I have a few questions in regards to printing your pictures and photo programs.
1. I am wondering how many of you purchase your pictures? Do you upload online and have them sent directly to your home? Do you edit and print your own? If so, what kind of printer do you have? Or, do you take them to a photo shop? And if you are uploading and purchasing online, who have you used?
2. How about a editing program? I think I am ready for something other than Picasa and Flickr. Any suggestion? I don't need anything too difficult. Just something to have fun with.
3. I currently have over 10,000 pictures to put into albums. And that number could actually be low. I need a better procedure. Do you always print your pictures or are many of you just burning them to a disk? I need some suggestions. For example: The memory stick I have in my camera right now is from August until the end of this month. That will be close to 1100 pictures by the time Thanksgiving is over. So......one usually gets doubles.....so that's 200o more pictures to put into albums and store. I am being too old fashioned......is there an easier way to go about it that I am just missing? HELP........before my house is flooded with more picture.
4. I am wanting to get a point and shoot type of camera.
One that is smaller than my Olympus E510. I'd also like it to have video capability. Now whether or not I need them to be two separate pieces of equipment is fine. But I have decided that I am missing some very cute opportunities to take video of Thing 1 and Thing 2. ;) So any camera/video suggestions would be appreciated. I'll be waiting to hear many of your suggestions.....I'm excited! ;)
30 comments:
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Shutterfly. I order all of my prints from there (www.shutterfly.com) You can do some basic editing with shutterfly, but I use Adope Photoshop Elements to edit before I upload. If you have any questions, let me know!
I don't print a whole lot to be honest.
I download everything to my computer and then copy it to an external hard drive....just in case my computer would ever crash.
I only print the really great shots....and when I do, I either order from Shutterfly or print them myself.....since we Pat and I work from home we have a pretty decent color printer...I have to look up the model, I know it is an HP...I will email it to you:)
You know that I typically use Flickr for editing, but I have been messing around with Photoshop elements. I bought it months ago and never did anything with it....I really need to take a class!
I will be back to read what other people are doing....good luck:)
Lisa
We bought a printer last year that is amazing for photos. The toner is not cheap, but I love the ease being able to print off my favorite shots immediately. Since we came home from China in March, I've given it a real run for its money.
The model is Cannon Pixma MP830. The printer is cheap, it's the ink that adds up quickly. it even comes with a EasyPhotoPrint software that allows for all kinds of editing and formatting functions. My parents bought the same printer after I showed them how easy it was to use (that says something when my 68 year old Dad is printing off pictures of his granddaughters without my assistance).
I live right down the street from a Walgreens and when I want to send my prints off for cheap .10 cent printing, I love their online services.
For digital scrapbooking, I use Macromedia Fireworks. I was trained on that for webpages and it's similar to Adobe Photoshop.
Have fun shopping!
I am in your boat and wonder the same things. I have 1000's of pics on a external drive just waiting to have something done with them. Then I have all the pictures from before the digital age. I'll be following the answers you get!
Your blog looks great by the way!
I use Photoshop Elements but am going to upgrade to Photoshop (need to take a class). I also burn all of my photos to cds and only print the great ones. I usually edit in photoshop elements then upload to wolf camera and pick them up there or have them delivered.
Good luck : )
This is a great topic and I will definitely be interested in the replies. I just signed up for Picnik and like it so far, though I haven't printed anything yet.
I used to print tons of pics (on my own HP printer) and have tons of albums that my kids love looking through. It's getting a little out of control now though, so I find myself only printing a few of my faves from each event and putting the rest on discs.
Good luck and thanks for asking this, I'm hoping for some great suggestions!
I don't print many of my photos, either (sigh)...mostly, I archive mine by burning them to DVD (just as plain photo files). (CDs don't have a large enough capacity to make it worth my while, but DVDs work okay.)
Hi Steffie,
I used to print all of my pictures and I'd paper scrapbook almost all of them. I stopped printing pictures when I took up digital scrapbooking. Now I just print my 12" x 12" pages that are ready to insert into the book. Your house if being taken over by picture boxes, mine by scrapbooks. (One thing I do when I do print some out, though, is that I print them matte with white borders. It's a personal preference, of course, but I think the white borders just makes them pop and they already have a built-in border if you paper-scrap them.)
