Digital cameras and genealogy research are well-suited. Photos can be easily shared, stored and modified digitally. However, many digital photos and data may not survive long-term without proper preservation. Learning correct archiving techniques now can prevent losing photos and having to redo the work later. Photos provide valuable family history records and should be preserved for future generations.

1. Digital Photography and Genealogy

3. Instant gratification

10. Getting photos off of your camera

11. Scanning

12. Archiving

13. Staying organized

14. Naming your files

15. Labeling your photos (metadata)

16. Photo management solutions

17. Photo editing

20. Getting Photos off your Camera You just took a ton of great photos with your new digital camera. Now what? Here are explanations of the three most common ways to get photos off your camera and onto your computer. Note: Remember that each camera is different - please consult your owner's manual for help on your specific camera. Connecting with your USB cable A USB cable lets you connect your digital camera to your computer. Almost all digital cameras come with a USB cable. Just plug one end into the camera and the other into the computer. Once you've plugged the cable into the computer, software already installed on your computer may assist you with getting the photos off your camera. If you plug your camera into your computer and nothing happens, don't worry. Your computer can read your camera as if it's another drive on your computer.

21. Getting Photos off your Camera Alternate method: Insert your memory card into your computer Some newer computers come with a slot for memory cards or a cable with a reader. You simply insert your digital camera's memory card into the computer or reader and your computer will recognize the card and ask where you'd like to save your photos. We recommend placing them in a folder in the My Pictures folder so you can find them easily. Alternate method: Use a docking station Your camera may come with a docking station, or a station can be purchased if your camera is compatible. The docking station is plugged into your computer and situated on your desk to make connecting your camera to your computer a little easier.

23. Scan at the highest possible resolution, always!

24. Save the scanned image to your hard drive as a TIFF and archive it with your originals

25. Make a copy

27. Are afraid of scanning it incorrectly

29. I want my photos scanned on an expensive, up-scaling scanner, which means they can enlarge your photos significantly without any degradation—its amazing!!!For your truly antique photos, make sure the service you choose offers a white glove service and don’t let the photo leave your sight. Some services will even bring their equipment to your home to do it!

30. How Photos are Stored on Your Computer Since file storage and organization are so important, you need to understand how drives, folders, and files relate to one another.

31. Why Archive? Photographs can hold tremendous emotional and monetary value. Before the proliferation of digital cameras, photographers could store a physical negative or slides with the expectation that the medium would last decades, if not longer, under a controlled environment.But with digital photography, images are only stored as data, and the integrity of that data is only as good as the archiving system. None of the typical storage media, from CD/DVDs to hard drives, have proven to be as resilient as film, and therefore, photographers need to create archiving systems that support multiple copies. The prime directive, to borrow from Star Trek, is to make sure you don't lose the files.

32. Staying Organized When you move your images from your camera to your computer and then to a CD/DVD disc, you need to do so in an organized way. It doesn't take long to be overrun with images; and all of them with meaningless names to boot. Luckily, with some planning, and the right tools and knowledge, you can work with thousands of images without getting lost. Before transferring images from your camera to your computer, you should develop a system that lets you quickly find them later. Folders are the heart of any image management system. The best way to organize images on your computer is to create one or more folders for images and then subfolders that meaningfully identify the images stored in them. The thing to keep in mind is that your organization is not about storing images, but about finding them. Ask yourself, where you'd most likely look for pictures of interest a year from now, long after you've forgotten where you stored them.

33. Chronological Organization There are a variety of ways to organize and name folders, depending on what kind of photos you take or how you use them. There is no one right way to name your files. It is only important that you are consistent! A chronological organizationuses folders named with dates in the format yyyy-mm-dd. For example, a folder named 2008-02-10 would contain photos taken or downloaded on February 10, 2008. Below, I am organizing my collection down to the month.

34. Subject Organization A subject organization uses folders named after subjects, events, projects, or experiences. For example, a folder named Christmas 2008 would contain images of that day. This is a nice solution if want to know what the file contains without having to preview it.

35. Naming Your Files Working with volumes of digital files and photos for many years has brought me to the realization that file naming is very important to the archiving process. It's good to set up a system early on, otherwise you'll just be doing more work in the future. You want a file naming system that is unique, descriptive, and independent of any folder hierarchy—in other words, if a file is lost among hundreds or thousands of photos (which is easily done with drag and drop mistakes), or if you lose your folder hierarchy, one could still work with the collection or rebuild the hierarchy. This also insures that you don’t get duplicate image names,which will create future conflict. Most important: STAY CONSISTENT!

