One of the questions I get asked the most is how to edit down family photos. So many people have boxes and boxes of photographs, collecting dust, taking up precious real estate in their home. I have most definitely been guilty of that in the past. When I was in highschool, I took a black and white film class and learned the art of taking and developing photos. I was hooked! I took so many photos, I couldn’t keep them all straight. The passion continued through college and into my young adult professional years. Over time, I accumulated countless boxes of albums and loose photos. I captured everything from parties to plays, ceremonies and long summer nights drinking beers on patios. I wanted to remember it all. Then came the reality of whenever I moved, (which was pretty often. I moved fourteen times between three different states from ‘02-’15) I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of boxes of photos I needed to move. They weighed a ton and I became exhausted of it. Finally, I decided to make a change.
I pulled out every photo I could find. Every box, album, old frame that I hadn’t displayed in years. All of it. I started realizing something. There were so many photos that were not really all that great. Back in the day, when developing film was still a thing, I’d shoot photos without knowing what the photo was going to look like. There was no digital screen to look at to know if I captured a decent shot or not, so I printed everything. I had to make the effort to drop the film at the store, wait a certain amount of days, go back, get the prints and negatives and after all the effort, I was too invested to be critical of the photos. I kept it all. Going back through them years later, there were so many photos that were fuzzy, not centered, and of people I didn’t even know anymore! If you pick up a photo and it immediately makes you smile and brings you back to that moment, you know it’s a keeper. There were typically about five to ten really good shots from each event that stood out as keepers. The rest were easy to let go because those select few perfectly summed up the occasion.
Once you’ve edited down your stack(s) of photos to those that truly get the gold star, you can choose how to store them. I like to start by digitizing. I’m not super tech-friendly, so I take photos of the photos. What?! I’m totally serious. It’s the easiest way for a low-tech approach. They can also be scanned. Once they’re on my phone, I create named files for each event, which is immediately saved to the cloud. Having everything digital means you’ll never have to spend time searching through piles of photos again! If you don’t want to invest the time to take pictures of your pictures or scanning, there are services you can use that will scan old family photos and create thumb drives and/or digital downloads for you. Kodak, one of the oldest, most trusted American photography companies, provides all sorts of digitizing services. They also send the originals back.
Once I got rid of my albums, I stored all my best-of-the-best photos in one box, that takes up minimal space in my closet. If you really have your heart set on albums, that’s fine too! But now you’ve gone through and edited the amount of photos, which hopefully will take up MUCH less precious space in your home. It’s all about finding those photos that make your heart happy and allowing them to shine!
This is one of my favorites. It’s a keeper! Stay Home. Stay Safe. Stay Positive. ~Jolin
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