How to Create a Killer Slideshow Your Family Will Enjoy

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Gather your family, grab some popcorn and have a box of tissues ready. Creating a beautiful, impactful slideshow is a fun project for anyone who loves photography! But deciding which photos to include, and how to sequence pictures for maximum impact, can be a time-consuming challenge. As you choose and arrange photos for a slideshow, imagine you’re writing a story. But instead of using words to tell the story, you’re using pictures to tell your story. Look through your photo library and try to find the following eight types of pictures. As you make your selections, ask yourself, “does each of these photos work together to tell the story? So now let’s dive in and learn how to create a slideshow that will make your family cry – tears of joy!

 

  • Portraits: these pictures introduce key characters in the story. For example, be sure you include a portrait of each key family member in your album or slideshow. When your family traveled to New York City for a holiday gathering, did grandma and grandpa come along too? Then, by all means, include snapshots of their grinning faces watching the kiddos ice skate at Rockefeller Center!
  • Scene Setters: these are typically wide-angle, sweeping shots that give viewers a sense of place. For example, did you include a dramatic shot of your family trip to Niagra Falls?
  • Interaction: these photos capture the close relationships between your loved ones. Select pictures of family members sharing fun or memorable experiences. Don’t just choose posed pictures of family members standing in front of big landmarks. (Those tend to be pretty boring!) Try to find a series of candid photos of the family hanging out, adventuring and laughing! The more natural the shot, the more impact it has in your slideshow.
  • Honest Emotion: these types of photos showcase unique personalities and traits. Often, these are shots of family members reacting to something happening. Did Uncle Bob tell a hilarious joke at dinner that made your mom LOL? If you captured your mom’s expression, make sure to include it in your slideshow! It will inspire wonderful reactions from your family when they watch the finished slideshow.
  • People without People: This is my favorite type of photo to include in slideshows! These are photos of objects or details that show viewers something about the characters in the story. For example, pictures of your grandma’s childhood home help add context and emotion to your slideshow. Find a few fun ones to enhance your slideshow!
  • Transitions: these photos show characters going from one “chapter” of the story to the next. For example, you could include a snapshot of your family boating through the Hawaiian islands. Try to pick photos that show your group moving from one place to another! It helps your slideshow make sense chronologically.
  • Decisive Moment or “Hero Shot:” These pictures are often the most dramatic ones in your slideshow. It’s a type of photo that makes everyone smile because it sums up your entire vacation/trip/experience. For example, this could be a snapshot of everyone gathering around your parents cheering them on at their 50th wedding anniversary.
  • Closing Shot: A closing shot is a picture that conveys the end of the story. For example, this type of photo could show your family members walking down a path at the end of a hike, or seaside sunset at the end of a fun day.

 

Pro tip: consider dividing photos up into chapters or themes. This will make the task of sequencing much more intuitive. As you group photos together, the best sequence for maximum emotional impact will become clear. Just make sure to bring a box of Kleenex when you debut your slideshow to your family!

 

Now that you’ve learned the eight types of photos to include in an album or slideshow, you’re ready to tackle creating a slideshow for your family.

Swipe Back and Forth between Web Pages for Easier Navigation

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For navigation, every Web browser offers back and forward buttons, generally represented by arrows in the upper left of the toolbar. You can also navigate by choosing menu commands and typing keyboard shortcuts—did you know that Command-Left arrow and Command-Right arrow work too? But if you’re using a Mac with a trackpad, you can move back and forth between Web pages—in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox—with a two-fingered swipe left (for back) or right (for forward). If you prefer, you can switch to a three-fingered swipe in System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures. Or, if it’s difficult for you to keep exactly two or precisely three fingers on the trackpad, you can choose to swipe with two or three fingers.

Trading Faces: Picking a Better Face for People Photos Recognizes

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Apple’s Photos app is remarkably good at identifying people in your snapshots and collecting all the pictures that contain a particular person into a group in its People view. At its top level, the People view shows a thumbnail photo for each person, picking one automatically from all the available photos. Needless to say, it doesn’t always pick the photo you want, so if you dislike what’s there, you can change it easily on the Mac. In Photos, click People in the sidebar and double-click the thumbnail of the person you want to change. If necessary, click Show More to see all their photos, then Control-click the desired photo and choose Make Key Photo from the contextual menu.

