Photo Organizing Tools

Is your computer backed up? Backblaze is easy to install, runs in the background and is affordable. You can also back up external hard drives as long as you plug them at least every 30 days. We use it on our own computers and set it up for each client we work with if they don't already have a backup system in place.

Learn how to create a backup system, step by step, and keep your precious photos safe! Professional photographers Lauren & Rob Lim share a great system to create a fail-proof backup plan even if you are a tech novice. This will help you set up your own system and you'll gain confidence when talking with your clients about the importance of backing up their priceless photos.

Buy an external hard drive (or two). There are plenty to choose from and it's good to rotate brands and purchase from different places - just in case there is a faulty batch. We like these and a 1 TB or 2 TB is a good size to start with. It's nice to have two and rotate them as you work.

Do you have Windows computer? Start with an external hard drive that matches your computer operating system to use as your own Photo Hub. Later you can learn how to format to match your client's OS.

This is such a handy little thing to have in case you have different size camera cards or cards from old phones you have saved that have photos on them. You'll use it for your own collection and clients will be impressed when you have this in your toolbox!

Another great tool to have if you have old phones, computers, tablets or any other devices with digital images on them but you've lost the cables. You can get your whole digital collection gathered and put on your photo hub much easier when you have the right tools and don't have to spend precious time searching for the "one" cable you can't find!

Fast and powerful duplicate photo cleaner built to help you get rid of duplicate or similar photos on your Mac,

An invaluable software tool to find and remove duplicate photos on your Windows computer.

These products meet or exceed all current applicable standards for archival storage. They are also suitable for photographs, artwork, and documents. Several options for storing and preserving family snapshots are available.

This is the scanner that we both started with and we still use! It is a high quality scanner that has stood the test of time. Super easy to set up and works with Mac or Windows. Scan photos, documents and slides up to 8.5 x 11.7 to preserve print photos so you'll have digital images that can be easily shared.

An excellent way to transfer documents and photos back and forth with a client. You can also sync smart phones and tablets to automatically backup photos and then move to your Photo Hub external hard drive.

View, organize, manage, rename and export photos with Photo Mechanic. It is a browser and workflow accelerator which means we can look at thousands of images and save time! Pro photographers have been using it for years. We introduced it to at a national conference for photo organizers and use it with all our client work. Cull, rate, keyword and add metadata directly to your photos on your hard drive. Mac or Windows compatible and they offer a full 30 day trial!

Lightroom gives you everything you need to edit, organize, store, and share your photos across desktop, mobile, and web.

SmugMug is a safe, beautiful home for your photos & videos —your journey and your stories. Protect your photos and memories with a SmugMug site and give them a place to shine.

Are you worried that a client will have the opposite computer you have?
Eliminate the frustration of having a Windows formatted external hard drive that you can't read and write on a Mac. Or vice versa.
Read/write privileges really just means you want to be able to open files and be able to copy, move, edit and save them.

If your external drive is formatted for the opposite platform you are using, Paragon is the software you want to install on your computer so you can access the files.

This scanner is the newest in Epson's scanner lineup and works right out of the box with a Mac or Windows computer.
Quickly scan your photo collection in a whole new way with the innovative FastFoto FF-680 — the World’s Fastest Photo Scanner

Our favorite album design resource! Learn the art of fast, beautiful album design & the business of selling albums at a great profit! Rob and Lauren Lim are pro photographers and great at teaching Adobe® InDesign which is software built for book and album design.

SmartAlbums was built for speed and ease of use. Making an album with SmartAlbums is so simple you’ll actually enjoy it. SmartAlbums allows you to add text to the pages, just not in a very sophisticated way so after the design is complete import into Adobe® InDesign (see Awesome Album Design Skills 👆)

Making a slideshow for a special occasion or looking to do something new with all those photos and videos? ProShow Gold makes it easy.

Make a video slideshow with just a few clicks using the automatic slideshow wizard, or build it from scratch. Choose from 950+ built-in effects and filters, and 330+ royalty-free music tracks.

When you're ready to share your masterpiece, publish to any of 50+ popular formats like 4K, DVD, Blu-ray, YouTube, Facebook and more.

It's time to have a real website. It's your digital business card. You need to have a host who keeps all your website files and images stored for you in their hosting cloud. Bluehost is what we started with on our first websites and annual hosting fees are very affordable.

StudioPress themes are designed with SEO, security and are mobile ready using WordPress.