Backing up photos

I am sitting at my computer trying to back up photos (1999 to 2006) off an old external hard drive.

It is a messy process.

If you want to keep memories alive, it is extremely important to back up photos.

Here is my current system (I wish I had done it all along!)


First - every time you are ready to empty a digital camera card first BURN A COPY OF THE FILES! This is just like those old packets of negatives we (meaning older folks like me who remember negatives) used to keep in drawers. It will give you a pristine copy of each photo file just in case you do something terrible to mess up the copy on your computer. DVDs are not that expensive and this is worth the effort. It is what professional photographers do. My 4 GB card works perfectly since it fits on one DVD. If I have a smaller card, I burn on a CD or stockpile the files in a carefully labeled folder on my computer until there are enough to justify burning on a DVD.

Second - I assume you transfer all of your photos and store them somewhere on your computer for editing and sharing. This can be done in various programs (Picasa, iPhoto, Adobe bridge). Since you have a nice back up copy of every photo burned on DVD, you don't need to keep all 12 shots of grandma body surfing. Just pick the best and delete the rest (remember, you have them safely backed up). This slims down the folders of photos stored on your computer.

Third - Occasionally back up the photo files stored on your computer. Hopefully they will be the best of the best nicely labeled, dated, and organized. You can burn them unto a DVD or copy to an external hard drive. Yes I know - you already burned the photos right off the memory card. But the ones on your computer are organized and edited. It is worth making this second copy. There are huge capacity affordable USB hard drives available now that are tiny and portable. I actually do both - burn to DVD and transfer to an external hard drive (I love my photos so much). After this is done, you can delete the files off your computer when it fills up.

Of course, you need to carefully label and safely store those DVDs so you can access them when needed.

Comparing slideshow hosting

I have used four services to host slideshows and thought I would do a comparison here between Picasa, Flickr, Smugmug, and Smilebox

Picasa



Pros

• easy to use
• lots of free storage

Cons

• can't view full screen - clicking on the slideshow leads to the picasa site
• even in picasa, images are smallish

Flickr



Pros:

• easy to upload
• easy to organize photos within the site
• nice full screen option

Cons:

• free version didn't allow me to upload all my photos
• I couldn't figure out how to upload lower res (but it might be available)

Smugmug

Click here to link to full screen version



Pros:

• nice filmstrip interface

Cons:

• extremely hard to figure out how to embed slideshow
• couldn't figure out how to allow full screen version
• odd blank space in blog post
• clicking on photo takes you to smugmug opening screen - very strange
  

Smilebox

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pros:

• music
• full screen option
• lots of style options (most of them are irritating)

Cons

• Hate it!!! - they constantly ask for pro sign up (=spend money) and the program hijacked my computer and added all kinds of stuff and I'm still not sure I got rid of it.
• huge con - no way to show all of photos with vertical orientation
• very difficult to work within their programs
• irritating constant asking to buy pro version
• ads in free version
• full screen takes you to new website

Bottom line
My favorite - Flickr, but I need to pay for a pro account.

Comparing photo hosting services

I have been playing around with picasa, flickr, and smugmug trying to decide which is best. Last time I looked it seemed like flickr photos were duller in color so I thought I would do a test here. I will embed the same photo from each service so we can compare.

Picasa


Flickr


Smugmug


Interesting - picasa photos have more color intensity, don't you think? Flickr and Smugmug seem about the same.

Rotating text in Word - fiddly

Today someone asked me how to rotate text in Word. Surprisingly, there isn't an easy way. Here is what I came up with using Microsoft Office 2004 (version 11.3.5) on my mac:

1. create a text box
2. type the text into the box and format (I centered it)
3. remove any text box formatting you don't want such as a line (default in my program) - you do this by clicking format (pull down menu at top of screen) - colors and lines - line - no line
4. Select the text box so that it can be copied (sometimes this takes two clicks)
5. Cut the text box by using control X or edit cut, the text box will disappear and be placed on the clipboard
6. click on Edit (putt down menu at top) - paste special - paste as picture - now it is an object that can be rotated
7. make sure the 'drawing' toolbar is showing - if not go to View - Toolbars - Drawing
8. select the text box, click on the rotate tool in the tool bar, mouse over a corner of the box, and rotate.

If you have WordArt installed you could try playing with that.

Good luck!

Geeky ladies - iphoto plus gmail (macs only) - fiddly

My friend Ruth and her husband David have a snazzy new macbook computer. They just came to visit my husband and I here in Trinidad and we had some fun computer chats. Now that Ruth is home I see her online all the time (gmail chat) so I told her she is turning into a computer geek. Today she was trying to figure out how to send an iphoto picture via gmail. This is not a simple task so we had quite a (gmail chat) conversation. Because others may be having the same challenge, I thought I would paste our conversation here:

ME: click to open the smiley blue square at the left side of your dock (bottom of the screen)
it is called the finder
smiley is the man!
he knows where everything is in your computer

Ruth: got it

ME: do you see pictures folder?

Ruth: yes

ME: click on it

Ruth: got it

ME: you should see a list of your pictures folders
are there some in there?

Ruth: there is photo library and photo booth

ME: ok
let's add a new one
click on 'pictures' so it is highlighted
now look at the daisy looking thing at the top of the screen
click on the little downwards pointing triangle
it will drop down a menu
click on 'new folder'

Ruth: got it

ME: and name it
mine is named *for email
I put the asterisk so the folder will be at the top of the list

Ruth: did it

ME: so - you now have a folder created to hold your emailable pictures
now open iphoto
this may seem like lots of steps but it is really quite easy once it is set up

Ruth: okay

ME: are you in iphoto?

Ruth: yes

ME: highlight the picture or pictures you want to email
click on 'file'
then 'export
a menu pops up
there are 4 choices at the top of the menu
you want 'file export'
then you can pick the size of the images

Ruth: hang on I made one of the pics completely disappear!

ME: push command Z
to undo stuff
or edit undo

Ruth: okay I got the pic back
I am at the export stage
what's next Dr imac?

ME: you need to tell it what size picture
size will vary depending on what your purpose
if you are sending a pic for someone to print
you want a larger file
if they will just look at it on the computer, you want smaller

Ruth: how do I make it smaller?

ME: for smaller type 700 or 800 into the box with the largest number
first click on 'scale images no larger than:
then you can type
that will make a smaller pic
then click on export
you can give the pic a title
and tell where to put it
you want to put it in your new handy dandy *for email folder

Ruth: there's nothing that says scale images, just small med large

ME: really?
yours is different than mine
ok - just click the size you want
I like medium
does it give you a choice where to put it?

Ruth: ummmmm
can't see that
hey I think I did it!
now what did I do?

ME: you have nice little photos waiting for you to email

Ruth: I clicked on export and it said where?

ME: now open gmail
as I explain this it sounds so incredibly complicated
but it isn't that bad

Ruth: k

ME: so compose your message
you can test one to me
one thing - most of the settings you are making this run through will open as defaults next time you do this - so that is a bit easier

Ruth: OK

ME: now click on 'attach a file'
then browse
should open up your happy face finder

Ruth: how do I browse?

ME: click the word browse

Ruth: desktop comes up in box

ME: good
look for the pictures folder

Ruth: got it and got both pix chosen and attached
shall I send them?

ME: yes!

Ruth: it worked Di
you are a genius

ME: now do it 10 times so you don’t forget
you have learned some things that will help you with other tasks too
how to navigate the computer
make folders