This time of year seems to be the season for taking pictures: graduations, weddings, summer vacations. Most people these days have a digital camera, but with the fairly recent advent of digital technology, most have no idea how to best print, share and archive their precious pictures. Here are some tips for helping you make the most of digital photos while keeping your photos organized and accessible.
SHARING YOUR PHOTOS
Many people have questions about at what resolution (the number of pixels in an image, measured in pixels per inch or by dimensions) they should take their photos. If you reduce the resolution of your pictures, you can fit more on your memory card. This can be helpful if you are on vacation, away from a computer and are running out of memory space.
However, with memory cards so inexpensive these days, I highly recommend purchasing cards that have a gigabyte or more of memory.
The best way to share photos is to sign up for an on-line photo-album service. These on-line services invite your friends to view your photos by sending an e-mail message. When they click on the link to the on-line photo album, they can view the photos on the website, rather than having to download them as an attachment.
Here are some photo-sharing sites I recommend:
❚ www.kodakgallery.com - By far the best site for sharing albums, and the print quality is superior to any I've tried recently.
Prints are competitively priced, and you can easily drag and drop your photos into a book and enter captions and titles for each photo.
❚ www.shutterfly.com - Same as above, just a little flashier, and the print quality isn't as good as Kodak's.
❚ www.snapfish.com - Another on-line photo-sharing site; those who have photo blogs often link to this site.
Another benefit to using these on-line services is it offers a backup of your photos.
BACKUP, COPIES
Speaking of backing up, I recommend you store your photos in at least three separate places: on-line on a photo-album site such as those listed above, on a CD and on your hard-drive.
You can, of course, print copies and put them in photo boxes or photo albums, the old-fashioned way.
And, speaking of printing, there are several ways to print digital photos. Here are my recommendations: Don't do it yourself; either order prints from the on-line albums described above, or bring in your camera's memory card or a CD of your photos to any drugstore or similar.
You can print them yourself, from home, but the ink costs can be prohibitive, and the quality is poor compared to photo-printing services.
Still, should you wish to print from home, here are some recommendations:
❚ Ink-jet printers - Look for a photo printer that has separate ink cartridges; you'll save lots of money over time.
❚ Dye-sublimation printers - Best-quality home-printed pictures, but it may limit print size (usually 4-by-6 inches). Some allow you to bypass your computer and print directly off the memory card.
VIEWING YOUR PHOTOSYou can also share your photos by creating a slide-show presentation. Microsoft Power-Point is one product that is easy to use and has a photo-album feature that makes importing large numbers of photos easy.
You can also hook up your computer to a LCD projector, or play the CD in most new DVD players, provided you don't have many folders or other files on the CD.
One last tip: Remember, you don't need to keep every single picture you take. Review them for the very best shots, and delete those that don't make the cut. Your friends and family will thank you!
Leah Stahlsmith owns Simple Works Design (www.simpleworksdesign.com
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