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I love digital photos. Do not get me wrong, but there is one thing about them that has always struck me as funny. It hit me the other day when I was sitting in my parents’ living room. I looked up on the bookshelves, and there were stacks upon stacks of photo albums. Ah yes, I realized that with digital photos, we lose some of the warmth and memories of photo albums, and looking through photo albums with those we love. Sure, I have millions of digital photo albums, but I can’t curl up on the couch with them. So how do I remedy my problem? I learn how to develop digital photos.

In today’s world, you can develop digital photos so easily. There is equipment you can buy for your house that will literally develop digital photos for you. You can actually have a print of your photos to put right into an album or a frame without every leaving your house. Amazing, isn’t it. So don’t get stuck only looking at digital photos on your monitor. Add some personality to your prints by taking them off the screen. Here are two recommended printers that will develop digital photos for you with ease.

Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition Photo Printer

This versatile and inexpensive photo printer produces beautiful 4×6″ prints at 29 cents each that even outlast photo labs with a 200-year photo album lifespan. The large color photo viewer and memory card reader allows computer-free printing without guesswork. You can also print proof sheets, wallets, mini-wallets and add Disney borders. Here is a review of the Epson PictureMate Deluxe photo printer.

The Canon i960

This photo bubble jet printer is said to be amazing at developing digital photos in customer reviews. Here is what one customer had to say about this printer.

“First off, The guys at canon finally figured it out to seperate all the colors instead of having blue, red and yellow all in one ink cartridge. This means if you run out of blue, you need only to buy a “blue” cartridge, which is about $10-12, rather then around $40 for a stupid multi-color cartridge.

I thought I was getting a good deal from Lexmark when I bought my Dell computer and got a printer for free, but when I replaced the cartridges twice, I already spent about $160. I decided to get this printer, and there are so many better things about it!

I can plug my digital camera directly into the printer and select which pictures I want to print out and the print quality of them (as long as you have a good camera) are phenomenal!”

So don’t get stuck in a digital-only rut. Develop digital photos and turn your favorite pictures into hard copies.

I admit it. I am a self-proclaimed MySpace.com junkie. Why? Well, besides that it is a wonderful place to keep in touch with friends, it is the most amazing place for digital photo sharing. Like with many social networking sites, digital photo sharing is one of the primary reasons for their surge in popularity. When I first became a member of this site about three years ago, the capacity for digital photo sharing was limited. Each page could only hold 16 photos. That has changed dramatically.

Now a member can upload as many photos as he/she wants to. And they can be arranged into as many or as few albums as the user wants. Each photo can also have a caption beneath it, and the album can be named as well. Other users can comment on the photo too. To take it to an even more advanced digital photo sharing experience, the member can “tag” people in the photograph. This means they can draw a box around other people in the picture and when the cursor runs over that person in the image, it can be clicked on, and the web site will take you over to that person’s page. Pretty amazing.

Digital photo sharing in general has come such a long way. As of now, the MySpace method of digital photo sharing has basically taken it to a social apex, but it has not always been that way. I remember when it took ages to upload one photograph onto the computer and just as long to attach it to an e-mail. And an e-mail only had the capacity to hold one photo. Nowadays, we have many options with our digital photo sharing. We can share by attaching multiple photographs to an e-mail and by sending it to the recipients of your choice. Or you can join a web site that allows you to upload and arrange photos into albums. Then all you have to do to share them is to send the link to people of your choosing. With some of these sites, your friends and family may have to join the site, but most of the time, this is an easy task and is free of cost.

So do not be shy or intimidated when it comes to digital photo sharing. It really is easy, and there is the right option for you out there. Whether you just want to share your photos or you want it to be an interactive experience, you will not be disappointed. Keep in touch; share digital photos.

More and more printers designed specifically to print pictures are flooding the market. If you take a lot of pictures, but don’t want to make a thousand trips to the photo shop, you might want to buy your own photo printer. This purchase could actually end up saving you money in the long run, or not so long run if you print enough pictures. But don’t just rush out and buy the cheapest printer. Read some photo printer ratings before you make a purchase so you are spending your money wisely. By just taking a few minutes to read some photo printer ratings, you could end up finding a nice bargain. Several web sites provide free and rather in-depth photo printer ratings, so take advantage. Many photo printers are designed to be as compatible with cameras as possible, and others are designed to print the best pictures, while the best have both of these advantages and more. Take a look at these photo printer ratings from cnet.com and try to find one that works for your price range. The first two are photo printer ratings for higher end printers.

