Last week, we began our digital photo organizing journey by designating our digital photo hub, and migrating all digital images that we’d like to include in our photo collection into the digital hub. This week, we will gain a clear understanding of the scope of the organizing task that lies ahead by conducting a thorough inventory of our digital photo collection as it exists in the “BEFORE” state.
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WHAT DOES A DIGITAL PHOTO INVENTORY CONSIST OF?
Remember all of those sub-folders you created last week during the migration process? For each of those sub-folders, you are going to record the number of images contained within the folder, as well as size of each sub-folder (i.e., the total number of gigabytes).
WHY GO THROUGH THE TROUBLE OF CREATING A DIGITAL PHOTO INVENTORY?
First, it provides a starting point for you to gauge progress. A large component of organizing digital photos is “decluttering” the collection…that is, deleting poor quality photos and duplicates. It’s important to obtain a baseline snapshot of the size and quantity of your image collection so that you have these numbers as a basis of comparison after you complete the organization process.
Knowing the size of the collection can also help you to plan out an appropriate timeline for completing your organizing project. The timeline for organizing a collection that consists of 5,000 photos is quite different than the timeline for organizing a collection consisting of 250,000 photos!
Finally, knowing the approximate size of your digital photo collection is helpful when selecting backup tools and products, and setting up accounts on photo storage sites.
HOW DO I DETERMINE THE NUMBER & SIZE OF DIGITAL FILES?
So hopefully, I’ve sold you on the merits of the baseline photo inventory. Now let’s talk logistics.
Using the program of your choice, create a simple spreadsheet containing three columns: Source Folder, Image Count, and Size (Gigabytes). In the Source Folder column, list all of the sub-folders you created last week as part of the migration process. Each folder represents an original image source.
Then, it’s simply a matter of filling in the blanks and letting the spreadsheet provide your grand totals for count and size:
If you are a PC user, right click on each sub-folder and select “Properties” to get both an image count, as well as the size of the files contained within the subfolder. FYI, if you have folders nested in your main sub-folder, be aware that you will need to subtract the folders from the file # in order to get an accurate image count.
For example, in the sub-folder Memory Card 2 – 2012, my image count is 314 (316-2 folders). This number is reflected in the spreadsheet above.
Mac users can obtain the same information within Finder by selecting Get Info from the File menu for a specific subfolder.
Here’s a tool for converting megabytes to gigabytes that may come in handy as you complete your inventory.
If you have not yet read the overview of the challenge, do that first before proceeding to this week’s assignment.
Your Assignment for Week 2:
1. Create an inventory spreadsheet as outlined above
2. Record the number of images and size of files for each subfolder within your digital photo hub
Be sure to return later in the week to let me know about your progress by leaving a comment at the bottom of the page. Let’s have a contest to see who has the LARGEST number of images in their collection to organize! Once you’ve completed your inventory, return to this post and leave your number in the comments section!
Next week, we’ll be putting your photo backup system in place.
Have you grabbed your free Digital Photo Organizing Tool Kit yet? I’ve created it as a companion resource for Challenge participants. Grab yours here.
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This post is part of the 10 Week Digital Photo Organizing Challenge
Just discovered the Challenge? I invite you to read the Challenge Overview post first. You can then begin to work your way through the weekly Challenge assignments below:
- Week 1: Establish your digital photo hub
- Week 3: Create a photo backup system
- Week 4: Create a core file structure for your digital photos
- Week 5: Sort your digital photos
- Week 6: Remove duplicate digital photos
- Week 7: Rename digital photo file names
- Week 8: Tag & rate your digital photos
- Week 9: Create a digital photo organizing maintenance plan
- Week 10: Celebrate & share your photos
~ Happy Photo Organizing my Friends!
Here is something I learned while going through the process. I’m not sure if this is the case for everyone, but my PC computer uses Windows 7. When I brought pictures over to my hub from Google Photos, they came over in zip files. Now in the hub on my computer I need to open each file up before I can determine how many files and GBs are in each. To do this, right click, then click “extract all”. This will create an uncompressed copy of the file. You can then delete the zipped file.
Thanks so much for the tip Melissa. Excited to have you join the DPO Challenge!
What an important step! I think most people really don’t know how many digital pictures they really have and if you don’t know what you have, it’s nearly impossible to get it under control.
You know it Andi…I’m sure you had the same experiences as a photo organizer as I have. The photos are never centralized one one device, and people usually underestimate the size of their collection. This step is crucial.