Optimize Photos For Your Web Baby Shower
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, it's probably worth about a million when it comes to baby showers and birth announcements. Don't have a Web Baby Shower without at least one photo! If you've read the photo guidelines and would like to give your photos an extra dose of looking good on the web, here are some tips and explanation. If this sounds complicated, you can just upload your your photos (see below) and the photo uploader will take care of it for you!
Remember, photos have to be small in file size to download quickly and fit within the Web Baby Shower template so that everyone who visits your Web Baby Shower can view them easily.
Taking photos
No matter what kind of camera you have, start out by taking photos that will display well on the web.
- Bright sunlight (sun behind photographer) or flash work best. Just be careful taking flash photos of newborn babies!
- Zoom in on and frame the PEOPLE. This isn't a travel site. It's a baby shower site. Scenic photos are nice, but everyone who comes to Web Baby Shower wants to see Momma and Baby, not beaches and mountains. Don't be modest -- show off that belly and then the baby!!!
- From Jeffrey Housenbold and Dave Johnson, co-authors of the book,
The Shutterfly Guide to Great Digital Photos, come these tips for getting your best digital camera pictures:
 
- Freeze the moment with the two-step shutter release
Know how to use your two-step shutter release. By slightly pressing down on the shutter release button, you can lock the focus. Now, continue to hold the button so you can recompose the picture without changing the focus. Once you have the perfect photo, press the button all the way to snap the final shot.
- Eliminate the "lag time" by presetting the white balance.
Cameras have an automatic way of adjusting for different lighting situations. It's called white balance. When your white balance is set to the "auto" default, your camera must adjust the colors each time you take a picture, and that creates lag time. Preset your white balance to the lighting you're in -- daylight, night, fluorescent, or incandescent -- and you'll get a faster response from your camera and bright, accurate colors every time.
- Highlight the motion by panning the camera.
Panning captures your subject in sharp focus while blurring the background. Position yourself to follow the motion of the moving subject. Press the shutter release and hold it down for a few seconds as you swivel your body to follow the subject.
- Catch your kids in the act by getting close to the action.
When photographing your next soccer game, move closer to the action and stay down at kid level by shooting from your knees or on your belly. Also, your picture will have more impact if you frame the action tightly and keep one or only a few players in the shot.
For more photo tips and information on how to preserve your digital photo memories,
visit www.shutterfly.com
Optimizing Digital Camera Photos or Scanned Photos
- Most digital cameras use JPEG (.jpg or .jpe) format.
If yours does not, you will have to use a photo editing program to SAVE AS JPEG format. Simply renaming the file with a .jpg extension WILL NOT convert it to a JPEG file. You must use a photo editor to SAVE AS .jpg
- Most digital cameras and scanners come with a photo editing program which was most likely installed on your computer when you installed the digital camera hardware and drivers.
If not, go to your favorite search engine or CNET.com and look for "free photo editing software" ... you'll probably find a whole bunch just waiting to be downloaded.
- Once you have your photo editing software installed, the first thing you want to do is make a copy (use "SAVE AS") of your photo so you have an original "backup". Don't skip this step. If anything goes wrong, you'll regret it.
- CROP the photo. Pare it down to the people and get rid of any extraneous background.
- Finally, if the picture is too light/dark red/green/blue, adjust the contrast and color balance. Again, you will have to see your photo editor's help section for instructions.
- When you are done, save the photo in JPEG format.
Film Photos
If your film is already developed, you need to have the photos scanned into JPEG format and then optimized for display on Web Baby Shower (see digital camera tips above).
If your film is still undeveloped you can save time and money by having Shutterfly – Online Film Processing develop and scan your film for you!
Why do we have to "optimize" photos anyway?
Everyone loves photos, but almost no one likes web pages that take forever to download or where you have to keep scrolling sideways to see a photo. I developed the photo guidelines and photo uploader in order to make sure that everyone can view your photos right on your Web Baby Shower.
To upload your photos:
- Go to your Web Baby Shower (find a Web Baby Shower)
- From your Web Baby Shower, click "Host Control Panel" near the bottom of the page
- Once you are logged into your Host Control Panel, click "Add Photos"
The photo uploader will guide you through the rest!
I hope this information has been helpful in getting photos ready for your Web Baby Shower! Please contact me with any questions, suggestions or comments. Thanks!
Information found in the Web Baby Shower Resource Directory is provided "As Is" with no warranty; information regarding pregnancy, birth and parenting is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition and is not meant to be a substitute for personal care from a professional health care practitioner. Web Baby Shower/Snowboard Mommy Productions does not endorse any product or service and is not responsible for the content or conduct of sites it links to.
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