Epson Stylus Photo R2400 - The Epson Stylus Photo R2400 isn’t for everyone: it’s expensive both to buy and operate, it’s a space hog, and it’s a bit awkwardly designed. But when your images mean everything to you–especially if they’re black-and-white–then the R2400 is the printer to own. Its flexible paper handling, long-lived and color-accurate prints, expanded gray tonal range and nth-degree driver controls are designed with enthusiast and pro photographers in mind. Price range: $599.00 - $1,349.95

HP Photosmart A826 - The HP Photosmart A826 is the first standalone snapshot printer we’ve seen that truly attempts to bring the in-store photo kiosk experience into the home. The printer’s large size and extra large touch screen make using it a pleasure. And the fast print speed and wealth of features make it easy to produce a variety of prints. Only its hefty $250 price gives us pause. Given the tendency we have to take lots of pictures, but only print a select few, we wonder who the audience for this product will be. Given its size, it’s not easily portable, so it would be a hassle to drag it around to family events. We think this printer could find a home among professional party organizers and professional photographers, who could set it up as a photo kiosk for attendees to print images straight off their digital cameras or memory cards, or to display a slide show of the proceedings as they happen. Price Range: $175 - $249.99

Here is one of the many photo printer ratings for a more basic printer.

HP Photosmart 230 - This compact and sturdy inkjet resembles a small, gray toaster. When the printer is open and functioning, its entire footprint is smaller than a breadbox, taking up approximately 9 by 15 by 6 inches. Although this inkjet is a little heavy, you can purchase a carrying case for around $35 to make it truly portable. This unit requires some assembly. You must install the software first; then, when prompted, you turn on the power and plug in a USB cable (purchased separately). You shouldn’t have many questions, but if you do, the clear, concise manual should answer most of your concerns.

Check cnet.com for more expanded photo printer ratings on these and many more printers.

Digital photography, everyone is getting in on it. It’s almost impossible to be into photography these days and not use a digital camera. If you are someone who disagrees with the proceeding statement, then it is time that you got yourself into digital photography. You are not alone or helpless either. There are some very helpful digital photography lessons that can get you up to speed in a hurry. If you are like most people and just have basic ambitions when it comes to photography, then there are just a handful of important concepts to grasp.

Video Professor has an excellent 3-CD tutorial that can help you out of the dark ages and into the much more flexible world of digital photography. Basics are covered in the beginning, and you will be amazed at how quickly you will feel comfortable enough to move on to some more advanced features with these digital photography lessons.

Video Professor’s digital photography lessons start out by explaining some of the technical aspects of digital photography basics. Resolution, storage, display options, cost, batteries and more will be explored in the first lesson. Everything you need to know to get started is covered on the first disc. Like all Video Professor tutorials, these digital photography lessons play on top of the computer program you use, so you can watch the tutorial on digital photography basics and transfer your pictures at the same time.

Getting your photos onto your computer is the biggest advantage of learning digital photography. From that point, you can adjust and enhance them, e-mail them, print them, use them on a web site, and so much more. Learn with Video Professor’s digital photography lessons, and you receive a step-by-step explanation of how to transfer images onto your computer from your camera, memory card or scanner.

When you are away from your computer, you will still have some options for storing your photos. Digital photography lessons will show you a plethora of options for storing your pictures. Laptops, portable storage devices and your mp3 player are just a few of the options. These options provide many avenues to make sure your important photos are never lost.

One of the best aspects of the digital revolution is what you can do with the photos you have already taken. You don’t have to live with a photo that isn’t zoomed in enough or has poor color balance. There are many programs, such as PhotoshopÒ, that will allow you to fully change or slightly improve your photos. Digital photography lessons explore all the options you have for editing your pictures.

Add text, texture, borders, and so much more to your photos. Filters can be used to accent your photos or design a unique new creation. Adjust the color balance to make your picture more natural or just more attractive to your eye.

