'Image Moments 8' Digital Photo Frame

Digital Foci has released its latest digital photo frame, the Image Moments 8, featuring an 8-inch screen and internal memory capable of holding up to 3000 digital photographs. The digital photo frame also features video and music playback as well as capabilities to organize and view photos in specific folders.

Digital Foci's Image Moments 8 also automatically detects orientation and rotates images accordingly. Furthermore, automatic on/off timers allow users to display images at certain times. Digital Foci has released the Image Moments 8 digital photo frame just in time for Mother's Day and is priced at $199.00 on www.digitalfoci.com.
Los Angeles, May 2, 2008 – Digital Foci, Inc. announced today that it’s now shipping the new “Image Moments 8” 8-inch screen digital photo frame, just in time for Mother’s Day. “Image Moments 8” features advanced LED Backlight Technology, 450MB of internal memory, and built-in memory card slots to let you display and share photos in sharp, vibrant color on its high-resolution digital LCD screen.

Preload mom’s favorite family photos: baby, children, grandchildren, or other photos, on Image Moments to give her the perfect Mother’s Day gift. With the convenient Auto-Start feature, Image Moments will automatically start a photo slideshow. She just needs to turn the frame on to immediately start enjoying and re-living precious photo moments. New photos can easily be added by inserting a memory card into Image Moments, or by transferring from the computer.

Image Moments 8 (Model IMT-083) has an 8-inch high-resolution SVGA (800x600) digital LCD screen with 500:1 contrast ratio and a unique proprietary Adapter Ring design that supports limitless custom framing options -- even your own custom creation. The frame also features an interchangeable mat with 3 color selections; a hinged memory card door to hide the cards from view for an elegant finish; and an easel leg for alternating between landscape and portrait positioning to make changing your home or office décor a snap.

Internal Memory for Over 3,000 Digital Photos!

Supports All Digital Camera Memory Card Formats

Image Moments 8 is now equipped with 450MB of internal memory, so it can store more than 3,000 photos (with image resolution of 1024 x 768). Photos can be copied directly into the internal memory from any memory card you place in its memory card slot, completely eliminating the need for a computer. For additional memory, photos can be viewed from all popular memory cards, including CompactFlash, SD/HC card, MMC, Memory Stick, MS PRO, xD-Picture Card, and even MS Duo/MS PRO Duo, directly without the need of an adapter. For those who wish to transfer photos back and forth from the computer to Image Moments, there’s also a USB slot to support computer connection.

Unique Folder View – Works with Picasa Web Albums

Image Moments lets you search your memory card contents easily in the “Folder View Mode” and browse through photos in “Photo Thumbnail View.” The unique folder view lets you play and organize your photos by folders, so you can playback specific folders as needed. In addition, users can easily download and store Picasa Web Albums to Image Moments and play chosen Web Albums as a photo slideshow. Sophisticated file management features are also available, including copy, rename, delete files, sort files by name or date, and create new folders. You can also create, edit, and sequence multiple playlists on Image Moments and select a specific playlist to playback.

Advanced Playback Options

Image Moments 8’s “Photo Slideshow Mode” automatically displays your photos with options for random photo play, transition effects, and slideshow intervals. You can create unique slideshows by selecting specific photos from multiple memory card sources to view. Play videos or photo slideshows with music from a variety of music file formats to personalize your experience.

Automatically Rotates Digital Photos for Correct Display

Portrait and landscape photos are automatically rotated by reading the photo’s EXIF data to display correctly according to the orientation of the frame through the built-in auto-rotate orientation sensor. Other great new features include an automatic on/off timer with three schedule settings, which can be set to activate or turn off according to your schedule.

Image Moments 8 Digital Photo Frame Features

• 8" SVGA (800x600 pixel) color TFT-LCD screen
• 450 MB built-in internal memory
• Built-in support for SD/HC, CF, MS/Duo, xD
• Interchangeable mat & frame design
• Video and music playback
• Folder structure for playback specific folders
• Playback from one or multiple memory sources
• Random play photo slideshow
• Auto-Start features
• Automatic on/off timer
• Create, edit, sequence playlists
• Auto-rotate orientation sensor

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Digital Photo Printing

Beautiful Prints from your Digital Camera

by Timothy Rea

There are basically two options when it comes to printing your digital photos and get photographic quality prints for your scrap books or your wallet. Whether you like to be served, or you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can get beautiful, high-quality prints from your digital camera.