Create and Name Reminders Lists to Use Them Via Siri

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Do you create reminders with Siri on the iPhone? Those reminders are automatically added to your default list, which you set in Settings > Reminders > Default List. That’s great generally—“Hey Siri, remind me to update watchOS tonight at 11 PM”—but less good when you want to maintain different shopping lists. For instance, create a list called “Grocery,” and then you can tell Siri, “Put chocolate-covered bacon on my Grocery list.” Want to get fancy? Make a list called “Hardware,” and then tell Siri, “Add birdseed to my Hardware list, and remind me when I arrive at Home Depot.” You may have to pick the correct Home Depot location from a list, but then you’ll receive an alert reminding you to buy birdseed when you pull into the parking lot. To look at any list via Siri, just say something like “Show my Grocery list.”

Find the Battery Percentage Indicator on the iPhone X

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Wondering what happened to the numeric battery percentage indicator on the iPhone X? The notch takes up enough space at the top of the screen that there was room only for the battery icon, which can be hard to interpret. If you want to see precisely what percentage of your battery is left, swipe down slightly from the top-right corner of the screen. That gives you the full set of indicators, including battery percentage. You don’t have to keep swiping down enough to show Control Center, but if you do, all the indicators will be there too.

Install Minor Operating System Updates to Maintain Herd Immunity

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It seems like Apple releases updates to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS nearly every week these days. It has been only a few months since iOS 11 and macOS 10.13 High Sierra launched, and we’ve already seen ten updates to iOS and seven updates to macOS. Some of these have been to fix bugs, which is great, but quite a few have been prompted by the need for Apple to address security vulnerabilities.

Have you installed all these updates, or have you been procrastinating, tapping that Later link on the iPhone and rejecting your Mac’s notifications? We’re not criticizing—all too often those prompts come at inconvenient times, although iOS has gotten better about installing during the night, as long as you plug in your iPhone or iPad.

We know, security is dull. Or rather, security is dull as long as it’s present. Things get exciting—and not in a good way—when serious vulnerabilities come to light. That’s what happened in November 2017, when it was reported that anyone could gain admin access to any Mac running High Sierra by typing root for the username and leaving the password field blank. That one was so bad that Apple pushed Security Update 2017-001 to every affected Mac and rolled the fix into macOS 10.13.2.

Part of the problem with security vulnerabilities is that they can be astonishingly complex. You may have heard about the Meltdown and Spectre hardware vulnerabilities discovered in January 2018. They affect nearly all modern computers, regardless of operating system, because they take advantage of a design flaw in the microprocessors. Unfortunately, the bad guys—organized crime, government intelligence agencies, and the like—have the resources to understand and exploit these flaws.

But here’s the thing. Security is an arms race, with attackers trying to take advantage of vulnerabilities and operating system companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google proactively working to block them with updates. If enough people install those updates quickly enough, the attackers will move on to the next vulnerability.

The moral of the story? Always install those minor updates. It’s not so much because you will definitely be targeted if you fail to stay up to date, but because if the Apple community as a whole ceases to be vigilant about upgrading, the dark forces on the Internet will start to see macOS and iOS as low-hanging fruit. As long as most people update relatively quickly, it’s not worthwhile for attackers to put a lot of resources into messing with Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

That said, before you install those updates, make sure to update your backups. It’s unusual for anything significant to go wrong during this sort of system upgrade, but having a fresh backup ensures that if anything does go amiss, you can easily get back to where you were before.

 

Managing digital images on memory cards and files

Managing Digital Images on Memory Cards and Files

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Article © 2018 by Jenna Caplette, with tips from the staff of
F-11 Photo & The Print Refinery™

You’ve captured some great digital images. Now what? Here are the next steps you should take:

First, save the images from your camera to your hard drive. Its best to use a card reader to download pictures from your camera’s memory card. If you have to use the camera itself, be sure the batteries are new, fully charged, or use an AC adapter. Then, save your images to your computer’s hard drive or other media. Don’t put a card with edited images back into the camera.

To extend the life of the memory card you just popped back in to your camera, here are some basic tips:

• Always turn the camera off before inserting or removing the card.
• Never remove a card from the camera or turn the camera off while it’s accessing the images.
• Never force a card into a slot.
• Protect your card from dirt, static and moisture. There are some great, safe, storage options available.
• Use only the camera you are shooting with—not the computer or another camera—to format the card after you’ve successfully downloaded and saved the images to your computer. Do format instead of using delete all.

At least twenty percent of digital images that have been taken have been already lost because they weren’t properly saved, backed up and printed. Ideally, you should have three copies of every image you take. One on the computer hard drive where you can access it and use it, one on archival media stored in a dark, dry place, and a third stored far enough away from your home so that in the event of a natural disaster, your images are still safe.

One of the easiest ways to take care of the off-site storage is to use a Cloud service. You can utilize a free photo sharing site like that offered by Bozeman’s F-11 Photo & The Print Refinery™ or something like Drop Box to accomplish the same thing. Make sure you can upload files in their original size, that you can access them when you want to and you can easily download them. Make sure that you keep your contact information up to date, as most services require you to log in from time to time so they know you still want your images.

