Digital Photo Albums For Kids

March 30, 2009 at 10:45 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

If you are looking for a fun new hobby you and your child can both enjoy, try getting them involved in creating a digital photo album for their favorite pictures. You can spend quality time together while teaching your child the basics of photography and computers.

The best way to get your children interested in a digital photography hobby is to start your own online digital photo album. Be sure to work on it for a short time each day somewhere in plain view of the kids. Most children will take an interest in whatever their parents are doing, especially if they see pictures of themselves or interesting colors or clipart images on your screen. You can begin by asking their opinion of different options when you are editing your photos. This will make them feel like they are involved in the process of creating your digital photo album. Make sure you show them the finished product so they can see how their choices affected the results.

Once your children have shown interest in getting their own digital photo album, it is time to sign them up for a free account on your photo sharing site. Never include any real personal information when creating an online account for your child and use a password that is totally different than any of your other ones. It is not advisable to let them use your account because they may accidentally delete your existing digital photo albums, especially if your children are young and not accustomed to using the computer yet. Of course, be sure you have your own backup of their image files before allowing them to upload the pictures to their photo albums.

Kids will have a lot of fun adding clipart and other neat effects to their photos. Depending on the child’s age, you may have to help out with the editing part of their digital photo album. Remember that this is their project and let them have total control over what changes are made. You should have a backup copy of the photos they are using, so it will not matter if they make a change that comes out looking awful. If you cannot undo the change with the photo editor, simply re-load the original file and let them try it again from scratch. Let your child’s imagination run wild and encourage them to experiment with different colors or things like wind effects.

After they have their digital photo album customized to their liking, you can show your child how to share with the family. Most photo sharing sites have a “share this” link they can click to send an email with a link to a specific photo or album. Of course, you do not want small children bombarding your family’s inbox with emails, so it is best if you supervise this process. If your child wishes to share a lot of their photos, have them send a link to the entire album instead of sending each picture one by one.

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How to Use Free Online Photo Albums to Stay in Touch

March 20, 2009 at 7:43 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

With extended families spreading out across the world more and more, it has become more difficult to stay in touch with everyone. In the past, people would gather at least once a year for holidays to share memories and show each other the latest photos of their kids. The Internet has brought many new ways to keep in touch with family and bridge the gaps caused by distance. Instant messaging, email, and social networking allow people to stay in contact with each other no matter where in the world they live. Now you can set up your own online digital photo album as a way to share your images with your loved ones.

Using a free online photo album has several advantages over simply emailing a picture to a relative. The first, of course, is that it eliminates the need for file attachments. Instead of sending a copy of the photo itself, you can send a link to your digital photo album. This can be helpful for family members who receive their email at work since many companies have begun to block all unauthorized file attachments. File attachments may also not be a good idea if you have older family members who are not educated about computer viruses and spyware. You do not want to encourage them to open attached files unless they know exactly who is sending the message.

Sending a digital photo album allows you to tell an entire story to someone instead of just throwing them a snippet of information here and there with an individual snapshot. You can set up your photo album in a narrative manner that follows a child or special event in chronological order. You can even add your own personalized comments to each picture in the album to fill-in some of the details of your story. If your family members sign up for their own photo sharing accounts, they can respond to your notes with comments of their own, allowing you to get different perspectives on your common memories.

Some sites allow you to set up your digital photo album as a shared account, so other relatives can also upload their photos and contribute to the family collection. This is a nice way to collect photos of everyone’s children so you always have an update on their growth. People love sharing photos of themselves and their kids, so you will have no shortage of contributions if you make it easy for your family to access your digital photo album.

Family members who would prefer having physical keepsakes can easily order prints from the photo sharing site, along with many other types of customized merchandise. You can place your photos on calendars, mouse pads, t-shirts, or coffee mugs to create your own personalized gift items for delivery right to the family. Instead of giving pictures that have no use other than mantel decorations, you can use your digital photo album to send grandma a new coffee mug with your child’s latest picture.

