Photo Organizing Trends for 2025

As we near the end of 2024, I’m looking back at the work we’ve done this year and planning ahead for 2025. Seven photo organizing trends emerge that feel different and worth sharing.

1 – More of Everything

Most people transitioned from film cameras to digital around 2001-2003, which opened the flood gates of “free” photography. Without the cost of film, processing, and prints, we started shooting more than ever and haven’t slowed down yet. 

When I opened Chaos to Memories seven years ago our average digital client had about 100,000 digital photos. As we close out 2024, our average family client has more than 250,000 digital photos on their devices. The need to curate and manage family memories has never been greater.

2 – Clients Want Less

We usually want to get more for our money, but when families feel overwhelmed by their photos they actually want less. On average, we delete more than 50% of a client’s digital photos because they’re duplicates, and then we delete another 50% by curating out duds, screenshots, and bursts.

As I always say, “We deliver more when we deliver less.”

When a family can enjoy all their best photos in one place, there’s a huge sense of relief.

3 – Scanning Isn’t Enough

A typical family brings us about 10,000 physical photos to scan, but if we scan without organizing then we’re just converting physical chaos to digital chaos. People are motivated to view and enjoy their photos, so scanning alone isn’t enough.

We help families organize their family photos (and home movies) by date and make them searchable by person, place, event, and more. Scanning is an important part in any family memory project, but the organizing and sharing family photos and home movies is really the goal.

4 – All In

People usually reach out to us about one service such as photo scanning or video conversion. However, projects often snowball when they realize their printed photos, digital photos, home movies, film reels, and audio recordings are all at risk.

We use the same organization process with every project, and clients appreciate being able to find the memories that matter whether it’s a video tape or film reel, scanned photo or digital photo, slide or negative. In 2024, more clients than ever had us digitize and organize all their memories into one searchable family archive and that trend continues as we swing into 2025.

5 – Access is Important

We deliver client projects on reliable drives and recommend backup best practices, but having a drive at home isn’t really the goal. Most clients expect to access their Family Photo Archive anywhere they go (home, work, vacation, etc.) and on any device (computer, phone, Smart TV, etc.). They want to be able to enjoy and share photos whether they’re at home, at the office, on vacation, or out to lunch.

We’ve always offered private cloud solutions for Family Photo Archives, but more clients are taking advantage of this than ever. We used to have to explain how this could work, but now clients expect it and just want to know it’s secure.

6 – Fast Approval of Creative Projects

Some of our favorite work is when we turn family photos into tangible creative projects such as restored photos, wall art, and photo books. Any time we create something for a client, we use an easy online review process where they preview the photo restoration or book design before we produce the final piece.

What’s different about these creative projects is that most of them are approved with no or few edits from our clients. I think this is partly because of the incredible skill of our staff, but clients are overwhelmed and want an expert they can trust to do a great job the first time. They want simplicity instead of micromanaging little design details.

7 – More Maintenance

We’ve been in business 7+ years and every year we organize millions of photos for our clients. The challenge of organizing Family Photo Archives is that people keep taking new photos, so you’re never really done.

That’s opened the door to more past clients coming back to us for maintenance of their photo archives. We’ve always been willing to do this for past clients, but we’ve never pursued it. Past clients are contacting us more than ever and we’re eager to help them get caught up on their memories.

Conclusion

Our staff continues to grow in size and skill, and we’re excited to help more families than ever enjoy their memories in 2025. If I tried to describe our typical client I’d say they:

• feel overwhelmed by their family photos and home movies
• crave simplicity and serenity and want to steward their memories
• are motivated to share their memories and connect with the people they love.

With appreciation and eagerness for the year ahead,
Adam

Interested in working with Chaos to Memories?

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.

If you live outside the Chicagoland area, we’re happy to send you a Project Form and Contract, along with shipping instructions, so you can get started on your project.

Contact us for more information.