Choose your best images and have prints made. Don’t wait until you’ve had time to come up with the perfect version. Let yourself enjoy sharing them while your memory of taking the shots is still fresh.

If you don’t use software that helps organize your images for you like Adobe Lightroom or Apple Photos, think through how you’ll look for them. Create a system for naming folders that makes sense to you and that will continue to make sense twenty folders—or twenty years down the line. For a visit to a friend’s ranch from this month, this year, you might name that “ranchvisit2018_02.” When you have a system like this, you’ll be able to find the images you are looking for. If you use discs, label them the same way. Remember to make incremental back ups of everything, including edited and unedited files. Don’t just store them on the hard drive.

To recap these basics: take care of your memory card. Organize your image files on your computer. Download your images and immediately make back ups. If you use discs as part of your backup plan, make sure they are archival quality, not cheapies that will rot. M-disc is currently the most archival product made.

Getting organized can be a challenging process but once you have a system, the task of downloading and editing images becomes far less daunting.

Stuff happens. When it does, having proper back ups and printed images makes all the difference.

Take back your photo collection once an for all!

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This is the year you’re going to take back your photo collection

You’re going to conquer those boxes of photos before they fade away forever. You’re ready to future proof your old photo collection and organize your digital image archive, you’ve come to the right place. The right time is now. And we’re here to help (or just do it for you).

Three steps to taming the analog anarchy

1.    Reduce

The first step is to weed out what you can’t keep. Remove duplicates, damaged prints, and non-photographic memorabilia. Throw them away. If there are trophies, drawings, newspaper scraps, etc that you’re not ready to throw away, place them in a different box to go through later.

2.    Organize

Sort negatives, slides and prints into separate collections. Keep only the negatives that you’re prepared to print or scan. Keep albums that are complete and in good condition. If the inside pages are yellowing or cracking or have excess exposed adhesive, remove the prints and dispose of the empty albums.

Group prints by size and then sort chronologically. If you’ll be storing them again, you want to be able to label boxes or sections by time period. If you’ve saved negatives and slides, group them the same way, in envelopes or negative sleeves.

3.    Save

Now is the time to consider scanning prints, slides and negatives that you want to archive or share.  A good home scanner costs $200 to $800 and takes 30 to 90 seconds to scan a print, not including set up, cleaning, and post-processing like editing and saving. This is where our batch-scanning services shine. Our experts handle everything for you, often for less that it would cost to purchasing your own scanner. Either way, with the benefit of proper sorting and organization, you can now handle the scanning in manageable chunks. Be sure to save your scanned images in at least two places, one of which is in the cloud, which we’ll discuss next.

Clarifying the cloud

Where to store your digital images

Your digital photos should be organized in the same method as your hardcopies: chronologically. I prefer to name folders like this:

YYYY-MM-DD And Location or Event

They should all be stored on one drive that’s large enough to hold everything AND backed up to the cloud. For all but the most avid photographers, 1TB is adequate. That much storage costs $9.99 a month at any of the top three cloud storage services. Here’s how each one of them handles photos:

  1. iCloud® already syncs to and from all your apple devices out of the box so it’s easy to entrust with other files too. Once you turn it on, it syncs photos in the background without having to do anything, but you’ll to use Apple Photo as your gateway to get other images into and out of iCloud, especially en-masse. If you use Apple Photos and don’t mind relying on it, stick with iCloud. Otherwise consider one of the next two options.
  2. Google Drive® was once considered the android alternative to iCloud, but it’s now very friendly across all platforms, including Apple. You get 15GB of free storage and more costs about the same as iCloud. But there’s also Google Photos which wins hands down with free storage of unlimited images up to 16MP each in size. It syncs across all your devices, organizes for you and relies on Google’s great search technology to help find them later. But you can’t organize them into folders yourself. To do that, which you might need to if you’re backing up your already-organized image catalog, you’ll need to use Google Drive. Not a deal-breaker as long as can distinguish between the two and use them as a team.
  3. Dropbox® is also great across all platforms and it costs the same as iCloud and Google Drive for 1TB of storage. Dropbox lets you organize existing files any way you’d like and respects the folder structure of files you upload en masse. You can access your files adequately in a web browser but it’s really intended to be installed as a synced folder, where a copy of everything stays on your computer, taking up space. Syncing to network or external drives isn’t recommended. Still, if your photo collection is small or this is your first cloud storage, give Dropbox a try (free for 2GB)!

Taken in steps, even the most unwieldy photo collection, can be dealt with pretty painlessly. But if all or any part of this stresses you out, don’t fret. We handle all of this, very well, quite often, for people just like you. We’d love to organize, scan, archive, upload, and unlock a lifetime of memories for you and your family too!

holiday shots worth saving

Share-worthy shots for the holidays

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The pictures we take during the holidays can be a bit mundane. We snap a couple of the family around the dinner table and a few during gift opening. But do you share those pictures? Do you look at them later? This year, get guaranteed share-worthy shots. Aim to capture the making-of moments and the craziness leading up to the actual holiday events. With a keen eye, you’ll be sharing photos over Christmas dinner instead of snapping the same old grins.

Insider Tip: Stage the scene by laying out albums and prints from holidays past. Capture new photos of the smiles they bring. Boom. You just started a new tradition.

Common holiday photo fails and where to point your camera instead:

THE INFAMOUS FAMILY SHOT
FAIL: We all line up for the firing squad and painfully hold a pose long enough for 41 clicks where everyone’s eyes are open in exactly none of them. Babies cry. Your brother’s rude gestures go unnoticed… for now. No one ever sees the photo.

WIN: Same as before except you also prop your phone up in the corner, out of frame, to video the whole ordeal. Maybe in time lapse if your photo sessions tend to run a little long. You know your family; bloopers are guaranteed. And this one, everyone wants to see.

 

THE BIG DINNER
FAIL: Everyone sits down. Half of us already have mouths full of food when you stand up to snap a few shots of togetherness. Mom is still in the kitchen. You can’t see your sister behind the turkey. Three cousins hide under the table. No one ever sees the photo.

WIN: Head into the kitchen 30 minutes before and start snapping. Heartwarming? Possibly. Hell broken loose? Maybe. Blackmail material for Easter? Hopefully. Who knows what really goes on in there? Now you do!

 

THE DECOR
FAIL: The tree is up and the house it lit. You wait until dusk to get the perfect shot and… what? The lights are too bright and the sky is too dark. It looks like a glowing blob in a sea of black. Try again tomorrow? Not likely.

WIN: Don’t wait until the decorations are up. If dad’s putting lights on the roof, there’s a 100% chance of a golden photo opportunity. It might be corny, heartwarming, hilarious, or just good documentation for the medics. Either way, you’ll get something worth sharing. Back inside, you know what happens when mom unpacks the ornaments you made in grade school: She cries. First photograph it. Next hug. Later, share. Cry, hug, repeat.

 

The good stuff happens where no one’s looking. Shoot behind-the-scenes and you’ll have the shots worth sharing. Happy Holidays!

HEIF or JPG

What the HEIF Happened to JPG?

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Apple’s latest bombshell is a whole new image format and you may already be using it. HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image File and it replaces the JPG format in iOS 11.

Where did this come from?

Apple adopted it as a better way to save ever more complex images from iPhones, beginning with iOS 11. But they didn’t invent it. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) did in 2015 and since it’s a universal standard, there will be lots of support for it. Photoshop® is already compatible.

Newer Apple devices already use HEIF and quietly convert to jpg when sharing with a platform that might not support it, like when attaching to an email. As for your old jpgs, they’ll stay that way. You’ll never need to convert them or use them differently than you do now.

Four Big Advantages

  1. High-Efficiency means lightweight. Images encoded in HEIF are about half the size of a jpg of comparable quality. That means faster processing and movement across networks which is important for mobile where increased battery life and decreased bandwidth use are paramount.
  2. It’s a container. One High Efficiency Image File can contain multiple images like Live Photos. Sure, a GIF can do that but not with the same quality. HEIFs support 16-bit color depth (256 times more than an 8-bit gif or jpg).
  3. It speaks 3D. Dual cameras on the latest iPhones capture depth data that enable enhanced capabilities like Portrait Mode. HEIF records depth layers and other metadata to preserve these features and increased editing capabilities for later.
  4. Simple rotation and cropping. Rotating jpeg 90 degrees requires that the entire image be resampled. It costs processing time and degrades image quality. But HEIF’s support orientation and cropping as outside instructions that don’t change the original pixel map. You can crop today and revert to the full image a year from now (in theory).

So, does this change everything?

Not at all. Existing formats like jpg, tif, gif, png and others aren’t going away. Each has strengths that will continue to suit their uses in a variety of capture and publishing platforms. When it comes to printing and sharing, we have no beef with HEIF either. Ordering high quality photo products from our website or in our store is just as easy as it is with a jpeg. If you do need to change a HEIF file to JPG, websites like aconvert.com can do it for free.

So, HEIF is here. But there’s nothing to fear. Mamma won’t take your jpg away.

If you have questions about saving, storing and printing your images, call us! Our experts are here to help.