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Four Benefits of Digital Photo Printing for Wedding Pictures

March 11, 2009 at 11:06 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

A wedding day is one of the most important days of someone’s life. Of course, it is also an occasion where a lot of pictures are traditionally taken, with many people hiring a professional to take pictures of the ceremony and the guests in attendance. Whether you hire a professional photographer to photograph your wedding or do it yourself, there are a number of advantages to using a digital photo printing service to provide the actual prints to everyone. Here are four great reasons to use a digital photo printing site for your next wedding.

1. Better quality. You are able to edit your photos beforehand, which can provide you with much better results than traditional photo processing. Along with the ability to touch up the photos, most digital prints are of far better quality than regular film developing. After all, you want the best possible results for photos that are as special as your wedding pictures will be. Don’t take any chances with such and important event in your life. Also, digital printing services are usually less expensive than traditional processing, making this the more cost effective choice as well.

2. Added control over the final image. Prior to sending any wedding pictures off to a traditional film processor, consider the possible problems that may occur. There may be red eye issues or people may have the top or side of their head cut off by the edge of the film. Using a digital camera lets you quickly and easily edit these pictures before sending them off for digital photo printing. That way you know that every picture you receive back from the printer will be of the highest quality only. You can also weed out any photos that will be unusable, saving you money on printing costs.

3. Faster turnaround. Unlike traditional photo processing, which can take anywhere from an hour to several days, you’ll be able to instantly tell how your photographs will turn out when you are using a digital camera. Instead of finding out too late that an important photograph didn’t turn out, you can immediately decide whether or not a photo needs to be retaken. For times like these, when pictures really matter, it’s important to have the ability to quickly retake a photograph.

4. More convenient to share photos with friends and family. Now that you have received your prints back from the online digital processing site, it is time to show them off. It is very easy to order prints that can be sent directly to your family members’ homes. Now there is no more time spent sitting around writing out addresses on envelopes. Simply input your list into the site and you can blast out photos to everyone at the same time. Some sites even allow you to save your frequently used contacts in an address book, making the process even quicker and easier. In addition to sending out physical copies, you can usually set up online photo albums to display your wedding pictures.

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4 Ways to Personalize Your free online Photo Album

March 3, 2009 at 10:53 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

If you have an online digital photo album, you want to make your pictures stand out from all the rest. There are quite a few things you can do to your photos to give them a personal touch. Most photo sharing sites have fun images and effects you can add to your pictures, along with custom backgrounds and themes to use for the pages of your album. Here are four ways to personalize your photos and give your free online photo album a unique twist.

Before editing any of your digital photos, be sure you have a backup copy of the files. It is generally easy to make a duplicate copy right on the photo sharing site itself, so you may want to just make a copy of your entire photo album as a reference point.

1. Use online photo editing tools to add special effects or color schemes to your pictures. Of course, you should always do some basic touch up work and clean up any undesired objects in the background. Most photo editors will allow you to brighten the image and remove the dreaded “red-eye” effect. Check the available features on the photo sharing site you use. Many of them offer additional effects such as adding a wind-blown look to the photo or a colorful border around the image. You may also be able to choose from a number of fun color themes to give your picture a unique style. If preset schemes are not available, you can always adjust the hue of certain objects by using your photo editor’s color tools.

2. Add clipart images into your pictures for a humorous touch. Many of the top photo sharing sites include a selection of clipart images that you can use to customize your photos. Some fun ideas include adding a cartoon character to a child’s birthday picture or placing a goofy-looking hat on someone. You can use images that complement the tone of your photo such as a stack of poker chips for your Las Vegas vacation pictures.

3. Make use of any audio options provided by your online photo sharing site. Some websites now allow you to attach a sound file to the images in your free online photo album. You can upload a friend’s favorite song or simply record your own personalized message to someone. This gives an added personal touch that just cannot be conveyed with a traditional film photograph.

4. Turn your free online photo album into a customized gift for a friend or family member. Most online photo sharing sites offer merchandise that can be personalized with your photos. You can have an actual photo album with all of your favorite pictures delivered right to the recipient’s home. choose different covers, Other fun gifts that can be given a personal touch with the right digital photo include t-shirts, mouse pads, calendars, or coffee mugs. This is also a convenient way to handle holiday or birthday gifts without having to hassle with gift wrapping and mailing them out yourself.

