Understanding Online Photo Sharing Terms: Picture Formats
Most people tend not to think about the details of their online photo sharing experience. As long as their photos get from their computers to their online photo album, they could care less about the processes that got it there. The way that digital cameras designed, this really isn’t a problem, as most cameras and photo editing software support this approach. However, there’s a lot more that goes into online photo sharing than is obvious on the surface.
Those who are interested in the fundamentals of digital photography may be curious about different file formats. Many have heard or seen the terms for picture file extensions, such as .jpg (or JPEG), .gif, .tif, and .png. What do all these different three letter extensions mean?
JPEGs
The term JPEG actually stands for “Joint Photographic Experts Group” – the group that initially created the standard back in 1992. Since then, the JPEG has become the most commonly found picture file type on the Internet. This is primarily because JPEGs offer a tremendous amount of flexibility in terms of its compression and picture quality. That is, its possible to significantly reduce the storage size of a JPEG file by also reducing the quality. Back when the Internet was first starting out, downloading mutli-megabyte picture files just wasn’t practical. JPEGs could maintain a reasonable image quality while making the file size of the image much smaller.
JPEGs have remained an Internet standard thanks to this quality. People are able to make images much easier to transfer between computers without losing a significant amount of picture quality. The drawback to JPEGs is that it is a “lossy” format – this means that each time a picture is edited and resaved in the JPEG format, it loses a degree of quality.
TIFFs
TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF files are versatile and high quality, supporting up to 48-bit color depth (compared to 8-bit for GIFs and 24-bit for JPEGs). The downsides of this format are two-fold. For one, TIFF files have a wide variance and an image viewer that can view one type of TIFF file can’t necessarily view anther. Secondly, TIFF files are not widely supported by web browsers, making them impractical for online photo sharing.
GIFs and PNGs
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. Like the JPEG, GIF files are also commonly found all around the Internet. GIF files are comparatively limited in their color palette – having only 256 colors to work with. This make GIFs a good choice for relatively simple pictures without a lot of color differences, such as cartoons and simple logos. While it a lossless format that doesn’t degrade in quality, it’s pretty rare that you’ll see a photograph in a GIF format in the modern age, since most cameras are able to take pictures with significantly more color depth.
PNGs, or Portable Network Graphics files, are the successor to GIFs. Unlike GIFs, they support truecolor, a 16-million color palette. PNGs are lossless, making them great for editing photos. Most web browsers support PNGs, but they can still be quite large. In many cases, the best choice for online photo sharing is to edit a file in PNG format, then convert to JPEG for distribution.
Free photo editing glossary
Photo Editing Glossary
Learning to use new technology is always a confusing experience. They are often full of complex jargon and you may feel lost without some kind of reference. If you’re interested in trying your hand at photo editing, this free photo editing glossary has some definitions of common terms you might find.
Cloning Tool
A cloning tool is a basic copying tool that allows you to copy a part of an image to essentially create a “brush.” Once you’ve copied the part of the image that you want, you can just use your mouse to paint that same like you would draw a line in a basic paint program. This is most useful when you have a specific texture that somehow ended up with some sort of blemish. You can simply paint over the blemish and, if done correctly, it will look like the natural texture. Some software programs have a feature that can automatically do this for you.
Fill-Flash
Fill-flash is sometimes referred to as a highlight or shadow adjustment tool. This tool can help you fix a photo in which the background is too dark, or the subject of the photo is too light (or vice versa). As with the cloning tool, many software programs have an option to perform this automatically for your convenience.
Adjustment Layers
Adjustment layers are a fairly advanced feature that allows you to edit a photo with affects without actually altering the photo itself. That is, instead of making changes to the picture itself, you create additional layers that are superimposed on top of the standard picture. You can edit the main photo or any of the additional layers at any point, or even delete the extra layers without affecting the main picture. Depending on what software you’re using, you may even be able to adjust the transparency of the extra layers to whatever level you desire.
Type Effects
This term refers to effects that can be placed on text entered on your image. Depending on the type of software you’re using, you may have to use a text tool to input your text, or you may be able to add text directly onto the image. In either case, type effects allow you to add effects like shadows, 3D effects, warped text, and many more.
Selection Tools
Selection tools are the tools that you use to select a part of an image that you want to manipulate. For instance, basic selection tools might commonly come in shapes like squares or circles. However, there are also advanced selection tools that allow for more unique interactions with the image you’re editing. For instance, one type of selection tool might allow you to select all parts of an image that have the same color. Or, for maximum flexibility, you can use a lasso type tool to select exactly which parts of the image you want to work with.
Obviously the terminology in this free photo editing glossary is very complex and these are just a few basic terms. If you run across other terms that you don’t understand, you should just make a backup of your picture and experiment to find out what they do. You may be able to really improve the quality of some pictures and make your online photo sharing experience all the better.
Tips for Maintaining a Presentable Online Photo Album
Sharing photos with your family and friends through online photo sharing brings a whole new dimension to your favorite pictures. Thanks to digital cameras and scanners, and of course the Internet, it’s never been easier to share entire albums worth of pictures with just about anyone, from your siblings to your co-workers. If you’re planning to take the time to share your photos online, you should spend a little effort to really make your online album stand out.
