Posts Tagged ‘photos’

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Scanning Old Photos – All-in-one Photos Scanning Solutions!

Monday, October 26th, 2009

If you are in the process of searching for a way to scan old photos but you don’t know which type would best fit your needs, then you just have to listen to some good advice on the subject that will make the process of researching and buying a scanner a lot easier. Using a portable scanner can significantly improve the way you deal with digitized information, for example, when keeping valuable documentation is of the utmost importance. So before you decide to purchase a portable scanner, we recommend that you keep in mind the following points.

As is true of every new and sophisticated computer peripheral, small scanners have evolved to be easy to learn and to get comfortable with. They can answer a multitude of scanning tasks, for instance, photographs you don’t want to risk losing, documents, and even checks. It’s done in an instant, and portable scanners offer unbelievable scanning clarity in a format to meet your every need. Digital slide scanning using the latest imaging technology available in the market. In today’s market, the best way to scanning old photos is going online and finding a solution that is certainly worth the expense whether you are buying it for personal or business use.

According to many users, the best thing about these handheld scanners is the great convenience of them anywhere you happen to be. Included with the scanners is user-friendly software which makes it simple to obtain impressive results from pictures and text and save the image or data in a number of different ways. Let’s say you need to scan an id card. the scanner extracts the various parts of the card: the photo, the signature, and all the text of the card and set it all up in convenient files, which can then be exported to a clipboard or another software program.

Before you find your preferred solution to scan old photos it’s highly recommended to follow the next five steps: (1) clarify what you will be scanning; (2) search the internet for scanners you think might fit your needs; (3) what makes the scanners different from each other? (4) verify that the company has a good reputation and read reviews by customers of the scanner; (5) find out about freight charges and returns.

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A Photo Scanner – Save Time Scanning Photos! Learn How!

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

If you are in the process of searching for a photo scanner and you are not really sure which scanner to buy, then you just have to listen to some good advice on the subject that will make the process of researching and buying a scanner a lot easier. Using a portable scanner can significantly improve your system of managing digital input, including when the safeguarding of crucial documentation is a major consideration. Before buying a portable scanning solution, we suggest that you take a look at these guidelines.

Just like every sort of state-of-the-art equipment out there, handheld scanners have been designed to be a lot more accessible and user-friendly. These scanners are useful for most of your day-to-day scanning requirements, like photographs you don’t want to risk losing, checks or bank statements, etc. In just a few short moments they produce unbelievable scanning clarity in formats ranging from images to text. In today’s market, the price of a photo scanner is certainly worth the expense both for companies and individuals.

One of the most popular qualities of mobile scanners like these is the great convenience of them wherever and whenever you need them. Every scanner comes furnished with a custom slide scanning program that will allow you to scan printed documents and pictures alike and save the image or data in a number of different ways. For instance, with id cards, the system has the ability to separate the ’snapshot’ of the card, the cardholder’s photo and signature, and all the text of the id and then sort it into useable data and image fields that can be saved to your choice of software.

Prior to buying a photo scanner we advise you to go through the following list of tips: (1) clarify what you will be scanning; (2) conduct a web search for suitable scanners; (3) compare the technical specifications of each scanner; (4) do a little background research on the company itself and read reviews by customers of the scanner; (5) establish freight charges and procedures for returns.

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Caring For Your Photos

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

People of been documented their lives with photographs for generations. In order to make sure that our families will someday enjoy the photos we take today, it is important to take care of your photo slide scanningand protect them from the effects of age and improper storage methods. Below are some basic tips to storage and handling of your memories:

Labeling Your Photos

We all try to keep track of our memories by labeling, or at least we try, if you don’t know who’s in your pictures or when it was taken, why keep it? We should try to get in the habit of labeling our photos as soon as we get them, doing so will save you so much time later on.
Use only acid free pens or pencil to write on the back of your photos, pressing gently so not to ruin the image on the other side.

Beware of Adhesives

Stay away from glue, tape and rubber cement, these adhesive will quickly break down your photos ruining them forever. There are several types of non-acid adhesives on the market, try your local photo supply store. Also, when labeling CDs and DVDs, use only a water-based felt tip marker on the disc.

Storing Your Memories

The most important advice is to keep your photos out of the sun, the UV rays will quickly destroy your precious memories. I would also recommend duplicating the photos that you wish to display keeping the original in storage.