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Top Six Reasons to Buy a Digital Photo Album

February 17, 2009 at 9:52 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Photo albums haven’t progressed much over the years. The biggest improvements have been the style of the cover and the way pictures slide into the sleeves. They’ve been books for as long as people can remember, but digital photo albums bring about a new way to store and share pictures from your digital camera (you might want to consider a Sony Ericsson G795 Multimedia Slider Phone). Here are the top six reasons why you should consider investing in a new digital photo album:

1. They’re easy to fill. Because it’s digital you can insert a memory card or connect it to your computer to get the pictures inside of the frame. Easy to fill also means easy to change. Need to add new photos? No problem. Forget taking the time to slide each and every photo into a plastic sleeve that always is more difficult than it should be. Just a few clicks on the computer or a simple sliding in of a memory card and you’re done.

2. They come in different sizes. Digital photo albums come in all sizes from the size of a keychain to a frame large enough to hang over your fireplace. Whatever space you’ve decided to place your digital photo album in, you’ll find the perfect frame to fill it.

3. They’re transportable. Many of the digital photo albums run on batteries so that you can take them anywhere. The mini digital photo albums can fit inside of purses or on keychains, making them that much easier to share with friends outside of the home.

4. There’s no chemicals, ink, or paper. Not only does that help limit the amount of pollution that affects the environment, it helps you too. You won’t have to deal with waiting for your pictures to be printed and it won’t take up tons of space storing all of your pictures.

5. They come in cool designs. The only difference between the styles of standard photo albums is hard cover or soft cover, and then the designs on the cover. Digital photo albums come in all varieties, not just a square picture frame. There are digital photo album ornaments and alarm clocks, which not only look good around your home but also make wonderful gifts.

6. It’s easy to print copies of pictures. When you’ve only got pictures lying around, you can’t just give copies away to friends unless you remembered to have extras printed. Digital photo album printers let you hook up a small photo sized printer to a digital photo album. Then when your guests want a copy of that incredible picture you took, all you have to do is click a button and print them a copy. Now that’s sharing.

With all the different ways a digital photo album can work it really is a step above a photo album book. The initial costs can be expensive but you’ll save a lot of time when adding images and even save money when you don’t need to go to a photo lab every time you want to add new pictures to your album.

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Sharing a Free Online Photo Album with Family

January 30, 2009 at 7:08 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

A free online photo album is a great way to share your photos with family whether they are across the street or around the world. Sometimes we are so busy with our day to day lives that we don’t have the opportunities that we’d like to share photos of our accomplishments, milestones and even our children with our family.

This can be particularly true with older family member whom we would love to spend more time with but simply don’t have the time. Sharing a free online photo album with older family members, such as grandparents, can be the highlight of their day. Sometimes, because older family members are retired and have lots of free time, sharing your photos with them is a great way to let them know that you’re thinking of them.

Of course, sharing photos can be as simple as sending your family member an invitation or a link to your photos and giving them the option to save, print, download or copy the files to their computer. That way, they can have access to the photos you’ve shared with them even when they aren’t on the Internet.

Of course, you can always create a free online photo album at a photo sharing site and have it printed and delivered to a love ones door!

Holidays, vacations, graduation, birthdays, anniversaries — and even just day to day living — are all great reasons to take photos, and these are all great reasons to share with your family. Particularly if you have a big family, the Internet can be a great way to share photos with almost everyone at the same time.

Family reunions are also wonderful photo opportunities. Not everyone can come to a family reunion. Sometimes family members have financial constraints, are too old to travel or simply can’t make arrangements to be away from work to attend. Your photos can be a way to recreate the experience for those who may have been homebound. Imagine their surprise, delight and appreciation when you share the photos from a history making event such as a family reunion.

There are many creative ways that you can share your photos with your family. You can create a free online photo album, or you can create a slide show of your photos and upload it to a web site that has social and networking functions and let all of your family members view the slide show there. If you have video, you can also upload that to free video viewing sites and send an invitation to your family members to view the video.

Sharing with family reminds them that they are special to you and let’s them celebrate your life with you through the photos, photo albums, slide shows and videos you create of your life.