Online or Retail Store Prints

After you take your digital photos, you can go online to a site like Shutterfly, Snapfish, KodakGallery, or Walgreens Photo Center among other choices to print them. Click here to read about the different online digital photo printing services available.

On these sites you can upload your digital photos into your own private gallery. From there you can order prints in all sizes and have them shipped to your home with a minimal shipping fee. You will have to register on the site, and upload your digital photos from your camera to your computer so that you have them available to upload to the site.

Major retailers like Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS, and other regional or national stores with online digital photo printing services will also allow you to upload your pictures and order prints to be mailed for you to be pick up.

Additionally, you can take your memory card out of your camera and take it to your local pharmacy or to a discount store and look for the digital photo print customer service desk. Here you will hand your memory card to a customer service person to have your prints made. Some of these stores also have kiosks where you can order your prints and download digital photos for printing using step-by-step instructions on the kiosk touch screen.

Home Digital Photo Printers

The other option you have to print your digital photos is to get your own photo quality printer. Companies like Dell, HP, Epson, Samsung, Sony and others make photo lab quality printers to instantly print your digital photos.

Some printers allow you to print your digital photos by docking your camera directly on the printing station and downloading your photos there.

Others require you to upload your pictures to your computer and then send them to your digital photo printer to get prints of your digital photos. If you are in the market for one of these digital photo printers, you will want to check the resolution and print quality and figure in the cost of photo quality paper, and the color printer cartridges with which you will print your digital photographs.

For some people, this cost outweighs the advantage of getting instant pictures. It really depends on how much you plan to use your digital camera and how often you want prints of the pictures you take. Click here for home digital photo printing tips.

Whether you choose to let someone else print your digital photos and send them to you, or go to a local store and upload your digital photos to get prints, or buy your own printer and go the self-service route, you are bound to get beautiful, high-resolution pictures with little or no trouble.

Photography 101: The Truth About Pixels

Picture Elements
A pixel, short for picture element, is a single point in a digital photo. Usually represented as a dot or square, a pixel is the smallest single component of an image, and has its own color and brightness. A large number of these pixels make up the digital photo, and the more pixels that make up the image, the sharper it normally is. The resolution of a digital photo is a measure of the number of pixels that make it up. A megapixel is equal to one million pixels. More pixels allows a digital photo to be enlarged for viewing or printing without becoming grainy.

Megapixel War
In the world of digital photography, pixels are probably the most important specification for digital cameras, with manufacturers vying to produce higher resolution digital cameras. The first digital cameras had less than 1 megapixel resolution. Most of the digital cameras available today have at least 5 megapixels, while many of the latest digital cameras have 10 megapixel resolutions.

But whether or not you really need these high resolutions is questionable, with a 3 megapixel digital photo being enough to print a good quality 8" x 10" photo. Taking digital photos at higher resolutions also increases their storage size, thereby reducing the number of shots that can be stored on your memory card.

Digital Photo Printing Guide
The table below shows the quality of prints you can expect from a digital photo with a given resolution.

Megapixels	Good quality photos	Best quality photos
1 MP	5" x 7"	Wallet
2 MP	8" x 10"	4" x 6"
3 MP	8" x 10"	5" x 7"
4 MP	11" x 14"	5" x 7"
5 MP	11" x 14"	5" x 7"
6-7 MP	16" x 20"	8" x 10"
8 MP	17" x 22"	8" x 10"
10 MP	20" x 30"	11" x 14"

Digital Photo Storage Guide
The table below shows the typical storage size of a digital photo with a given resolution.

Megapixels	Typical Image Size
4 MP	~1.35 MB
5 MP	~1.73 MB
6 MP	~2.13 MB
8 MP	~3.20 MB

Therefore, it is important to understand the digital photo resolution you really need, and optimize it for your needs. Unless you are planning to enlarge an image above 8" x 10", a 3 megapixel resolution should be more than sufficient. But having a camera for situations where you will need a high resolution image is handy. The best time to decide on the image resolution is when taking the photo, and digital cameras today allow for easily changing the photo resolution.