36. File Naming Convention Remember, you want your file name to be independent of any folder hierarchy. To do this, your file name needs to include every folder name it is nested in. Remember, keep every file name unique in the entire photo collection. Subject File Naming Chronological File Naming Combination File Naming * * * * * * Series # Series # Add a descriptive element if desired. * A more advanced naming convention will be shared in our next class.

38. It is very difficult to accurately gauge what will be used in the future. Organizing your photos in such a “primal”, rather than depending entirely on your photo management software to keep track of things for you, will ensure its safety. Getting in the habit of correctly filing and naming your files when you upload them from your camera is an important part of staying organized.

40. Decided on a naming convention that works best for you

41. Uploaded your photos from a digital camera

43. Delete “dud” photos

44. Batch rename “keeper” photos

45. Tag (caption) your photos using metadata

46. Edit your photos (crop, remove red eye, adjust color)

49. Used to identify and find your digital images

50. Ownership metadata must never be removed.

52. Metadata Descriptive metadata: describes the content of the photo * A more complete list will be shared in our next class.

54. Flickr deletes inactive accounts after 90 days

55. 100 MB storage!

56. Flickr’s free account does not have a storage limit, but they restrict your uploads to 100MB a month and you can only view your most recent 200 photos.

57. Organization: Unlimited albums

58. Flickr restrict you to only 3

59. Use the desktop application to speed things up and sync it online.

60. Incredibly easy to use and ideal for the beginner!Caution: Picasa does not keep the integrity of you high resolution images.

61. Photo Management Online Exploring other options: Flickr’s free account has a lot of restriction, but for only $25/year you will get unlimited storage, categories and collections. Their paid membership is loaded with features! Best of all (and even with their free accounts) they archive your high resolution originals –something you wont find with any other free service (some paid ones too)! One of the world’s best, Smugmug offers drag and drop uploading, sophisticated batch processing, four backups in three different states and reputably one of the best in customer service . Their standard account for $40/year (look for their $5 off coupons!) and offers ad-free, unlimited storage and traffic and oodles of features. Better yet, you can password protect selected galleries, which allows family members to log in to your chosen galleries without having to register. What do I love the most about Smugmug? Their galleries are gorgeous!!! Their weakness (if you consider this a weakness): their social community is not as active as Flickr. * There are many, many solutions to choose from. Look around for yourself and find the one that’s best for you. Be sure to check out Photobucket, Webshots, Fotkiand the new Photoshop.com!

62. Basic Photo Editing Basic photo editing features that come with Picasa (or other photo management software) will be more than enough for many of you. But for those of you who want a Little more, or if you have antique photos that you want to restore, consider Picnik: Idea for the beginner, Picnikis photo editing awesomeness, online! It's the easiest way on the Web to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, remove skin blemishes or apply effects to your photos. Lacking photo-editing prowess? A bunch of their editing tools are one-click fixes, including auto- fix, exposure, color adjust and red-eye. And the others, like rotate, crop, resize, and sharpening, can be controlled with easy-to-use sliders—all for free! Upgrade to a paid account and get much more! So incredibly easy—try it! www.picnik.com

63. Protect your Photos & Backup! Keeping your photos safe: There are several concerns about moving into the digital world. If proper steps are not taken, a single computer failure can wipe out your treasured digital family photos. In fact, 25% of all PC users suffer data loss each year. Do both: External hard drive Online storage

64. Email Instant Messenger Peer-to-Peer Photo Sharing Slide Show—on the TV Slide Show—on the Computer Photo Sharing Sites eBooks Blog RSS Wallpaper or Desktop Background Managers Screen Savers Mapping your Photos Prints Online & Offline Photo Books Scrapbooks Photos on Fabrics Photos on Smooth Surfaces Photo Gifts and Novelties Laser-Etching and Fired Ceramics Personal Website A list like this warrants a class of its own: More Sharing & Displaying

66. Image file types explained (JPEG, TIFF, RAW, DNG)

67. Advanced folder and file naming, including how to incorporate your genealogy files (including linking your new digital image with original slide or scan)

68. More Metadata

69. How to separate your original photo files from your edited photos in an organized way

70. Elite photo management

71. Photo editing, intermediate to professional (free and beyond)

72. Geotagging—great for missionary families!

74. Digital Asset Management DAM looks like something you might say when you can’t find the photograph you are looking for. But DAM—Digital AssetManagement—is actually designed to preempt such frustrated outbursts. The term “Digital Asset Management” refers to the lifecycle of a digital photo—taking images from the camera to, well, the grave and beyond. You may not realize it, but if you are shooting or scanning digital photos, you are already practicing some form of digital asset management—so don’t let this term scare you. The question is, are you using your time and resources wisely? Are you creating a system that will grow with you, and let you get the most from your photographs? Ultimately, a DAM system should be designed for speed and efficiency, as well as longevity. I have already shown you a simple DAM solution, but let’s check out a more sophisticated system…

75. From the Camera When digital cameras store photographs on removable media cards, they can compress the photo to save room on the card. This lets you take more photos. The compression will affect the quality of the photo, but unless you really want to make large prints of your photographs, you may not notice. When you say RAW, do you mean it's not cooked? The three main file formats for digital photographs are RAW, TIFF and JPEG. Both RAW and TIFF formats do not apply any compression to the photo to save space on your memory card. When your camera saves a digital photo as a RAW or TIFF file (if it can), the photo includes all of the information captured by your camera's image sensor.

