Keeping track of photos scrapped- ideas?

aly321

aly321

Sweet Shoppe SugarBabe
Ok- so I am NOT organized enough to be "caught up" in my scrapping. I pull pictures from all over the place. Now I am at a point where I don't know what has been scrapped, and what is missing.

Any advice on how you keep track of the photos or events you have scrapped and what you haven't?
 
I'm guessing that you don't want to go back through every photo you've ever taken and tag or make a To Be Scrapped folder with those that you haven't scrapped yet, huh? ;) So without starting from scratch like that, I think what I'd do is make a lowes copy of all the layouts I'd ever scrapped and then store them with the photos. That way you could easily check which photos you'd used, and hopefully it wouldn't take a ridiculous amount of time if you batch processed them to do the resizing.

If you also want to keep track of events or memories that you know you want to scrap and haven't, you could keep a running list or start tagging or filing photos you want to scrap going forward.
 
I do the same thing as Rachel. I have a 'To Be Scrapped' folder that I drag my photos into so I know what's been done and not done.

I also have a general rule that if it's been more than 2 years that I'm done scrapping that year whether I'm actually done or not, so I don't pull from 2013 and earlier UNLESS it's already in my 'To Be Scrapped' folder or if I'm just browsing through my photos and see something I like. I know that I've scrapped enough each year to 'cover' most/all of the important parts, and that's good enough for me.
 
I have a spreadsheet... I name all my files year_month_date_subject or title of layout. Hubby just put together an automated program that grabs the title for me and then populates the spreadsheet a few times a month.

I used to organize all my photos by date and then when I was done with that folder, I renamed it Done. However that messed up my storage becasue it would create a new folder and I would have duplicates. :unsure:
 
I have a couple of Private Albums (that I allowed a few friends/family members access just to see what I do)on my facebook for each year. I scrap all over the place when it comes to time frames so this allows me to have them all in one place and organized in order so I know what I have done and what is missing by time frame a little more easily. I suppose you could do this on your computer too, but you'd have to be constantly renaming to keep them in the right order. My photos are ALL over the place.... I have them backed up, but in to organized fashion what so ever.... so I have gotten in the habit of keeping a written list of photos I take and want to scrap as I take them. This way I can add notes for journaling, or ideas on how I want to scrap them and kits I'd like to use.... that way when I do get around to scrapping them I have the ideas and planning all done and can spend the time I have scrapping and not trying to decide what to do.
 
And this is why I have to scrap chronologically!! Because not knowing if I had scrapped something or not would put me in a panic!!! LOL!!

Not that my way is much help to you because I'm an obsessive compulsive weirdo, who's at least 6 years behind on scrapping her photos.
 
MamaBee said:
I have a spreadsheet... I name all my files year_month_date_subject or title of layout. Hubby just put together an automated program that grabs the title for me and then populates the spreadsheet a few times a month. QUOTE]

He needs to market this!! I scrap the same photos over and over by mistake!
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Do you have Lightroom? If so, you can tag them. Or going forward, you could just change the file name of the photo to indicate it's been used. I don't mind scrapping photos multiple times, so it's never been a priority to keep track of what's been used, but when I was putting together a wedding album for a friend, I used the LR trick.
 
I don't have any system, but I do name my layouts by year-month-day-title, (the date of the photo, NOT the date I scrapped them) so they sit chronologically in my folder. That way I can easily see what birthday photos I've already used, or what school event has been scrapped.

E.g.

13-08-13-I-love-you-so
14-10-22-Rock-Star
15-01-03-Summer-days
 
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I have a "to scrap" folder also, and when it's scrapped, I delete the photos, so I know what's left to be done.

jacinda said:
I don't have any system, but I do name my layouts by year-month-day-title, so they sit chronologically in my folder. That way I can easily see what birthday photos I've already used, or what school event has been scrapped.

E.g.

