If People Laugh When You Say You Print Your Own Photos - Show Them Some Results

Amateur Photographers - Create Your Own Successful Home Digital Photo Lab

The secret to producing your own professional-looking photos:

• Get a good digital camera
• Download picture files to your computer
• Edit your photo with good digital imaging software
• When you are pleased with the results, print them on a good photo printer

If you know what you want to buy or get more information on, you can click the sitemap at left or the links below to bypass the information; or if you have a question about a phrase, you can click on the sitemap at left or click the Glossary link below. Otherwise, continue on to begin your experience. . .

Cameras       Memory Cards       Software       Printers       Glossary

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This Site Is Unique!

Many sites have information on each aspect of digital photography. Some sell cameras, some sell printers, some sell software. When you are ready to go beyond just taking snapshots, there are very few places you can go to get all the information and products you need to set up your own home digital photo lab. Here, I will take you through the stages of taking your pictures, downloading them to your computer, editing them, and producing photos you will be proud to show off, using your own home digital photo lab.

This site will provide a forum for amateur photographers to find information, exchange ideas, and locate products that will help them set up their own home digital photo lab to take, edit, and print their own photos and become the amateur photographer they want to be.

You must revisit this site periodically as the content will be changing and evolving.

Where Do You Want To Be?

"The First Thing to Decide is What to Do With Your Photos."

Once you snap a picture, the simplest thing to do is drop your memory card at your local processor, much like you would with film. They would then print your photos. However, you have very little control over what is printed. Any digital camera would work for this, you wouldn't need software, or a good quality photo printer. Here, the better the digital camera, the better the results!

The next step up is to use a good quality photo printer that accepts memory cards. You insert your card in the printer, and print directly from the printer. You would have limited control over what is printed. You also could use any digital camera for this (although, here again, the better the digital camera, the better the results).

If you have a basic digital camera, I would recommend staying with one of these methods, unless you just like being creative. The less you pay for a digital camera, the less quality and resolution you will have. The photos you produce would be good to show where you.ve been or what you.ve done, but I wouldn't do more than put them in a photo album.

If you want to start producing some outstanding photos that you can show off, you should get a good digital camera, some digital imaging software, and a good photo printer. Then, read the information that follows, aand see if it gets you where you want to be. There are also products to purchase if you want to start or upgrade your equipment.

You Must Have a Good Quality Digital Camera

“The Better the Digital Camera, The Better Picture You Have to Begin the Process”

The whole process begins with the camera. Entry level and basic digital cameras (under 4 megapixels) will let you take reasonable snapshots. Most often, you will then send them to a print shop or download them to your computer. The better digital cameras with higher megapixels and better lenses will let you take and store much better quality pictures. The focus here will be on digital cameras 4 megapixel and up.

Some of the cameras you will find here are the Kodak Easyshare ls753 and Kodak Easyshare dx4530 with their easyshare software to allow you to share pictures several diffeent ways; the Fujifilm s3100 and Fuji finepix s5100 with their 4 megapixel sensor and 6X and 10X zoom; the Olympus c765 and Minolta Dimage z2 with their 10X zoom and 4 megapixel sensor; the Samsung digimax 530, the Canon powershot s70, and the Nikon coolpix 8400 with their 5.0, 7.1, and 8.0 megapixel sensor; the Pentax Optio WP waterproof digital camera; and of course the Olympus evolt e300 with its 8 megapixel sensor and interchangeable lens.

The memory cards supplied with the digital cameras are the minimum you can use for starting. For taking far more pictures than you ever dreamed of with film cameras, you need to upgrade to a larger memory card; the larger, the better. The focus here will be on higher capacity memory cards.

When you use a basic or entry level digital camera, you get a washed out grainy photo. Mostly because of the size and type of capture device they use. Good quality digital cameras use a higher quality device that captures more megapixels (more on that elsewhere) and gives you a much more detailed photo with sharper colors.

How many times have you run out of film with a film camera? Film limits the number of photos you can take and there is a cost for developing every picture. One of the major benefits digital cameras have over film cameras is that you can take as many pictures as you want and even delete them “on-the-fly”. You can also use your digital pictures creating projects such as collages and Christmas postcards.

Click Here for more digital camera information . . .

Digital Photo Software Can Make a Difference

“Proper Software Makes Your Photos More Attractive”

You can always take your memory cards to a photo processor to get photographs, but your results will be limited. Those of you with computers can get much more dramatic results with a small investment in digital photo software. You could produce pictures you would be proud to show off to family and friends.

With digital photo editing software, you can do things like cropping (zero in on the important parts of the picture). You can change contrast and brightness. You can change colors and how the picture fits on the page. Depending on the software, there are many other things you can do to the photos to produce some very interesting results. Look for more software details at .

Click Here for Digital Imaging Software Information..

Photo Printers Can Do Wonders With Your Photos

“With the Right Printer, You can Print Photos With Fantastic Results”

Many of you found out that basic printers only produce marginal results. Compared to film photos, your pictures will appear somewhat dull and lifeless. For some people, this would be perfectly acceptable, depending on what your intent is. It would also allow you to practice and see if you want to become more involved in photo editing. For truly dramatic results, you need a photo printer. The focus here will be on photo printers.

The more you spend on a photo printer, the more features you get and the better ink they use. Some photo printers will allow you to insert memory cards, make minor corrections, and print directly from the card. Some photo printers use individual ink cartridges for each color, so you only replace the color that runs out rather than the whole cartridge. The better inks last longer, are brighter, and produce crisper results. Later we will be showing the Canon i860 (no longer manufactured - consider the Canon Pixma ip4000 instead) with 5 separate ink tanks and the HP 8450 and Epson r800 with eight individual ink tanks.

Click Here for more Photo Printer Information..

Home Digital Photo Lab

brought to you by:
Dennis Grevel
IE Connections, Inc.
12311 W. Prentice Pl.
Littleton, CO 80127
phone: 303-933-7048

e-mail: contact_hdpl@homedigitalphotolab.com