Never store photos, CDs, DVDs, film or videos in the attic, garage or basement, the temperature and humidity in these areas fluctuate way beyond ideal conditions. A good rule of thumb is to store them in conditions where you would be normally comfortable. Photographs should not be kept in temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity above 60% for long periods of time.

Choosing the Right Album

Photo albums are a popular ways to store and share your pictures. When choosing your album, make sure the album pages are acid free and “archival” quality and that “PVC” was used in the manufacturing process of the plastic protective sheets. Other albums emit chemicals that can break down your photos composition. Also, consider making digital copies of your family photos, this can be done professionally.

Hands Off!

Our skin contains oils that are very dangerous to photographs, which will eventually appear as spots on photographs. Always try to hold your photos on the edges or wear cotton gloves when handling photographs. Negatives are extremely sensitive to this type of damage.

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Scanning Paper Prints to Digital Photos On your Hard Disk

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation when you have to scan paper prints, negatives or slides and store them as digital photos on your computer. Although the reason for doing that can vary there are some common considerations to scanning paper prints. In this article we will go over some of them and try to make your scanning experience easier.

There are three types of prints that you might be scanning:

# Paper prints: the most common, usually at sizes like 4X6 and 5X7.

# Negatives: also known simply as film. This is the processed film usually 35mm from which paper prints are made.

# Slides: very similar to negatives used for projecting photos on a large screen.

Scanning paper photos prints.

Photo paper prints are easy to scan. You can choose to scan them yourself at home (purchasing a scanner that can do the job is usually cheap and costs less than a $100). You can also choose to mail them (or hand them) to a professional scanning service that will scan them for you and mail you back the originals and a DVD with the digital scans (such services include www.digmypics.com, www.digitalpickle.com, www.britepix.com and many more)

There are pros and cons to both scanning at home and using a professional service. If you have a small number of photos scanning at home is easier. If you have plenty of photos using a service might be easier but you can end up spending more money.
When scanning at home consider the following:

# Resolution: the resolution of a scan is measured by the number of dots per inch that the scanner can produce. Most scanners can scan at 1200 DPI or more. Usually the scanner can be set to scan at different resolutions. The higher the resolution the slower the scan and the bigger the photo file size will be. For most paper prints scanning at 300 to 600 DPI is enough but you can experiment Slide scanning at higher resolutions if you feel it provides better results.

# Speed: If you have a small number of photos speed is not an issue. If you have hundreds or more of photos scanning speed becomes important. To get fast scans you would have to scan at the lowest resolution possible that results in good enough scans – for most paper prints 300 to 600 DPI is enough.. Also if you’re going to buy a scanner check the scanning speed (usually measured in the number of scans per minute make sure that you check the speed at the DPI you’re going to use).

# Photo feeding: if you only have a small number of photos this is not an issue. If you have many photos make sure that the scanner you buy allows fast and easy loading of photos. Some higher-end scanners will let you load a stack of photos and will automatically feed and scan them for you. These scanners are the right choice if you are planning on scanning hundreds or more photos.

Scanning negatives and slides

Scanning negatives and slides is harder than scanning paper prints. In most cases it is easier and maybe cheaper to use a professional scanning service . If you want to scan at home your standard flat scanner will not be good enough. In most cases you will need to spend money on purchasing a film/slides scanner. Those scanners are more expensive than the flat paper scanners. Negatives and slides are small high resolution sources and thus require scanning at higher DPI than paper prints. In most cases 2400DPI or higher should be used.

The considerations for scanning negatives and slides are similar to scanning paper prints. If you need to scan just a few negatives or slides speed and ease are not important but if you’re going to scan hundreds or more you should spend more money on scanners that can feed the negatives or slides automatically or can just load a roll of film and scan it.

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Old Photos and Slides: the Fun of Going Digital

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Transferring old photos and slides to a digital format brings numerous benefits, not to mention the space savings. Say goodbye to all the old photo shoeboxes and slide carousels in your basement or garage! New digital services allow your precious images to be converted to DVDs, online sharing, and other fun digital media. This untraps your photos and allows them to be shared and enjoyed with your family and friends, whether they’re in Boston or Boise.

Overview
If you’re like most families, you have dozens of boxes and albums of old photos, as well as carousel trays of old 35mm Slide scanning. All of these pre-digital formats unfortunately can be considered trapped in time, as they sit wasting away in homes around the world. The photos in the boxes get torn or crushed, while the plastic cellophane pages in the photo albums react with the chemical makeup of the photos and often discolors them, turning them yellow over time. Storage in extreme environmental conditions, such as the heat of an attic or the cold and humidity of a basement, also affects the quality of the photographic paper.

