What do you do with your images?

[Interpreter]

This may appear to be a 'Teaching Granny to suck eggs' posting. If so I apologise now, but these are the results of my own experience as a photographer. What to do with my images once I have taken them?

Most images never get further than the camera. Very few are actually printed and those that are are never seen by anyone other than the photographer and maybe the immediate family. Most of my images are taken with the intention of being shown on the television. Programmes like Movie Factory or Studio 8 will produce excellent slide shows. For those on a budget, the free programme, Photostory 3 for Windows, is even better in that it moves about over the photograph and gives the appearance of being a movie clip. (As does Ulead's Movie Factory.) You may need a separate programme to burn the output to DVD. To use these programmes, the photographer must forget all about filling the frame and take every image in landscape format. This is difficult to do. I still forget and turn the camera sideways for some shots. Concentrating on the rule of thirds usually keeps me on the straight and narrow and in landscape mode.

Something else which I am doing now, is to print my photographs to A3 on photo glossy paper and spiral bind them (wire not comb) to make 'Coffee Table' books. Even the most mediocre of prints looks good when blown up to A3. I have reduced my costs by using less expensive paper and a CIS ink unit. Search for A3 Photo Gloss paper and some real bargains can be found. Is there any real need to pay £2 a sheet for top grade paper? If my prints don't last 100 years, that will be someone else's problem. I shall no longer be here! The cheapest wire spiral binder that I have found is £98:02p. There may be cheaper ones about.

I will be very interested to hear what other members do with their images. Especially if they have found a better method of showing them.

[John]

I have to be honest that I don't print my photos just keep them for me. I also have a web site and place my best images on that for anyone else to look at and also place a few on WAB's and the Birdforum.net galleries.

I have done an Excel spreadsheet that incorporates a hyperlink to the best photo of a particular species and that spreadsheet covers a few pages that deal with Birds, Butterfly's, Moths, Insects, Animals, Reptiles etc

John

[kshotton45]

I print the best ones on A4 sheets. I make them up into a ringbound album containing 20 x 260gsm sheets. The albums plastic spine is ingenious in that it can be easily opened and closed to add more sheets. I buy them in kit form at £6.00 plus postage.
I must'nt get accused of advertising, so if you search for supplies under this heading, you should find them.

PHOTO ALBUM MAKING KIT A4 Complete DIY Kit Blue Cover

Keith.

[glsammy]

I started to print some of mine, but soon gave up. I keep them purely for myself.
I've just bought one of those photo frame devices, that you can load with your images and have a constant slide show showing. This was mainly for my wife, as she rarely sees the finished images. Quite a nifty device, it works well.

[nightshade]

I like a great many people am very disorganised when it comes to Digital images
I do not have the time or knowledge of my software to make a good job of
organising (I use Elements 5) it is chore enough to transfer files to my external drive
I am told shoot in RAW, save as Tiff, re-save as Fine .jpg with net-sized files as well.
Lightshop, I have been told does all this but is currently too expensive

[kshotton45]

You do of course mean Lightroom.
You can download a 30 day trial from ...

Adobe - Photoshop Lightroom

If you are considering it, I would recommend having a free look first. It certainly is different.
I didn't have that choice as mine was a birthday present! It took a while for me to get to like it!

Keith.

[Interpreter]

Capture One LE is free with Sandisk memory cards. It is worth a try.

[eeyore]

a lot of mine dont make any further than download - but those that do survive generally either get uploaded to wab , sold as fine art prints , sold via stock libraries, agencies etc or direct to publications

also a fair ammount of mine (tho generally not wildlife) are either commisions (lifestyle, christenings etc - I dont do weddings if i can possibly avoid it) or taken for newpapers etc on a freelance basis.

in terms of displaying them IMO you cant beat a really big (A1) canvas print - however given the price this is only worth doing with the absolute creme dela creme of your best work.

[beckiscott]

I usually delete most of mine. lol. I keep the good ones - usually about 10% of what i shot! iPhoto keeps them nice and organised for me, and i add keywords so i know which lens i used, and the subject matter so they are easier to find later. This is then backed up onto external hdd & every so often dvds which are stored off site.

I post the good uns on my flickr pages so friends & family to see. I occasionally make the most of photoboxs' free prints offers and send them to my gran & mother in law (who arent internet savvy)

I have a few printed around the house, but 7x5 size. i do have 2 at A2 that i got printed at work using a large format printer. if we have visitors i treat them to an front row iphoto slideshow on my 24inch monitor - which always impresses!

Ive had some calendars printed for family gifts last xmas which were really well received and this year i am looking to get a canvases done!

[llanon99]

We currently have just over 12000 images, all digital, which we use in digital frames, of various types, some go to WAB, other to Flickr and yet more onto our own site and onto our Gallery site within google picasa.

Picasa is BTW a great, if simplistic, way of managing such large collections.

We also print quite a lot, A4 max, too expensive otherwise, and are currently about to set up a species book, to map what we have found (mostly insects).

Our collection is only about 60% wildlife.

Most importantly we hold 4 copies of each and every file, on different drives, and all done through the very good programme Superflexible synchroniser.

You may have noticed that all of the software we use is freely available........and perfectly functional.

llanon99