I use Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 to edit photos. I have never used any Photoshop programs. I know they're really good and most tutorials are built for them, but I use PSP at work and found it to be very user friendly, so I purchased it for home, too. I carry a Panasonic Lumix 10X zoom with me in my purse at all times. I don't like to carry my big ol' Mamarazzi backpack with me all the time. It's very big and very heavy. The Panasonic takes video, too. (Not the greatest quality, but "good enough".) I have been very pleased with the quality of the photos; and I'm all about the zoom, which is why I chose this one. It was the smallest camera with the biggest zoom on the market at the time I bought it last year. I don't know if anything else has come out in similar range and size.
Sorry I used all of your comment space. We're headed off on vacation for several days, so I'll be back in a week or so! Take care!
I print most of my pics. I upload them and print them off month by month. Of course I am usually behind..like now I have to print Sept. and Oct....but it is when I get the chance. I send them on-line right to Wal-mart or Walgreens to be printed and then I put them into photo albums. It's nice for everything to be digital and on disc, but I still like to have my photo books!
I have wondered about this myself. We have a ton of photos on the computer and on an external hard drive, incase the computer should ever crash. I have started ordering photos from Shutterfly, but dont get very far, because I would have so many albums to deal with. I have heard that CD's are only good for 7 to 8 years and scratch easily. Sorry I am not much help. I will be back to read more of your comments.
I use SnapFish and have then sent to my house most of the time as I HATE standing in the store uploading pictures:)
I only do singles not doubles as I found I do not use the second set and if by chance there is one I need another one of it is easy to reorder it.
I am looking forwarded to reading what others say.
You sound like me...I have thousands of pictures on my computer right now that I have to load somewhere also and get printed. I get doubles also and it adds up quickly!!!! Can't wait to see what kind of tips you get.
Hey Steffie,
I wish I could help. I have more pictures than you put in a file. I and lug my canon everywhere when I remember to take it!
Have a great weekend. Thinking of you lots.
Lea
xo
Steffie, I have thousands and thousands of pictures also and I upload them all to Costco and pick them up. For me it is the easiest way to do it. Other companies that I have looked into charge so much for shipping that it is just cheaper for me to drive the 40 minutes and pick them up. Another thing photo albums don't work for me because I would need to add on another room to house them, so at Costco they also sale these really nice boxes that come with dividers and hold thousands of pictures , so I put them in there , label them and put them in the safe , for safe keeping. That's it in a nutshell!! Have a great weekend.
Love and blessings, Kristy
p.s. as usual your pics are just breathtaking!!
I used to print all our pictures but stopped about 2 years ago. Like some of the other commenters we have an external hard drive on our computer in case the computer would crash. I basically print up the best photos or favorites. You can access any of the photos on the hard drive to print. Our printer is excellent and I highly recommend it for photo prints and scans. It's a HP Photosmart C5180 All in one. HP is known for their outstanding print quality and inks so that's why we went with it.
I'm now starting to get into some digital scrapping and make small albums of favorite photos to keep and give to Grandparents and relatives. As far as editing, I need to do something different with it and may try Photoshop.
Hope this made sense. Have a great weekend friend!
I upload most of mine to Costco and pick them up. I am addicted to the CM software, the editing is super easy. I just bought a wireless HP printer from Costco that is supposed to print great photos, but I don't really use it for that. (I'm to cheap to buy the ink for it all the time.)
I need a new point and shoot as well. Everyone I talk to loves the Cannon's. I'll send you an email with a few links.
I don't print anymore, but I want to start printing the books you can order from Shutterfly and other places. I did this for Christmas last year, and it is so awesome. It was so fast and easy, and we actually get to see the pictures. It's not fancy, but I don't have time for all that fancy stuff.
I'm going to be reading your comments to hear what others are saying about the photo editing stuff. I have the CM software, and it's supposed to do alot, but I don't know how to use it yet.
I don't have the number of pictures you do, but I upload from my pc to Walgreenss and either go pick them or get them delivered. Both Walgreens and Costco run deals quite often if you order 50 or more prints, get them for 5 or 10 cents each or some other type of deal.
I got Photoshop Elements 6.0 this summer and so far love it. It is user friendly for basic editing and bought the PSE 6.0 book for dummies, but haven't used it to do the fancy stuff yet.
If you are wanting to print at home (it does use a lot of ink) kodak sells photo paper to print them out on. Good luck!!