Slides fare somewhat better, since they are usually protected in circular trays that house anywhere from 20-140 slides. It is difficult, however, to find a specific slide without having to load up the projector and go through each slide. And the once popular individual slide view finders that were manufactured in the 20th century are fast disappearing.

Digital Transferral
With the advent of digital cameras that are now extremely popular and affordable, families for the first time find that they have significant photo and slide collections in multiple formats: those images that typically pre-date the 1990s, and those taken during or after the 90s, when more families turned to digital media. It’s time to open the door to enjoying and sharing your older photos and slides by ensuring all of the older formats are transferred to digital.

This process uses equipment to scan each image and produce a digital version without ever actually touching the photo or slide, so the original is never harmed. Specialized software enables the now-digitized image to be restored and enhanced, fixing such problems as red-eye, scratches on the original, or distorted colors.

Benefits
Once in digital form, there are four clear benefits to the new format:

1. Organize, combine and label – It’s easy to arrange and identify your transferred images once they are in digital format. Moving them around is as simple as moving them around on your PC screen. And you can combine all of your memories, both pre-1990s and post-1990s, into one digital collection of DVDs or storing online. Say goodbye to boxes and carousels that take up space in the garage.
2. Make them look better – It’s a fact that the old photos and slides we grew up with do not improve with time, but rather, lose their quality. With digital technology, you can have them restored to their original color and vibrancy.
3. Preservation – Natural disasters aside, we’ve seen what happens just with the simple passing of time – photos are unorganized and unlabeled, remaining a mystery to future generations. Storing the images in a digital format preserves them for generations.
4. Enjoy and share – What good are memories if no one can ever enjoy them? If you never view the photos in the boxes, look through the albums, or fire up the slide projector, those images are lying dormant. You can do fun things with digital photos:
a. Build photo books online
b. Produce photo calendars and other family momentos as gifts
c. Use them as revolving “wallpaper” (background screens) on your computer
d. Send them to an iPod or mobile phone for your kids or grandkids
e. Create DVD slideshows for special occasions, like a birthday, anniversary or graduation

It’s not only fun but easy today to convert old photos and slides to a digital format. You can join the digital revolution!

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Creating Digital Albums From Old Photos

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Since digital cameras came into the market, most people use digital formats for new photos, and there are people keeping older film camera paper prints, slides and negatives. We will show how to convert them into digital formats.

Paper Prints

Sizes 4X6 and 5X7. If they are kept too long, tend to lose their quality, the paper might turn yellow, bend and colors faded.

Slides

Are similar to negatives but projecting photos on large screen.

Negatives

Are processed film usually 35mm roll which hardly used unless to develop new paper prints.

Want to know how to convert all those old photos from traditional paper and negatives to digital? This is easy to copy and a better way to keep the photos in the computer for long time. For amateurs try simple, easy and cheap methods. Professional photographers will spend time and money on this process scanning and requires different equipment.

Scan paper photos prints on a scanner yourself, is a cheaper way, unless you want to send to a professional scanning service that will scan and mail them back the originals and a DVD with the digital scans. Sometimes, it’s a risk to take, mailing the only hardcopy of your photos.

The Resolution is measured by the number of dots per inch, if you are going to scan it yourself. Usually the scanner can scan at 1200DPI or more. The higher the resolution the slower the scan and bigger photo file size. If the higher resolutions scan is at 300 to 600 DPI, you get better results.

When you buy a scanner check the slide scanning Speed, which is measured by number of scans per minute and check the speed at the DPI you’re going to use. Speed is important if you are using more than hundreds photos. For better results, scan at the lowest resolution possible, 300-600DPI is good enough.

Photo feeding is not an issue if only small number, but for more photos make sure that the scanner is fast and easy loading. A good scanner will automatically load stacks of photos, feed and scan them for you.

Scanning negatives and slides is harder than scanning paper prints, so a professional scanning service is easier and cheaper. Standard flat scanner will not be good enough; you need a film/slides scanner. Negatives and slides are high resolution sources and require scanning at higher DPI than paper prints. In this cases 2400DPI or higher should be used. So scanning home photo paper prints is good enough but scanning the source negatives is a not needed.

You can see how easy to photo paper prints by yourself rather than using professional scanning service. For a small investment, get an expensive automatic scanner which has all the functions to convert your original quality memories into digital format, for you and your children to enjoy.

