Photos: Digital Media #3

If you’re just joining me here at lwm3b, this is the 3rd installment about organizing, storing, backing up and editing your digital photos. Got a new digital camera for Christmas?

Start with:
Digital Media #1
Digital Media #2

… then come back and join us.

Okay, so far you have:
- taken lots of photos with your digital camera.
- purchased the largest memory card you can afford.
- uploaded the photos from your memory card on to your computer.
- uploaded a copy of all your photos onto Photobucket or your chosen online storage place (into well-labeled albums! not just dumped ad hoc!).

Now what?

Don’t delete that memory card until you do one more step.

Mistake Six: Having one back-up, especially keeping that sole back up disorganized and unsearchable.

Darcy’s Tips: You’ve picked an online back up. Now you need a tangible back up. I’m not going to debate the pros and cons about picking up an endless supply of readable/writable DVDs, using flash drives (sometimes called thumb drives) or purchasing an external hard drive. I will say this: CDs are already yesterday’s technology and on their way to being obsolete. If you already have photos backed up on CD, so be it. But don’t start now. In my opinion, flash drives are easy to lose and only meant as temporary storage. DVDs won’t be around forever, but they are very affordable, which makes them a good option.

My choice: 1 TB MyBook external hard drive. It plugs into a USB port. It backs everything up automatically, moments after you create it – in duplicate – so the risk of losing it is low. Reviews from PC users have been less positive than Mac users, so if you’re (still) on a PC, you may need to do your research for a more PC-friendly external hard drive. It had a flawless install and runs quietly and seamlessly in the background on my MacBook Pro. It has already saved my bu# twice now with client files.

So now, you’ve got 2 back ups of your photos. They are organized by date and easy to find. So, now it’s time to have a little fun!

What good is having that fun camera and all those sweet photos and do nothing with them?

Mistake Seven: Lots and lots of unedited, boring photos. There are tens of millions of blogs out there. Make yours pretty.

Darcy’s tips: Learn to play with your photos. I’ll introduce you to some ways to do that.

First, your camera might have come with your camera maker’s photo editing software. Yuck. Ditch it. Don’t install it. But let’s say you have this super-cute, 8-year-old boy. This is the straight-out-of-camera shot. In the bidness they call it the SOOC shot. Clever, huh?

But what if you wanted to play with it a little? Create some pop, pizazz, coloring?

That last one is my favorite.

There are programs out there that can create those with a single click. There are programs that allow you ultimate control over your photos. Eliminate red eye, crop, rotate, recolor, desaturate, sharpen… the possibilities are endless.

The following sites and programs are free:

Irfanview (only for PCs)
GIMP
picnik
Photoshop Express
Picasa

Darcy’s Pick: picnik. Most powerful choice for free.

Inexpensive – Mid-range:

ACDsee $50
Lightroom $100 – $300
Paint Shop Pro $60 – $90
Photoshop Elements $70 – $140

Darcy’s Pick: Lightroom is the easy winner for photo editing. All the above edits were created exclusively in Lightroom 1. Photoshop Elements is better for scrapbookers or those who want to add text and make graphics.

An investment worth saving your pennies for:

Photoshop: The current version is CS4, but both CS2 and CS3 are still incredibly powerful and much easier on the budget. $200 – $600

I don’t recommend purchasing Photoshop if you only plan to remove red eye and crop. But if you want full artistic control of your photos and the possibility to do nearly anything with them, this is your program.

I get asked what I use. The answer is Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. It’s a lot of software and I still have a ton to learn.

And, if you got this far… wow. Good for you. Do you feel smart or nauseous? I’ve got one more post coming in this series – including a give-away. Don’t miss it!

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