76. JPEG, TIFF or RAW? **Varies from camera: Canon (.cr2), Kodak (.kdc), Fuji (.raf), Nikon (.nef)

79. Scanned photos/slides

80. Multiple versions of a single photo (print, email, web, etc.)

82. Advanced Folder & File Naming For those who do genealogy, it is a good idea to separate your family history from your personal family photos. To do this, divide your photos into two main roots. I have named mine Family History & MyFamily Photos .

83. Folder Hierarchy: Family History Create a family tree using folders.

84. Folder Hierarchy: Family History For Family history only: Primary Organization: Me Secondary Organization: My parents Tertiary Organization: My grandparents Etc… Final Organization: Date (The quantity of files you have will determine how you cluster the dates.)

85. Folder Hierarchy: My Family Photos Folder organization for everything else: For anyone beyond the skill level of a beginner (which means you know how to use your photo management software correctly), I suggest staying away from subject organization entirely. It is simply outdated and unnecessary. Chronological organization is all you need! Primary Organization: Year Secondary Organization: Month Tertiary Organization: If you take a lot of photos you may want to categorize you photos clear down to the date. Final Organization: Edit (for your modified originals, if needed) Don’t forget, your files need to contain folder information it is nested in. e, e2, e3 refer edit version, all within the edit folder

87. File Naming: My Family Photos _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . . . . . **Image Type p = from a scanned photo (blank) = from a digital camera **Series For photos before the digital camera: scan, number and file your original photos . Start with 0001, or whatever works best for you, and work your way up! Name your digital file with the corresponding image number. You can also use original roll and negative numbers. For the digital camera: start with 0001 for that specific date (or folder). *Photographer ID Optional, but convenient if you share files and if you like to know who the author is. Keep it two digits. (bg = Bruce Grant) Create a key if needed. Helps to complete the story of the photo: who else was there that you couldn’t see? ***Version Do you like to make b/w, sepia or retouched photos? e = first edit e2 = second edit e3 = third edit Do you want to take RAW files and prepare them for print? ep = print ready Have you prepared a photo for web or email? ew = web ready

88. File Naming: My Family Photos

89. More Complete Metadata I have already suggested labeling your photos with Title, Caption, Rating, Creator, Location, Person and Keywords. Here are some additional ideas:

90. Better Photo Management If you’re online, consider getting off! Don’t get me wrong, online photo management tools are superb, especially for the beginning user, but if you are a real photo enthusiast then you should consider going offline. I prefer to use a desktop application for my photo manager, and then use an online service for sharing them. Flickr’s free account is ideal for this!

92. Everything done online is slower, especially if you’re working with large files

93. Direct import from camera to software

94. Save time by setting categories, metadata and more as you import new images

95. Instant browsing and retrieval of photos with spot-on precision

96. Ultimate care and control

97. Works with your existing file system

98. Affordable, considering you aren't paying annual fees.

99. Online systems come and go and it can be difficult to move your collection from one system to another

100. Develop your images to the highest of standards

102. My Personal Favorite Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: The Crème de la Crème of Photo Management Yes, it is expensive ($270), but so are extra *hard drives.  Adobe has really pulled out all the stops to come up with a really good photo workflow management tool that is unsurpassed in the market at the moment. It comes with all of the photo editing tools you’ll need (which means you don’t need to buy additional photo editing software)! By the way, if you are in school or have any children in school (including k-12), you can get Lightroom at a student price ($99) ---- Ahhhhh! For windows only. If you are a Mac user check out Apple’s Aperture! * Raw image from 12 MP camera = apx. 25 MB file = 43 photos per gig of hard drive space.

103. DNG Workflow Photographers working with RAW files need to understand a DNG workflow. Using a photo management tool that support DNG files, such as Lightroom, do the following: When you initially transfer files from your digital camera, place them in a RAW TBA folder. Convert them to DNG and archive them in your DNG Image Vault. Hint: Don’t batch rename your files at the point of conversion because you will want to delete the “duds” first. Because you sequentially name your files, you do not want gaps in your sequence.

