Photos
You've hooked up the camera to the computer. You open your new software program. You tell it to go get a photo and then select your camera. Voila! The camera software opens. You click download or something like that and the pictures you just took begin appearing. You select them and then load them into an album or into your software. (Each program works differently.)
You struggle through the cute editing menus, brightening here, cropping there until you photo looks just right and then you save it. Terrific. But how is that photo going to get into an e-mail? Some programs will send it for you but so far most of them don't.
You think about your attachment lesson. Ah! Yes. Open your e-mail message and compose your new message. Then click Insert (or attach for AOL). There you are. Faced with one of those "Open" dialogue boxes. Or from AOL you clicked "Browse". you are expected to know where that photo is you just succeeded in getting from the camera.
The problem is most photo editing programs bury your photos sometimes six directories deep in your Program Files. How do you get them into an e-mail? My best trick is difficult but you only do it once and then you are set. When you save the photo you must determine where the folder is you are saving to. For instance, with Polaroid's "Photo-Max", it goes in a folder called "Photos".
But "Photos" isn't on your C drive. Click the little yellow folder with the up arrow. Write down the folder name that you see. Click up again. Each time write the folder name down until you get to "C". You'll end up with a "path" to your folder that might look something like this: C: Program Files\Polaroid\PhotoMax\PhotoMax\photos. I know that can seem overwhelming. It's actually an old DOS path.. the reality under our graphic point and click windows operating systems.
Once you know where it is you need to right click your start button, left click "explore", and find the folder among the list on the left panel. When you find it, right click it and click "create shortcut". Then click the folder ABOVE the one you made the shortcut for. The shortcut is in there probably near the end and can be dragged onto the desktop.
After all that!! Now you can click on the desktop shortcut to get to your photos. All you need to do now is create a folder on the desktop where you'll keep your pictures for emailing. Just right click on the desktop in a blank area. Click "New" and then "Folders". Type "E-mail Photos" and hit enter.
NOW!! After you've saved that photo you just took, you double click to open both the Photo folder and the Email folder. You drag the new picture into the Email folder. When you go from Outlook Express or AOL to attach it, now on your desktop is the Email folder containing your new picture, ready to attach.
This is really complicated but unless you have Windows ME and Outlook Express or software that opens your mail software this is the only way. Feel free to email me if you get stuck or if this doesn't make sense. I won't be surprised!
Roy Santos at TechTV recommends these two photo editing programs: Ulead's PhotoImpact, and MGI's PhotoSuite. DigitalKamera is a site to explore for tips and tricks in the digital photo world. I haven't spent too much time on it yet but will soon. It also recomends Ulead. From my dogpile search I came up with a guy named Daniel LaMarche with a site about the Ulead program.
Scanning: HP S20 Slide Scanner - An experienced photographer loves the special effects she can do on the computer. She prints her photos which are patterned in a specially made frame that covers one wall.