Organise Your Digital Photos

Chances are that you’ve encountered the dreaded message that “your phone storage is full”! Que frantic deleting of shots that are deemed no longer important. Everybody loves to be snap happy when they are away on holiday or seeing friends, but keeping your favourite images hidden away on your phone is a crying shame. Your memories deserve a space away from the confines of your camera roll, and that’s where we come in!

Use Albums

Automatic Albums

On iPhone and iPad there are a number of photo albums already set up and ready to store your precious images. Take a look through your iPhone and you will notice albums for Panoramas, Selfies, Slo-mo, and Time Lapse. You can even look at your photos arranged on a world map in the Places album, or browse your photos based on who’s in them in the People album. Super easy and done without having to move any of your images around.

Create New Albums

Automatic albums not cutting it? A really simple way to ensure you don’t lose your favourite pictures within an exodus of photos on your camera roll is to create custom albums. This means that the images are quick and easy to find, even if years have passed, you won’t need to scroll through your entire camera roll to find those special shots from that particular occasion. You could also make albums categorised by the year rather than event, setting up these albums is a quick and simple solution to optimum camera roll organisation. Some of our favourite ways to categories your photos are:

• Trips & Holidays
• Events, like Weddings & Parties
• Occasions, like Christmas & Easter
• Todo / Yet to Organise

Creating Albums – iOS

On iPhone and iPad there are a number of photo albums already set up and ready to store your precious images. Take a look through your iPhone and you will notice albums for Panoramas, Selfies, Slo-mo, and Time Lapse. You can even look at your photos arranged on a world map in the Places album, or browse your photos based on who’s in them in the People album. Speaking of the People album, there’s no better way to easily find your friends and family. This album will automatically detect your friends and group them together so that all you have to do is go in and approve the set of photos it has categorised. Super easy and done without having to move any of your images around.

Creating Albums – Android

If you are using an Android device, simply touch the Create Album button and type a name for the album. Press the OK button to confirm the title and then start adding your images into the folder.

For You

In this little-known section of your iPhone you can view shared album activity, and receive ideas for adding filters and effects to certain photos. The For You section also works alongside Memories to present you with photos and videos which focus on previous events, trips away, people and other landmarks from your collection. This helps you rediscover those special moments you have saved on your camera roll.

Search

It is relatively easy to search for a person or landmark on your mobile device. Tap the Search tab, then enter a term in the search bar.

• Places – The map brings up all of the places you have been where you have taken an image. Simple type in a location name and al the images from that place in the world you have visited will show up.
• Things – The camera roll is clever enough to recognise places and objects. Search for a term like “river” and then select a category result to see all of your photos that match.
• Events – The search function allows to search for an event you have attended… For instance, you could find images form a concert you attended a few months ago, or pictures from a holiday.

Hit Delete

Perhaps you’ve taken a live photo accidentally, or the lighting is really bad, maybe your shot is just plain blurry, always review your snaps following a holiday and cull the ones that aren’t up to standard. This will save ample phone memory and leave you with the special shots you really appreciate which could be suitable for framing.

Select Favourites

Quite simply, hit the star button below the photo, and it will be placed into the favourites folder which is already present on your phone. This is the quickest and easiest way to store your favourite pictures.

Use a Computer

If you do have access to a PC or Mac, it is much easier to arrange your images via a USB cable. When working on a desktop it is simple to drag and drop imagery files into their relevant folders. We have created a full guide on the differences between image organisation on a Mac and PC.

Use Photo Organiser Apps

Google Photos (Android, iOS)

Google photos arrives standard on android devices, but it’s also available for IOS users. The great thing about Google Photos is that it boasts unlimited cloud storage across multiple devices. The app can be set to automatically back up and sync your photos so you can remain safe in the knowledge that your snaps are safe. With google often adding fresh updates to the app, its likely to prove useful for many years to come.

Flickr

Again, Flickr is available on both android and IOS, Flickr has been around for quite some time and offers a good deal in the online photo storage business, this photo management app will hold 1,000 photos online for free. At the same time, should you wish to go premium, Flickr offers perks such as unlimited storage at full resolution, and support for videos at up to 10 minutes in length. Flickr includes automatic uploading, as well as smart search features. That means that organisation isn’t as dependent on users manually tagging each photo.

Facebook Moments

Did you know that Facebook has its very own Moments photo sharing app for both IOS and Android? Although this app is less about the storage and management, it provides an easier platform to share your images with both friends and family. The software can use facial recognition technology to identify which friends are appearing in your album, this is particularly useful when creating shared albums which everyone can access. Even better, it does have unlimited storage for photos so what’s not to love.

Amazon

Amazon tend to be able to offer consumers all sorts of perks and it’s not a surprise to hear they can help with photo management for both IOS and Android. Originally only available to those using Prime, nowadays Prime members are entitled to unlimited cloud storage on digital photos, whilst they receive 5GB for video and document storage. Meanwhile, if you don’t have Prime you can still get 5GB for photo and video storage as a free member! The app automatically syncs so your photos can be accessed from any device with an internet or bluetooth connection. Those on Prime can also open a shared drive with fellow family members.

Back it Up

Whether you use Android or iPhone, be sure to utilise the cloud for your snaps, this not only protects your precious memories should your device go missing or breaking, but will also free up memory on the phone. An external hard drive can be useful too… But we don’t want those special memories to sit on an electronic device forever do we?

Share

The shared albums folder is an extremely useful addition to your phone, say for instance you have a big birthday party, everyone who came to the party can add images to the folder and view the pictures taken from the event. Should you have an image or video you wish to share, simply tap the share icon and place it in the appropriate shared folder. Up to 100 people can access a shared folder, they can like and comment on the images within.

Frame Them

Anything that gives us an excuse to print out and frame shouldn’t be left on a phone for the rest of time, they deserve to be proudly showcased in the home. Using your mobile, upload an image to our design studio, pick your preferred frame and we will craft your bespoke frame and high-quality print in no time!

The frame designer couldn’t be any simpler to use. We would advise visiting the website on your mobile phone, hit the upload button when prompted which will then access the camera roll of your phone, pick an image and you’re done, from phone to frame in just a matter of minutes. There are numerous advanced settings you can tweak as well to create the perfect picture frame. The freedom of choice is yours.