Photo Film
Photo Film How to Create Online Photo Albums Creating a photo album website can be a great way to share your collection of old shoebox prints or slides (as well as more recent digital photos) with th...
Photo Film
How to Create Online Photo Albums
Creating a photo album website can be a great way to share your collection of old shoebox prints or slides (as well as more recent digital photos) with the public at large. The first step is to organize your best photos under various sub-headings. For example, you might have a large number of Hawaii vacation photos which could be placed under the heading "pictures of Hawaii". Or maybe photographs from another beautiful tropical setting which could go under the heading of "tropical island photos". Images of urban life might be placed under the heading of "city pictures" and so forth.
The next step is to edit out the ordinary or mundane photos and only keep the very best for display. After all, you want your online visitor to enjoy viewing as many of your photographs as possible. This is not always an easy task so it might be good to get a second opinion regarding which pictures would display the best.
After you have your photographs organized, you need to make sure they are all in digital form (unless of course, they were all taken with a digital camera originally). All camera stores or drugstores which still process film can scan your photos or slides onto a disc. The price for a scanned disc will vary according to what resolution you require. However, the good news here is that photos scanned for web use do not need to be top quality scans to look good. Most computer monitors display images at 72 d.p.i. (dots per inch) and any scan you would receive would exceed this minimum specification.
If you would like to scan your own images, there are many excellent scanners available in all price ranges. Again, for simple web use and display, you do not need to worry too much about the scanning resolution. However, if you would like to be able to make nice enlargements of scanned images, then purchasing a dedicated film scanner might make sense for you. Some film scanners only scan 35mm negatives and slides, while others will scan photographic prints as well.
Finally, you need to build your website and find a host to get everything online. There are numerous software programs available online or at stores such as Staples or Office Depot which can help you easily create the design of your website. You will need to purchase a domain name for your site (available from many different online vendors) and then find a web hosting company to place it online by doing a simple Google search (there are many hosting companies as well).
Or you can go the route I went which is to find a company which will provide you with software to build your site and also host it for you. There are several companies like this out there. However, the one I chose takes things much further. They also help you find and select a perfect domain name for your site and handle all the technical stuff regarding search engine submissions. And they teach you how to build your site so it will generate lots of traffic (as opposed to having no one find your site once it is built). The cost of their extensive website building and hosting program works out to less than $25 per month and comes with an unmatched library of helpful tools for the beginner. I feel fortunate to have discovered this unique company and plan to stay with them for a long time. For more information about this particular company, please <a href="http://www.minkler-photo-gallery.com/internet-photo-album.html">click here</a> and scroll about halfway down the page.
No matter which method you choose to build your internet photo album, the pleasure derived from seeing your photographs displayed online cannot be underestimated. While it may seem like a daunting task to undertake at first, creating an online photo album is a great way to preserve and pass on those cherished photographic memories that each of us have.
About the Author
Steve Minkler has been drawing high-quality custom house plans in the Southern California area for more than 30 years. Visit Minkler Building Design for examples of his work and photographs of custom homes. Steve also enjoys travel photography and features a number of his travel photos at Minkler Photo Gallery.
Digital Photography: Breathe New Life Into Your Old Film Photos
Digital photography has arrived, and it is the way of the future. You don't need an old photographer like me to tell you that.
Forget the traditionalists who insist that film is better. In some ways it definitely is; it is simply not practical in the digital world to continue taking your photos on film. However, that doesn't mean you should throw your old photos away.
It may come as a shock to some young people, but great photography has existed for many years, done by true artists who relied on camera skills, not computers, to produce their images. Some manipulation was possible in the darkroom by the few who knew how, but most great photography was captured 'in camera.'
What a shame, then, that so many of these great images are now gathering dust in closets around the world.
Our rush to embrace digital technology was not gradual. Digital cameras made film almost obsolete in just a few short years. With the cameras came computer software, USB cards, online storage and social networking. Almost overnight, everything related to photography involved digital technology. You really could not do anything with a photo unless it was on your computer.
Of course, this is no problem for photos taken now and in the future. Most of us now have digital cameras and are becoming comfortable with software. My concern is, what has happened to all those great photos from the past, taken on film and now out of place in the modern world?
I have been taking photos to sell in my gallery for over twenty years. I appreciate all the benefits of digital photography, but for now I have chosen not to buy a digital camera. I have thousands of photos from my many travels, all taken on colour slides, which I am determined to put to good use.
I just know that when I buy a digital SLR camera and start snapping, all these old slides will be forgotten. They will gather dust, fade, and eventually be good for nothing but throwing away. So my decision to continue working with film is about making sure that doesn't happen.
These days I am trawling through years of images, picking out the shots that deserve to be seen, and scanning them. As long as they remain on film, they may be out of date; but once converted to digital files they are every bit as good as anything taken on a modern camera. Some people would argue that for quality, they are even better.
Since I started scanning my slides, I have rediscovered a treasure trove of photos from years past. For every photo I have printed and sold, there are ten more photos just as good that have never seen the light of day. Some photos I always knew were there. Others I had forgotten I ever shot. Some of those photos are now on sale and proving more popular than photos I had been selling for all these years.
When you revisit photos after many years, you start to notice things about them that you may not have appreciated before. Sometimes the photo you chose to print first is not the best, although you may have thought so at the time. After admiring one photo of a waterfall for ten years, it is a real eye-opener to remember you also have ten other angles of the same waterfall, taken on the same roll of film but never printed, and each spectacular in its own way.
Scanning your negatives and colour slides does not have to be expensive. You can buy a film scanner for just a few hundred dollars which has the resolution and the software to get the job done. After that, the only thing you have to spend is time.
If scanning them yourself doesn't appeal, you can pay to have it done professionally. This can cost as little as a few dollars a file, and should include all the colour correction and spot removal you need to make your photos ready for printing. It may be too costly to have all your photos scanned commercially, but you could make a selection of your top 100 to save for posterity.
Whichever way you choose to go about it, I encourage you to revisit your old photos. Don't allow them to fade and deteriorate in a corner until you get around to throwing them out. Scanning can breathe new life into old memories, and I guarantee you will find some real gems that are worth preserving.
About the Author
A visit to http://www.naturesimage.com.au to see Andrew Goodall's nature photography (all shot on film) may just inspire you to revisit your old film collection. Don't forget to sign up to the online newsletter...it's free!