I have a problem....

I don't know what to do!!! I have TONS and TONS of photos on my HD that are HUGE (I shoot with a Nikon D80 at Max resolution - not RAW though) and just copy the photos to my HD a couple times a month. Well, I have 3 years of photos here that I have never processed or even looked at at full size. I think I want to print them all for regular old albums and then just start keeping them on disk or EHD if I want to scrap them. I am starting to delete pictures if they are bad or so-so but up to this point I really haven't. HELP!!! Where do I start??? I need to clean off this HD - soon!!!!

I know I can process multiples in PSE. Should I just do this on each month's folder and upload to Costco to print? Should I resize everything to a certain size, keeping them large enough to print at least an 8x10 if it's a really good picture?

TIA for any advice!!!!!!

I would start small and make a goal of cleaning up like a month at a time so you dont get overwhelmed. After you have so much done have them printed and then burn to disk or move to EHD whichever you think is better and delete anything that you do not like or is blurry.

I had a similar problem and I just uploaded them to Smug Mug and deleted the ones that I didn't LOVE off the hard drive... I can't stand to delete pictures - I feel your pain!

I agree with setting small goals to tackle them. I do NOT recommend relying on an EHD (there is such a high rate of failure). I would burn them to CD/DVDs. I have one CD/DVD for each month. I also have them stored on as EHD. I never resize mine, but that's just a personal preference. Good luck!

I keep them all so I am NO help!! LOL

They are on my computer, DH's computer (twice) and then he burns the complete untouched folder to an archival disk every few months.

I have all of mine{well I delete the bad ones as I upload}....but I agree with starting small, like a month at a time and then print after that..I know I am going to print monthly this year and put them in my LYM book so when I get around to scrapping {paper} 2010 I will have all the pics and the journlaing together!

The first thing I would suggest, is getting into the habit of uploading your photos and IMMEDIATELY sorting through them. Delete the bad ones, and the blurry ones. I've always been in the habit of keeping of everything, but honest to god, there will NEVER be a way to fix those super blurry or out of focus shots. Never. You're never going to use them, so get rid of them and save your HD space.

One thing I loved about Library of Memories at BPS is the idea of setting up a quarterly highlights folder. You take your favorites and either move them, or copy them, to a new quarterly folder (or if you tag your photos in LR or ACDSee, just add a new "favorites" tag to the photo or something). Then when inspiration strikes, you've got 4 folders full of the best photos and your favorites from throughout the year.

As far as printing goes, that's where editing immediately comes in handy. For example, I set up 12 monthly folders for each month of the year within one big yearly folder. Within that monthly folder, I have 1 folder for LR for my dng's, and a JPG folder for those that I edit and export. Within the jpg folder is a web folder. Just easy to do is to add a "print" folder. When you find a favorite that you know you want to print, stick it in there. It's already edited, and if you know you want a specific size, then edit a second copy and add the size intot he filename. I don't rename my photos, but if I edit it for 5x7, I add _5x7 to the name so I know what size to print it at later on. If you do this as you upload and edit, at the end of the month all you have to do is upload and print. And if you're really organized, you can upload as you go and then when you do your last batch of the month, just go ahead and order.

PS~I'm not nearly this oranized in real life. But I am hoping to GET this organized this year and implement the system more fully.

I agree with everyone else- start small. And definitely back up to a CD/DVD so that you don't lose them. And I hate to delete pics too, but like Col said, you will never use the bad ones. So even though it will be hard, I would delete all the ones that are poor quality that you know you will never use.

As for shooting, I have a Canon Rebel T1i and always shoot in full res. I would hate to have lower res pics on my computer- maybe that is why I have a 1 TB external! LOL!

I'm in the same boat with my RAW photos and my solution was to replace he hard drive in my laptop with one that was twice as big. LOL!

No but seriously, this is one of the projects for this year. I'm terrible about deleting picks as I upload them and doing P365 just made the situation even worse. But I'm not comfortable moving my photos to an EHD so for now I'm doing what I can to keep them on my laptop.

In the past when I've done mass deletions, I've found it easiest to do it in 15 minute increments. You can get a lot done and not end up being too overwhelmed.

As far as printing, there's no way I could or would even want to print them all. I'd probably focus on deleting first and choose just the best of the best (tagged so you can find them) and just print those.

Photo workflow is one of my main goals for this year because my system is out of control.