Organize Pictures

5 Steps To Text a Picture from OneDrive (not a link)

Vlad — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 16:16:33 +0000

I like OneDrive and I used it a lot for storing documents and media in the cloud. Recently however, I've been struggling to find a solution to a simple problem when using OneDrive app on my iPhone. All I wanted to do was to text a photo from OneDrive on my phone to someone else. But I didn't want to send a link to the photo in OneDrive but instead I wanted to text the actual picture file from OneDrive and not a link to the picture. Read on to learn how to text a picture from OneDrive on your iPhone and not a link.

What are iPhone Live Photos and Should You Use Them?

Vlad — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 18:42:25 +0000

What are iPhone Live Photos? We explore the pros and cons of Apple’s 'moving pictures,' including storage impact, file management on PC/Mac, and how to preserve your camera settings.

4 Simple Ways to Share Photos on OneDrive

Vlad — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:00:38 +0000

Sharing high-quality photos shouldn't mean sacrificing resolution. While most messaging apps compress your images, Microsoft OneDrive preserves every detail. Whether you're moving DSLR shots from your computer or backing up mobile memories, here are four simple ways to use OneDrive to store and share your professional-grade photos across all your devices.

3 Easy Ways to Change Photo Metadata on Your Phone

Vlad — Sun, 10 May 2020 22:43:48 +0000

Mobile phones have quickly become the most prevalent photo cameras. Only photographers and photo enthusiasts keep using bulky DSLRs anymore since cell phones have better and better cameras. However, when it comes to photo metadata, while mobile phone cameras work very well in recording all relevant photo metadata, photo management mobile applications vary a lot in how they allow you to see and edit this photo metadata. In this article we will explore three popular mobile applications and how they allow you to change photo metadata on your mobile phone.

How to Configure Google Drive for Desktop (Google Backup & Sync)

Vlad — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:25:46 +0000

Google Drive and Google Photos are arguably two very popular Google cloud products. Because of its generous free storage space and beautiful interfaces, these products have millions of users worldwide. However, along with all these free services, Google has created a small program called Google Backup and Sync which allows you to backup files from your computer to your Google Drive and Google Photo cloud storage spaces.

Meet Mylio A New Way to Organize & Protect the Images that Define Your Life

Vlad — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 14:45:57 +0000

The memories and stories of our life end up spread out across phones, computers, cameras, drives, and shoe boxes. What a mess! Who has time for all that? Thankfully, there’s an app that stores, manages, and helps you to find all of those precious photo memories. Mylio is a free app that turns your digital mess into an organized library. Your photos are kept private, protected and organized across your devices so that you can find and access them all the time.

7 Photo Gifts You Can Make for Family and Friends

Vlad — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 18:03:01 +0000

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s why photos make for some of the most fun and heartfelt gifts. There are all sorts of photo-related gifts you can give to your friends, family, and colleagues. These don’t have to break the bank, either. With today’s technology, adding photos to gifts is simpler than it has ever been!

The Ultimate Guide to Importing Photos with Lightroom

Vlad — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 19:46:03 +0000

Importing photos with Adobe Lightroom looks frightening sometimes because of the intimidating import screen. Each section of the Lightroom Import screen is well laid out and easy to follow. Once you understand each section and the actions Lightroom can do for you, the entire photo importing process can be very much simplified for you. Read along to find out how to import your photos with Lightroom.

How to Download Pictures from Messages (iPhone & Android)

Vlad — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 05:23:36 +0000

Getting text message pictures happens almost daily, but many people aren’t sure how to download pictures from messages and save them to their phone’s photo gallery. Whether you want to keep a special photo, transfer it to your computer, or organize it with your other images, this guide shows the exact steps for downloading message pictures on both iPhone and Android.

5 Easy Ways to Change Photo Date

Vlad — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 16:10:48 +0000

When you download photos from Facebook, Pinterest, or WhatsApp, they often lose their original 'Date Taken' metadata, leaving your photo library in a chronological mess. Without an accurate timestamp, even the best photo management software can't organize your memories. This guide walkthrough 5 easy ways to change photo dates using tools like XnView MP, Adobe Lightroom, and built-in features in Windows and macOS, so you can restore order to your digital collection.