Take advantage of the flexibility offered to you by the world of digital photography and learn everything you can accomplish through digital photography lessons.

I had no idea that selling pictures online was such a large market. There are several web sites where people can become members and sell their pictures. This seems like a strange concept. I remember when people bought and sold pictures, real pictures that you can hold in your hand. Now you can buy and sell digital pictures online. It seems strange that you can spend $20 or more on a picture file. But it does give you a much wider selection than you could ever hope for from any photo store, and it is all available on your computer. The selection really is incredible. There is an entire section on one site for office-related pictures, which is the third smallest category on the site and it contains 806 pictures. You can buy a picture of network cables connecting to the back of a modem. This picture has been viewed almost 1,500 times. Yeah, the selling pictures online phenomenon is much larger than I thought. On this same site, you can purchase a picture of a binder clip. That’s it, a picture of a binder clip and nothing more. The cost of this groundbreaking picture, a cool $25 for the largest version.

One site has an entire section dedicated to the sky, and it contains 24,000 pictures. On this same site there is also a category titled “red.” I’m serious, and it contains 21,000 pictures. These sites offer 85 percent of the sale price to the seller, and you could sell a picture as many times as possible. Shutterpoint.com offers membership starting at 5 cents a day for 50 MB of storage, with more storage costing more money. Anyone who wants to buy one of your pictures can do so and you get paid through PayPalÒ. Seems like a good deal, unless no one wants to buy your pictures, then you’re just giving money away. This site also pays commission for referring new photographers and photo buyers to the site. Some sites offer you unlimited storage space and differing lengths on how long you can post pictures on the site.

This isn’t something that takes up a lot of your time, but could net a nice chunk of change if you have good pictures. If you are a professional photographer, this is an easy way to expand your customer base and make some more money. It can help you reach far more customers than any store ever could. This is just one of the many luxuries afforded to us by the digital revolution. You surely wouldn’t be able to easily load pictures onto the Internet from film or negatives.

If you are a decent photographer and you have nothing to do with some quality shots, then it might be an advantageous idea to try and sell your pictures online. You might find a small fortune, especially if you specialize in “red” or “sky” photography.

Digital photography, it’s just better than film photography. For most people, the advantages of digital cameras are huge, and with all the advancements of technology, you can get the same quality pictures with digital cameras that you got with film, but with much more convenience. There are some key differences and other aspects of digital photography that you need to keep in mind, so you might want to seek out a digital photography guide to help you make the transition and take full advantage of everything digital photography offers.

A digital photography guide can get you up to speed with all the settings on your camera and what to do with your pictures in terms of saving and archiving them. You also have the choice between three different types of digital cameras. The most common type is a point and shoot camera, which is what you probably think of when you think of digital cameras. This is a pretty basic form of camera with a basic lens, zoom and features. Another option is a fixed lens camera. A more detailed digital photography guide can explain the differences in greater detail, but the basic difference is that fixed lens cameras have more powerful zooms. The third choice is a Single-lens Reflex (SLR) camera. Again, a more thorough digital photography guide, like the one offered by Video Professor, can explain these cameras in more detail, but the biggest advantage of these cameras are that they allow you to change lenses and they have a much quicker shutter speed. Manipulation of shutter speed is one aspect most missed by people with basic digital cameras who all experience the delay between when they press the button and when the camera actually takes the picture.

For a detailed explanation of pixels, a major factor to consider, take a look at an excerpt taken from Bob Atkins’ digital photography guide on photo.net:

A pixel is a contraction if the term PIcture ELement. Digital images are made up of small squares, just like a tile mosaic on your kitchen or bathroom wall. Though a digital photograph looks smooth and continuous just like a regular photograph, it’s actually composed of millions of tiny squares. One of the main ways that manufacturers categorize their digital cameras is in terms of pixel count. What this is is the number of individual pixels that go into making each image. Today this number varies between 1 million (1 Megapixel) to around 14 million (14 Megapixels). A million pixels is abbreviated to MP, so a 1MP camera has 1 million pixels and a 3MP camera has 3 million pixels. Currently most popular consumer digital cameras have between 2MP and 5MP. A 3MP camera can make excellent 4″x6″ prints and very good 5″x7″ prints. If you intend to make lots of 8″x10″ prints, then perhaps a 4MP or 5MP camera would be a better choice. Sometimes two numbers are given, total pixels and effective pixels.