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Create a Free Online Photo Album

January 21, 2009 at 10:42 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Most people enjoy sharing photographs of their friends and loved ones with everyone they know. Did you know that there’s a way to get your photographs together so that everyone in your family can see them and you’ll never have to tote a photo book? It’s true; you can easily create a free online photo album. Online photo albums are typically free they’re very easy to use and create; and they are also excellent time savers!

If you’ve never considered using an online photo, but you’d like to try, the following tips will help you get started:

First of all, organize and gather your photos. You can choose any photo, from a birthday party, to a vacation, or even a wedding. Once you’ve organized your photos (remember, even hard copy photographs can be used for an online photo album as long as they’ve been digitized in some way. Scan them into computer, or create a disk), it’s time to upload.

Once you’ve uploaded your photographs, organize them into a folder of your choosing on your desktop or in your documents. After that, hop online and search for a free photo sharing service. They are tons to choose from, so it’s a good idea to review each one carefully and read what other consumers have to say about the product. Depending on the service you choose, you’ll be able to upload hundreds of photos at once. Once they’ve been uploaded they will be placed onto a server and kept secure.

What you’re selective service, all that’s left to do is to select a template. This is the fun part! Here you get to be creative and choose a template, the background, color scheme etc. once this is completed, time to decide how many photos per page you’d like to see. This will also allow you to decide on the size of each photograph to be displayed.

Next, you will use your mouse to drag and paste your photos to the perfect spot. Remember, you want to ensure that all photo editing is complete prior to this step.

Once you have organized your pages, you can add captions, messages, and add quotations. This will allow you to tell a story with your photos and convey feelings to go along with the images.

When she was finally finished with the artistic development of your online photo album, you can easily have an album delivered electronically to all your loved ones!

More than likely, your online photo sharing service will allow you to upgrade to a paid service if you so choose. These paid services typically offer more storage space, more storage time, and a host of other cool features that you don’t get with a free package. Don’t worry; the price is always a bargain for the services you receive.

Your friends and loved ones will love viewing photographs and reading your add captions in order to stay abreast of the happenings in your life. As an added bonus, try adding a photo of each person you plan to deliver to at some place in your album… they will be thrilled!

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How to Design a Digital Photo Album

January 21, 2009 at 10:29 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

When you are beginning to design your digital photo album, there are a few main considerations that you should think about, so that your finished product expertly shows off your favorite photographs and tells the story you are seeking to tell. Follow these four easy steps to design your free online photo album today!

Step 1
Your first step to designing your digital photo album is to determine which photos that you will include. It is always best to choose a theme for your digital photo album, instead of including a random assortment of photographs that are unrelated. If you have a lot of photos to share, consider creating multiple digital photo albums, instead of included unrelated photos in the same album. It can be very confusing to view a digital photo album that is simply a collection of photos, rather than photos that are arranged to tell a story. In addition, if you include too many photographs in one album, you may lose the interest of people who are invited to view the album.

Step 2
The second step in designing your digital photo album is to think about the story that you are trying to tell. Would your photos be best displayed if they were in a particular order? If you are chronicling an event, have you placed your photos in the order that the event unfolded, so that the pictures can be viewed chronologically? If the photos do not depict an event, is there some other order that you can use to organize your photographs? Perhaps you can think about the descriptions that you will use and arrange your photographs to fit how those descriptions will reveal your story.

Step 3
Once the order of your photographs has been determined, it’s time to label them and write descriptions that will either explain what is going on in the photograph or to start or continue telling a story based on the photos displayed. If you share your digital photo album, visitors may view your photos one at a time or as a photo slideshow, so ensure both that your descriptions can stand on their own and also that they will work when viewers are progressing from one photograph to the next.

Step 4
Now that you’ve added photos to your digital photo album, placed them in order, and given them descriptions, it’s time to decide who you want to share your photos with. You can set permissions so that you can send a link to the people who may want to come view your album, or keep you album private so that only you can view it. In addition, you can allow anyone in the world to view your album, or require a password to gain access. Think carefully about the types of photos that you are sharing to determine how best to set permissions for your digital photo album.