13-08-13-I-love-you-so
14-10-22-Rock-Star
15-01-03-Summer-days
Click to expand...

I also name my layouts in a similar way to Jacinda, so I can sort them by date and check what's done. Not much use to you going back the way, but might be worth thinking about going forward so that you can avoid the confusion in future, while trying to sort through the older stuff?
 
I have all my photos sorted into folders by year, and then sub folders by month within that year. After I scrap a photo I drag it into a folder labeled "SCRAPPED" within that same year. A very simple method that lets me go back and use a photo again if I want to, but keeps them clearly marked as already scrapped. Once I have the whole year scrapped I just keep everything in the "SCRAPPED" folder just in case I ever need the pics for something down the road.
 
I have all my layouts dated chronologically, so I can see what I have scrapped for x month at a glance, and then just grab photos that inspire me.
 
Thanks so much for all of the ideas! These are great suggestions. I am just trying to figure out a way to do it without having a bunch of duplicates taking up space on my harddrives. :)
 
When I'm sorting my photos (about once a month) after downloading to my computer I put a copy of the ones I want to scrap into a 'to scrap folder. After I've scrapped them I delete them - so I'm unlikely to scrap the same photo twice.

It does mean there are duplicate photos on my computer for a while but I much prefer to 'play' with copies than ever risk deleting or corrupting an original (even if I have backed it up somewhere else).

I also keep excel spreadsheets of the pages I want to make corresponding to the photos in my 'to scrap' folder. Once they're scrapped, I tick them off in my spreadsheet.

This was one of my keys to catching up on all my scrapping - and a few years ago I did go back through ALL my photos (10,000+) at the time, cross checked against all the pages I'd already made, and copied the photos I wanted to scrap (or re-scrap if I didn't like the older pages) to a 'to scrap' folder (multiple 'to scrap' folders actually - i.e. family, each of my boys, etc, etc). It took me AGES - like a month or more, during which time I scrapped next to nothing. Then it took me years to scrap everything... but having my system in place meant I could keep on top of all the photos I've taken since.
 
It's all in my head. I have a pretty good memory and I can pretty much tell you which photos I've scrapped. Some day I'll get more organized. ;)
 
jak said:
When I'm sorting my photos (about once a month) after downloading to my computer I put a copy of the ones I want to scrap into a 'to scrap folder. After I've scrapped them I delete them - so I'm unlikely to scrap the same photo twice.

It does mean there are duplicate photos on my computer for a while but I much prefer to 'play' with copies than ever risk deleting or corrupting an original (even if I have backed it up somewhere else).
Click to expand...

That's exactly how I do it and for the same reasons. Plus it makes it so much easier to look through photos to decide what to scrap. In my main Pictures folder, 2015 will eventually have 52 weekly folders with a huge variety of photos in each one. When I go to my 2015 To Scrap Folder, I may have 15 subfolders, each of which represents 1 layout or category I plan to scrap. (So one might be all our swimming photos, another might be DD's birthday, etc.) Then I have a bunch of single photos that will get their own page, and I can see all of those at a glance.
 
aly321 said:
Thanks so much for all of the ideas! These are great suggestions. I am just trying to figure out a way to do it without having a bunch of duplicates taking up space on my harddrives. :)
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Tagging in ACDsee leaves them in their original folder, so they don't take up any added space. Once I scrap them, I just untag, and delete the category. I don't have to move anything.
 
SeattleSheri said:
Do you have Lightroom? If so, you can tag them. Or going forward, you could just change the file name of the photo to indicate it's been used. I don't mind scrapping photos multiple times, so it's never been a priority to keep track of what's been used, but when I was putting together a wedding album for a friend, I used the LR trick.
Click to expand...

I've started using Lightroom and tagging my pic by month, year, location, person. I rate the pics I want to scrap with a 5 star rating. You could do the same and add a keyword unscrapped and then remove that keyword when you use it or change the star rating down to 4.
 
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