How To Share Your Digital Photos Wisely

Preparation is Key To A Successful Presentation

Do you want to share your digital photos with friends and neighbors without boring them? It's really not as difficult as you might think. There are helpful tutorials all over the Internet on the topic (and we'll cover this in depth as well in other articles), but this will get you started.

Before you can share your digital photos, you'll need to prepare them because most likely they won't be suitable as they come out of your camera.

If you're like a lot of photographers, there will be a bunch that just aren't good shots. People might have missing feet, a portion of the head cut off or you caught someone in the middle of a sneeze. This happens, even to the pros.

Backup Your Photos First

The first step is to make a backup of your images before you sort out those bad shots. You'll likely have some duplicates, too, that you can trash.

Next, make any changes you want using the software to edit your photos. Here is an introductory article on editing your photos.

Resize Your Photos Appropriately

You might not know this, but when images come out of your camera, they can be huge. Don't make the mistake other photographers make when you share your digital photos of sending huge images.

It depends on how you've set your camera. For instance, if you set it so you can get as many pictures as possible on one flash disc, your pictures will be smaller. What this means is that they take up less space on your disc and are easier to share.

Many people don't understand the pixels sizes in digital images versus the resolution of 35mm film. It can be confusing, but basically, the higher the number of pixels in an image, the larger the final photo. If you plan to share your digital photos online, you want the pixels as small as possible, but not so small that your pictures become blurred or less vibrant.

Open each image in a photo editing software to reduce them. Once you do this, you will be ready to share your digital photos with anyone you wish.

Get Creative

The final preparation to share your digital photos is to sort them in a way that makes sense. You want your images to tell a story, or at least to make sense to the viewer. Sort first to create an interesting and fun story.

Your show might look like this.

Let's say you took a trip to Niagara Falls. Your first pictures might be a group shot showing all those happy faces. Build suspense by gradually moving closer the final destination.

Show the beautiful flowerbeds around Niagara, the greenhouses, the Whirlpool Rapids and overhead gondola, and then Niagara itself. This is where you can begin the family shots: the kids romping around the railing pointing excitedly at the Falls, and other family activities.

Tell your story in an interesting way. The last thing you want is to bore people, especially co-workers and neighbors, with nothing but happy family photos. They'll want to see where you went, what you saw and how much fun you had.

When you are done, you can share your digital photos with pride, even to strangers.