Digital photography & design software: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help
- 12/19/08 10:08 AM
Saving photos in Photoshop for a digital photo frame
by sargevick - 12/13/08 6:21 AM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The screen size, resolution and aspect ratios are the most important factors for you to consider. Digital photo frames come in many different screen sizes ranging from 6.5” to 12”. Try to find one with at least an 8” frame. There are three resolutions: 800×480, 800×600 and 640×480. The larger frames usually have the highest resolutions. Try to buy the one with the highest as your pictures will look much better. If you are saving the photos in Photoshop, you should match the image size aspect ratio to the picture frame you buy. There are three aspects, 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 ( widescreen ratio). If you save your image in 4:3 (most cameras use this) aspect ratio, the 16:9 widescreen frame will distort them. Last, save your pictures in 72 dpi. This is the resolution that most photo frames use. If you can find one with a higher dpi such as 125, save your pics in that. Hope this helps!
Interesting ? Suggestions & looking at replies...
by G.T. - 12/13/08 8:46 AM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your question is of interest to me as well as answers. I too am scanning slides and pictures for family viewing. Have been working on old photos. Upgraded my flat bed scanner to Cannon 8800F which came with Adobe Photo Elements software. Old scanner had to scan one photo at time, the Cannon will scan as many photos as will fit on bed with 1/4 inch separation and display each as separate photo on screen for editing/saving. This is quite a time saver when scanning a lot of photos. Have been very pleased with the results. Have used other photo programs and the Photo Elements seems to be the best I have used so far. For slide scanning, reviews I have read Nikon is the best, but hi dollar, and is on my wish list. In the meantime I purchased a "VuPoint" slide scanner from National Geographic for $100. It does a pretty fair job. As noted in other post a "do it yourself" job will be very time consuming, but you will have complete control over the original photos and that is important to me and others. As I just visited with relatives with my laptop and scanner, scanning some family pictures in their homes that they were reluctant to let out of their sight. Digital frame.. No experience but will be looking at this post for suggestions.
Good luck, Gil
I need help too
by nlmcgrath - 12/13/08 8:49 AM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Looking for digi frame for a grandma as well. One that could that sit on a kitchen counter...moderate capacity...easy for us to set-up and for Grandma to enjoy. Please include some recomendations's for us.
Digital Picture Frame
by jonathanrowson - 12/19/08 7:18 PM In reply to: I need help too by nlmcgrathI've got experience with one picture frame, and the one we have at home allows us to put in a camera's flash card loaded with pics. Look at the frame's specs and you should see what SIZE (that is resolution) and format (.jpg etc) the frame will support. Also, if possible get a frame that you can just pop in a flash card and therefore not have to connect the frame directly to your PC, thus avoiding any possible virus/trojans/etc. The frame I have was purchased from Circuit City on Black Friday for 69 after rebate. Shop for your frame carefully, as this will affect your final step in processing. Many other posts CORRECTLY sketched out the path you most likely will take and have done so MUCH MORE thoroughly than I could ever have done, but just remember your steps. Scan (most lossless format possible), then convert after cleaning the pics up. Just be sure your frame has specs listed showing what resolution it wants the pics to be in (and in some cases what bit as well)
Frames
by jda225 - 12/20/08 8:12 AM In reply to: I need help too by nlmcgrathOne of my sons purchased a Kodak Frame for me last year and I not only loaded a couple of hundred pics on it but kodak has a free site (that other companies according a the NY Times Tech article) charge a monthly fee. I have my frame on constantly (wireless) I can have a slide show from the Kodak web site of photos I have uploaded or others that I have in internal memory.
Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help
by tigger_nospam - 12/13/08 10:59 AM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have recently done exactly the same thing for my mother-in-law. I put all the photos onto a SD card and used a Kodak Easy Share photo frame. All the photos, some of which were old back & white images played beautifully with no problems at all.
Hope this helps.
Tigger
You're almost there
by Alain Martel1 - 12/13/08 11:20 AM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The job wou want to acomplish need: a scanner, any image processor, a computer, one or more digital frames.
You already have everything, exept, maybe, the digital frame, that you need.
So, you just scan all the photos that you want. Save them in a non-lossy format for now. The best choice, for me, would be PNG. Good compression and keep all the original informations of the picture.