104. More Affordable & Still Robust ACDSeePro 2.5 is designed for the serious photographer. It is powerful and loaded with features and photo editing tools. $130 Built for the average home user, ACDSee Photo Manger will manage your memories with ease. However, it may not meet your photo editing. $80 PicaJet is powerful, feature-rich and highly customizable. It may be the best option for the price if you aren't in need of a photo editing tool. $48

105. Photo Editing Online Fairly new to the market, Photoshop Express is Adobe’s first online tool—photo organization included! It is designed more for the beginner. But keep your eye on it, because it is still in its infancy! Free Introduced in the beginning class, Picnik remains my favorite pick for the novice. Photoshop Express and Picnik both come with a basket of goodies, but neither one can do this: =

106. Photo Editing: Online All of these have advanced capabilities and are suitable for the intermediate user: all free! From basic image retouching to complex effects, Aviary delivers the key features of a desktop image editor with the simplicity and accessibility of a web-based application! The result of a photo merge test: flawless and is probably the best all around of the bunch. Splashup is impressive and designed with an interface very similar to Photoshop. A great choice for those who want to become familiar with Photoshop. The result of a photo merge test: slightly smudgy. FotoFlexer claims to be the most advanced online image editor, but their photo merge test had poor results. Don’t discount them though, they have really, really cool filters and effects and may be the most fun to use!

107. Desktop Photo Editing Software Adobe Photoshop CS4: The Swiss Army Knife of Photo Editing Bring your vision to life with the most powerful photo editor available! For professionals or serious enthusiasts only. $600 [gulp] Here’s a tip: Buy an older version of Photoshop (CS or CS2) for apx. 1/4 the price, and pay $190 for the upgrade. Make sure you buy from a reputable seller because you must have a valid license for the upgrade to work. This is perfectly legal and does not violate Adobe’s license agreement in any way. Photoshop CS4 is not offered to students, but CS4 Extended (which is CS4 + 3D coolness) sells for $200 (regularly $1000). Photoshop CS4 is not a photo manager, so you will need to get additional software for your archiving needs.

108. Photoshop before and after:

109. Create special effects:

110. More Affordable & Still Robust Photoshop Elements 7 is brimming with features, functionality, and a streamlined interface that makes some of the most daunting photo editing tasks a breeze. The organizing, editing, creating, and sharing features provide the most comprehensive photo editing package available for the price! $63 There are many other photo editing tools available, but none of them come close to the features of Photoshop Elements 7, which is why I'm not providing other comparisons.

111. Geotagging Geotagged images provide you with a new way of sorting and organizing your photos. For example, you can search for pictures shot in a particular locale or create an interactive map (Yahoo or Google Maps) of your latest vacation showing not only where you went, but also images from points along the route. When you geotag an image, you’re simply storing latitude and longitude coordinates for that image in the file’s metadata. This means you’ll first need to get those coordinates.

113. Zoom in on the location of your photo using Google or Yahoo maps, get the coordinates, then use your photo management tool to record it.Getting it on a Map Most photo management tools incorporate easy mapping. In Flickr, it is as easy as dragging and dropping.

114. Geotagging at its Best Google Earth Google Earth is a map of the world on steroids. You can zoom and glide over stitched together satellite photos of the world, adding a life-like experience to your Geotagged photos.

115. Flicker Fun Six degrees of Kevin Bacon? This wildly fantastic Flickr photo tool is a social network visualization gizmo. Interested to know your FOAF (friend of a friend)? Check out Flickr Graph!

116. Photosynth.net Making photos a 3d experience: The insanely coolPhotosynth allows you to take a bunch of photos of the same scene or object and automatically stitch them all together into one big interactive 3D viewing experience that you can share with anyone on the web. So easy to use, anyone can do it! Check out an example! Do you want to see something else really Cool? Go to Google and search for Photo Tourism.

117. Fujifilm’s Brand New 3D camera The world’s first 3D camera is coming in SEPTEMBER!!! FinePix REAL 3D V1 One camera, two lenses and Real 3D This cleaver camera comes with two lenses! A 3D image is created by capturing two images from two different viewpoints and merge them together to create a real 3D image!

118. Fujifilm’s Brand New 3D camera The world’s first 3D camera also offers an advanced 2D mode! Simultaneous shooting Just like shooting with 2 digital cameras, the user can choose different zoom, sensitivity and color settings for each image capture system and take 2 photos of the same scene at the same instant.

119. Fujifilm’s Brand New 3D camera The world’s first 3D camera also offers an advanced 2D mode! 2-Color simultaneous shooting: 2-Sensitivity simultaneous shooting: