Submitting Photographs - Preparation

Please accept my apologies if this is something you are already aware of ..........

Not infrequently we receive photographs that are in need of serious shrinking before they can be posted on the web to say nothing of the fact that the large files sizes rapidly fill our email inbox. If this does not apply to you, please read no furthert, but in the hope of helping both me and you ...... ie: making emailing of photographs simpler and faster and generally better all round, I would like to suggest the following:

How to do this ........... well, if you have Photoshop or PaintShop Pro you can tweak and optimise to your hearts content image by image – but there is a simpler way. There are programmes available that do all the donkeywork for you automatically, resize and optimise the images and insert them in a blank email message with one click of the mouse. I would suggest that you try installing and using one of the following excellent products ...... all of which will also give you some very nice editing tools and act as an image database so that three years from now when you want that picture of the dog at the arboretum chasing the butterfly you can just enter a couple of key-words and up it will pop without having to hunt through files and folders wondering where on earth you hid it. Worth it for this alone.

The (mostly free) programmes are :

Picasa : this is actually a totally free programme from those nice people at Google which you can download and install from this address : http://picasa.google.ca/

It is very easy to use, I have recommneded it to dozens of happy “customers” in the last couple of years and it's probably all that most people need. Google make it available because it has a link to a couple of printing services etc that they hope you will spend money at, but these links are not intrusive and can be happily ignored. Before anyone asks, I guarantee it will not install any spyware or anything nasty of that sort.

Corel PhotoAlbum : this used to be Jasc photoAlbum but was recently purchased by Corel, the Canadian company that makes WordPerfect. At the moment it is being given away as a freebie to people who purchase QuickTax directly from the manufaturers (so be quick) but otherwise is available as a 30 day trial download from this address after which there is a small fee, something like $40 I think : http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pid=1047025470321

It has some extra features that Picasa does not have and is very nice and easy to use.

ACDSee v.8 : this is the one I have. It's produced by a company in Vancouver and is aimed at the professional and semi-professional market. Again you can get a 30 day trial by downloading from http://www.acdsystems.com/offers/NA/ACDSee8/index?CMP=KAC-googleawacdsee&CRA=Canada_A and then pay a purchase fee of a bout $50 or so. This is by far the most sophisticated of the choices and I'd be lost without it. Just for the backup security features that ensure you will never lose important pictures again it's worth having.

So ....... I hope that helps. In all of the programmes, you just have to select the images you want to send by email (to granny as well as to me) and click a button which starts the application resizing and optimising your pictures in a batch and then inserts them as attachments in a new email form that you simply address and send on its way. Couldn't be simpler.

Any questions – you know how to reach me and I'll try to help.

Keep those pictures coming.

Richard the Webmaster