Load them in Photoshop, or your prefered image processor, and do all your cleaning and other optimisations, and optionaly some cropping. Save in another folder so that you can keep the original scans in case you need them later.
Once you are hapy with the results, convert the final images to JPG. This will give you a big size saving. For the black & white non-colorised ones, the GIF format can also be used. Then, upload the JPGs to the digital frame.
Be sure to carefully read the frame's instructions. You don't want to upload a picture in an unsuported format. For example, if the frame don't support GIF, don't use that format.
EXTREMELY IMPORTENT!
Whatever frame you chose, be sure to disable the Windows autoplay feature BEFORE you connect the frame for the first time and FORMAT the storage of the frame before you do anything else. Some digital frames may contain some virus set to exploit the autoplay funtionality to infect your computer.
It only leave the choice of frame.
That's the thing that I can't help you with, as I don't own any. Look for size, style, storage capacity and autonomy. Be sure to read the instructions.
Digital picture Frame purchase
by lathangt - 12/13/08 12:56 PM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My wife and I looked at a lot of digital picture frames and the two companies I liked a lot was Kodak's Easy Share and Digital Spectrum Solutions 10.4 Memory Frame Plus. We bought the Digital Spectrum 10.4" and found it easy to use. It allows connection to my iMac via a provided USB cord, and moving photos from iPhoto to the Digital Spectrum's icon on my desk top was a breeze. There may be others out there that provide many of the same features as SD/MMC/MS/XD slots, music provision etc. but this was on sale at Costco for a very good price and it was the size I wanted!
Terry
Digital Picture Frame Considerations
by Roger Deal - 12/13/08 2:18 PM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
That is a wonderful thing to do for your mom.
1. Consider where it will go and how far the viewer will be to decide on a size. (Ours is a long way so I got a large 15" one. It is in a high niche so I put a lead weight on the support so I could tip it down instead of the normal up). Also compare screen size versus total size, many have a LOT of border(s) around the screen. Select a color and frame style. Our box shows "birch framing with a nice brown wood color" however, BLACK would be a better description. Check the actual item.
2. Check on the usable viewing angle from side to side and up and down vs intended use. Pay more attention to the vertical.
3. They can be a large BLACK area when off, so it is nice to have one that can be programed to turn on and off each day. A remote is also
very usefull, especially if you are older and have difficulty getting up and down.
4. Compare pixels displayed, many do not have high resolution. For scenery you will want a lot of pixels. Ours works well at 1024 x 768 resolution. Also you probably want a 4X6 aspect ratio for older photos; many digital cameras shoot in a 3X4 aspect ratio. I haven't found much information on color fidelity.
5. Internal memory is nice, but the ability to put in SD or USB chips with special subjects (people, holidays, Hawaii, France, etc.) is also nice.
Getting one at a brick and mortar store where you can take it back if you have problems could be important. Ours turns off reliably as scheduled, but turning on is problamitic.
I have not had any problems including 'Photoshopped images". I would scan them with a lot of detail in case you ever want to make paper copies, although you only need 100-200K file size. Make sure the images are rotated so the top is up. Our SmartParts unit came with software that will quickly resize the digital images so a lot will fit in the internal memory. Keep a backup copy of the images.
I think she will enjoy this a great deal, but make it so she can also enjoy it while watching TV commercials, or reading, etc, besides on her lap. You might be able to hang it on a wall (trailing a power cord).
Roger Deal
Putting pictures on Digital Picture Frame
by carberg - 12/13/08 7:28 PM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Have fun doing it. I did this for my mother's 80th birthday and did not find any problem. I used a scanner that was not mine, so after scanning the pictures, (I did very little editing) they were put onto a zip drive to take home. I then saved the pictures to a folder on my computer desktop. When complete with all pictures--about 200, I transferred them onto a 1 GB SD card. My brother-in-law is a composer so also added music to the SD card.
