Photos courtesy Hilda Ostby
Digital Photography Communities
Sharing your images with other digital photography addicts (as I often refer to myself) can be very fun and rewarding. I tried a few different communities, and personally chose to join the Caedes community.
Since my experience with Caedes has been so wonderful, I highly recommend this group. With the free membership you are allowed to upload 1 image a day. You will be required to view other members images in the Voting Booth before uploading your own.
You can choose to become a paying member, which costs a nominal $3.00 a month. This helps cover the cost of the servers and provides you with an ads free experience. You also receive the privilege of uploading 2 images a day, without needing to visit the Voting Booth. I have become a member, but I still visit the Voting Booth occasionally because it is always interesting to see other’s work.
I have learned so much about photography through this site, I have seen some of the most inspiring and beautiful digital photography. And I have made some wonderful friends as well. Everyone is very encouraging and helpful. It is so exciting when you post your first image and get feedback from other members!
When you enjoy the work of another member, you can add them to your friends list. When they upload a new image, you will be notified. Generally you leave comments on their work, suggestions for improving (rarely, they are usually so good!) or just a comment about what you like about the image,
The community has members from all around the world. Last year a group in England met for a weekend of photo shooting together. A group in the United States followed up with a fun weekend together in Washington DC. I had the good fortune to meet two fellow Caedeans on a recent trip to Iowa, and it was great fun to meet these people in person, and share a day of shooting flowers, butterflies, and bullfrogs.
I have found other members very willing to share techniques they use. I learned how to use framing in Photoshop with a special filter through one of the members.
Sharing your Images with Family and Friends
For photos that you do not want to share with the world, I would recommend a private image hosting site, and of course I highly recommend Picasa. If you are using Picasa already, be sure you have updated to the latest version, Picasa 3. It has so many new features, it just keeps getting better and bettter!
Simplify your life! Using Picasa to organize your images, and as a tool for quick editing, will save you hours of valuable time. Time you can spend taking more photos!
Uploading a file with Picasa is extremely easy. You can choose whether to make it public or private. Once the file is uploaded, you can send out the link to family and friends. Picasa offers a high quality slideshow for viewing the images, which makes it easy for your family and friends to enjoy your photos.
But here is the most critical part. EDIT YOUR PHOTOS FIRST! I have seen so many shared albums that are filled with every picture that person has taken, with no regard for quality. Mistake!
When creating an album to share, be kind to your audience! You don’t need three shots of the same view, and don’t throw in the ones where your thumb is protruding in the corner of the image! Or one where the image is so dark you can barely make out that it is a picture of you cousin Marvin. Be very selective of which images you share, in regards to quality and quantity!
Let your pictures tell a story. I have been invited to view albums with 300 images of a vacation, For one, that is way too many images to expect someone to page through. Secondly, only about 50 of them were of good quality, and 30 would have told the story quite beautifully. Keep it simple, to the point, and easy to view. I guarantee if you offer a well thought out album for your friends and family to view, they will be more receptive, and anxious to see your next album too!
Size does matter!
Another point to consider is the size of the image. Especially when sending images by email. Have you ever received an email with a photo attached, waited forever for it to open, only to find you are looking at someone’s nose up close and personal? When uploading files to public albums, or sending an image through email, resize your image first! For online viewing an image size of 1024 x 786 will fill the majority of screens. Via email opt for a smaller size, 640 x 320 is a decent size.
I use a great bulk resizing tool. You can download it for free at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Once you download the program, open an image file and right click on your mouse. Among the options will be Resize Pictures. Click to open it. You can also highlight multiple files, then open the resizer. It is quite a nifty tool.
After you have it open, you will have 2 choices. You can resize the images to the size you want, and it will make a copy for you in that size. What I often do, for various purposes, is copy the images to a new file first, and resize the whole file. When I do this, the originals remain separate, and I now have a set in a new size.
To prevent duplicates in the new file, select the “Advanced button” and it will take you to a new window. Here you have the option of creating a custom size, and can check “resize the original picture (don’t make a copy)”. I find this tool extremely useful.