Cori
I use Microsoft digital image suites to digital scrapbook and edit my photos and I love it! It is VERY easy to use. The camera I use is a Canon powershot SD750 and I would not get anything but it! It takes awesome photos and videos for being the size it is.
My mom uses the storybook program from creative memories and she loves using that. I haven't used that but I am going to try making a book w/ it.
Heh. I have over 15,000 images stored on my computer alone -- beginning in mid 2005! My poor DH has TWICE had to upgrade my computer's memory just because of pictures.
To that end, he also purchased an external hard drive and every so often backs up all pix and video "just in case". I only print my favorites, as I have no time to scrapbook (used to, loved to, it just doesn't fit my lifestyle anymore -- that's why I love blogging so much).
Blurb.com can print your blog for you -- it slurps it (but not the comments) and that's what I'll do with all of my blogs for my girls' "baby books".
As for the camera, I got a new one right before we went to China -- it's a mid size one and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! (It replaced my pocket size camera that fell in the lake) It's a Canon Poer Shot S5IS 8.0 mega pixels, 6.0 - 72.0 mm zoom lens with video. It's fantastic -- I simply cannot say enough great things about it.
I have asked for Photo Shop for Christmas, but all I have right now is iPhoto on my Mac -- I'm ready for more!
Oops, I also use Shutterfly & Snapfish to make photo books -- made a 100 page book of our first China trip (over 800 photos in it). Love it & would recommend it!
Hey there Steffie, Shana at www.waitingforsophie.blogspot.com takes amazing photos and has lots of advice plus I think you two would get along. www.bookmyblog.com makes amazing hardcopies of what you've already posted. Cheers!
I use my "Flip" video camera to snap little videos. It's small (I carry it around in my purse in it's little pouch) and it's extremely easy to use and to upload straight to the computer. There are no tapes or anything, you just put it on your computer. I never use the video on my camera because the file size is too large so it's hard to upload it to video sites and I never know how to compress the files. Flip does that for you. Ha, I sound like a spokesperson. They should send me a freebie for a give-away! :)
I was probably 3 ft away. I did not crop at all.
I was in front of the window that was giving us the light they were facing the light.
I procrastinate about a good neat system to keep organized, I know I need to. The Pixel Fairy Princess makes a book every month then takes those pics off her pc and on a disc. She is super organized.
Here is her post on organizing tips
http://pfpproductions.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-06-23T14%3A56%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7
Another shutterfly fan here. I upload all my pictures to Shutterfly and then at the end of the year, I make a shutterfly book/album. I also make smaller albums during the year for special events.
Sorry, not much help with this one. I download all to snapfish, order them, and then do what I need to when I put them into the albums.
Okay, I know we've discussed some of this before, and I'll write more later- but for now just let me say, this portrait is outstanding!!! What camera, etc. did you use? I love it!
Hugs, Shana :)
Steffie, sorry I forgot to answer the question you left on my blog (and thanks for the compliment)... I love my camera (Nikon D300) and Photoshop CS2 for editing. I think my photos look the way they do because of both. I used to use Paintshop Pro (Corel) and that's okay too- but I like PS wayyy more. My friend is a professional photographer and uses Photoshop Elements and swears by it, but I've never used it. I am now looking back at photos I took in China and afterward-thinking how awful they look! I used a point and shoot Kodak back then, but I'm able to Photoshop them and improve them a LOT! So that's my current project- spicing up my old photos- lol. My huge problem is that it's hard for me to delete the unusable/bad photos I take. I just can't delete any memory of a moment in time of my kids- I think it's a sickness, because I have several hardrive and hundreds of gigs of space that are almost full! I do have copies on DVD's but am paranoid of them not working, so I can't delete them! I think I need Debbie (pixelfairy)'s help! Anyway, it looks like you are doing great and don't even need advice on your photos- they are beautiful (so is your family)!!!
Hugs!!!
Shana :)
I so wish I could help you out with this one. but the only thing that I do is save all my photos to CDs. Every now and than, I'll print a few out for framing or keeping, but that is where most of ours land...
Best of luck with what ever you do...
I use shutterfly for my pics. I pick the best ones for a book and I make one book a year instead of buying albums. The books are forever stored and I can order one anytime if one gets damamged. Plus I can write what I like on each page. Other services have similar offerings but shutterfly has been able to hold my loyalty. I can also share books or pics with others via e-mail and they don't have to have their own log in unless they wish to purchase. Kind of makes it easy!
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