Sorting and Organizing
The first step in making your free online photo album properly presentable is simply to organize and screen your photos. Most common software packages used for storing and editing photos, such as the software included with many digital cameras, make sorting through and organizing your photos a snap. It’s important to remember that just because you took a picture doesn’t necessarily mean its worth sharing with the world.
While you really want to focus on getting your favorite memories in there, its important not to go overboard. Not only can you save space on your hard drive and/or your online photo sharing account, but those who are viewing your album are sure to appreciate the effort. No one is going to enjoy sharing your memories if they feel like they’re looking at the same picture again and again, or if the pictures are blurry or otherwise poorly taken.
Editing Your Photos
Editing the photos in your album is a great way to really make them stand out. However, before you start doing any editing, you should take a few moments and back up all of your original pictures. While the goal of editing pictures is to make them look better, if you’re still a novice at photo editing you might end up making them look worse. Backing up the original images will let you start over if you make mistakes that ruin, instead of enhance, the picture.
Even if you know you way around your editing software, it pays to have backups. Sometimes, a couple hours or a couple days after making a change, you realize that it just doesn’t sit right with you. Having a backup ensures you can take another pass at it.
Once you’re ready to edit your photo, you should start with the basics. First, you should make sure that the orientation of the photo is correct. Looking through a photo album, even an online one, will get tiring if the viewer constantly has to tilt their head to the side to properly view a picture. Take a few seconds and use the rotate tool, which should be easily found in most common free photo editing software. That will get your pictures oriented in the right direction for easy viewing.
Once that’s finished, you can move on to more advanced editing techniques, everything from cropping to removing red-eye to altering the lighting of the picture. Fortunately, most photo editing software is extremely versatile and user friendly, so making most of these modifications is quick and painless. With a little practice, you’ll be producing wonderful and memorable photo albums in no time.
Spruce Up Your Online Photo Album with Editing Tools
Did you ever take one of those pictures that was almost perfect except for one minor little problem? Maybe the camera wasn’t held quite straight and the picture ended up crooked, or you caught a great candid moment with you and your friends but there’s some really bad red eye effect. It is no doubt frustrating to have to exclude an otherwise great picture from an album because its just not up to par. In years past, for the most part people just had to deal with it. Now, thanks to the photo editing tools commonly found on most computers, fixing these problems is quick, easy, and fun.
Online photo sharing has really revolutionized the way that people look at pictures and share them with others. Many regular photo albums, such as those family photo albums that are always packed full of embarassing pictures, feel cobbled together and disorganized. With online photo sharing, people can custom design and organize their photo albums so that they are far more presentable. In addition to better formatting, the editing tools that are commonly available have also enhanced the quality of the pictures themselves.
What You Can Do With Free Photo Editing Software
One common issue with pictures is when they end up crooked. This can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe you gave your camera to a stranger to a picture with some friends, and they were having so much trouble figuring out the camera that they weren’t holding it straight. Or, perhaps you don’t own a digital camera and are forced to scan your pictures in manually – it’s not uncommon for them to come out crooked in this case. Fortunately, fixing a crooked picture with editing software is easy. In many cases, its as simple as choosing an automatic straightening option in your editor. Even if an editor doesn’t have this feature, gradually rotating the picture using a rotate tool and a little patience should get the job done.
Cropping is another useful edit that you can easily do with most free photo editing programs. Cropping is kind of like a way of zooming-in on a picture after its already been taken – you can use a cropping tool to cut out more of the background and really focus on whatever your target is. Alternately, if a picture ended up a little bit off center, and the subjects of the photo are strangely off center, you can crop off the extra and put the focus back where it belongs. Cropping tools are generally very easy to use. All you need to do in most cases is simply draw a box around the part of the picture that you want to keep. Everything outside of the box gets erased, leaving you with just the section that you want.
Photo editing tools really let you get your best pictures up on the online photo sharing network of your choice. Straightening and cropping are just two of the many features commonly found in photo editors. Have fun exploring the possibilities of photo editors as you build your online photo collection.
Digital Scrapbookers Store Memories Online
There are so many advantages to uploading photos and creating photo albums at free online photo storage sites. Your photos are safer; there are no paper scraps around the house; you never run out of scrapbooking supplies; you can make changes without wasting materials. What is really cool about online scrapbooks is that you can choose to view them online for free, or pay to have them printed. Most people either have plenty of time and no money or plenty of money and no time, so you can work on it when your time is available and purchase it when you can afford the extra money.
Working with your photos online means that you don’t have to worry about acid, humidity or heat destroying your pictures. By using free online photo storage to create your scrapbook stories, your pictures are safe from harm. Your only concern if the house caught on fire would be to get your family out safely and you would not need to stress over the loss of your precious family memories stored in boxes and photo albums. When you use free online photo storage, your stories told through photographs are safe until the end of time. Should age, fire or flood wreck havoc on your photo albums they can easily be replaced even fifty years from now. Plus, you can enjoy audio photo sharing, and online digital photo printing.
