Iris Works is a studio-management platform for photographers, and its blog occasionally dives into workflow topics. In this 28 June 2023 post, author Megan Al-Hassani walks through a plain-language “ultimate guide” to taming both digital and printed pictures. The focus is on simple housekeeping—folders, tags, backups—rather than heavy catalog-software theory.
The piece repeatedly leans on consumer-friendly cloud apps but also name-checks pro services to keep things expandable as your needs grow.
Tools mentioned
- Adobe Lightroom – example of software that can automate sorting, tagging, and duplicate removal
- Google Photos – suggested all-in-one cloud manager for viewing and culling large libraries
- iCloud Photos – listed alongside Google Photos as a mainstream option
- ShootProof – client-gallery service that hooks into Iris for automatic delivery
- Pic-Time – another gallery service supported by Iris integrations
Steps to follow (if any)
- Block out regular clean-up time, then build a folder tree by year / event / location with consistent names.
- Import into a photo-manager (Lightroom, Google Photos, iCloud) to auto-sort, detect duplicates, and speed up culling.
- Rename files for clarity—fold in dates or places instead of leaving
IMG_001. - Tag with keywords (year, people, subject) so searches stay fast even as the archive grows.
- Cull duplicates / bad shots right away and schedule a yearly purge to keep clutter down.
- Back up twice: one local copy on an external drive and one remote copy in the cloud.
- Print, display, or book-ify favorites and box up physical prints by year or event for tidy analog storage.
Advice (extras called out)
- Don’t bury photos under too many sub-sub-folders; shallower structures are easier to browse.
- Skip generic filenames—searching later for “Paris 2024” beats scrolling past
IMG_2743. - Tag sooner rather than later; catching up on keywords for thousands of images is brutal.
- Backups aren’t optional—hardware failure or accidental deletes happen.
- If you deliver client galleries, tapping ShootProof or Pic-Time via Iris can save setup time.
Take a spin through the full article for the complete rundown and screenshots: https://www.iris-works.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-organizing-photos-tips-and-tricks (posted 28 Jun 2023). The broader Iris Works blog has additional workflow pieces if you want to dig deeper.