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How to Share a Digital Photo Album

January 21, 2009 at 10:13 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Photographs become so much more enjoyable when they are shared with friends and family. You will want to share the pictures of your children’s achievements, the special events that you’ve hosted, and any other great time in your life. There are many ways that you can share the contents of your digital photo album. Consider all of your options and select the one that will be suit your needs, or that will best show off the photographs that you’ve included in your digital photo album.

Sharing Opportunity #1: Password Protected, by Invitation Only
If the photographs that you have loaded into your digital photo album could be sensitive in nature, or if you want to protect your family’s identity by not floating their pictures randomly around the internet, you may want to share your digital photo album by invitation only, or use a password to protect admittance to the album.

Sharing Opportunity #2: Emailing Links
If you want to send your own links to your digital photo album, you should be away that people who receive those links may then share them with additional people. If it would be okay for your photos to be seen by a larger group of viewers, emailing links to your digital photo album can be a great way to get the word out that there are new photos to be seen.

Sharing Opportunity #3: Posted to a Blog or Website
If you have your own blog or website, or participate as a user of other blogs or websites, you can post photographs that are linked back to your digital photo album. Instead of uploading photos directly to your blog or website, you can have those platforms pull directly from your digital photo album. This may allow others to access your digital photo album directly, however, so ensure that if you link photos back, you are prepared for anyone in cyberspace to view your entire album.

Sharing Opportunity #4: Print Your Own Photos
One great option that digital photo album sites offer is the ability to select photos from albums to print. Instead of you printing and sending photos to loved ones around the world, you can let them choose just those photographs that they are interested in buying and they can purchase them on their own. The prices for printing and shipping photos from digital photo albums is comparable to the prices offered by retail locations, and twice as convenient because people can order photographs from the comfort of their own homes.

Sharing Opportunity #5: Gifts and Gadgets
In addition to guests to your digital photo album being able to select prints to purchase, they can also choose to have a variety of gifts and gadgets printed with their favorite photos, including mugs, calendars, cards and more. By creating a free online photo album and allowing your loved ones to view your favorite shots, you’re opening up a whole world of photo printing opportunities for them.

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5 Reasons to Edit Digital Photos

January 21, 2009 at 9:37 pm · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

When you share digital photos, you may simply upload them to your free online photo album and send links to your friends and family to view. When your visitors arrive, they will be able to see whatever shots you have shared – including some that might have been better displayed if only they’d been edited before sharing. There are several great reasons to edit your digital photos before sharing them with your loved ones.

Reason #1: Limiting a Picture’s Focus
Some of the pictures that you include in your digital photo album might be too “busy.” Instead of focusing on one person or group of people, or documenting one event, they could be taking in too much action. These photographs may be hard to understand or not pleasant to view because there is simply too much going on at once. By editing your digital photos, you can instead focus on one part of the picture to share exactly the story that is the main idea.

Reason #2: Put Your Pictures Front and Center
Sometimes, the subjects of your photographs move just as you’re taking a shot. Or you might think you’re centered on a particular item, only to find that it’s in the left corner of your picture instead of the main focus. You can edit your photos before including in your digital photo album in order to ensure that the main idea for your digital photo is displayed front and center in the shot.

Reason #3: You’re Not a Werewolf
One of the biggest issues faced by photographers are the appearance of red eyes. Many film and digital cameras feature red eye reduction functions, but those do not always take care of the problem. You can use online or software based photo editing programs to reduce the appearance of red eyes in your photography so that your subjects look like humans instead of werewolves – red eyes are not the best way to show of your baby’s baby blues or your girlfriend’s smoky brown eyes. Instead, you can make easy edits to fix your photos before you share.

Reason #4: Size Matters
Sometimes, the perspective of your photographs may be a bit…off. You may have focused on one particular person or object, just to have them or it dwarfed by what is going on in the background of your shot. Instead of showing off a background, show off your main subject by cropping your photographs to show only what you want to show. Size does matter – when your subject is barely seen, you aren’t showing off the story that you actually want to tell.

Reason #5: Clean it Up
When you are focusing on one particular person or object, you may not even notice what is going on the background. You can edit your photos to take out background objects that may not be quite what you want to show off in your pictures. You can either crop your photos to show only the main object, or you can use other editing features to remove portions of the photograph that may not be appropriate to share.

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