How to organize Photos and Videos on Windows.
Diffractor helps manage a collection of photos and videos on your PC. It indexes files for duplicate detection, fast search, and collection presence. Presence identifies items already in the collection.
PC used to centralize and manage the collection.
Synchronize files to a NAS or network drive.
Import, structure and remove duplicate files.
Publish to family, friends, and clients from the NAS.
Getting started.
Staying organized is easier when all photos and videos live in a structured collection.
The first step is to round up all photos and videos. Copy them to one or more “collection” folders on the PC.
If storage is limited, consider a modern external SSD drive—fast and compact.
Many people are surprised by what turns up in old random folders, phones, cameras, older devices, memory cards, and hard drives.
By default, Google Photos may re‑encode files; importing from there can reduce quality. Best to get the the original files from you camera or phone.
The OneDrive photo uploader on a phone can sync photos and videos to a PC automatically. Afterward, import (copy or move) those items from the sync folder to the collection folder.
Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive can all sync files to a folder on the PC via their desktop apps.
Organize into folders.
Create a folder structure as the collection grows. A simple year/month/day structure works well.
Diffractor can automatically copy or move items into that structure using “Import” (F9). It determines a file’s date by analyzing photo or video metadata.
The year/month/day structure is often sufficient; users can still search by location or other metadata when needed.
Review, grade, and prune.
Review your photos and videos—assign ratings and other metadata.
Nothing beats a fast computer with a large display. Two displays are even better.
Rate great photos 5 stars. Delete or reject blurry shots. Label items that need editing as TODO.
Diffractor can also compare two photos or videos side‑by‑side to help choose the better item.
If there’s a cat in a photo, tag it ‘Cat’. If someone named Amalie is in the photo, tag it ‘Amalie’ and ‘Family’.
Fix metadata. For example sometimes the date is wrong for certain photos—maybe because the camera’s clock was set incorrectly.
Importantly, metadata added with Diffractor follows the XMP standard and works in other products from Adobe, DXO, and others (and vice versa).
Review a few folders whenever time allows.
Diffractor includes an “Adjust date” tool (CTRL+SHIFT+D) to correct incorrect dates.
If a photo or video lacks a location, Diffractor can add one. Exact locations aren’t necessary— approximate the nearest town. (L)
Use a NAS.
A NAS, which stands for Network-Attached Storage, is a specialized device that provides centralized data storage and file-sharing services to all devices on a network. Think of it as your own personal or private cloud, but one that you own and control.
After each session, copy new or modified files from the PC to a NAS.
The NAS works like a hub. Everyone in the household can access photos and videos over the network. It stays on all the time.
Diffractor can automatically synchronize the collection to a NAS or network drive (CTRL+SHIFT+F9). Use this to copy updated files to the NAS, and sync changes back to the PC if needed.
Backing up.
Keep photos and videos safe by maintaining backups.
A cloud backup service such as Carbonite can back up the NAS automatically.
Backup your pc to a NAS. Backup the NAS to a cloud service.