Organizing files is an essential part of every photographer’s workflow, but for most people, it’s a boring, if not downright unpleasant, task. Slowly browsing through thousands of images; painstakingly adding keywords, flags, and stars; haltingly sorting different images into different collections and folders…it’s no wonder that a huge percentage of photographers struggle to keep their image catalog up to date.
Fortunately, if image organization feels like a chore, you have another option: Mylio Photos, the program that takes necessary file-management tasks and makes them fun. Spend a bit of time in Mylio Photos, and you’ll be struck by how enjoyable it is to accomplish various organizational tasks (and the program’s methods are astonishingly fast, so you’ll save plenty of time, too).
Mylio Photos also works differently from other photo software. It turns your computers, phones, tablets, and storage devices into an intelligent and robust system for managing a lifetime of memories. With Mylio Photos, all your photos and videos – from any source – are cataloged in one beautiful library that’s accessible on all your devices, and no cloud storage is required.
In this article, I share two of Mylio Photos’ most fun photo-organization tools:
- QuickReview mode, which allows you to apply flags and ratings to sets of photos in seconds using your phone or tablet
- Face Tagging, which lets you quickly organize your images based on the faces of your subjects
I explain how each tool works and offer step-by-step instructions so you can easily incorporate them into your own workflow. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be a Mylio Photos convert – and as implausible as it sounds, you may even be excited to tackle some image organization tasks.
Let’s dive right in!
1. QuickReview mode
If you’ve explored Mylio Photos before, you’ll know that one of the program’s chief benefits is the ability to manage your entire image library from each and every device you own.
Therefore, while QuickReview (QR) mode can be used on standard laptops and desktop computers, I love using it on my smartphone; I can access my photo library, quickly star and flag images using QR, and have all my images organized within hours of importing them into Mylio, even if I’m traveling or away from my office. (Plus, QuickReview’s most fun features involve swiping and dragging on a touchscreen, which tend to work best on a mobile device.)
QuickReview’s purpose is to make image culling both quick and enjoyable. You can apply star ratings and flags at a breakneck pace – which can ultimately be used to retrieve images using the Filter bar or to sort images when browsing through Albums or folders.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Find a set of images to organize
QuickReview mode works on pretty much any collection of images within Mylio Photos. You can use it to cull photos in:
- Folders
- Albums
- Image collections in the People view
- Image collections in the Map view
- Images in the All Photos view
So, begin by determining the images you wish to organize, be it a set of files from the previous day’s portrait photoshoot, a collection of photos featuring your son, or every image you’ve ever taken.
Then, once you’re in the Mylio Photos app, navigate to the corresponding file collection.
Step 2: Set Mylio Photos into QuickReview mode
Make sure the first image in the collection is selected. Then select the More icon:
And choose QuickReview:
You’ll immediately see a new window with your selected image at the top and a filmstrip (featuring the images from your chosen collection) at the bottom.
Step 3: Zoom through your photos!
QuickReview is incredibly simple to use. You can swipe right on an image to Pick it:
Or swipe left on an image to Reject it:
As soon as an image has been flagged as a Pick or a Reject, the filmstrip will automatically advance to the next image in the collection (though you can always go back to already-flagged images by browsing through the filmstrip).
You can also swipe up to increase the star rating:
And swipe down to decrease it.
Note that these flags and star ratings will sync with your other devices, so files that you flag on your smartphone will also be flagged and starred on your desktop, laptop, etc. Therefore, you can cull images from anywhere – your bed, the mall, a bench in the park, the bus, an airplane, even the bottom of the ocean – and be confident that, when you arrive back home, your work will be saved on your desktop computer, your tablet, and your laptop.
Step 4: Close QuickReview mode
Once you’re done organizing a set of images, you have two options: You can find another collection of photos to organize, or you can deactivate QuickReview.
Finding another collection of files is easy; simply hit the back button:
(If the back button isn’t visible, you may need to swipe right along the left side of the screen.)
Then browse through the app until you find the image collection you wish to organize. Click on an image in the set, and it’ll appear once again in the QuickReview interface.
Eventually, however, you’ll probably want to get back to the standard photo mode. Select an image, then hit the X next to the flag icons:
And QuickReview will instantly close.
When is QuickReview mode useful?
QR is a great way to get your culling done in a fast, efficient manner. Swiping right and swiping left is quick and easy, and before you know it, you’ll have organized your entire catalog.
In particular, you’ll appreciate QuickReview mode if you need to:
- Rapidly cull images following a shoot (especially if you’re dealing with a deadline)
- Plow through thousands of files so you can get your image catalog up to date
- Handle image culling when you’re away from your main computer
- Have a bit of swipe-right/swipe-left fun if your standard organization workflow is feeling very blah
2. Face Tagging
Mylio Photos offers a powerful face-tagging feature that combines manual inputs and artificial intelligence for effective subject-based organization.
