One of Stacy's optional extra's are Cold Storage Photo Boxes. She removes photos that have remained unscrapped for years into boxes for long term storage without bogging down her storage binders or her category drawers.
In a digital world I comtemplated the necessity of doing this when I could simply filter out the less worthy photos by rating them lower or sorting by date. However, I figured if you had 1000s of photos that fell into this category you might want to archive them off of your hard drive to save space. So here is my plan for doing this.
In Photoshop Elements 6 there is an option to archive photos to CD. Simply select the photos you want to archive then use this feature. The photos are moved to the CD/DVD and removed from the hard drive. Elements keeps a thumbnail of the image and marks this image with a flag that indicates you need to retrieve the CD to edit/print the full size image.
When doing this I will archive one year at a time and create a CD/DVD label that has the year but also opens to show a bulleted list of events/themes of whatever is on the disc.
Photo Credit: Taken from "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker" - Wendy Smedley & Abbey Garvey
The advantage to doing this in Elements is simply to keep the thumbnails and still be able to search for a file. Bridge and Lightroom both give you the ability to export files and you can simply copy them to the CD/DVD. Lightroom will continue to reference the original location in its catalog and display thumbnails. However, if you try to use a photo it will tell you that the photo is missing from the referenced location and prompt you for a new location at which point you can tell it to look on the CD/DVD you used.
In a digital world I comtemplated the necessity of doing this when I could simply filter out the less worthy photos by rating them lower or sorting by date. However, I figured if you had 1000s of photos that fell into this category you might want to archive them off of your hard drive to save space. So here is my plan for doing this.
In Photoshop Elements 6 there is an option to archive photos to CD. Simply select the photos you want to archive then use this feature. The photos are moved to the CD/DVD and removed from the hard drive. Elements keeps a thumbnail of the image and marks this image with a flag that indicates you need to retrieve the CD to edit/print the full size image.
When doing this I will archive one year at a time and create a CD/DVD label that has the year but also opens to show a bulleted list of events/themes of whatever is on the disc.
Photo Credit: Taken from "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker" - Wendy Smedley & Abbey Garvey
The advantage to doing this in Elements is simply to keep the thumbnails and still be able to search for a file. Bridge and Lightroom both give you the ability to export files and you can simply copy them to the CD/DVD. Lightroom will continue to reference the original location in its catalog and display thumbnails. However, if you try to use a photo it will tell you that the photo is missing from the referenced location and prompt you for a new location at which point you can tell it to look on the CD/DVD you used.
Stacy's 3rd essential item are her Library Albums, this is where her completed layouts are stored. Stacy's LOM albums are divided into the four categories: People, Us, Places, Things.
Once my layouts are created in Photoshop Elements then I print them usually at Costco in the 18x12 size. The neat thing about this size is that you can print 1 12x12 and then 3 4x6 photos on the remaining 6x12 strip. I insert these 12x12 layouts into my albums.
My albums aren't quite organized like Stacy's yet. I have albums for each child (Us) but need to add albums for both C and me. I have not separated out People We Love, Places or Things although I do have a Family album as well as a Marina's stuff album. My next step is to do this separation.
To do this I am going to purchase sticky colored flags from Staples and use a different color for each of the 4 themes. I will then go through my albums flagging the various layouts and pulling them out of their albums and into new ones. This will be a time consuming process so my next blog entry will skip to the next step (gasp!).
Once my layouts are created in Photoshop Elements then I print them usually at Costco in the 18x12 size. The neat thing about this size is that you can print 1 12x12 and then 3 4x6 photos on the remaining 6x12 strip. I insert these 12x12 layouts into my albums.
My albums aren't quite organized like Stacy's yet. I have albums for each child (Us) but need to add albums for both C and me. I have not separated out People We Love, Places or Things although I do have a Family album as well as a Marina's stuff album. My next step is to do this separation.
