Creative Memories All About Images Blog

Print at Home Recommendations

PC World provides some good tips on printing at home in Five Tips for Better Photo Printing. I particularly agree with their recommendation to avoid aftermarket inkjet refills. Besides the problems noted in this article, many aftermarket inkjet refills are responsible for premature fading of inkjet prints.

Memory Manager Preserves Metadata

From: Lea Ward
Date: January 30, 2010

Hello Mark, This is very interesting information. I read some more on the Library of Congress website and actually read some on metadata, I hope you will explain a little more about this and how our Memory Manager Software is using metadata and how that can be a selling point. If I were a professional photographer for instance, would storing digital images on MM 3.0 and adding their copyright info. or their licensing rights on each photo, protect those images once distributed on disc or through e-mail? Thanks, CM Consultant, Lea Ward

metadata

noun

data about data; "a library catalog is metadata because it describes publications"

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

Metadata is the information about a photo. It may tell you when it was take, where it was taken, and who is in the photo. It may include star ratings and complete journaling details. In Memory Manager, these details are stored as part of the image file, ensuring that this information is not lost if the files are emailed or used for other projects. Many other programs store this information in a separate file where it may be lost over time. Metadata may also include copyright and digital rights management information, although a complete discussion of the legal implications is outside the scope of this blog.  

 

Think about how valuable an old shoe box of unlabeled photos would be with all this information. Nobody would wonder who is in a photo or when it was taken. Memory Manager prevents this scenario from happening with digital photos.

 

For more technical information on metadata, check out the Metadata Working Group

and the Guidelines for Handling Image Metadata.   These are the guidelines that Memory Manager 3.0 follows.

Library of Congress - Preserving Your Digital Memories

The following recommendations are included in Preserving Your Digital Memories from the Library of Congress:

At Risk: Digital Photos

Family memories and special events that future generations would value are increasingly documented as digital photographs. But 10 years from now current memory sticks and cameras will most likely be obsolete, trapping the images in unusable or unsupported storage media.

Tip: Digital Photos

Because digital photographs require specific hardware and software to view, it is important to migrate files to the latest storage media using freely available formats. Make several copies of digital photographs and keep them in different places. To help manage your photos, it helps to label the photos with easily recognizable names and to embed tags and other information in the photo files. Saving copies of your photos on Web sites and printing copies with archive-quality ink and high-quality paper are also options for preservation.

360 Degree Video Camera

Popular Science describes a new Sony video camera with a full 360 degree view at Sonys Flip Competitor Spins 360 degree footage. The review also indicates that the camera takes still images, as well.  

Memory Card Speed Ratings

Memory cards are confusing. A recent article from Shutterbug Magazine, Tech-Talk The Memory Card Dilemma, explains how to select the correct SD card for your needs. 

How to Transfer Photos to a Computer

Hey ... can you share any thoughts/facts you might have about using SD cards to transfer images off your camera vs. using a cord or wireless connection to upload photos? I'm sure all that popping-in/popping out has got to wear down an SD card over time, yet it's the method my family and I are used to. I would need a strong argument (from an expert like you!) to convince them to break this habit. Well, I guess the strongest argument would probably having one get damaged and losing a bunch of precious pictures, but I'd really like to prevent that with some words of wisdom from our CM expert! Anne Marie Gross, January 21, 2010.

In general, the greatest chance for damaging a memory card is if the card is removed without properly turning the camera off or using the remove hardware feature on your computer. If a memory card is removed while data is being written, it may very well become corrupt. Given, these warnings, I personally transfer images from a camera to the computer by removing the card and placing it in a card reader. Your suggestion for using a cable or wireless connection to transfer data is certainly safer, although it may be less convenient.

Create Custom Photo Gifts

StoryBook Creator 3.0 Plus is a great tool for creating photo books, page prints, and calendars. It can also create other products through the use of Custom sizes. This information is not currently well publicized, but you can use StoryBook Creator 3.0 Plus to create custom cards, mouse pads, mugs, photo panels, and t-shirts. Project sizes are given below and complete instructions are available online at CreatingCustomGift.   

