Earlier, we suggested that you keep track of your pictures by keeping them organised in separate folders for each month. But what if you can't remember when you took the picture, or you just want to find all the pictures you've taken of Uncle Fred? If you've got thousands of pictures filed away, how do you find the ones you want?
Photoshop Elements Organiser (or similar software from other suppliers) can help.
On the PSE front screen, select 'View and Organise Photos'. If you are already in PSE, you can select 'Photo Browser' from the toolbar. The top screen below appears.
Click on File > Get Photos (1). The next screen appears.
Select 'from Camera or Card reader' (2). All the images on your card appear on screen. Select those you want to import (7).
You can allow PSE to select the folder or you can specify the folder you want to hold them by clicking the 'browse' button (8). I prefer to keep one folder for every month.
Now click 'Get Photos' and all your images are read from the card, to your designated folder, and the first screen reappears, but now with your new photos on display (3).
If you already have photos on your hard drive that have not been catalogued you can bring them into the catalogue by selecting 'From File or Folder' at (2).
The images are now already catalogued by date (either the date they were taken or the date you read them in, depending on your camera). But you can catalogue them in more useful ways. PSE allows three levels - Categories, Sub-categories and Tags. Some of these are already preset and can be seen on the right (4). You can create as many new categories, sub-categories and tags as you like by clicking on the 'New' button (6).
So you might have a 'category' of 'People', divided into sub-categories of 'Family', 'Friends' and 'Strangers'. Within 'Family' you could have a tag of 'Mum & Dad'.
You associate categories, sub-categories or tags with an image by dragging the tag (or category etc.) onto the image, or vice versa. You will then see the appropriate icon on the image. You can associate as many tags with one image as you like. So a picture of 'Mum & Dad' with 'Uncle Fred' taken in 'London' might have three tags.
Now, to find a photo, all you have to do is check the box(es) next to the categories or tags you are looking for (5). So, to find all the pictures of 'Mum & Dad' just check that box. If this brings up too many images, narrow down your search to those that were taken in London by also checking the 'London tag.
Note that you can also find pictures by date using the slider at the top of the screen.