My biggest problem was finding a digital picture frame that would randomly show the pictures. This was a feature that some of the digital frames have that I wanted to be able to use. The pictures were from when she graduated from high school until the present.
that is a great idea
by p1ttman - 12/13/08 8:18 PM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i've never bought a digital picture frame before but one of my parents is disabled. i put pictures on their computer but my dad rarely uses the computer anymore. a didgital picture frame is a dern good idea.
you have got me thinking about a big one (at least a foot wide or so).
it should hold LOTS of pictures and be able to stretch, tile, and center just like a pc desktop.
that is a really cool idea. thanks alot. i know what to get my folks for Christmas.
wouldn't it be cool if.....
by p1ttman - 12/13/08 8:26 PM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
wouldn't it be cool if you could somehow wirelessly SEND the pictures across the world and have them show up on your parents digital picture frame?
maybe we could use a combination of routers, internet, bit torrent(file transfer), and cellular signals.
i don't know how it would work but it seems like it could be done.
Ceiva's Take on Picture Frames
by Loraneb - 12/15/08 7:20 AM In reply to: wouldn't it be cool if..... by p1ttmanActually, you can send pictures "wirelessly" across the country using a Ceiva picture frame (ceiva.com). They use a subscription plan model. You can manage your relatives pictures from their website. You can upload pictures, group pictures by folders, provide the local news, weather, sports also. I have had one for my parents and myself for many years. My family loves them!
ScanCafe and Ceiva
by mediadiva - 12/19/08 6:06 PM In reply to: Ceiva's Take on Picture Frames by LoranebI would suggest big considerations are 1) do you live close to your Mom and 2) how often you want to update the photos? If there are a large number of photos, there are all sorts of options with hard drives and such, but you probably don't want to get into those and nor does she.
I'd recommend going for the largest size frame you can - you want to appreciate them after all this effort, you need her to be able to see them, and it's like computers, smaller is obsolete fast. Many of the stand-alone frames will play videos and music if that's of interest to you too, or receive images wirelessly from your computer if you're in wireless router range, i.e. the house.
But that's not all! 3 years ago we bought a Ceiva frame for my Mom to keep her "in the loop" with our family across the continent. Everyone can email in or upload photos and I have to do very little maintenance, since the Ceiva service (which, granted you pay about $10/mo for) stores them all online in albums you create and organize. I have a bunch of these albums "linked" to the frame, so a new photo from each is displayed each day, along with anything new sent in. It was such a success that we bought another for my in-laws last year. Ceiva also has a gallery of images and "channels" like "this day in History", "joke of the day" and the person's horoscope which you can throw into the mix. It dials a local number to download photos nightly so they're always new to the viewer. You can get pretty big cards for frames now to store lots of images, but stand-alone frames will never the immediacy of being able to email a photo from your phone, say while you're at Disneyland with the kids. And it's passive, or idiotproof, from the viewer's end - which is vital for my techno-phobe Mom.
Then this year, we dug out tons of old slides, medium format and 35mm negs and sent them to ScanCafe... the first order alone was 4100 photos and that's just my photos of family trips. With that many, and though I'm a designer very proficient in Photoshop, life is too short for me to scan and colour-balance them myself! Scanmyphotos is cheaper for scanning bulk prints, but I love that I was able to take the negs and leave the prints in their albums (many are in those old sticky albums and trying to remove them would destroy the print), plus ScanCafe allows you to review the scans online and discard the duds you don't wish to keep before you buy them. Scanning from the neg gives you a better image and shipping negs instead of prints or albums is environmentally friendly and cheaper. They've done a great job, many photos are reclaimed from rather underexposed prints we had originally, and the service is user-friendly and reassuring, giving you updates at each stage of the process so you know your precious originals are safe. My sister and I are sharing the online albums at ScanCafe with friends and family who have Internet access, and the photos are going online to Ceiva as a surprise for Mom for Christmas.
I considered getting an adapter for my camera and my scanner is great for negs, but I'm so glad we did this. I would never have gotten around to doing so much, so quickly and the quality is far above digital photos of prints I've taken in the past. And now I can keep copies of the DVD's safely stored, share them with family, and keep a backup of the files online, so our family photos won't even be lost in the event of a fire. The scanning's not a bad price, but worth even more for that peace of mind.
Great way to celebrate your family memories - I'm sure your Mom will get more enjoyment from this than almost anything else you could think of. Happy Holidays.
could digital photo frames be used for storage?
by p1ttman - 12/13/08 8:32 PM In reply to: Saving great memories to a digital photo frame --need help by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i am an amatuer speller......i mean photographer and my hard drive is FULL of photos. How much storage space do these things have? do they work with a card or what?
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