With Face Tagging, you can ensure that every person in your photos is recognized and searchable, which certainly comes in handy when you’re trying to locate images of a granddaughter, nephew, son, grandmother, etc. In fact, once you’ve face tagged your images, you can view all your files organized by subject in the People view:
And thanks to Mylio Photos’ clever Batch Tagging option, organizing files by subject is easier than ever.
Let me show you how:
Step 1: Activate Face Tagging
Make sure Mylio Photos is open on your computer, then select an image (one that features a face!) and choose the Face Tagging icon on the right-hand side:
Mylio Photos will automatically recognize the presence of faces in the image, and you’ll see a circle appear along with a pop-up asking you to identify the people’s names:
(If Mylio Photos fails to identify the presence of a person in the image, you can always hover your cursor over the face, then click and hold the mouse until the Face-Tagging pop-up appears.)
If you’ve never used the Face Tagging feature before, you’ll need to type a new name in the text field, then hit the Create button. If you’ve tried Face Tagging previously, you may have the option to choose from a handful of existing names.
Step 2: Tag several more faces
Once you’ve tagged one person, don’t stop. Continue to browse through your images, and where faces appear, be sure to type the correct names in the text field:
(Note that, once you initially click the Face Tagging option, you won’t need to click it again to see the Face Tagging pop-up; the pop-up will continue to appear over any images that include people.)
Try to tag as many different people as possible. If you’re struggling to find photos that include faces, it can be helpful to select the People view, then choose the Untagged batch of images, which shows you every untagged file that includes a face:
Step 3: Approve Mylio Photos’ tagging suggestions
At this point, you should have a handful of people tagged in your photos, and Mylio Photos will have learned a few faces.
Head into the People view, where you should see sets of images grouped under different names. Now it’s time to start tagging in earnest. Select a person-based collection:
Mylio Photos will have populated the collection with images that it thinks include that person’s face, so all you have to do is go through the images and hit the check mark (for correctly identified faces):
Or the “X” (for incorrectly identified faces):
You can also click the Untagged icon in the middle, which lets you manually identify the face:
If you go through all the existing People collections and you still have untagged shots, go ahead and select the Untagged folder. Then scroll through the images, clicking on the Untagged icon and selecting (or typing in) the correct name:
Once you’ve tagged a handful of additional faces, you can always go back to the main People view, choose a new People collection, and confirm (or reject) Mylio’s tagging selections.
Note that Mylio Photos will continue to identify faces as new images get added to your image library. Therefore, whenever you import additional files, you’ll need to head over to the People view, go through your People collections, and make sure that your Face Tagging is up to date!
Step 4: Try the Batch Tagging tool
The face-tagging method I shared above works just fine, but what if you want to speed things up even more?
In that case, you can try Mylio Photos’ incredible Batch Tagging tool, which lets you tag dozens or even hundreds of faces at once.
While you can use Batch Tagging with pretty much any photo collection, I’d recommend starting in the People view. Then select the Batch Tagging icon:
A new window will open with a list of people on the right-hand side and an array of images on the left:
Click through the list of names to see Mylio’s tagging suggestions for each person. You can approve, reject, or manually name each face by tapping on the icons below each photo:
And once you’ve finished confirming all the suggestions for one person, you can quickly go on to the next (and the next, and the next!).
If you feel that Mylio Photos is doing a consistently great job suggesting tags, you have the option to confirm the entire batch of images at once by selecting Approve at the top of the screen:
Finally, when you’re done tagging, just hit the X in the top-right corner, and you’ll find yourself back in the People view.
When is Face Tagging useful?
If you capture a lot of photos of family and friends, then Face Tagging is an absolute game changer. Once you’ve tagged your shots, you can easily find images featuring specific people by heading to the People view and clicking on the relevant image collections.
Another option is to retrieve tagged images using the Filter bar, which lets you filter images that include specific faces:
It’s the perfect way to keep your family photos organized and instantly retrievable! And if you like the idea of tagging faces but you’re pressed for time, I highly recommend you try the Batch Tagging function, which is lightning-fast and insanely effective.
Have fun with Mylio Photos!
Mylio Photos isn’t just an effective photo organizer; it’s a fun one, too! With QuickReview mode, you’ll enjoy flagging and rating your photos. And with Face Tagging, you’ll get your family photos organized by subject in no time at all.
Plus, thanks to Mylio’s innovative syncing approach, you’re not stuck working from a desktop computer; you can keep your entire photo library organized from any device, anywhere.
If you don’t already have a Mylio Photos trial, head on over to the website and grab one. And if you’ve already downloaded the program, then I encourage you to try out either (or both) of the features I’ve discussed. I bet you’ll be impressed.
Mylio is a paid partner of dPS.
