After quite a few years now of Digital Photography I have amassed a huge number of photos which are safely backed-up on my External Hard Drive. I have printed off some of the better ones and kept them in an album for safe-keeping, I've also made a few calendars using a Calendar Kit in conjunction with a range of my favourite photos.
I've also provided a highly entertaining slide show (don't laugh) for the pleasure of my family last Christmas (using the Sandisk Photo Album). But what other options do I have to help me display my other photos, as most of them are currently sitting in binary form on my hard drive, mostly unseen. After searching the web, the first display idea I discovered was the great innovation of Digital Photo Frames! These nifty devices are basically tiny flat screen monitors in a frame.
After hooking up to a computer or inserting a memory card, the picture frame will display and cycle through any photos found on the memory card. There are currently a variety of Digital Photo Frames available at a variety of different prices, the cheapest I found was around the £70 mark for a 5.6 inch frame and around £150 for a 7 inch frame. These prices will drop over the next year or two as the manufacturing cost of colour screen technology falls. I may well pick one of these devices when that happens.
Online photo album services was the next topic I stumbled upon, these seem to have sprung up all over the web, many offering a simple way of posting photos on to the web, so family and friends can browse your photos at their leisure. The possibility of putting my photos on the Internet really tickled my fancy. There are many free online services available making it possible for people with very little computer knowledge to easily select their favourite photos and post them to a private area on the Internet for family and friends to view. This service cuts out a lot of technical know-how that would normally be required to get your photos on the web. However if you have the time and wish to build your own photo web site, there are plenty of tutorials on the web that will take you through the process from buying a domain name through to uploading files to the web, step by step.
During my research, I found many Internet companies offering lab quality prints from your Digital Photos, sent directly to your door. By simply selecting your favourite images from your computer and having them electronically sent via the company's website you can purchase copies of your chosen prints from as little as 1 penny per photo. There are also many other printing options available, for instance you can have your photos printed onto items such as mugs, t-shirts, dinner placemats, teddy bears, cushions and other items you probably have never dreamed of printing onto!
Another service commonly found at these photo websites, is canvas printing. Canvas printing is where your digital photos are printed directly onto a specially coated canvas and then box mounted, ready for hanging. Up until recently, having digital images printed on to canvas has been an expensive process. Thanks to some changes in the way canvas prints are made, it has become much more affordable to get those special photos turned into classy, eye-catching pieces, guaranteed to bring any bland wall to life.
Canvas prints are generally available in sizes starting at 40 x 30cm up to about 160 x 120cm. Please note that some digital images (mainly images below 4 mega-pixels) may not be suitable for this scale of enlargement, it's well worth checking this out with the photo website before parting with any money.
Besides all the online services available, a variety of Automated Photo Kiosks have appeared in our high street stores. These Kiosks allow you to simply insert a memory card from your digital camera and select images you would like to print. After inserting some money your chosen photos are printed and dispensed on the spot. The Kodak kiosks are also equipped with an option to burn your photos onto a CD for safe-keeping. This is a convenient option for people that either do not have a computer or a printer to use, but love the freedom of Digital Photography.
Out of these discoveries, I am keen to try and get my photos up on the internet for the world see. This can be done nice and quickly for free! I think I will also send a couple of my best photos off to have box mounted canvas prints made to hang up at home.