For a very thorough explanation of how to use your digital camera, you can work with Video Professor’s digital photography guide (by John W Scherer) available as a CD or online tutorial.

John W Scherer’s Advice: So a major part of the digital photography revolution is being able to share your pictures online and e-mail them to people you know. You would probably like to be able to view your friend’s and family’s pictures as well, right? Well, there are a couple of options in regard to sharing your pictures online, and e-mail is actually not the best way to do so, even if that seems like the obvious choice.

Sending a lot of pictures through e-mail can take up a lot of space and take even longer to open and download. So before you think about sending your favorite pictures to everyone you know, consider if you really want to put them through the time and hassle of downloading a bunch of your pictures. An easy way around this is to find a web site where you can post your pictures and then you can send the web site’s address to as many people as you want without bogging down their computers.

There are a few things to consider when posting your pictures online. The first is deciding what site to use. There are a number of sites dedicated to posting your pictures where you can create an account and divide them into different albums. These sites are designed specifically for posting pictures so they might be the best or most user-friendly way to post pictures. If you post a lot of pictures online, this might be the choice for you, as it will make the process as easy as possible.

Some of the social networking sites give you the ability to post your own pictures, and since these sites are already designed to keep you in touch with your friends and family, anyone you want can view your photos. As this is just one of the many facets of these web sites, you might not find them as convenient for posting pictures as some of the sites that are designed just for pictures. These sites allow you to add captions, arrange pictures in different albums, and allow others to make comments on your pictures. If you already spend a lot of time on one of these sites, it might be a good choice for sharing your pictures.

One thing to keep in mind is that most of these sites don’t have controls to alter or turn your photos after you post them so make sure you have made any changes to your pictures before you publish them online. Most computers come with some kind of a picture viewer that allows you to rotate your pictures rather easily. If you have a program like Photoshop®, you can make some more substantial alterations to your pictures and rotate them. Either way, make sure that the pictures look the way you like and preview them before you send them. Each time you post new pictures, you can send out the link to anyone you want to see your pictures.

What you probably miss about film photography is the actual pictures themselves. You miss having the prints in your hands. It’s not that you can’t get prints, but with digital photography you can have your pictures on your computer, your TV, your MP3 player, a slideshow and more, all for free. What you probably don’t miss about film photography is losing the one copy that you had of a picture and frantically searching for the negative, hoping that it is in a shoebox somewhere.

Digital photography and all the technology that comes along with it allows you so many more photo archiving options than with film. With film you essentially had two options – print extra copies and save the negatives. The problems with negatives are that they are very fragile and they all look alike. There is also no real easy way to organize negatives and figure out which negative is the picture you want to print. With digital photography, you can clearly see every picture so you know it is the one you want. Photo archiving with digital photography provides much more clarity than film ever could.

Most computers have programs that come on your computer that can help with your photo archiving. It only takes a few minutes to load hundreds of pictures onto your computer where you can quickly view all of them one by one or in a slideshow presentation. From this point, you can decide which pictures you want to print and which are not worth the paper, an option you didn’t have with film. You can then save your pictures into different folders and organize them in whatever way is most convenient and helpful for you. You can organize your pictures by subject, date, vacations, areas and much more. This photo archiving system makes it much easier to find your pictures at a later time. No more flipping through album after album looking for pictures from a vacation or pictures of your grandmother. Most of the photo archiving programs have a search feature, so if your folders and pictures are labeled properly, you can find them more quickly. Digital photo archiving also protects your pictures from weathering. Don’t worry about your pictures getting wet or being faded by the sun.

A tip for digital photo archiving is to do a lot of it. Back up your files and save your pictures to a variety of different places, especially if you have important pictures. You can save your pictures to your computer, but if your computer crashes, it is great to have your pictures saved to another source. You can save your pictures to a USB jump drive or to your MP3 player. Many new MP3 players allow you to view your pictures on the player with remarkable quality. You can also get more advanced photo programs like PhotoshopÒ, with much more advanced and detailed photo archiving systems for all your photos and your edited photos.