To do this I am going to purchase sticky colored flags from Staples and use a different color for each of the 4 themes. I will then go through my albums flagging the various layouts and pulling them out of their albums and into new ones. This will be a time consuming process so my next blog entry will skip to the next step (gasp!).
Yesterday we were officially 2/3 of the way through the cancer treatment. C has had 2/3 of both the chemos and the radiations. He is doing suprisngly ok.
The 2nd chemo kind of knocked the wind out of his sails a bit and it took about 1 week for him to recover. He is still not eating very well, only managing fairly soft foods or liquid (high cal shakes). He lost 15 pounds last week so is really trying hard this week to eat as he is worried they will make him get a feeding tube which would be a shame now that he is so close to the end (1 chemo and 11 radiations left including today's). He has definitely improved and has been seen scoffing pancakes, omelettes, bananas and butter tarts(?). Hopefully this weeks weight loss shouldn't be as bad, today is weigh-in day.
The 2nd chemo kind of knocked the wind out of his sails a bit and it took about 1 week for him to recover. He is still not eating very well, only managing fairly soft foods or liquid (high cal shakes). He lost 15 pounds last week so is really trying hard this week to eat as he is worried they will make him get a feeding tube which would be a shame now that he is so close to the end (1 chemo and 11 radiations left including today's). He has definitely improved and has been seen scoffing pancakes, omelettes, bananas and butter tarts(?). Hopefully this weeks weight loss shouldn't be as bad, today is weigh-in day.
For more long term storage, Stacy Julian takes her photos out of her storage binders and puts them in category drawers.The next step in my implementation of the Library of Memories is to create digital category drawers.
In digital category drawers give you a different way of searching on your photos. The digital storage albums we created allow you to search by date, but this isn't always the way you want to scrapbook your photos. What if you want to find all the photos of your kids swimming, or all the photos of you kids with Grandpa. This is where the category drawers are particularly powerful. And the advantage to doing this digitally is that a photo can reside in more than one category, whereas a physical photo can only live in one category (although it can be moved around).
To set up my digital category drawers, I used Photoshop Elements 6 Keyword tags. I used these because (for the most part) I have already keyworded my photos and it was a simple process to select an existing tag and move it around in a hierarchical structure, rename it or combine it with another tag.
I usually keyword my photos as I import them of the camera (as you can do them in batches). For example, Christmas photos might be tagged with Winter, Christmas, home on import. This speeds up the process of tagging tremendously. Then I would go through and individually tag and rate them. I always try to do this at the time of import as it doesn't take long to do then but if you let the number of photos build up it seems to take forever and is one of those tasks you tend to put off.
If you don't want to use PSE6, then what you need to make sure of is that your tagging or categorizing program will allow you to make hierarchical lists of tags. It is also advantageous if you can convert a keyword to a category (you put keywords inside the category) if you later discovered you wanted to subdivide it further.
I ruled out using Creative Memories Memory Manager program because it would not convert a folder to a sort box. The other reason I ruled out Memory Manager is that it wouldn't read my already existing ITPC keyword tags. ITPC is an industry standard that allows keywords to be embedded directly in jpg, psd, tiff files allowing them to be read by any ITPC compatible program.
I ruled out ACDSee 10 for a similar reason, it won't allow its categories to be written to the ITPC keyword field (ACDSee Pro 2 will do this, as will PSE6).
Other alternative programs that will work include Lightroom and Bridge.
This is the top and middle level structure I used. Each bulleted sub-category has individual tags inside it (for example, Grandparents contains Grandma, Grandpa, Grandad, Nanna).
And this is what it actually looks like in PSE6.
In digital category drawers give you a different way of searching on your photos. The digital storage albums we created allow you to search by date, but this isn't always the way you want to scrapbook your photos. What if you want to find all the photos of your kids swimming, or all the photos of you kids with Grandpa. This is where the category drawers are particularly powerful. And the advantage to doing this digitally is that a photo can reside in more than one category, whereas a physical photo can only live in one category (although it can be moved around).
