Scanning Photos For Your Digital Scrapbook...
by Pete Fontaine
Digital Scrapbooking is the hugely popular art of turning your precious photographic memories into beautiful personalized creations. And the good news is that the net is loaded with free and inexpensive tutorials, creation software, and community. You will never be at a loss for creative ideas, new and innovative tools, layouts, and templates.
Don’t limit yourself to just using just your digital photos. All of your old photos can be sent to a low cost scanning service to be digitized. For as little as a nickel apiece you can add hundreds of your favorite memories to your scrapbook.
Scanning photos for your scrapping hobby has the added advantage of preserving them from deterioration due to moisture, mold, or age. Saving your photos to a DVD also allows you to store a copy in two or more places permanently shielding them from loss or damage. Scanning services make it possible to give a complete set of all your pictures to family members.
Once you’ve gotten your photos scanned for scrapping you can use them to build photobooks online and upload them to a free photo sharing site to share with your friends. Online businesses that sell photo novelties like cards, calendars, and T-shirts are easy to find and use. With a few services you can even build a slideshow with music that you can view on a TV or on a digital picture frame.
Make sure your photo scanning service will scan at 300 dpi. No more, no less. 300 DPI is the best choice for almost all photo scanning purposes, so don’t pay for more. Also make sure that your photos are saved as a high quality jpeg. You will be using jpeg files in your scrapbooking efforts, and though high quality jpegs have bigger files, you can always use your photo editing software to reduce the file size for a copy of the original.
If your scanning service offers automatic photo enhancement in the deal make sure to take advantage of it because a good photo enhancement program will do a nice job of improving most of your photos. But don’t overpay. The most important thing is to make sure enhancements are done from a copy of the master scans. Always use a copy of your master scans to edit or enhance. Remember that rotating or manipulating the scan file will eventually reduce the quality of the photo.
A quick search for “digital scrapbooking” will give you immediate access to educational e-books, organizational software, online classes, templates, toys, and tools. The raw materials of scrapping are your photo scans. So find a low cost scanning service and get started!
About the Author:
Scanning photos for digital scrapbooking has the added benefit of permanently protecting them from destruction and deterioration. Photo Scanning makes it easy and inexpensive to share a complete copy of your family’s digital images with each family member. Learn more about photo scanning at Pete’s website www.nickelscan.com
Sigma has released an update to its Photo Pro image-editing software. Version 3.5.2 for Windows and v3.3 for Mac claim to improve processing of highlight areas in RAW images and now offer the 'ProPhoto RGB' color space. Exposure warning is also displayed for RGB channels in the histogram in the Windows version. 
Hasselblad has announced the CFV-39 digital back to be used in conjunction with its V series of camera bodies. Featuring a 39 megapixel sensor, it offers two capture formats: 4:3 and square (at 29MP). It allows tethered shooting and offers a capture rate of 0.7fps. The bundled image processing software features digital lens correction for Carl Zeiss lenses that corrects distortion, lateral chromatic aberration and vignetting. 
Firmware development for all Nikon digital cameras and interchangeable lenses will now be undertaken by a new company named Nikon Imaging Systems. The new company is a joint venture between Fujitsu Broad Solution & Consulting Inc. and Nikon Systems, a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation. The initial investment will be around $1m and the company will employ 100 people. 
Just posted! Our waterproof camera group test. Summer time means visiting the seaside, riverside, or your local pool - these are times for fun in and out of the water. And your camera should be able to keep up with you every step of the way. In our latest group test we look at five waterproof cameras to see which is the most deserving of your hard-earned cash so you can enjoy a summer of worry-free shooting. 
Olympus has released an update to its Master and Studio image-editing software. Version 2.2 of the Master and v2.3 of Studio enable users to apply Art Filter effects to RAW files, rather than having to choose them as you shoot. It also extends RAW support to the E-P1 and now includes a video editor to edit that camera's HD videos. 
Ricoh has released a firmware update for the CMOS-based CX1 digital compact camera. Firmware v1.24 resolves minor issues pertaining to image orientation data and printing. The firmware is available for immediate download from Ricoh's website. 
Micron Technologies has announced the first flash memory cards to use its 34-nanometer process technology. Its subsidiary, Lexar, will incorporate the new 32Gb NAND chips into its 32GB Platinum II SDHC memory card. A 16Gb microSDHC card (commonly used in mobile devices), will also make use of the 34nm technology NAND chips. Lexar has said it will incorporate the technology into an increasing proportion of its flash memory card range. 