When you have a favorite photo to share, you can turn it into a poster board, a canvas bag, personalized greeting cards.  What if you have hundreds or thousands of photos to share? After all, the reason you dug out your aging photo albums and shoe boxes of photos out of the closet and scan those photos to digital images is so you can view and share those old memories easily.

Below are 3 easy ways to share those years of happy memories:

1. Digital Photo Frame – These frames used to cost hundreds of dollars.  Now, you can find large 15-inch digital photo frames for $100 or less.   8-inch frames can be had for less than $50.  You can get plain frames that just displays your photos or sophisticated ones that also play videos, have motion sensors, turns into digital clocks when no one’s close by.

2. Photo sharing sites online – You can’t email hundreds of photos to your cousins across the country, but you can upload the photos online, then share a link to your online photo library.  Some of the popular online photo sites are: Shutterfly, Flickr, Snapfish, and Photobucket.  Your family from anywhere in the world can view the photos, even order prints.

3. Photo books – There are many online photo book creators.  If you have a lot of photos, like hundreds, the one I recommend is Blurb.com for pricing.  Pricing is similar when you are making a 20-page book.  But when you go up to 100 pages, Blurb.com remains affordable ($48 for hardcover, additional pages is 20 cents).  A page can fit anywhere from 1 to 10 photos.  $48 gets you a coffee table book to display hundreds of photos, now that’s a good deal!

Recently, Shutterfly bought out Mypublisher, a popular photo book publisher.  I expect the integration between your online photo library and producing a hard coffee photo book will become even easier.

There really is no excuse for you to hoard your family’s treasure of photos in the dark closet.  Bring them out into the sun, get your photos scanned to digital images and share them with your friends and family using any of the suggestions above.

 

When you decide to digitize your photos, there are a few options to consider first. Different types of photo scanners offer unique features which produce different results. It is important to understand them before you drop your pictures off at the Photo Scanning Center so that you get the scan quality that you want.

Using a scanner that is dedicated to scanning photos makes a huge difference. Do not purchase or use a document scanner that you may find at a Staples or other office supplies stores. These are usually used for scanning black and white text documents. A dedicated photo scanner will allow you to capture your photographs in their original detail and vibrant colors and will allow you to chose different scanning resolutions which will affect the overall quality and sharpness of the photo.

Each resolution is appropriate for different situations and intended use. The specific resolution you are using refers to the digitized photo’s DPI (Dots Per Inch). The DPI indicates the amount of pixels found on the digitized photos per inch. The higher the DPI, the more pixels in the image, and resulting in a bigger file size. More pixels give a more detailed image.

These are some of the most common DPI settings. At the low end of resolution and quality is 72 DPI. This resolution is suitable for online viewing. It results in a very small sized photo which is beneficial for sharing online with friends or sending through email but not for printing.

The next step up, 300 DPI, is used when you are printing your photos. Although printing is capable at this level, it still may not be as sharp as you’re hoping for.
600 DPI is also used for printing, but at a much clearer and detailed resolution. This is the standard for printing photos and suitable for enlargement. Photo labs typically charge extra for scanning at resolution because the process takes longer, but it’s worth it. Here at Play It Again Video, 600 is our default scanning resolution and we don’t charge extra for it.

The last commonly used resolution, but far from the maximum is 1,200 DPI. This is usually used for pieces of art made by professional artists. Any type of historic material like an old family document might be scanned at this highly detailed level.

Before you drop off your photos to be scanned, think about the different choices and which resolution fits best with the outcome you are trying to achieve. It is important that you choose at least 300 DPI, but preferably 600 to get a sharp and clear result. The most important thing to find out from the scanning center is that they are using a dedicated photo scanner instead of an auto-feed document scanner.

Here are 5 websites (3 of them free) where you can turn your photos into cool creations your friends and family will not believe you made yourself.

1. At Big Huge Labs there are a variety of different ways to take your photos and turn them into something extraordinary. You can add all kinds of effects to your photo, from changing it to black and white or by making it look like a photo sketch. One of the most unique features at this site are the different things that can be done to the photo beyond changing the effects. You can turn your photo into a customized jigsaw puzzle, put your photo on a badge that says FBI, or make trading cards with your photo on them to swap with your friends. Besides photo editing tools, Big Huge Labs offers other services such as a word processor, information about the World’s best cameras and a random photo generator of photos that other users have created. Best of all, it’s free!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Animoto,another awesome free website, combines your memories into a video that will never be forgotten. At Animoto, you can combine photos and video clips into a beautifully made video with custom music and in a style of your choice. Now, in case you are not experienced with computers, don’t get overwhelmed, the process is very simple. Once your photos are digitized, all you have to do is upload the pictures to the website, choose a song to play through the video, and finally pick a style for the video. There are many styles, which can be anything from a simple black background to beautiful seasonal scenery. You can even add text to specific parts of your video in a customized font which can break the collage into categories, or add titles to your old photos and videos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. One of the most effective ways to improve a photo that you took is to crop it properly. At Cut My Pic, a free photo editing website, they have dedicated a site to that exact purpose. Cropping makes a regular photograph into something that looks professionally taken with perfect borders surrounding what is featured in the photo. It can make a photo that was taken by a child into something that could have been taken by a professional and is ready to be framed. Cut My Pic also offers other photo editing tools like corner rounding, tone changing, and adding drop shadows. There is even an app for it if you are an iPhone user!

 

 

 

 

 

4. Do you have old photos just laying around that you want to do something with? Or maybe you feel that a certain set of photos deserves a better home instead of a typical, boring photo album. With My Publisher, you can finally give these photos the attention that they deserve. You can take photos of your baby, or of a vacation you’ll never forget and publish them into a beautiful photo book that is customized to your style and preference. The best feature of the process that this website offers is how simple it is to create an impressive and long-lasting collection of your most important memories. Once you have digitized your photos, it’s up to you how you want them to appear in the book. You can add words and artwork, making certain pictures stand out in different ways. This service, although not free, is well worth the small price it takes to have your memories stored in a unique, organized, and breath-taking way.

 

5. Have you ever seen a life-size cutout of a popular movie star or pop culture icon? This is one of the many different services that Photo Cutouts offers. Cutouts are custom made photo sculptures created from a simple photograph. In additional to the commonly seen life-size cutout, you can make key chains, ornaments, magnets and even wall mounts from a portion of a photo such as someone’s face, or the entire photograph. The owner, Al, who has retired from 30 years as an IBM field service technician describes his business as an extreme photo service. He has a genuine love for photography and says that his cutout business feels like it’s not even work, it’s just plain fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are no limits on what can be accomplished with your photos. You can crop them to make them look more professionally taken, add effects, create Christmas ornaments from them, make a slide show or a photo book. Many of these fun and amazing services are free to use, however the ones you pay for are definitely well worth the money!