Working online with your photos also leaves room for greater creativity. Your photos can be resized with a click of the mouse and the same picture can be used in more than one page without having to pay for doubles of all your photos. Scrapbooking at free online photo storage sites couldn’t be easier or more fun. You can change your page color to any you desire without worrying over whether you have that shade of paper. You can copy an entire page from one photo album to the next for siblings who shared in the experience and would both enjoy the photos. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination and possibly even more!
The internet brings so much into our lives including a wonderful way to create and store your precious family pictures. Free online photo storage gives stories told through photos a safe place to reside and gives people increased peace of mind in knowing their most valuable possessions are totally secure. Life is full of the unexpected and being prepared for anything brings peace and confidence even in difficult times. Free online photo storage is one way to protect your stories and preserve them for future generations to come.
In summary, digital scrapbooking is a great way to enjoy a classic hobby without incurring a great expense. Digital scrapbooks are safer and more secure than regular scrapbooks and can easily be printed into hardcopies. In the event that some tragedy occurs, these hard copies of the scrapbooks could easily be replaced and the precious memories restored. There is no greater treasure than happy times with friends and family that live in your heart and scrapbooks forever.
Why Create Free Online Photo Storage Stories?
There are around 400,000 house fires each year in the United States. Some families lose everything, even in ten percent of the cases, lives. Of the 90% of house fires that are not fatal, the thing that families regret losing most of all are their photographs. These are irreplaceable. No amount of homeowner’s insurance can compensate for the loss of such valuable items as these. Creating stories at a free online photo storage site allows you to protect your most valuable possessions in a place that fire, flood or theft cannot destroy. Since there are several backups in place, your photos are extremely secure and safe.
Recovering from a tragedy such as a home fire is difficult, but once the rubble has been cleared and the insurance check kicks in, life can start over again. The house can be rebuilt, maybe even better than it was before. New furniture and appliances can be found to make it a home again. If your photos were stored at at free online photo storage site, then even the family photo albums can be recovered and the many precious memories can be restored. Losing these things leaves a hole in a family’s heart and that is why using free online photo storage is so vital. You can think of free online photo storage as free insurance for your photo stories. Getting free insurance to protect the things that are most important to you? Now, that is a good deal. Plus, you can enjoy audio photo sharing, and online digital photo printing.
Even if you aren’t one of the 400,000 unlucky families who are affected by home fires each year, there are dozens of other ways that photos are destroyed each year. High humidity, heat or sunlight can cause photos to fade and images to disappear. Using the wrong kind of paper or adhesive in your photo albums can cause your photos to become discolored. Leaky roofs, pipes and basement walls can seep water into boxes of photos leaving them completely destroyed. Photos are also often lost or torn due to neglect or carelessness of the other people who view them. Sometimes photos are even stolen by emotionless crooks who believe other valuable may be stashed inside the boxes.
There are so many ways your precious memories can be destroyed if you do not protect them. Protecting your memories with free online photo storage stories is easy and since it doesn’t cost you a cent there is no reason not to. You hope you never have to deal with a catastrophe like that, but being prepared for the worst means not being sorry later.
What to Expect From Digital Photo Printing
As technology rapidly advances, consumers are now able to take advantage of many different things that make their lives easier. Digital photo printing has become incredibly popular for many reasons over the past few years and the current trends indicate that it will only grow in popularity over the long term. If you are not yet taking advantage of digital photo printing, it is important to know what to expect from the process.
First, you’ll need to have your images digitized before going any further. In some cases, you can take in 
regular film and get a DVD or CD of the images to send to the digital photo printing company, but typically, it is best to work with a digital camera if at possible. Not having one does not preclude you from using these services, but you may have to do a little extra work to get the images ready.
One you have your digitized images, you are all set to start using digital photo printing services. Once you have found the right service, you may want to think about editing your images a little bit, in order to get the best results. This can be done with special software that will allow you to crop, modify, flip, or change your image in dozens of different ways.
Many people prefer digital photo printing for this reason, since they are able to bypass the usual problems of getting bad images back from the photo processing company. Instead of never knowing what is on a roll of film, when you have a digital copy, you can easily pull out the bad photos and save money by not having them developed.
The next step in the process, once you have edited and saved your images, is to upload them to the digital photo printing service. Most will supply you with a special area to do this that is secure. You should be able to create an account and store your images in there, but this may depend on the service that you are using. Uploading can take anywhere from a few minutes, to a few hours, depending on how many files you have. Try to find a service that will allow multiple uploads at once if you are dealing with numerous files.
After you’ve got your photos uploaded, you’ll need to let the digital photo printing company know how many prints you want, and what sizes you would like them in. This is typically done on an order form. Now that you have all of that done, you can sit back and wait for your images to come to you.
It may take a little more work than just dropping off a canister of film at the one hour photo shop, but it is well worth the extra trouble, especially since you can take advantage of so many different available benefits and because you can control the way that your finished images look before they are processed.
