24 February 2017

A Photo Valentine Gift for Me This Year

A treasured photo taken in
Lyndon, Kansas, Feb 13, 1885 as a
Valentine. Alas, I don't know who
it could be.
We sat, entertained, as we watched a slideshow featuring family members of various eras engaged in similar activities. But the surprise ending caused a universal groan. "The problem is we don't know who any of these family members or friends are," the presenter explained.

I have many unidentified photos myself, some old, some new. Precious antiques or unidentified babies, they have lost their value when they are not labeled. As I scanned photos, I carefully scanned both front and back, but even then sometimes the two get separated and often the back of the photo still doesn't tell the whole story. I have tried to painstakingly add borders in Photoshop to write on, but there are other drawbacks to that. Some photos from my dad and my grandma had identification written across the front. That was a mixed blessing.

I had heard of metadata, the information about the photo that is actually saved within the electronic image, but how to enter that metadata escaped me.


That mystery was solved when I attended a Pictures and Stories class by Alison Taylor. (Recording available here.) I could enter data very easily in the Properties/Details space in Windows or I could use my Adobe Bridge program (free download) to even add metadata to a lot of photos at once. Alison's blog gives further details on Bridge which I found easy to understand and duplicate. I just followed along with her. It does take a little time, but for the first time ever, I feel that I am efficiently organizing my many images of photos and documents. Thanks so much Alison!


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