Since nearly all photos taken today are digital, it makes sense that there are tons of new editing programs available. And I’m not talking necessarily about AdobeÒ PhotoshopÒ, I am also talking about those basic programs that came on your computer! Did you know that you had them? Well, if you are looking for a program that will give you the most basic photo editing capabilities, look no further than your computer. Editing digital photos doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg after all!

If you want a program for editing your digital photos that will put you on top of the pyramids, or that will airbrush a face, chances are your computers editing software isn’t powerful enough. If you are interested in getting rid of red-eye, perhaps adding some neat effects, or simply changing the color scheme, then editing digital photos on your computer is just a click away!

I am pretty sure almost everyone who uses a camera knows about Adobe Photoshop. We might not all know how to use it, but we have all at least heard of it. Adobe Photoshop takes editing digital photos to an all-new level. Editing digital photos today is seemingly limitless. You can edit faces, edit skin tones, creates backdrops, add and soften makeup, light, contrast, you name it! Editing digital photos today is well, intense. There is a lot to know and, generally speaking, most of us don’t have the time to sit down and learn it all. Most of us work eight hours a day. My idea of a fun evening isn’t sitting in a lecture hall watching some guy on an overhead talk to me about Photoshop, and chances are you would agree, but many of us do want to learn some new ways for editing digital photos we take.

So, here it is, the answer: Video Professor. Video Professor is a great tool to help you learn nearly any program! They have over 60 titles to choose from and they update their programs continuously. Each CD tutorial takes three hours but will take you from being a beginner, to being an advanced user! What more could you ask for? You can work from home, and learn at your own pace. So, you come home late one night and don’t want to study, then don’t. You have some free time, sit down and learn a little! Over 8 million people have used Video Professor and loved it, so really, if you want to start editing digital photos on a new level, you should take a look at Video Professor’s tutorial, Learn Photoshop.

I realized that editing digital photos with Adobe Photoshop made my pictures look better than with my computer’s editing program and I was able to use more interesting effects and ultimately, come up with the perfect picture.

So what do you want to do? Editing digital photos will only get more complicated as the technology continues to grow and rise. You might as well jump on the bandwagon before you fall too far behind! 

The wave of digital photography technology is rather incredible and moving rather quickly. As new technology is created, the older technology becomes more affordable, and the average photographer benefits by being able to purchase better cameras and camera equipment at a cheaper price. The convenience is incredible and sharing your pictures through the many options of the Internet has made it so easy to view and send pictures. E-mailing, social networking sites and sites dedicated to displaying your pictures are all great ways to help display and share your images. You can now have your pictures saved to several different places so you never lose a valued picture and your pictures won’t become weathered or damaged. The ability to alter and improve you pictures with digital-editing programs is incredible. Quite frankly, you can do things with your pictures that you never thought was possible just a few years ago.

All of these advancements are great, but there is one aspect that has some people longing for the good old days, and that is prints. With all the digital technology, you might be wishing you could just hold some actual pictures in your hands. The methods of online sharing have made pictures obsolete to a certain extent. And there is still the stigma that digital photo printing is inferior to what you were used to with film. When your pictures are so readily available on your computer, many people don’t think about digital photo printing, but you should.

Digital photo printing has come a long way. In the beginning, it was true that digital prints didn’t hold up to the quality of film prints, but as everything else in photography went digital, the quality of digital photo printing was forced to be upgraded with everything else.

Photo shops and photo labs of all kinds can print right from your memory card using the same machines that print your film pictures. You can also make basic alterations and improvements to your pictures at many shops before you print them. With digital photo printing, you can also go through and select which pictures you want to print so you get only the best pictures. No longer do you have to pay for the printing of an entire roll of film to only get and handful of pictures that you like.

Not only are the professional prints you get better, but you can get high-quality prints in your home, as well. The printers and the paper that you can use from your home computer have made great strides to resemble the printed pictures you are used to. There is also a large variety of printers you can purchase for your home. If you want a very basic printer just to make prints of pictures of your family, then you have many choices. If you want a more advanced printer to give you the best prints you can get at home, you also have some options. Just like every other facet of digital photography, you now have plenty of options and all the quality you expect when it comes to digital photo printing.