Use Google Backup & Sync to Share Your Best Photos from Your Computer to Google Photos

Vlad — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 08:55:31 +0000

Google Backup & Sync is the recent combination of Google Drive and Google Photos Desktop Uploader into one product. Since Google Photos is using Google Drive storage space, it makes complete sense to combine both into one application. It surprises me however, how much both Google and Microsoft are copying Apple when it comes to managing people's media. The much publicized iCloud feature that synchronizes media on all your Apple devices has just showed up in Google....but a bit different and still confusing and difficult to set up. Now you can synchronize multiple devices with your Google Drive storage space. Should you do it? My answer is no...for the most part! However, you can use Google Backup & Sync in a very useful way.

5 Easy Steps to Transfer Photos from Phone to Computer

Vlad — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 04:28:28 +0000

Transferring your photos from your phone to your computer should not be hard. However, with the additional complications of cloud backup and sync, things are not very straight forward. In addition, Android and iOS behave very differently which adds complexity as well. Read on to find out how to transfer your phone photos to your computer.

Understand and manage phone photos

Vlad — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 22:01:29 +0000

Mobile phones have become the tool of this age. This is for good reason because a mobile phone is simply a computer that fits into your pocket. Besides being a computer, your mobile phone is a phone, a camera, a GPS system and a compass. Your mobile phone has a good camera these days which makes it the most convenient camera to take with you everywhere. Mobile phones have made photo taking so easy that we keep creating lots of pictures and videos every month. And I mean lots and lots. However, with quantity comes the problem of organizing them. Organizing photos on your phone is very difficult. Find out why.

4 Free Photo Management Software for Windows

Vlad — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 15:35:28 +0000

For Windows, there are quite a few options when you are looking for free software to help you organize your photos. However, these free tools, while quite capable, they are limited in features. And there is not one tools that has all the features I am looking for, so I tend to use more than one to accomplish what I need in the most efficient way.

How to Find Digital Photos When You Need Them

Vlad — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 20:03:14 +0000

Being able to find your specific digital photos when you need them is the “make it or break it” test of any digital media organization system. Retrieving your photos is one of main goals of organizing your photos, and this is where your digital photo organization system. If we have done things the right way, we are now coming to reap the benefits of all of our efforts done for organizing our digital media collection. All those folders, keywords, face tags and geo-tags are finally coming in very handy. Read on to see how.

How to configure Google Photos and use it efficiently

Vlad — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 18:40:06 +0000

Google Photos has become one of the most popular digital media sharing tool. In addition to sharing, Google Photos can backup your mobile phone photos and provides the strongest automatic organization and search capabilities of all the competition. However, is Google Photos right for you? And how do you get started with Google Photos?

Streamline your digital photo organization in 2 steps

Vlad — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 19:42:08 +0000

Being able to summarize and simplify a complex process is not a simple task. However, when you can explain something complex in simple terms, the result is powerful. My STORE system for organizing digital photos is the simplest way to tackle this complex task of organizing all your digital media from all these sources. This article contains a simplified summary for the "O" which stands for Organize in my STORE system for digital photo organization.

5 misleading myths about organizing your digital media

Vlad — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 22:00:34 +0000

Software makers spend lots of money on marketing trying to convince you that their software will solve all your digital media organization problems. They claim to even solve problems you don't even have. Over the years I have answered so many questions about things that are simply not true about organizing your media. They are myths. Read on about the five most common myths about organizing your media.

How to ensure your scheduled backup is working under Windows 10

Vlad — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 23:14:43 +0000

Like many of you, I have upgraded recently to Windows 10, since the upgrade is free for the first year. Soon after however, I have noticed that my nightly photo and media backup has stopped working. Since backing up my photos automatically is crucial for my peace of mind I became concerned because my backup software (SyncBack) kept showing error in the backup status. So, I started investigating...and found the answer.

6 Easy Steps to Move Away from Photos on Your Mac

Vlad — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 13:46:19 +0000

Apple's Photos app makes it easy to store memories but notoriously difficult to move them elsewhere. If you feel 'trapped' by proprietary folders and want more control over your digital library, this guide is for you. Learn the 6 simple steps to safely export your images, maintain your original quality, and transition to a file-based organization system that works on any device.

How to make sure Adobe Lightroom saves your image metadata

Vlad — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 23:43:04 +0000

Adobe Lightroom by default will not write metadata in the image files but only in its catalog database. This is true unless you configure Lightroom to write metadata to your image files. Read on to find out how configure Lightroom properly.

Prepare and Automate Your Digital Photo Transfer Process

Vlad — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 16:49:52 +0000

Transferring digital photos seems like a very simple operation. Most photographers think that they just plug in their camera and then just transfer their pictures from their camera to their computer. However, they don't know where the new photos are on their computer and they do not know how to find them. When they need to organize their digital pictures they are very confused and frustrated. Read on to find out a few simple steps to prepare and automate your transfer digital photos.