Plus you can keep these photos stored safely on DVD hard drive or online where you can never loose them. And you can share your photos with the world faster then you can say cheese!

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Show Off Those Photos

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Everyone wants to show off his or her photos. Whether they just had a new grandchild or their children just got married, they want you to admire their pictures. Did they just return from an exciting vacation or business trip? They want to show off their trip! The saying has always been “a picture is worth a thousand words” and that is very true today. While someone is telling you about the excitement in their lives, they want to show you the pictures also. Now there are wonderful ways to show off these photos. Leather envelopes are available in every color and style of leather to house four by six pictures. Whether you like the soft colors of pink or lime, or the traditional red or black leathers, you have your choice. The pictures can constantly be changed in these photo cases and up-dated at will. Newer versions are now available with the magnetic closure. These come in many colors also, and some of them have jeweled findings on the front for added zing. The leather cases can be individually monogrammed with a name or initial. As corporate gifts they can be personalized with a company name or logo. The cases are so versatile for so many occasions; they are always a popular gift. Not just for women, men will also carry these in their pocket or briefcase. The Italian cognac leather or the smooth black leathers are especially popular with the men.

A novel photo holder is the framed case that holds sixteen photos. The pictures fold out accordion style. These can also slide scanning in and out and be changed or updated at will. The frame closes like a change purse and is very flat and sleek looking. It is available in many colors and styles of leather. Men will often carry this slim case in the smooth black leather. It actually resembles the old-fashioned cigarette or cigar case. Monogramming makes this a very special way to showcase your photos. It actually creates quite a presentation! This is also very compact and can become one of your favorite travel accessories.

For those that cannot limit their pictures to “just a few” there are a huge variety of photo albums available. They come in leathers of every color and description. Whether you like the smooth leathers best or the alligator or lizard grains, there’s an album for you. These albums also hold four by six photos. Many have pages that fold out doubled, so there are eight photos on a page. In addition to leather, these albums are available in gold or silver tone. Metal albums can be engraved while the leather albums are monogrammed or embossed. These albums are so compact, they can easily fit inside your discount luggage and be taken along on your trips for everyone to admire. You can even fill your album on your travels as you move along from place to place.

It did not take long for the digital photo album to be born. With all of the digital cameras on the market today, they needed an album besides the Internet to show them off. These digital photo albums come with special paper that can be used with your printer to print right from your home computer. The photos come out very professional looking. You can continually add pages to the album as you print more and more of your favorite photos. The albums have a huge array of colors available. They can also be engraved with a name or initials to make them more personal. These albums are lightweight and can be slipped into your discount luggage to take along while you’re traveling. No reason any more not to have your favorite pictures along with you to share with others.

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Do not forget your old legacy film printed photos

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Digital cameras has been around for a few years now. Almost everybody is using one today and almost all new photos created are digital too.

Digital photos allow much more processing and much more flexibility than old film based photos. You could not do much with film based photos. You could print them on paper and put that paper print in a photo album or inside a photo frame. You could also print photos on special paper with special effects. For example you could print photos on Slide Scanning allowing you to project those slides using a standard slide projector. Printing also allowed some other color and more sophisticated effects but it took expertise and a significant price tag to get those.

Digital photos are the new media used by digital cameras. Digital photos are computer files. In essence a digital photo is like any other computer file comprised of a long list of ones and zeros bits a few put together represent one pixel and the whole together representing the complete photo. Digital photos can be viewed on a computer screen or on the digital camera preview LCD screen. They can also be projected using a computer projector. They can also be viewed on other dedicated devices. They can also be uploaded to online photo albums and of course they can also be printed using a large number of home printers or by using one of the many professional online photo printing services.

Since digital photos are computer files they can be processed by computers. Computer photo processing offers unlimited options and for no cost at all or a very small cost. There are many photo processing software packages that are available free for consumers. They can instantly provide many special effects for example change the color temperature of the photo turn the photo into a black and white photo blur the photo sharpen the photo and much more. Photo processing can also provide help improving bad photos for example automatically identifying and removing red eye effect from digital photos.

Since digital photos can be viewed on computer screen they are not limited to a static media. In other words for example digital photos can be animated into a slide show. Effects like different fade ins and fade outs are very common when preparing a digital photo album slide show making the slide show more entertaining to watch. A great advantage of digital photos is that computer storage being almost free and unlimited means that processing and experimenting with digital photos is cheap or practically free and the only cost is your time experimenting.

