Working with digital images

[mollymoo]

Hi Guys,

I have heaps of photos in different files, which i think I need to sort out first before I save them to cd. The main question I have is which is the best way to save photos to cd. I am using Windows XP, I have nero express, picasa and have just got adobe photoshop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This is a great site!!

Cheers

[Deb]

Hi Molly and welcome! We appreciate your kind remark.

Let's see, I don't know if this is the best way but I burn my images to DVDs and CDs using my device software (Easy CD Creator on my PC and Burn folder on my MAC). I burn both unedited and edited images in this fashion while on a trip or after I've returned. They perform just dandy.  

[ShutterbugGail]

Deb has written a wonderful tutorial on organizing and archiving digital images:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/how-to-organize-and-archive-digital-images/index.htm

[Deb]

Shutterbug you have me blushing.  

[teejay]

Sorry, I am not quite convinced with the tutorial. I would quote "requirements" of saving pictures on a CD.

There can be two purposes, one could be just back up of all pictures, as mentioned in the tutorial, other to distribute pictures on a CD to friends and family or may be for professional reasons.

I am choosing this option for second reason. So what I expect out of such photo album on a CD.
1. The pictures on a CD should be viewable without installation of any program
2. The original pictures stored on CD should be "as it is" i.e. pictures shouldn't be converted to any other proprietary format that their extraction for printing purposes would be difficult
3. It should have facility of adding captions to the pictures. Preferably, such captions should not be on a picture. Animations to the captions are welcome.
4. It will be added features if it supports video file in picture album.
5. Photo album should support mp3 files to play with viewing photoalbum.

Is there such program available?
I am currently trying Jalbum, a freeware, this is basically for web-album but I am trying to figure out if I can use it for this purpose.

[admin]

Hi teejay,

Check out Pics2exe. It meets most of your needs, though I'm not sure about the video:

http://wnsoft.com/

[Deb]

Hi there teejay.

It sounds like your needs are for distribution (rather than archiving). If you have Powerpoint or Presentations, you could use these softwares for that purpose. They can generate stand-alone presentations which can either be emailed or delivered on disk. I've used them before for giving presentations projected onto a big screen and have also distributed them on DVD for viewing on a computer monitor. I've even sent small presentations via email. For quick and simplified distributions, I've used QuickTime (through Cumulus) to send images off to a client for previewing (via email broadband).

Are you wanting to create a presentation (with images, movies, text and sound) from which the viewer can pull the image off to print directly? If so, you might want to consider using a subweb for that purpose. I use this method predominantly with either Cumulus, Photoshop or Frontpage as my html generator. I then announce the upload to those selected.

As for photo file formats, typically TIFF or JPG are preferred. If these are being sent to a printhouse, they'll be able to let you know what format, dimensions, and resolution requirements they have.

Hope these suggestions help.
Cheers.