Holiday Gift Guide |
Pissed Off and Pixellatedby Peter Koch |
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Everyone’s going digital these days, even Santa Claus. I’m not talking about an OnStar-equipped sleigh; I simply mean that he’s giving out digital presents this year, no more hula-hoops or planes that loop the loop. Cell phones, iPods and digital cameras are the “in” goods this year.
Luckily for all the amateur shutterbugs out there who’ll be on the receiving end of a digital camera, they operate similarly to traditional film cameras, outside of a few new functions (white balance, exposure correction). Even those of you with the most rudimentary understanding of photography can insert the batteries, turn on the camera and push a button to take a photograph. And that’s great, really, but it’s also the easy part.
Of the many wonders of digital photography, the most prevalent one seems to be “I wonder how the hell I get my pictures out of that little plastic box of a camera.” Or, more aptly for most of you, that no good son-of-a-bitch piece of crap. Some kind of print would be nice, or even to see it on a bigger screen—anything but this stupid little one-inch square LCD screen on the back of the camera!
On the serious side, though, that is probably the biggest irony of digital photography—it gives you the freedom to snap as many shots as you want, but somehow the result is fewer prints (if any at all).
“A lot of people have taken a lot of pictures and don’t have anything to show for it, and it’s kind of a shame,” says Chuck Terranova, owner and proprietor of Nova Photo (1832 Main Street, 884-6682). “You look back on all the money you’ve spent on having film developed, and wonder why we have boxes and boxes of photos, but in the end, you’re glad you have them. Now we have nothing.”
He’s right, of course. In my case, for instance, I’ve taken upwards of 7,000 photographs over the past three years, but have only a few dozen prints to show for it. Plenty of people still haven’t made any prints from their digital cameras. Part of the reason for that may be that many folks place less value on each photograph, since there’s not a limited supply, and because they didn’t pay $5 for a roll of film.
Thinking outside the box
There are many ways to get your shots out off your camera and into a photo frame. As technology advances, it becomes more and more convenient. Most camera shops, pharmacies, and even Wegmans now have digital photo kiosks that allow you pick the photos you’d like to print, edit them, crop them and print them in whatever size you want, all in a matter of minutes. There are two ways to get your photos to one of these kiosks. The easiest method—for all of you first-timers out there—is insert your memory card (see “storage device,” basically the same as a roll of film) into one of these kiosks. (Call ahead to make sure your memory card is compatible.) Once you insert it into the proper slot, a window pops up with all of your pictures on it. Then you have the options listed above to choose and edit your pictures. It’s incredibly simple, and there’s usually somebody on-hand to guide you through the process. The kiosks are pretty much the same whether you’re at a pharmacy or a camera shop, but the print quality is usually better at a camera shop (after all, that is their specialty).
“The quality here is the best you can get,” says Mark Miller of Delaware Camera (2635 Delaware Ave, 877-3317). “We don’t use an inkjet printer here, we send them through a digitized version of the traditional chemical process.”
The other way, helpful if you have several photos spread out on various memory cards, is to copy them onto a CD using the CD burning program that likely came with your computer (Roxio (www.roxio.com) and Nero (www.nero.com) are two of the most common). This means you need to download pictures onto your computer. Try plugging your camera into the back of your computer using the USB cable (the one that came with your camera). Then turn on your camera, and it should show up either on the desktop (Mac users) or in the “My computer” folder (Windows users). When you click on it, you can see your pictures and copy them onto the hard drive. This is an important step, as is making photo CDs, in general.
Says AV photographer Rose Mattrey, “Make sure you back up all of your digital photographs on CD. Digital files never deteriorate the way that negatives and slides do, but if your computer crashes and you haven’t backed them up, you could lose everything.”
Once you copy the photos you want onto a CD, simply bring it into a shop with a kiosk and insert it into the CD drive there. Again, your photos will show up automatically, and you have free creative rein. When using a kiosk on a busy day, don’t expect them to have your photos immediately. It’s more like a one-hour photo counter.
So here’s the news you’ve been waiting for. You don’t even have to leave your house to get digital prints that are professional quality. Shopping for digital prints is as easy as shopping for books on Amazon or buying “I Love Lucy” collectibles on eBay.
There are several online photography Web sites that allow you to store your photographs, share them with your friends and even order prints: Flickr (www.flickr.com), snapfish (www.snapfish.com) and dotPhoto (www.dotphoto.com) are just a few. This is a better route than e-mailing tons of pictures to your poor friend with dial-up, who’s probably banging his head against the wall right now for trying to open your enormous e-mail. The online services have easy-to-follow directions, and with a high-speed Internet connection it is easy to post your photos for free, edit them and invite friends to take a look at them.
Online services work especially well for people who are in remote places and can’t easily get prints, but want people to know what they’re up to. Right now a friend of mine is teaching on tiny Weno Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (it’s part of Micronesia). As remote as it is, he has an Internet connection that allows him to post all of his photographs—about 600 of them so far—on dotPhoto, where all of his friends stateside can easily access them as he updates his online album. You can order prints through these services the same way you do at a kiosk, and they will be mailed to your home. Of the three services listed above, prices vary depending on what size you want to print and how many. For 4”x6” prints, for instance, snapfish offers the best price (12 cents). Flickr has the best deals for 5”x7” (59 cents) and 8”x10’ ($1.99). If you buy prints in bulk, the price per print goes down dramatically, and at different rates depending on which service you choose. Your best bet, then, is to check them all out and see which one best fits your needs.
For the more old-fashioned folks (such as myself) who are interested primarily in making a print, the local camera shops—Nova Photo and Delaware Camera—offer the same online service and better quality, to boot.
Terranova is a traditionalist when it comes to printing photographs. “The new way people think is different from the old way,” he says. “People have private conversations now publicly on their cell phones. And instead of sending someone an actual picture, we’ll send them an e-mail to link to an online album, where they can pay to print it themselves. To me, that’s just not courteous, but it’s what people do.”
Both Nova Photo (www.novaphoto.com) and Delaware Camera (www.delawarecamera.com) allow you to store your pictures online, but you have to be sure to maintain your free subscription or the album will expire and be removed from the Internet. From your personal album of photographs, you can edit and crop the ones you like, then order them. Payment is by credit card. They can be cheaply mailed to you, or you can drop in (anywhere from a few hours later to the next day) and pick them up.
You’ll have pictures in hand and, finally, peace of mind.
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