This week I began tackling digital photographs. The inverse proposition is I let my paper photographs stay in boxes for now. Using artificial intelligence I developed a process that helps me save and reduce my tens of thousands of digital photographs vying for attention. It will make them more accessible for me and other family members.
The basics include backing up the original files and creating a duplicate working file from which to sort images into a more accessible location. The intent is to never draw from the saved files. After trying a couple of software solutions, I decided to install IrfanView to quickly view and sort files into a reduced number of new folders. The software is surprisingly versatile for freeware.
I began with three folders, ones to keep, maybe keep, or reject. After getting through an entire year by making this triage decision, I developed another set of folders where the images will be archived: creative shots, events, family, garden, politics, and work. There are some folders inside the six main ones for specific photo shoots, but not many. Getting here for the first year made the second year go more quickly.
After these two sorts, there are passes through them, first to delete the rejected ones (saved in the originals), decide on the maybes, and then make some passes through the keep file to find them a home. While doing that, each photo goes into the six primary folders. The process normally saves multiple images that were taken in a short burst. I make a pass through each file to pick the best one or two in those cases.
The boon to creativity is twofold. While quickly viewing thousands of photos I gained an insight I did not have previously. Each year tells a story and I get a view of it again more than a decade later. It evokes memory, the currency of a creative writer. The other boon is using the creative shots folder as a workbench for writing on the internet. The way they were selected — mostly stripped of context — enables me to reuse them with new meaning. These are just the beginning of the benefits of the archival process.
At first, the process was clear as mud, yet now the mud is settling. I can see and use the files better than previously, which was one of the points. That I developed the process myself, rather than learning it from an expert, makes me more willing to use it. With 17 more years of folders to sort, my buy-in is an important aspect of the project.
Developing an archival process was rewarding in countless ways. Importantly, when I am gone, another person will be able to understand what I did and where they can find what interests them. There is a lot of material for additional posts solely about process. Now that process is established I can focus more on the images and the memories they evoke. These will be good times.
Journey Home 
2 replies on “A Life of Photos Part XII”
I’m someone else who’s used Irfanview for a great many lightweight photo tasks for years. I used to recommend it to journalists who needed to handle photos in the field. I like that it doesn’t require much is the way of system resources and I find it’s user-interface straightforward. If I was a more photo oriented person I’d probably invest the time to learn the feature set of a larger more sophisticated program — but since that need isn’t constant for me, I instead hack my way through one of them when I have the rare more advanced task.
Affinity used to be inexpensive, but last year became freeware. I don’t use it enough to say how good it is verses the competition, but it’s an option if you want to get deeper editing features.
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Thanks for the tip about Affinity. Irfanview is making the initial sort of tens of thousands of images go quickly. Have not contemplated restorations and such yet. My go-to is Paint.NET, another freeware. Can only do one thing at a time and sorting is it right now.
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