Our average client has:
5,000-10,000 physical photos and
dozens of home movies.
But most clients also have more than
100,000 digital photos
on their computers, cameras, phones, and cloud accounts. Some clients bring us upwards of
5-10 million digital photos.
This digital chaos is overwhelming for everybody!
We can help!
Phase 1
Phase 1 of digital organizing includes gathering, merging, deduplicating, and sorting everything chronologically.
Phase 2
Phase 2 of digital organizing includes curation, keywording, and tagging.
We’ve developed a unique process that works every time to
- organize everything by date
- delete the duplicates and duds
- make everything safe and searchable.
Because we sort everything by date and embed searchable metadata, we can combine your digital photos with your scanned photos and converted movies into a complete Family Photo Archive. Everything will be safe, searchable, shareable, and in one place.
Metadata for Clients Course
Learn how to search and enjoy your Family Photo Archive.
At Chaos to Memories, we use industry standard metadata so it’s easy to find and share your memories today and for generations to come. In this short course you’ll learn about metadata basics, how to copy your Family Photo Archive to your computer, and how to search your photos from a variety of apps and devices.
If you’re interested and need help with your digital photos, here’s a complete list of digital apps, services, and storage formats that we support.
How do you organize digital photos?
We start by gathering all your digital photos from your devices, computers, cameras, and cloud accounts. Then we merge everything together, deduplicate, and sort chronologically. Then we curate out the photos that you don’t care about, and add keywords to the remaining photos of important people, places, and events so your Family Photo Archive is searchable.
How do you do this for people you don't know?
Over the last 20 years we’ve developed a process that works every time for every client. We start each digital organizing project with a Getting Started form that gives us the clues we need to organize your photos. We end each project with a short review to confirm details we weren’t sure about and our clients are amazed every time by what we deliver.
What software do you use to organize digital photos?
We use Adobe Lightroom Classic because it’s professional software, fast, and supports industry standards for organizing digital photos.
Do I need to use Adobe Lightroom Classic after you organize my photos?
You can use it if you want, but it’s not required. We organize digital photos based on industry standards and nothing we do is specific to any software app, computer brand, phone model, or cloud service.
Do you support Apple Photos, Google Photos, or Amazon Photos?
We extract digital photos from these services all the time, but we don’t upload Family Photo Archives to these services. None of these popular services support industry standard metadata, so we recommend the SmugMug photo sharing platform instead.
How do you deliver my Family Photo Archive?
We deliver smaller projects on a USB thumb drive and larger projects on an external USB hard drive. We can also provide multiple drives if you need more for gifts or backups.
How can I access my Family Photo Archive?
You can access your organized digital photos from the USB thumb drive or external USB drive we deliver to you, copy them to your computer, or we can create a private, searchable web site for you that you can access anywhere.
How do I keep my photos backed up?
We recommend the 3-2-1 backup strategy, which is three copies, two different media, and one copy off site. At the end of your project we can help you get set up for safe and reliable backups.
How do I maintain my Family Photo Archive when I keep taking new photos?
We offer maintenance plans where we catch up and keep everything organized on a regular basis. We can discuss next steps toward the end of your project.
If you’re near Chicago and ready to get started, come visit our Wheaton Studio Monday – Friday, 10-5. Please bring your memories with you.
Contact us for more information, shipping instructions, and to get started on your project.