Awhile back I posted an article about scanning in old hard copy pictures to preserve them. I promised that later on I would post an article about what to do with them after you get them scanned into the computer and backed up. This is it.
The problem that you have here is that now you've got all these picture files, which are probably .jpg files, in Windows folders (or the Mac equivalent, if that's what you use) but they aren't real convenient to view using the default media viewer. For one thing you might want to put captions on the pictures. For another, you might want to view them in multiple ways, e.g., by date or by some category. So it would be nice to be able to put them into a virtual album where you could do that. I use HTML to create web pages and view my pictures that way. I used to do that kind of stuff for a living so it comes easy to me. It would be difficult for the average person to do that though, and way beyond the scope of this blog for me to try to tell you how to do it. So this article will concentrate on tools that make it easy for anyone to create a photo album. I haven't used any of these tools myself and I'm not pushing any particular tool. I'm just going to point out a few that are available.
There are basically two options for creating virtual photo albums. Maybe three if you count those hardware photo albums that let you download pictures from your camera or the computer and store a bunch on a special viewer that you can sit on your desk or carry around with you. We're going to focus on two other options, though: online photo sharing services and photo organizing software.
Photo sharing services allow you to upload the photo files on your computer to a server operated by the photo sharing service. Once the files have been transferred you can then exercise some control over who gets to see the files and in most cases you can organize the photos as like and add captions or comments as well. It is often the case that photo sharing services have two forms: a free form with a limited set of functions or a limited amount of storage, and an advanced form that is available for a fee. These tools make it easy to make photos available to social networking sites like Facebook. In many cases the photo sharing sites can be used to make new hard copies of the photos, often cheaper than you can print them on your own printer. There are a number of sites on the Internet that provide information about photo sharing services as well as comparisons between them. One such site is Top Ten Reviews . There are other photo sharing services that are not listed in this review. For instance, both Walgreens and CVS have photo sharing services which are part of their online photo printing package.
Photo organizing software allows you to organize the photos on your computer into albums that you can view on your computer. Most of the products in this category have additional function that lets you create multi-media albums that combine photos, videos and sound. They usually have some way of sharing the albums, often by making CDs or DVDs. This, of course requires you to have a CD or DVD writer on your computer. Many of these software products also allow you to share photos and/or albums over the Internet. Tools of this sort usually contain function that lets you print calendars and other special projects using your photos. There are many sites on the Internet which provide information about photo organizing software. Top Ten Reviews compares eleven of them at http://photo-organizing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ .
Whether you use a photo sharing service or photo organizing software to create albums for viewing your photos is really a matter of personal preference. Photo sharing services make it easier to share your albums and photos with friends, family and via social networking services, but they require you to upload the photos, which can be time-consuming. Since photo organizing software doesn't require an upload until you are ready to share an album, it can be quicker to build the album with photo sharing software and it may be possible to create a more complex multi-media album, but it may be more difficult to share the results than it would be with a photo sharing service. In either case, you will end up with an electronic copy of your prized photos that will be protected from the fading and other issues you face with hard copy photos.
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