To set up my digital category drawers, I used Photoshop Elements 6 Keyword tags. I used these because (for the most part) I have already keyworded my photos and it was a simple process to select an existing tag and move it around in a hierarchical structure, rename it or combine it with another tag.
I usually keyword my photos as I import them of the camera (as you can do them in batches). For example, Christmas photos might be tagged with Winter, Christmas, home on import. This speeds up the process of tagging tremendously. Then I would go through and individually tag and rate them. I always try to do this at the time of import as it doesn't take long to do then but if you let the number of photos build up it seems to take forever and is one of those tasks you tend to put off.
If you don't want to use PSE6, then what you need to make sure of is that your tagging or categorizing program will allow you to make hierarchical lists of tags. It is also advantageous if you can convert a keyword to a category (you put keywords inside the category) if you later discovered you wanted to subdivide it further.
I ruled out using Creative Memories Memory Manager program because it would not convert a folder to a sort box. The other reason I ruled out Memory Manager is that it wouldn't read my already existing ITPC keyword tags. ITPC is an industry standard that allows keywords to be embedded directly in jpg, psd, tiff files allowing them to be read by any ITPC compatible program.
I ruled out ACDSee 10 for a similar reason, it won't allow its categories to be written to the ITPC keyword field (ACDSee Pro 2 will do this, as will PSE6).
Other alternative programs that will work include Lightroom and Bridge.
This is the top and middle level structure I used. Each bulleted sub-category has individual tags inside it (for example, Grandparents contains Grandma, Grandpa, Grandad, Nanna).
People
- Family
- Friends
- Grandparents
- Around Town
- Far Away
- Home
Things
- Accomplishments
- Everyday Life
- Seasons and Colors
- Special Days
- Sports & Recreation
- All in the Family
- Family Relationships
- Personality
And this is what it actually looks like in PSE6.
To add a category, sub-category or keyword tag in PSE6, simply click on the green plus "+" sign shown in the image above. You can also move tags around in the structure by click and dragging them.
To search on a particular tag, click in the empty box on the left of the tag name. A pair of binoculars will appear indicating that you are currently searching on that tag.
The first step in Stacy Julian's workflow is to print her pictures by Season. She organizes her digital photos on her computer then send the faves (the ones she *might* scrapbook) out for printing. Once these come back she then organizes them into storage binders which are chronological.
As a mostly digital scrapbooker, I don't want to actually print any photos. When I download my photos they automatically get put into folders with the date. However, this doesn't mean that I can't organize them by season too.
In Photoshop Elements Organizer, I have created Smart Albums for each quarter, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec. In addition, each smart album is filtered to show only photos that are rated 2 or higher (my rating system is 0=no good, 1=ok, 2=good, 3=fabulous portfolio worthy).
This enables me to quickly look through what I have and see anything that is scrapworthy that I know that I haven't scrapped yet. I would like to implement a way to record what has been scrapped (or printed for traditional layouts) but haven't worked on this yet but have a couple of ideas I'll discuss in a later post.
I figure a couple of years worth of photos in these "storage binder" smart albums gives me plenty of fodder for scrapbooking.
Stacy clears out her storage binders after four years. I will just delete the smart albums instead.
How to create a digital storage binder in Photoshop Elements 6
As a mostly digital scrapbooker, I don't want to actually print any photos. When I download my photos they automatically get put into folders with the date. However, this doesn't mean that I can't organize them by season too.
In Photoshop Elements Organizer, I have created Smart Albums for each quarter, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec. In addition, each smart album is filtered to show only photos that are rated 2 or higher (my rating system is 0=no good, 1=ok, 2=good, 3=fabulous portfolio worthy).
This enables me to quickly look through what I have and see anything that is scrapworthy that I know that I haven't scrapped yet. I would like to implement a way to record what has been scrapped (or printed for traditional layouts) but haven't worked on this yet but have a couple of ideas I'll discuss in a later post.I figure a couple of years worth of photos in these "storage binder" smart albums gives me plenty of fodder for scrapbooking.
