Tip: Using Evernote as a Photo Album

[Coffee First Thing 112]

Although Evernote isn't designed to be a photo album, it can be convenient to keep photos in Evernote. I'm an iPhone user and have photos organized in albums, but those albums don't sync with my PC or my Kindle Fire; I can't view them on the web, either. I like to use Evernote for as many functions as I can because it syncs everywhere.

 

I created this flowing system for getting photos into an Evernote photo album:

 

I told Evernote for Windows to monitor a particular folder and to add anything in that folder to an Evernote Photo Album notebook. I use Picasa on my PC to organize photos. When I want to add photos to my Evernote Photo Album notebook, I simply export those photos to the Windows folder that Evernote monitors, and with Evernote magic, the photos are added to my Photo Album notebook. I have Picasa export the photos at 800 pixels rather than full resolution, because I don't need full-sized photos in Evernote -- and also, full sized photos eat into one's Evernote space allotment faster. Later on, I organize photos into nested notebooks under my Photo Album notebook. 

 

That's it. You can adapt this system, such as it is, to other photo organizing programs, should you not use Picasa. There's also an IFTTT recipe that automatically copies photos from an Evernote iOS photo album to Evernote, https://ifttt.com/recipes/104765. That works well, too, for going directly from iPhone or iPad to an Evernote photo album.  

 

I like having my photo albums available everywhere I am, and now with Evernote they are. 

 

Bill

[gazumped 11,652]

You can,  of course,  use Evernote for anything you'd like and if it works for you that's fine.  There are dozens of other online albums however,  all available anywhere you have a network connection,  and all with different features more relevant to sharing pictures,  or to photography in general - like exposure details for each shot.  Evernote really wouldn't be my first choice,  but like I said - whatever works...

[Blubi 0]

I am considering to use Evernote for storing pictures (big files) an tag them so I can better search among them.

But will they be copied on every computer I have installed Evernote on?

If so, I will need a lot of space on every pc and this is not what I am searching for.

[gazumped 11,652]

Although I passionately believe Evernote is an effective solution for many problems,  it still seems dumb to use it for 'pure' picture storage.  

• There's a limit for uploads in any given month,  and multi-megabyte image files are a sure way to soak up as much of that limit as possible.
• No matter how good your device camera,  or your own skills,  it's always possible to make some improvement to any picture - Evernote has no tools whatsoever to do this.
• Although your pictures are stored  online,  it's nice sometimes to have a printed version - there's no easy way to convert an Evernote note into a conventional photographic print..
• Evernote stores HD pictures within its database structure and this reduces the quality of the image.
• There are many alternatives,  some as accessible as Evernote - just a lot more specialised;  including -

Flickr    http://www.flickr.com/
Picasa    http://picasa.google.com/
Google    https://plus.google.com/photos
Dropbox Camera Upload (you need a free Dropbox account first) - https://www.dropbox.com/help/307

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I agree with Gaz that there are other systems that are better for photo management.

 

But you might want to carefully read the Terms & Conditions of a system before you start using it.

Picasa, and probably Google Plus, has some very invasive terms, IMO, that allow Google to use your photos for their purposes.

This was as of a couple of years ago, so things could have changed.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

One of my earliest memories: I put what I thought were all of my worldly possessions into a little tomato crate... and I climbed in there with my stuff. That, of course, was not a long-term solution. Kind of like trying to squeeze your worldly digital information into Evernote. Although it allows premium users an upload limit of 4GB per month, you will have your desktop client freeze up in under 6 months while attempting to max out your monthly space allotment. It would cease to become functional, as some have discovered.

 

Having said that... If you are sure that's the way you'd like to go, I would recommend finding a workflow where you put sets of photos into a single note (space permitting)... because you would have a gallery-type effect on mobile devices both in presentation mode and simply by tapping on an image in a note. In the gallery in presentation mode on mobile devices (at least in iOS), you can zoom out to see the thumbnail images - them zoom in to any image within that gallery. You can also flip through a gallery of images in presentation mode on Windows desktop... but no thumbnail images yet. Having Evernote watch a folder on desktop will automatically create separate notes for each image. This would not allow you to take advantage of the intra-note gallery feature... unless you merged a selection of notes.

 

The Dropbox app on mobile devices allows you to automatically upload video clips and photos... and you can also view a gallery of all your images. Evernote does not play video clips... and so is not a complete solution for all media that you might capture on your mobile devices.

 

As Gazumped mentioned above, Flickr, Picasa/ Google+ & Dropbox are really worth considering.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that on your iPhone/ iPad, if you are a premium user... and you have set "Offline Notebooks" to "Download All Notes", this would clutter up your device.

 

It does seem that in light of Evernote Premium's 4GB's-worth of space a month, that it's a terrible waste not being able to have a full-on photo and video storage/ gallery system. It's a crying shame. 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I am considering to use Evernote for storing pictures (big files) an tag them so I can better search among them.

But will they be copied on every computer I have installed Evernote on?

If so, I will need a lot of space on every pc and this is not what I am searching for.

 

• If you create a local notebook on desktop, the notes therein will not sync elsewhere.
  • A local notebook is set up only at the time of creation... and cannot be changed thereafter. 
  • If you'd like to make the contents of the local notebook available elsewhere, you would need to transfer them to another notebook to sync.

• Your notes will not be downloaded to your mobile devices... unless you are a premium user...
  • On mobile devices (iOS) under >Settings >Premium >Offline Notebooks,  one can choose from:
    • Do Not Download Notes
    • Download all Notes
    • Download Selected Notebooks

[MosesMoses 7]

One of my earliest memories: I put what I thought were all of my worldly possessions into a little tomato crate... and I climbed in there with my stuff. That, of course, was not a long-term solution. Kind of like trying to squeeze your worldly digital information into Evernote. Although it allows premium users an upload limit of 4GB per month, you will have your desktop client freeze up in under 6 months while attempting to max out your monthly space allotment. It would cease to become functional, as some have discovered.

 

Having said that... If you are sure that's the way you'd like to go, I would recommend finding a workflow where you put sets of photos into a single note (space permitting)... because you would have a gallery-type effect on mobile devices both in presentation mode and simply by tapping on an image in a note. In the gallery in presentation mode on mobile devices (at least in iOS), you can zoom out to see the thumbnail images - them zoom in to any image within that gallery. You can also flip through a gallery of images in presentation mode on Windows desktop... but no thumbnail images yet. Having Evernote watch a folder on desktop will automatically create separate notes for each image. This would not allow you to take advantage of the intra-note gallery feature... unless you merged a selection of notes.

 

The Dropbox app on mobile devices allows you to automatically upload video clips and photos... and you can also view a gallery of all your images. Evernote does not play video clips... and so is not a complete solution for all media that you might capture on your mobile devices.

 

As Gazumped mentioned above, Flickr, Picasa/ Google+ & Dropbox are really worth considering.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that on your iPhone/ iPad, if you are a premium user... and you have set "Offline Notebooks" to "Download All Notes", this would clutter up your device.

 

It does seem that in light of Evernote Premium's 4GB's-worth of space a month, that it's a terrible waste not being able to have a full-on photo and video storage/ gallery system. It's a crying shame. 

 

I very much agree with your last sentence, and want to stay within Evernote and not transition to Flickr, Picassa, etc; have you tried Postach.io as a blog for presenting your photowork? 

[jefito 5,589]

Um, given testimony of some heavy Evernote users in the forums here, you can max out your 4GB/month upload limit if you want, but at present time, you'll soon most likely be very sorry that you did.