Manipulating Your Digital Photographs

Editing digital photographs to achieve the end results you envision can be both a satisfying as well as frustrating experience. The different software and tools available may overwhelm the novice but with a little instruction and experience, manipulating you digital photographs can be a rewarding hobby.

by Jason Cox

Browsing through envelopes of prints fresh from the drug store and then tossing them into a picture drawing is not going to work anymore, thank heavens.

As you begin to develop a strategy for culling, editing, storing, organizing and most importantly enjoying the mountain of images you will soon face, keep in mind that the goal is to end up with an effective retrieval system, not just a storage system.

Never, ever edit your original images. Always work on copies. Archive the originals for safe keeping in their original format. Absolutely nothings gained by converting camera-fresh JPEGs to a lossless format until you begin editing them.

Most digital photographs deserve at least a trial pass through your photo editors auto-balance, instant fix or general enhancement feature.

If you are new to post-processing, you can begin to get a feel for what works and what does not by noting what adjustments your auto-balance made to the good, the bad and the ugly results. Even a suboptimal auto-balance result can be a good starting point for your manual adjustments.

Most digital cameras come with computer software to edit and to organize your images. These programs will assist you in correcting and manipulating the brightness, sharpness and color of your photos. The possibilities for image editing and manipulation are limitless once you become acquainted with the program.

With your software, you can crop the photos to remove unnecessary background images and focus on the subject of the picture itself. You can also adjust the contrast, brightness, and colors to make the photo more eye-catching and appealing. Removing red eye is also possible with these programs. Plus, you can enlarge or reduce your photos at the touch of a button.

If your camera did not come with a program, you will have to go buy one. We recommend Photoshop. Its the most widely used program out there and provides you with lots of options when working with your pictures.

Many experts say that you really should not stick to only the software that came with your camera. When there are so many different software programs out there, you owe it to yourself to play around with them and find one that will give you the effects you are looking for.

What specifically are we talking about? Well, the photo imaging software can help you make your pictures look wonderful and you will be proud to share them with friends and family! Consider the following:

First, cameras do not take square pictures, they take rectangular pictures. If you forgot to rotate the camera before snapping, its alright. Rotate the picture to the left or right by a 90 degree angle.

In the rush to take a picture, getting the camera perfectly level is not always possible. That adds up to a photo where the horizon is slightly askew. What you need in this case is to rotate the picture a degree at a time. This feature is probably somewhere in the Edit or Image menus. Look for an option to rotate the picture and enter a small value like 1 degree to the left or the right depending on which way you need to adjust.

We did say that cropping is a huge benefit with image software. When you took the picture of your daughter on the swing, once you view it on your computer, you realize that you did not zoom enough and theres more trees in the picture than your daughter.

Use the image editors cropping tool to cut away the unwanted part of the picture and isolate the subject.

In most programs, this tool is in the Tool menu and it might look like a picture frame. You will click on the image (after clicking on the Crop icon) and hold your cursor down as you draw inside the picture to get rid of the background and leave the subject intact.

If your photo is too dark, you can adjust the brightness to give it some life. Try using your image editors gamma control. This is a tool that is designed to brighten the darkest parts of the picture without over-exposing the parts that are already bright. You can usually find the gamma control in menus like Color or Image.

Using your cameras flash can sometimes cause dreaded red eye in your pictures. Many programs today have a one click correct of red eye. Look for red eye removal somewhere in the Effects menu.

If your program does not have this feature, try zooming in on the subjects face and using a coloring feature to match the color of their eyes. When you zoom back out, you probably will not be able to tell the difference - unless you painted brown eyed Suzy,s eyes blue!

You can also use image editing programs to add a caption to your photos. This is helpful if you want to identify the people in the picture, the location, or the date. Look for a text tool, which is often the letter A. When choosing a font, choose a fat one because skinny ones are often hard to read in a digital picture.