	Width	Height	OR	Width	Height
Cards – 4x8	4.00”	8.00”		8.00”	4.00”
Mouse Pads	9.75”	8.34”
Mugs – 11 oz	8.25”	3.85”
Mugs – 15 oz	8.50”	4.47”
5x7 Photo Panels	5.25”	7.25”		7.25”	5.25”
8x10 Photo Panels	8.25”	10.25”		10.25”	8.25”
11x14 Photo Panels	11.25”	14.25”		14.25”	11.25”
T-Shirt (Any Size)	13.5”	10.5”		10.5”	13.5”

Recordable DVD Recommendations

I would love to be able to recommend a specific brand of DVD for storing video; unfortunately it is not that easy.

Standardized tests that are available for DVD lifetimes are fundamentally flawed. These tests currently use extensive extrapolations based on relatively limited data points to produce misleading results. Furthermore, no manufacturer consistently tests every lot to ensure that actual production lifetimes match laboratory predictions.

Lifetime predictions for the newest technology, Blu-Ray DVDs, are equally difficult. These discs are proprietary and no standard test method exists.

CDs are a bit better in that the technology is better understood and the tests for predicting lifetimes are generally more reliable. Testing has shown that Gold phthalocyanine CDs, such as Creative Memories' My Memory Archive CD, will last  longer. Unfortunately, these discs have relatively low capacity and are not intended for video applications.

Because of the uncertainty surrounding various technologies, the best strategy for preserving videos and other digital files is to not rely on any one solution. For example, my videos are currently stored on DVD, my hard disk, and YouTube. If one technology fails, I will still have the remaining copies.

More details on CDs and DVDs are available at A Consumer Guide to Recordable CDs and DVDs.

iPhone Photos & StoryBook Creator - Christmas 2009

I received my holiday StoryBook yesterday. It was a 7x5 soft cover book created without a camera or at least without a traditional camera. I took all the photos on my iPhone, transferred them to my PC, and brought them into StoryBook Creator Plus.  With autofill and some journaling, I quickly had a completed StoryBook. Here are some tips on using camera phone photos in a StoryBook.

1. If the photo is obviously poor quality, don't use it. A few of my photos were blurred, and I deleted these.
2. Correct contrast. I applied Auto contrast in StoryBook Creator to all the photos. Auto contrast ensures that the contrast of the photo matches the requirements of the printer.
3. Correct shadow detail. A few of my photos were still too dark after applying Auto contrast. The key here is to use the Shadows slider, which is available under Brightness & light in the Color menu.
4. Correct color. I used Auto color, and in some cases made adjustments to the Color temperature slider, which is available under Temperature in the Color menu.

If your camera phone photos are still on your phone, now you have the tools to create great StoryBooks. The first page of my Christmas 2009 StoryBook is shown to the right and the complete book is on Facebook.  

Recommendations for Movie Transfers to DVD

As I indicated in a recent post, Video, the Value of Memories, and a New Year's Resolution, I transferred a large number of movies from film to DVD over the holidays. I learned a few  things, and by the way, I am not recommending Yesvideo, which did the transfers. Here are the questions I wish I had asked:

1. How the movie film will be returned? Four carefully labeled rolls of film were returned on three unlabelled rolls. I now have no idea what is what and if I ever want to do anything with the film I will have terrible trouble finding what I want.
2. How DVD chapters will be set up? The chapters on my DVDs are randomly created, completely ignoring all of the carefully created titles that were part of the original film. In a few instances, the titles were selected for the chapter, but that was not the case most of the time.
3. Will a highlight video be included and how it will be created? Some of the titles were selected for my highlight video, without including the associated footage, which led to a completely bizarre experience when watching the highlight videos.
4. What software will be included with the video? I didn't ask this question but am happy with the software that was included. If you want to use segments of your video for other purposes, such as posting to YouTube, you need the right software.

I hope these tips help. I am glad I had my movies transferred to DVD, in spite of the questions that I wish I had asked.

Note: I realize a lot of my difficulties would have been avoided if I had sent in each movie real as a seperate order. At least that way the original organization of the movies would have been retained, and in fact much of the cost of the transfer is dependent on the length of the film so there is little cost advantage to combining multiple rolls of movie film on a single DVD. [Added 1/9/2010]