July 13, 2006
Photos, photos everywhere
It's the time of the year that's ripe with special memories -- vacations, family
reunions, graduations, weddings, and all other manner and matter of great photo ops. The Three Tomatoes love
our digital cameras, and yes we actually know how to upload our pictures to our computers too. Although we do have friends
(you know who you are) who have digital cameras with images that have yet to see the light of day. But with the exception of those
hopeless few, if you're like The Three
Tomatoes you love taking digital photos. But now instead of dusty
shoe boxes filled with photos that go back to the days when Jimmy Carter was President that you still have every intention of organizing into lovely
albums - some day - you now have a computer filled with digital images that you will "organize some day." Well your
some day is here. Sit back and enjoy our little guide to some of the best digital photo storage, sharing, printing and
editing web sites out there.
Let's get organized
About a year or so ago, we were introduced to Google's Picassa, by our chimney sweep guy, which just proves it pays to
chat up everyone because hey, you never know. Picassa is a free software download that installs quickly and simply and then
immediately goes through your entire computer searching for any photos you have stored and neatly organizes them by year and previously named
folders. Now this is important to understand -- it copies these into Picassa, so do not fear that it has screwed up any
other filing and storage system you have. We love Picassa and
think it is far superior to Microsoft's "my pictures" and software programs that come with your digital camera. You can
easily upload your images to any one of half a dozen popular photo sites (more about those in a minute), and send photos via email.
You can also create collage images, and view your photos with their very cool timeline tool. But best are their
very easy to use photo editing tools that include all the basics most amateur photographers would want or use -- cropping,
color correction, conversion to B&W, sepia, and other special effects like "soft focus" and "glow" which we especially love because they soften any
imperfections (like our lines and wrinkles.) The only thing better than editing your photo so that you look 10
pounds thinner and 10 years younger would be a real life "editing" tool that worked in minutes and didn't involve
pain.
Photo sharing and printing web sites
We have long been partial to Kodak EasyShare Gallery. It's an easy way to share photos and order
prints. And now of course they offer all kinds of products that you can imprint your photos onto -- everything from greeting cards
to mugs. And as long as you occasionally order from them, they will continue to store all your albums for free which is a real plus if your computer
crashes and you didn't make CD backups, or if you buy a new computer and don't want the hassle of copying all of your
zillions of photos. But one of our favorite things is creating photo books, which are
coffee table type photo books. Kodak has offered this product for over three years now and they have definitely simplified
the process of creating a book since then. Photo books are a great way to relive cherished vacation memories (and you add
the captions in as you go along, so no more saying where the heck was this?) We also like creating "year in review" books with a
selection of our favorite photos.
Loyal as we have been to Kodak, we recently checked out Shutterfly's options for photo books and were
wowed! Lots more options than Kodak so we will definitely be giving them a try.
Want a professional photo printing site?
If you're ready to move to the next phase of digital photo printing, check out
mpix.com an online digital imaging lab designed for professionals and
advanced amateurs. While not as user friendly or intuitive as Kodak and Shutterfly, mpix.com lets you upload "raw" images if you
like (and no, raw does not mean photos in your birthday suit). You can choose from Kodak professional photo papers (including
True digital B&W and more.) If you're a purist, you should definitely check out this site.
Want to email really large files?
Then check out Pando.com. We read about this new application just this week in the Wall Street
Journal and gave it a whirl. This free software program let's you send attachments that are up to one gigabyte, a
term that is relatively meaningless to The
Three Tomatoes. So in real people talk that means you can email someone a ton of pictures, or a video, of
even a huge music file. We tried it out and it works. But keep in mind, the recipient has to
download the software too.
Looking for a Digital Camera?
Before you buy or upgrade, check the reviews from PC Magazine.
Happy shooting.
‘til next week,
The Three Tomatoes
Copyright© 2006. The
Three Tomatoes. All rights reserved.