Stacy clears out her storage binders after four years. I will just delete the smart albums instead.
How to create a digital storage binder in Photoshop Elements 6
- First make sure you have no filters or search in progress and that you are starting a new search.
- In the top right of the photo area select the number of stars you want to filter on. If you don't use a rating system them you won't need this step.
- On the timeline put the left and right sliders to select your date range. Each column represents one month.
- In the Albums pane, click on the plus "+" sign and select "Save Search Criteria As Smart Album". You will be prompted to name your album which will now show in the Album pane.
- To use your smart album, click on the name in the Album pane.
If you need to make changes to your album criteria:
- Select the album from the Album pane.
- Make changes to the search criteria as desired.
- Right click on the album name and select Save Changes to Album name.
The advantage to using a smart album is that what is shown is dynamically generated. So if you change the ratings of your photos or upload more photos for those dates, they will automatically appear/disappear from the album.
A similar system can be made in Lightroom and Bridge. Instead of Smart Albums you can use Collections to save your filter criteria.
I have been reading Stacy Julian's "Photo Freedom" book which encourages scrapbookers to scrapbook in a non-chronological order and provides a theme/category system to allow you do this in a guilt-free way.
I have to say, scrapping chronologically has never really been a problem for me. I usually print the photos I think I'll use, shove them in the albums' page protectors in chronological order and then scrap what I want as I've left enough space (and I can always shuffle the pages later). I guess this would be harder if you used a strap hinge system and didn't calculate the space you'd need.
But what I did like about her book was:
I have to say, scrapping chronologically has never really been a problem for me. I usually print the photos I think I'll use, shove them in the albums' page protectors in chronological order and then scrap what I want as I've left enough space (and I can always shuffle the pages later). I guess this would be harder if you used a strap hinge system and didn't calculate the space you'd need.
But what I did like about her book was:
- the idea of putting "like" photos with "like" to draw comparisons;
- the idea of using the remaining photos from an event in a different context;
- the idea of storing layouts relating to the same person (like grandma) together;
- the idea of having themed albums so that you can see how many layouts you do of each type (Us, Things, Places, People We Love) and can balance this as you see fit.
What I noticed from mentally subdiving my existing layouts into these 4 categories, is that I don't really scapbook Places or People We Love, and even my Things was looking decidedly skimpy.
I think this is where I can expand what I am scrapbooking and provide more meaningful insight into our lives. And I think this explains why I have a box of memorabilia, newspaper cuttings and other stuff that hasn't been scrapbooked (and I doubt will ever be, using my current system).
I thought it would be fun to document my journey in creating a Library of Memories especially as I am a mostly digital (but not completely) scrapbooker. I have done extensive searches online to find out about implementing a digital LOM system and have found nothing at all. So I hope to help other digiscrappers who want to do this.
Plan
To implement Stacy's LOM system, I am going to implement her four categories:
- All About Us,
- People We Love,
- Places We've Been,
- Things We Do
with subcategories based on those in the book.
Separate to this I will keep my heritage photos (i.e. any photos from before I was born) in with my genealogy files. Stacy keeps Family History Drawers but obviously she doesn't have the 20 years worth of genealogical research that I do :) I already have a great binder based filing system for my genealogy files which is published here. I am now including my heritage page layouts as I have switched to 12x12 ring binders from American Crafts instead of 8.5x11 binders from Staples (although I could have scrapped them in the smaller size).
As a digital scrapbooker I currently use Photoshop Elements 6 to find my photos and ACDSee Pro 2 to manage my digital scrapbooking supplies. I use Photoshop CS3/Bridge and Lightroom only occasionally as I find PSE6 does almost everything I need. My plan is to use the organizer where it makes sense to do so but am willing to use other programs as necessary and I will discuss some of the alternative programs I have looked at and why they will or won't work for me.