4 important camera settings that will greatly help you keep your digital photos organized

Vlad — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 18:57:39 +0000

Most people think that shooting photos doesn't have anything to do with being able to organize your digital photos effectively. However, I found that there are a few important settings you can make on your camera which will help you greatly once you transfer those beautiful photos to your computer. If you miss them, on the other hand, your task to keep your photos organized will become more difficult. Read on about three camera settings that can help you keep your photos organized.

5 steps for using iPhoto somewhat efficiently

Vlad — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:41:57 +0000

Apple's iPhoto is nice and simple to use program for managing your digital photos. It does however contain several design flaws that turn many users from happy customers to very frustrated users. While there is not much to be done against these important design flaws, there are a few simple things to be done in order to use iPhoto somewhat efficiently.

Types of Photo Metadata: A Simple Guide for Understanding Your Digital Photos

Vlad — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 07:55:20 +0000

Understanding the types of photo metadata makes organizing your digital photos much easier. This simple guide explains the two kinds of metadata, where that information comes from, and where it's stored so you can build a clear, reliable photo organization system.

Organize your hobby photos with two simple steps

Vlad — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 13:41:21 +0000

Many of us have hobbies that bring pleasure and satisfaction to our lives. Whether is gardening, classic cars, sports or quilting, hobbies take our time and effort but give us lots of satisfaction. Because we are very involved in our hobbies, we love taking pictures for our hobbies. We collect digital photos from everywhere, and we take many photos ourselves. You might have thousands of digital photos about your hobby, but how do you organize your hobby photos? How do you keep all these photos organized and separate from your other photos? Read on to find out how to organize your hobby photos.

Interview with travel photographer Tim Makins

Vlad — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 23:41:39 +0000

He has visited 136 different countries, and all 7 of the 7 continents. Had breakfast at Tiffany's in New York. Hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu (twice!). Bare-back riding on elephants - just him and the elephant. Been in a Space Shuttle trainer, touched a Saturn 5 rocket. Slept on a deserted desert islands. Been arrested and interrogated by Russian police (falsely !). Short of breath deep in the tunnels of the Potosi silver mines. Panned for gold in the Brazilian jungle, and found some. Climbed to 16,300 feet in Nepal, 17,500 feet in India. This is just a brief list of what Tim Makins has been able to do as a freelance travel photographer. Tim is always traveling, and I really mean always; every single day. Recently, I had the privilege of asking Tim some questions about travel photography. So keep reading my interview with travel photographer Tim Makins.

4 Fundamental Differences Between Picasa and Lightroom

Vlad — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 20:26:04 +0000

Choosing the right software for managing your digital photos is very important because you spend a lot of time with this tool. These days, with so many digital photos and videos on our computers, the task of managing all this digital media has become very complex. So having a good tool is very important for every photographer. Google's Picasa and Adobe's Lightroom have become the two main choices of programs for most photographers. While there are similarities between the two, both Picasa and Lightroom are very different as well. Read on about four fundamental differences between the two most popular digital asset management tools.

Interview with a New York street photographer

Vlad — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Street photography has always been challenging for me and I have only tried it when traveling abroad. Recently however, I had the privilege of chatting with Michael Jacobs about street photography. To make things even more interesting Mike lives in New York and for me, this was a most interesting combination: an interview with a New York street photographer.

3 fundamental similarities between Picasa and Lightroom

Vlad — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 18:15:00 +0000

I have read a lot of debate on the internet about how much better Lightroom is than Picasa. I also read how much easier to use Picasa is compared with Lightroom. What I do not read however is how similar these two popular products are. I am not talking about how they look and their different image editing features, but I am referring to the way both of these programs have been built, their foundation if you will. When looking closely at these core functions, both Picasa and Lightroom are more similar than most people think. Read on to understand how these programs are similar.

Interview with online backup company BackBlaze

Vlad — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 16:34:21 +0000

Ever since my first hard drive crashed, backing up my precious digital memories has always become a priority for me. A few months ago however, after lots of reading and research I have finally signed up for an online backup account so all my memories are safely backed up somewhere else as well. Recently I had the privilege to chat about online backup with Yev Pusin from Backblaze. Read on to find out why Yev thinks Backblaze is different.

Should you backup your digital photos online (or in the cloud)?