If you want to e-mail photos to someone, be considerate to the recipient by resizing it. If you attach a bunch of huge 3mp images to an e-mail message, you can bog down their inbox with a huge file. The message will take forever to send and receive.

The image editor will allow you to resize the picture - usually under the Image menu. 640 x 480 pixels is good for e-mailing. If your digital camera takes pictures at this size, you will not have to resize. Keep in mind too that some programs will automatically resize pictures that are being e-mailed - like Windows XP.

Most of your picture files are given a default name containing strange numbers and symbols. Rename your files when you go to save them so that they are easily identifiable. Renaming will also help you avoid over-writing any files when you download more pictures.

There are also some fun effects that can be found in software programs to make your photos more interesting. To add some spark to your digital photos, you may want to consider adding a stylistic border or edge around the photo. Instead of the traditional rectangular photo, artistic edges can make your pictures stand out from the rest. While many effects can be done with a lot of work with your digital photo editing software, some software packages can automate this process.

Play around with blurring and layering. The best part about working with imaging software is that theres always an Undo button if you do not like what you see. Clicking on Undo will take your picture back to where you were before you started editing.

Remember, though, we very strongly suggest that you manipulate only copies of your pictures instead of the originals. You do not want to take the chance of ruining the one copy you have of a cherished moment.

You can also use this software to make a picture look old. How do you do that? Here is a step by step process:

1. Find a photo that works. Do not take a photo of your family next to a modern skyscraper. Great effects can be created with photos of country landscapes or of historical structures, such as cannons or log cabins.
2. Give your colors a brownish tint. If you have a color balance tool, you can do this by turning your reds and yellows up at the expense of blues. Or, if your image software supports duotone, give your image a brownish tone.
   
3. Reduce your images brightness and/or intensity. You want your photograph old and weathered and such images should not look bright and sunny.
   
4. Choose an Add Noise filter, if you have one, to your image. Most software programs should have this option.
   
5. Use your photo softwares Dust and Scratch tool, if applicable.
   
6. For a truly weathered look, see if your photo software has a rain, snow, or fog filter. Apply a few touches to the photograph to make it seem like it has seen better days.
   

In fact, digital photography opens up a whole new world for your memory preservation. Consider scrapbooking to save your photos.

Article Source: http://www.artsymmetry.com

Switching to a Digital Camera

By: Tom Sample

Making the switch from 35mm to digital can be tough for a novice camera fanatic. The concept's mostly the same, but the way the picture gets stored, printed and viewed is different. But, the advantages to digital cameras have made it the preferred way people take pictures. Everyone from professionals to stay-at-home moms are using digital cameras now.

Finding the right digital camera is a question of knowing your needs and matching it to the camera in question. Digital cameras are pretty amazing little creations that can pack a whole lot of features into a single, small device. The reasons they've begun to replace 35mm cameras are many and include:

Ease of use. Digital cameras, even some of the best on the market, are designed to be very user friendly. Most are point and shoot, but there are many options for those who like to choose their own settings, change lenses and more. Plus there are even online processing services, so there's no need to head out to get prints. They can be mailed right to your door.

No film. The LCD readouts on most digital cameras coupled with the elimination of film make these wonderful for shooters who want to see their pictures and choose them before they're printed.

Economical. Since the photos on digital cameras can be carefully chosen in advance of printing, the costs can be much less. Plus, there's no film to buy.

Quality. Depending on the camera purchased and the accuracy of the settings, the quality can rival and sometimes even surpass a regular 35mm camera.

The key to getting the best possible digital pictures is to make sure the right camera is bought. The resolution of the pictures taken will determine what they can be best used for. This in digital is measured in something called a megapixel.

A single megapixel digital camera, for example, will produce shots that are ideal for e-mail sharing and for 4x6 prints. On the other hand, a five-megapixel digital camera is fantastic for prints up to a full 11x14 inches. The reason for the difference is the quality of the digital file. A lesser file will become grainy when the image is blown up. The five-megapixel digital camera's shots, however, maintain their appearance.

Another consideration a buyer should make is the size of the storage device used for the camera. Rather than film, digital cameras use storage cards. These can hold a whole lot of pictures - not like a standard 35mm roll. A 256 MB card, for example, can hold about 415 lower quality shots. That's a whole lot of film!