There is however a solution for being able to do all of those wonderful things with your film based photos. The solution is known as scanning. There are many ways in which you can scan your old film based photos into electronic computer based digital photos. The different methods provide different quality and scanning speed and of course cost but regardless of the method you chose be it at home or using a professional service the result is digital photo files exactly similar to the ones generated by your digital camera that can also be processed at the exact same way.

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Preserving Old Photos for New Generations

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

For generations, people have been taking pictures and having their film developed by professional photo labs. Once they have these photos on paper, they then post their photos in albums. The tradition of the family album is giving way to the digital age where photographs that were once captured on celluloid film are today being caught by digital cameras that require no processing or printing for people to see their pictures. As a result the boxes of old photographs that fill the attics and basements of homes in America are being forgotten and the traditional family photo album is facing the same fate as the eight track tape and the record player.

But in spite of the technological advances in the photography industry the old family photo albums of yesteryear are still floating around. The question of what to do with the pictures that were produced on paper is one that many people are asking. With the tradition of printing out photographs and storing them in large volumes of albums the scrapbook was introduced to liven up the photos and add variety to the presentation of the family album.

Although the industry is thriving, people are able to take their photos and dress them up digitally with graphic design programs that a readily available for computer users that download their photos from a digital camera onto a hard drive.

The answer to what to do with all of those old albums and shoeboxes of photographs that fill up the storage spaces is to convert the paper photos into digital images that can then be shared with family everywhere. By scanning old photos people can halt the passage of time that often cracks and fades the older pictures and even restore them to their original glory with the aid of computer generated applications.

For the scrap booking hobbyist pulling out the old photos and scanning them can become a fun filled activity as images can be enhanced and combined through computer graphic design programs. It may not be the same as hand crafting the page of an album, but the production of photos on a digital page can be just as rewarding and the scans of the images can live on in a scrapbook page or as the original without the fear of damage to the memory of the people whose images were captured on the old school celluloid film of yesteryear.

Through the slide scanning and preservation of digital photography the memories of a life time can continue to bring joy to people for years to come.

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The Hi-tech Marriage between Digital Cameras and Printing Services

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Thanks to people behind the emergence of digital camera technology and those who continuously work on the improvement of this relatively new tool, a stream of photography enthusiasts are taking their passion to the next level. And this trend has also dictated the path of printing to the digital age. Gone are the days when films need to be developed. Today, printing services are as hi-tech as the digital cameras so from the moment you take the picture to the time you have it printed, you’re sure to get no less than the finest results.

Photography onto the 21st century

Professional photographers are discovering a variety of ways in which they can further enhance their craft with the help of their high resolution digital camera and a trusty computer. This dynamic duo has made image manipulation and enhancement not just possible, but done within a few clicks on the mouse button.

With the launch of new era photography, pros are combining old camera tricks with new built-in camera effects and computer programs like Adobe Photoshop to create innovative outputs. They are raising the bar in this field of instant imagery.

On the other side, amateur photographers are getting the feel of a pro. Regular releases of new and better digital camera are making prices lower and more affordable to the general public. Members of the young working class can own a 12 megapixel digital camera at a reasonable price. So it’s really no surprise that young and old alike are venturing into this hobby.

Ideal union with new printing technologies

It would be a shame if you’ve got a top-of-the-line camera but the printed images come out flat and dull. It’s a good thing that printing and slide scanning services are keeping up with the innovations and trends. With digital printing, high resolution files produced by digital cameras have high definition counterparts in the form of rich and vibrant printouts.

- Digitally printed images boast clear and crisp images that look almost exactly the same as they are seen on your computer monitor. Colorful pictures and patterns have such brilliant printouts that you’re sure no effort in taking photos and conceptualizing designs goes to waste.

- Moreover, with digital printing, prints are no longer exclusive to paper, and paper-like substances. In recent times, you’ve probably encountered printouts on plastics and cloths. There are even images imprinted on edible sheets for cake decorations.

- An example of an advantage of this technology merger is creating a painting-like portrait. Take a picture of the person you want to make a portrait of. Simply upload your file into your computer and with the help of a software, convert your photo into a portrait of the medium of your choice such as charcoal, oil, acrylic or watercolor. You can then have this printed on artist canvas to complete the look. This is just one of the many possibilities brought about by these two innovations.

If you are now into photography or are planning to get into it, it’s comforting to know that you have digital cameras and printing services to back you up. You can take great photos and get equally amazing printouts each time. With these two, you know you’re in good hands.

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