Technology has dramatically changed the way we take pictures, share them with friends and family, and store them for future generations. Not only do today's digital cameras allow us to see our snapshots instantly (and delete all the duds!) but we can print out our own copies at home, enhance and manipulate the images with photography software programs, and use the Internet to send the results across the neighborhood or around the world.
Unfortunately, modern shutterbugs can fall victim to the same habits that beset their ancestors when it comes to organizing their pictures in a tidy display. If you've ever tackled the challenge of trying to identify faces and places amongst loose pictures in a shoebox, you can imagine how daunting the task of electronic filing can potentially be if you haphazardly throw everything into the shoebox equivalent of desktop folders and don't make the time to accurately label their contents.
An e-photo album is not only something that the whole family can have fun participating in but it also makes for a wonderful "memory present" that can be shared across the miles. Couple this with the fact that a CD has a lot of storage capacity and, thus, takes up a lot less space on a shelf than regular photo albums.
GETTING STARTED
If you don't have a digital camera yet from which to upload your images, don't worry. Many photofinishing centers at drugstores now offer the feature of having your developed pictures put on a CD-Rom or being retrievable via an Internet address that can be accessed with a password.
You also have the option of using a home scanner to make copies of existing prints and save them on your hard drive. Software programs such as Photo Suite or Adobe Photoshop then allow you to crop, rotate, remove red-eye, adjust hues, and even add funny captions and special effects.
In planning your e-album, you'll also need to lay in a supply of writable CD's. Even if you're planning to save everything on your hard-drive, you should always back up your files. Individual CD's additionally make it easier to manage your photo collection, especially if you take lots of pictures. In the event, for instance, that you want to locate a particular shot of your cousin's nuptials, it will be much easier if you've already labeled a CD "Family Weddings" than if you generically title a folder "2002 Pictures."
FORMAT
For the truly photo-savvy who want to turn their memories into a multi-media extravaganza with sound and video, there are now software programs such as Picture Pro that walk you through the steps of uploading all your pictures. For beginners, however, this may be more technology (and money) than you’re looking for.
If it's your first time creating an electronic memory book, you have two creative options: a slide show or a traditional-looking album.
A photo slide show is essentially a Power Point presentation in which the images "roll" sequentially from one picture to the next. This is a fun method of displaying snapshots for which there aren't going to be lengthy captions.
Let's say, for example, that it's a frat party with a succession of wacky candids. You'll need to prepare a couple of "title cards” using your camera or a computer graphics program. (These can be likened to title cards once used in silent movies.) These are then interspersed in the line-up of pictures so that a mini-storyline is created when the production is run from start to finish. Slide show albums work really well for large events such as weddings, reunions and parties, as well as vacations
The second method is an album that has the traditional components of a hard-copy scrapbook. For visual variety, vary the size of the photos you are using and frame them using different cut-out effects. Clip-art graphics can be inserted either as introductory title pages, dividers, or sidebar decorations. In the case of vacations, you can even add narrative text (much like a diary entry) or provide a hyperlink to a historic locale's website, thus expanding the content of your album without using up any extra bytes.
As for the downside of e-albums, there are really only two. The first, obviously, is that in order to show your creation in person to others, they'll either need to gather around your monitor or you'll need to set up your laptop, a projector and a screen. The second is that not everyone you may want to give an e-album to as a present is going to be as techno-conversant as you are. In spite of all the benefits of a cyber photo show, some of them will feel more comfortable with prints that they can actually hold in their hands.
MAINTENANCE
Whichever method you choose for your photography display, it's critical to be diligent about your album's upkeep. Try to upload or scan your images to the appropriate files as soon as possible after the event.
Weed out duplicate shots to cut down on clutter. For those shots that aren't quite perfect, experiment with ways to keep them in within an artsy context; i.e., use a painterly effect on a slightly blurred photo to make it look like French Impressionist. Turn another photo into a cartoon or posterize it and change the color scheme. Would it be more striking as a black and white or evoke more nostalgia in sepia? Today's photo programs can give ho-hum shots a dash of "Wow!"
If the intent of your project is to provide an online album to share with distant friends and family, you may want to hire a professional webmaster who can design the basic site and add your captioned snapshots for you as they occur.
If you're especially creative, you might also learn how to design and maintain a site yourself. It all depends on how much you can realistically commit to preserving your moments and memories.