Digital cameras do have some disadvantages, too. Some models tend to be a little slow to shoot and reset, and they can be difficult to figure out at first. But, once they're figured out, digital cameras tend to be more convenient, user friendly and ready for the action than typical 35mm.

Offering a new alternative in picture taking, digital cameras are great for novice shooters and even pros. The choices on the market are incredible and the applications many. The ability to see what's been taken before printing is fantastic and is a real boon for those who want to make sure they have "the shot" before they move on.

Editing Digital Photography

Adobe Photoshop today is the world's leading digital imaging software program, and it allows users to edit their pictures with an amazing array of tools. Adobe Photoshop Elements is based on the market-leading professional Adobe Photoshop software, but is a lighter version. Aimed at the home digital photo enthusiast, elements performs basic photo editing tasks quickly and easily and there are also many sophisticated Photo shop features available to you at the click of a mouse. Truly, Adobe Photoshop is changing the face of digital photos.

If you've always wanted to learn how to watermark, add a realistic magnifying glass effect, create a paint-by-numbers drawing, Adobe Photo shop can help you do it. Photoshopcafe.com is one of dozens of sites dedicated to nothing but Photo shop. You not only get tutorials online, you also get textual tips, reviews of new tools, sneak peeks at Photo shop books and new releases and info on video tutorials as well. If you have a special Photo shop conundrum, you can even join a forum to post your question. Tutorial categories include: effects, text, photo, using texture, using Photoshop for the web and a miscellaneous link for those Photo shop tricks you can't put a name on. There are also 9 video tutorials from Photo shop experts.

The best thing about Photoshop is not only the integrated tools and devices you can use to tweak images and create your own, but because of the flawless interaction of its commands and tools. Given one image, you can do virtually anything you want with the confidence that Photo shop tools will follow your command and produce an edited picture the way you want it to appear. Export-ready - When it comes to exporting its images, Photo shop allows seamless program shifts among other Adobe software used in image editing, authoring and animation such as Adobe Illustrator, ImageReady and After Effects. Photoshop files (.PSD or Photoshop document format) may be manipulated to produce special effects such as adding textures and changing backgrounds. Non-linear editing is also a breeze.

Lighting effects - a change in the lighting can dramatically alter the mood of a digital photograph. In the past, photographers either had to wait for the sun to be just perfect or make use of special lighting in order to achieve the effect that they need. With Adobe Photoshop lighting effects, you can adjust the lighting of a digital photograph even after it is taken. Think of the possibilities! You can take the picture of a sunset even in the middle of a cloudy day. You can light up the subject of a digital photograph even without using a flash. Photo shop effects tutorials will even teach you how to make it look like you are living on an alien planet, by adding 2 different colored suns to your picture. The great thing about this is that, unlike other image editors which just paste a sun into the background, Adobe Photo shop can really make it seem as if the addition does affect the lighting within the image.

Tone - With just a click of your mouse, you can immediately turn your 100% colored photo into a black and white picture to make it seem older. You can also choose to give it a sepia look for a similarly quaint but more artistic impact.

Text - With the help of an Adobe Photo shop tutorial on effects, you can also add cute text or captions to and within your photos. Unlike older programs which require you to copy and paste text with white backgrounds, Adobe Photo shop has a transparent background so that only the very shapes of the letters are pasted on your photo. With this option, the text you're adding will be made a part of the very photograph.

Choosing the Type of Image File - Whenever you edit a photo in a major way, the default settings of Photo Shop would usually ask you to save the file in psd format; be that as it may, it's better for you to save your photos in jpeg as this is the most commonly accepted file and allows you to upload photos easily on just about any website. Images without Background - Let's say you wish to create a particular shape or text or you've cut out a particular figure and you wish to use it on a website or even any design without white background. This is impossible to do with MS Paint, but certainly easy to achieve with Adobe Photo Shop. First, set the background to transparent. Next, paste or create the desired text, shape, or photo. Once you're done, you have to click on Save for Web and not simply Save As because the latter would cause your photo to lose its transparent background.