Welcome to the new issue of the Digital Photos 101 Newsletter.

Two Things You Should Not Be Without
How to Rescue a Photo with Poor Exposure
Summer Travel Photo Tips
Digital Photo News, Sales and Discounts

Digital Photo printing has become big business. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 18.3 billion prints of digital photos are expected to be made this year. Most people print from home, but a growing number are having their photos printed at a retail store; others are using an online photo service.

I talked about the various digital photo printing options in an earlier newsletter (Newsletter #9-Printing Your Photos at Home vs Using a Printing Service ). There are advantages and disadvantages with the various printing methods, and it comes down to a subjective decision weighing price, quality and convenience. Printing at home is generally more expensive but you get immediate, quality results; drugstores are cheaper but quality can sometimes be iffy. Online photo services offer good quality prints and with their constant sales and promos (see Digital Photo News, Sales and Discounts below), they may be worth considering, if you don't mind waiting a few days to get your prints.

Whichever photo printing method you choose, you should make sure you have two things in hand:

Two Things You Should Not be Without

1. A backup copy of your unaltered originals saved to a CD or DVD. If you don't, you could be headed for problems. You could have a hard drive crash and lose all your photos, or you could accidentally overwrite an image when making edits, and find you don't like the changes.

You should also consider uploading them to a photo storage/sharing site (most photo printing sites like Snapfish and Kodak EasyShare Gallery offer free unlimited storage) as an extra backup in case of some kind of natural disaster at home. This may sound extreme, but with the recent landslides in Laguna Beach, California, in which people lost their homes and all their contents, it is not so far fetched. Your photos are precious memories; make sure they are properly backed up.

2. A good photo editing software program. It is not that expensive (usually $50-$100). Unless you are a professional photographer, you are bound to have some photos that need adjusting, such as exposure and contrast, plus redeye removal and cropping. If you simply open your camera, take out your photo stick and go to the drugstore to have them printed, you may be disappointed with some of the results. Take the extra step an edit them first. You will be happier with the results. The same goes for when you print at home or upload to an online printing service. A good photo editing program will offer you some tools beyond the free software you get with your camera. It can help you make the adjustments you need to make your photos stand out. Here is an example:

Rescuing Photos with Poor Exposure

What if you have a one-of-a-kind shot of a family gathering or of your children at the beach, but it is badly exposed? Before you press that delete button, consider how you can rescue the shot. The"auto exposure" tool usually does it for minor corrections, but if you have a really tough photo you need to go a step further.

Most good photo editing programs (like ACDSee and Photoshop Elements) offer the ability to make manual adjustments to the exposure using the "curves" tool.

• In your editing software, select the curves tool and click and drag the exposure grid until you are happy with the results. See photo at right.
  
  
• When using the curves tool, some programs will give you an exposure warning and will show areas that become too dark or too light. You may have to allow for some shadow detail to be lost or some highlights to be a bit overblown in order to get the best exposure on the most important parts of the picture.
  
  
• Don't be afraid with experimenting with this tool, or any other of the editing tools. If you don't like the results you can always revert back to the original, which you backed up :)

Summer Travel Photo Tips

If you are traveling this summer, you'll want to bring your camera with you. Here are some quick tips to help make your summer travel photo experience trouble-free:

• If you are traveling by plane, take your camera with you on the plane. Carry at least two photo cards, or whatever you feel you will need based on the number of pictures you expect to take. Buying additional cards may be difficult, inconvenient or expensive, depending on where you are traveling.
  

• To save space, review your photos in your camera along the way and delete any you won't want, or bring a portable storage device so you can offload the cards and free up space. The Epson P-2000 is a highly rated storage device you may want to check out.
  
  
• For a backup in case your camera and photo cards get lost or stolen—if you have Internet access—upload your photos to a photo sharing/storage site (it's free, you just need to sign up for a free account). You can even e-mail images to your friends and family back home.
  