Vlad — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:27:29 +0000

Online backup, cloud backup or off-site backup are all similar terms that refer to backing up your computer file to a location different than your home. Most of us understand how important backing up our digital photos is, but why do we need more than a simple external hard drive? What is all the fuss about backing up our computers in the "cloud"? And how do you choose a great online backup service. Read on about 3 essential features of a great online backup service.

5 Simple Steps to Move Away from iPhoto

Vlad — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 18:49:32 +0000

Before the current Photos app was released in 2015 (with OS X Yosemite 10.10.3), iPhoto was the standard image manager for every Mac. While iPhoto is now a legacy application, many users still have years of memories locked away in its proprietary 'Library' files. Because iPhoto (and its successor) makes it difficult to change your folder structure once you've started, moving your collection to a more flexible system requires a specific 'jailbreak' strategy. Here are five simple steps to finally free your pictures from iPhoto and reclaim control over your digital organization.

Everything You Need to Know About Picasa Metadata

Vlad — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:23:43 +0000

Image metadata has been around for a long time. Standards for image metadata however have been trying to keep pace with consumers' appetite for digital content. As a consequence, image metadata standards have been in flux for a while. It has been very difficult for software makers to adapt both to new standards and customer demands as the two are almost always out of sync.

The good, the bad and the ugly of Apple’s iPhoto and Photo Stream

Vlad — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 21:49:21 +0000

The Apple World Wide Developers Conference has come and gone. It was awesome! Lots of new and refreshed mobile products and laptops. In the midst of the presentation there were lots of things about updates to Mac OS including Photo Stream and iPhotos. Great things overall, but there is always one important assumption when using Apple software. Read on about the good, the bad and the ugly of Photo Stream and iPhotos.

3 reasons why I stopped printing pictures on my home photo printer

Vlad — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 20:21:35 +0000

You want to start printing your photos at home...sounds great! You read all the online reviews for photo printers, you buy a photo printer and your start...it's awesome! However, the experience turns out to be frustrating pretty soon. First the quality is inconsistent, then you realize it becomes very expensive and you end up frustrated. This was me a few years ago until I decided to stop trying to print my digital photos at home on my photo printer. Read on to find my three reasons why I stopped printing my photos at home.

4 Time-Tested Principles to Keep Media Collection Organized Forever

Vlad — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:36:48 +0000

These days, with technology changing rapidly and digital cameras becoming more and more ubiquitous, it becomes very easy to be confused by so many voices when it comes to keeping your growing media collection organized. However, there are few principles that will help you stay on track and be able to grow and organize your media collection without worrying about the next new technology or next new program that claims to do it all for you. Read on about the principles that will help you keep media collection organized and protected from technology changes. Doing this will also help keep your sanity.

3 simple principles for taking better pictures

Vlad — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:00:36 +0000

I don't write much about taking better pictures simply because I am not a professional photographer. However, over the last couple of years I have been improving my photography. It is this process of learning that I want to share with you. I have read everything there is regarding what makes a better picture and I have applied what I have learned over the last couple of years. At first, the results started to show very quickly and I was very surprised by how little effort it took to improve my photography. The results were quick at first because my old pictures were just very bad. Once I made the first steps to improve my photography, the next steps were much harder. Read on to find out the principles I have learned to make my photos better.

Understand and manage your hardware devices

Vlad — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 05:51:38 +0000

With every complex project planning is essential to success. Organizing your pictures is a complex process, especially if there are lots of pictures and the current structure is chaotic. Therefore a good plan is essential to a good outcome when you embark on starting to organize your pictures. The first step in putting together a great plan is to understand your hardware components and their current purposes. Next you need to assess if some of your hardware devices need to be re-purposed. Read on to find out some easy questions to ask for determining where to start.

How to create a great plan for organizing your pictures

Vlad — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 05:59:36 +0000

When I plan for road trip I usually know where I am and I know where I need to go. I also need a way of getting from where I am to where I need to be...I need a map. To get a map these days I look online for directions or I plug the destination in my GPS system which will create a map for me. It's simple! However, when it comes to starting to organize your pictures there is lots of confusion about everything. People don't know how to determine where they are and they don't know where they are supposed to go. In addition there is a lot of confusion about the way to get to the destination as well. Read on to find out how to create an efficient plan for organizing your pictures.

Picasa Face Recognition: How to Use Picasa’s Face Detection Even Today

Vlad — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:22:34 +0000

Picasa face recognition is still useful for organizing older photo libraries. This guide shows how to use Picasa’s face detection tools, improve accuracy, manage name tags, and fix common issues even though Picasa is discontinued.

