Keeping track

[hollyxann]

Ok, how do you keep track of the pictures you've already scrapped with? Besides going back and looking at your layouts....
Do you keep them in a folder? Do you put all the pictures you want to scrap with in a folder and then delete them once they are used?

I know I've used the same image twice on layouts...which isn't horrible but I'd like to not do that lol

[Valgal]

Hmm... I've never thought of that. I guess since I generally keep up month by month I don't have much of an issue. Sometimes I use a pic more than once, but I know I'm doing it. Like, if it's a nice portrait or something. I read an article on that years ago and it was pretty freeing.

Maybe you could alter the file name? Like, add 'used' or something to the front so that you can sort through the pics in each folder quickly by arranging them by name? I finally realized last year that if I rename by date (Bridge lets you do this) I can find and scrap what I'm looking for much easier, and I don't have to look through the metadata to find the date.

[mariewilcox]

My pics are sorted into folders by year and then subfolders by month. After I scrap with a photo I drag it into a subfolder within that month labled "scrapped," That way I still have them within the same year/month in case I want to go back and use it again for some reason.

[hollyxann]

All of my pictures are sorted by year and then month already but I never thought about putting a subfolder for scrapped pictures in the month folder. Hmmmm that's an idea.

[MamaBee]

I have a spreadsheet with all the layouts that I've completed... it's by date so I can just look at the date of the photo and see by layout name if I already scrapped that story.

I used to sort all my photos year/month/date and then when I was done with the date, I would add _done... but that didn't work too well when I had multiple things I wanted to scrap in that folder and I don't scrap in order. :(

I also used to pull photos into folders by topic and date so when a kit came up, I could quickly find a folder with photos that needed to be scrapped... that worked, I wonder why I stopped doing that...

[Lyd]

When I import my photos, I immediately tag them "2015 to Scrap" or whatever year it is. Then when I scrap those photos, I remove the tag. It makes it really easy to create smart albums of photos that need to be scrapped. Once the tag is removed, the photos disappear from the smart folder.


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[Nettio]

Back when I used to have my photos organized, haha, I used the star rating in Lightroom for this. All "scrappable" photos would be given a 3-star rating at import and then I'd bump them down to 1-star when I scrapped them. The nice thing about this is I could sort photos by only 3-stars to hide the ones I'd scrapped or I could view all of them and still see the 1-star photos mixed in. It didn't tell me what layout I used them for (but I supposed I could have used captions for that?) but it made it easy when looking for photos.

[Valgal]

I have a spreadsheet

THIS does not surprise me. You are such a little nerd... I love it, lol!

[Valgal]

Back when I used to have my photos organized, haha, I used the star rating in Lightroom for this. All "scrappable" photos would be given a 3-star rating at import and then I'd bump them down to 1-star when I scrapped them. The nice thing about this is I could sort photos by only 3-stars to hide the ones I'd scrapped or I could view all of them and still see the 1-star photos mixed in. It didn't tell me what layout I used them for (but I supposed I could have used captions for that?) but it made it easy when looking for photos.

What a great idea! Bridge has a star system too. I always mean to go in and star the ones that I really want to scrap but... you know how it is. Good intentions.

Maybe that can be a goal for 2016, ha!

[SeattleSheri]

Sometimes I tag them in Lightroom, but mostly I just remember what I've scrapped without any sort of tracking system.

[Valgal]

I guess I don't take enough photos anymore to need much of a sorting system. Teenager's only do so many photograph-worthy things, lol!

[MamaBee]

THIS does not surprise me. You are such a little nerd... I love it, lol!

haha... guilty! :o

[rdjrneace]

I love the idea of doing a folder in the photo folder labeled scrapped.

[britaneejean]

I have year folders with month subfolders. If it's an event, I create a subfolder for that. Once it's scrapped, I rename it with a "+" sign. If it's partially scrapped then it's the "_" sign. It's not great but it works for me.

[Sherri Tierney]

I have a good memory. That's my system. LOL If I see a photo and think I may have scrapped it, I'll look through my folder of digital layouts. Most of the time I know whether I have or not though.

[rach3975]

For me, staying on top of my photos is one of the most time consuming parts of scrapping. There's no way I could face sorting through piles of photos every time I wanted to start a page...I'd never get anything scrapped. I have a folder of photos I want to scrap, and once something has been scrapped I delete it from the folder.

Every time I transfer photos to my computer, I organize them by week, delete anything I need to, and decide which ones might get scrapped. The scrapping candidates then get copied into my 2015 To Scrap folder and organized. I make subfolders for each page or topic. For example, I might make 1 folder for all the swimming photos we took all summer and another for 2 nice photos of DD playing outside on Monday. Photos that I want to scrap but that don't need their own page get saved in a folder for that week's Project Life spread. I also store journaling notes in those folders. If I edit a photo before I scrap it, I make sure to copy the edited version back to the original folder as well as in my To Scrap folder. I do like that I'm always working on duplicates of photos, so there's no potential to accidentally save over the original.

[hollyxann]

I think that since I have so many pictures on my computer and since I don't really scrap by order at all....still working on 2011 stuff from when Kennedy was born lol...that's why I've got to come up with a better system.

I do have lightroom so maybe I will try tagging them or staring them in there.

[mariewilcox]

I think that since I have so many pictures on my computer and since I don't really scrap by order at all....still working on 2011 stuff from when Kennedy was born lol...that's why I've got to come up with a better system.

This is how I scrap too - I scrap photos from when DS was a boy (1990s) through present day - I'm all over the place! I despise tagging so the "Scrapped" folder in each month is the easiest way for me - I like uncomplicated -lol

[Sherri Tierney]

It is interesting to me that you guys know which pictures you want to scrap. I don't. I am always surprised by what pictures actually make it to the layout. The 'duds' are usually the pictures I end up loving most on my layouts while the ones I take thinking I'll scrap them never end up making it to a layout at all.

[lovely1m]

I have a notepad document of all the photos that I still need to scrap. I also have one for unused kits to make sure I use them. :)

[nesser1981]

I tag all my to scrap photos in ACDsee. If you want more detailed info, I blogged about it this summer.

https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/index.php/2015/07/sugarbabe-sunday-712/

[tjscraps]

I've started tagging them, but for me what works best is I've copied a web size copy of the layout into the picture folder. I store all my pics in folders by year-month (so 2015-02, etc), and I name my layouts that way - 2015-02 Birthday Party (or whatever).

I found I was re-scrapping stuff and missing a lot of my fave photos so I copied a web version into each of the months of my layouts, so when I'm picking my photos to scrap I scroll down to the bottom of the folder, can see quickly if I've already scrapped it or not :) It was really easy to do because of how I name my pages - I've given up on the thought of ever being 'caught up' because I do rescrap things on purpose sometimes, but it's helped me scrap bigger events I tend to avoid (like Christmas!).

For the ones I've tagged, I've added 'To Be Scrapped' to the keywords, then I just search that when I really have no idea what I want to scrap about but I'm in the mood :)

[LeeAndra]

Like others, I mostly remember and also have a 'To Be Used' folder for kits and a 'To Be Scrapped' kit for photos.

It's always a happy day when I can match up something from each folder together. :thumbup:

I have not scrapped as much as usual in 2015, though, so I'm a little behind in sorting/organizing photos but I will catch back up in January. It's the worst month ever (besides my birthday :p) and I always have lots of time to scrap and sort since nothing fun happens until March.

[Valgal]

I will catch back up in January. It's the worst month ever (besides my birthday :p) and I always have lots of time to scrap and sort since nothing fun happens until March.

Same here. There's only so many ways you can describe sitting around the house doing nothing, lol!