  
• Bring at least one extra battery, so one battery can be charging while you are using the other one. If you are traveling overseas, try to get a dual voltage charger to avoid needing a separate voltage transformer. It is not fun to be caught with insufficient or the wrong power and miss photo ops.
  
  
• Keep your camera equipment organized. Band the charger cords and cables with Velcro or elastic bands so they are not a jumbled mess and put them in a plastic bag with your charger and other essentials.
  
  
• Bring your camera with you wherever you go. You never know when a great photo op may arise.
  
  
• If you just bought a new camera, familiarize yourself with the features before your trip. If you don't want to drag the manual with you, you can probably look it up on line in a pinch. Since many camera manufacturers put manuals on their web site, it can't hurt to take note of the web address so if you get stuck you can look up your camera's features online at a cyber café.
  
  
• When traveling you are likely to be taking a lot of outdoor shots. When taking photos in the shade or bright sunlight, use your camera's fill flash. This will help fix contrast and dark shadows. Read your camera's manual to learn how to use this feature on your camera.
  

Digital Photo Services News, Sales and Discounts

With summer, there is lots of competition for your digital photos. This is driving prices down, and specials and promotions proliferate. Here is a roundup of current deals:

Software

ACDSEE 7 - free 30-day trial available on this excellent photo editing/management software to find, view, organize, edit, print, and share your photos. I really like this software and use it myself. Read my full review.

Photoshop Elements 3 is on sale at Amazon for $69,88, a 30% discount, plus get free shipping.

Paint Shop Pro 9 is on sale at Amazon for $89.99, an 18% discount, plusget a $30 rebate and free shipping. Note: The software developer, Jasc, recently merged with Corel. If you do a search looking for "Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9," you will get "Corel Paint Shop Pro 9." Same program.

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 is on sale at Amazon for $88.99 with free shipping. Plus, get a $30 rebate, bringing your final cost down to $58.99

Roxio PhotoSuite 7 Platinum - Easy-to-use photo editing software to Instantly correct common photo problems. Create fun projects like calendars or holiday cards with simple point-and-click process. Special offer, $29.95 versus regular price of $49.99.

Roxio also has other great products. One of the is DVDit 5.2, an intuitive, easy to use software for creating professional-quality DVD's. You can author Hollywood-style DVD's of your home movies - effortlessly importing video, audio, and still images. It rocks!

Cameras, Accessories & Ink Cartridges

CIRCUIT CITY: Web-only: Save up to 15% on all digital cameras

RITZ CAMERA-CAMERA WORLD: Sony® T1 5.0MP Digital Camera - On sale for $349.99. 5-megapixel resolution, 3X optical zoom, 2.5" LCD preview screen. USB cradle for a quick and easy connection to your TV or computer. Get an additional $50 rebate with purchase of a qualifying Epson product for final cost of $299.99. Reg. 399.99.

MYINKS.COM: If you use an inkjet printer, MyInks is hard to beat. They offer discounts of up to 80% off retail prices on replacement cartridges and free shipping on orders over $50. From June 15-30 get 12% off your order

Digital Photo Printing Services

KODAK EASYSHARE GALLERY: Kodak EasyShare Gallery. is featuring a 20% discount on minimum $10 purchase, through July 15, 2005. Use Coupon Code ADSUMMER20 at checkout.

SNAPFISH: They recently lowered their everyday price to a CHEAP 12 cents/print (10 cents with a bulk order). That's hard to beat, even with a shipping charge. For details go to Snapfish.

SHUTTERFLY: Save 15% on your photo prints, Snapbooks and photo gifts at Shutterfly from June 16-22.

PHOTOWORKS: PhotoWorks is offering several deals:

Get 10 cent prints on your first order.
Get free shipping with $25 order. COUPON CODE C350-38-5182-11
Free Compact Photo Book - $9.95 Value Choose your book color, page colors, layout, and add your own photo descriptions.

That's it for now. Have a great summer and remember to take your digital camera with you!

Valerie Goettsch
www.digitalphotos101.com
How to get the best from your digital camera

To access prior newsletters: Click on this link.