One step required for an awesome image search with Picasa

Vlad — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 05:50:16 +0000

One main reason why you would spend the time and effort to create an efficient context for your digital photos is to be able to search for them. Search results and image metadata go hand in hand. In other words, you can't have meaningful image search results if your pictures don't have meaningful image metadata. As I have written before, creating a meaningful image context can be done in layers since not everyone has time to do all three layers. So, even if you create only meaningful folder names for your digital pictures, Picasa can still find your pictures quickly. Searching in Picasa is one of my favorite features. Read on to see how you search for pictures with Picasa.

Simple strategy for making your pictures memorable

Vlad — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 18:00:27 +0000

What makes a picture memorable to you? I agree that knowing good photography techniques help photographers make memorable pictures for others...they are simply cool pictures. However, for most of us, photos become memorable because they contain people and places we love. These memorable pictures are surrounded by things that are meaningful to us and mostly meaningless to others. Preserving the circumstances of your pictures is what I call creating a meaningful image context. Read along to understand what it is and how to create meaningful context for all your images.

Easy steps for emailing your favorite pictures with Picasa

Vlad — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:34:33 +0000

E-mailing your favorite pictures is still a difficult task even today with so many programs that claim to organize your pictures. The reason it is difficult is pretty simple: in order to be able to send pictures by email you have to reduce their size and add them as attachments to the email. This task is somewhat simple if you only want to send one picture. However, if you want to send multiple pictures it gets very tedious and most people just don't do it. Others send multiple emails containing their huge image files. In Picasa, however, it is very easy to send emails with your favorite pictures if you learn how to set it up.

Is Adobe Lightroom the best program for managing your pictures?

Vlad — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:55:34 +0000

For a good while now, Adobe Lightroom has become the software of choice for professional photographers. It's true, when I read about how professional photographers manage their pictures, they mostly talk about Lightroom as if it's expected that they would use Lightroom. However, I have been using Google's Picasa for a good few years now, ever since Google has added image metadata support in Picasa. Picasa has been great for organizing, editing and sharing my pictures. So why am I talking about Adobe Lightroom? Are you thinking about using Lightroom?

How to organize your pictures for the future

Vlad — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 14:54:36 +0000

A wise reader has asked me a wise question recently. The question went like this: "How do I organize my pictures for the future? What can I do today so that the pictures I leave for may family will be accessible in the future by my children and grandchildren?" This question made me think and realize that leaving memories for those we love is very important. Actually this is one of the main reasons we take pictures I think. Spending some time to understand new technology and future trends is worthwhile for everyone. If we don't then we might embrace some tech fad today that will be obsolete in a few years and then all the work done using this "very cool new thing" will be wasted. So, what do you do to organize your pictures for the future?

How to find the best replacement for DSLR kit lens

Vlad — Tue, 22 May 2012 05:21:35 +0000

When I purchased my Canon T2i some years ago, I assumed that I would have to replace the kit lens that came with it. I just assumed. This article comes from an unexpectedly painful experience in which I have attempted to replace my kit lens for my Canon T2i. I have always assumed that my Canon DSLR kit lens is mediocre at best, if not terrible.

The best way to configure Picasa options and make Picasa work fast and smooth

Vlad — Mon, 14 May 2012 05:00:34 +0000

Picasa is pretty fast and easy to use once installed. There are some settings however that will improve your Picasa experience greatly. Picasa has bundled all the settings in one place called Picasa Options. In this article I am explaining my own settings for Picasa Options. Read on to discover how you can improve your Picasa experience with a few clicks of the mouse.

Simple steps for organizing your existing digital photo collection

Vlad — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:00:50 +0000

I have written recently about the best hardware setup for your photo storage devices. But what do you do if you have multiple external hard drives full of duplicate pictures and your internal hard drives are also completely unorganized? Well, I have created a simple procedure or checklist that you can go through if you want to organize all your photo storage devices and eliminate all your duplicate images. It's a tedious job with a great feeling of satisfaction at the end. So, read on to get started and organize your digital photo storage.

The best photo storage device configuration

Vlad — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:14:04 +0000

When it comes to storing digital photos, people have many different configurations because there are many different purposes for storing digital photos. Most casual photographers have a simple setup for their hardware while professional photographers may have a very complex storage structure. Regardless of the configuration, a very important question should be answered by every photographer: How do you organize your photo storage devices? Read on to find out about my answer to this very important question.