called The ABCs of Photo Organizing.
A ~ Album: Very Important
These are the best quality photos and ones that really tell a story. The best of the best! Without question, they are album-worthy – the photos that you’ll absolutely want to look back on and want your loved ones to experience.
B ~ Box: Important
These photos are good and you may want to do something with them at some point. You may want to share them with others. But they’re not crucial to your family’s history.
C ~ Can (Trash Can): Not Important
Surprisingly, a fair number of your photos will fall into this category. Be willing to release these photos so you can take the time to manage and enjoy the photos that really matter.
S ~ Story
Pictures alone don’t always tell the story. Be sure to capture the important points so that this information – this history – can be passed down to future generations.
Here’s a tip: use W5 … Who? What? Where? When? Why?
Too many times, people have inherited a family collection of photos with no identification or hints as to who or what is contained in them. Sadly, these photos have been tossed because they are rendered useless to the new owner. Don’t let that happen to yours.
How to Get Started
Gather & Sort: Collect all your photos in one place and sort them into A, B, and C piles using the criteria above. Use boxes to help you keep things organized while you’re in the sorting phase of the project. And be sure to label thing clearly so you don’t get confused along the way as you may need to stop and start over a period of time, especially if you have a large collection.
Apply the 3-Second Rule: If you can’t tell what the photo is about in three seconds, it’s likely a “C” photo.
Clear Out: Be ruthless with the “C” pile to make the “A” and “B” piles more meaningful. This can be challenging for some people. To assist you with this step, refer to this document: Criteria for “C” Photos
Organize & Digitize: Once sorted, focus on getting your “A” photos into albums or digital galleries, and digitize your “B” photos for secure archiving.
A well-organized, curated photo collection is more likely to be preserved and valued by future generations, serving as a legacy rather than an intimidating box of unorganized clutter.
Do you feel ready and armed to tackle your photo organizing project and curate your photos? I have faith in you – I know you can do it.
