ThReE WaYs tO PriNt DiGiTal PhoToS

A great picture is even better when you can share it with others. And despite all the fancy things you can do with digital images, printing is still one of the top ways to share photos. You have three main options for printing: A home printer, a store kiosk (a do-it-yourself machine in a drugstore or department store), or through an online photo service.

Print at home

Printing at home is cheap and long-lasting if you use the right printer, ink, and paper. A 4×6 print will typically cost between 25 and 50 cents, depending on the printer and the ink. Of course that doesn’t include the cost of the printer or user error. Be sure to read printer reviews to get an idea of how often you’ll need to replace the ink cartridge.

Print at a store kiosk

Store kiosks are convenient, and they let you do a lot of basic editing right on the spot (cropping, adjusting brightness, removing red-eye, etc). If you shop around, you can find stores that let you create 4×6 prints for well under 50 cents each. These do-it-yourself machines are a good alternative if you’re not in the mood for the care and feeding of your own photo printer.

Online printing services

Online print services such as Webshots, Shutterfly, SnapFish, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, and many others are often the least expensive and can give great-looking prints. However, like the good old days, you’ll have to wait to see the results. But that’s fine when you’re printing a large number of images—for instance, all your vacation photos.

Do your image editing at home on your computer first, then bring a CD of your edited files to the kiosk. That way, you don’t have to sit in a store making edits while others might be waiting. You just pop in your CD and fire away!

SiX GrEaT PhoTo TiPs

1. Naming photo files: In general, when you use numbers you can automatically sort the files in order, where dates written out won’t sort.
2. Photographing moving people: Try following them with the camera so you actually move the camera with them. Take the shot as you move and keep moving until it’s all done. That way you should get the person nicely sharp and the background nicely blurred.
   


3. Be wary of deleting images in the camera. Something that looks like it’s a terrible shot in the camera, when opened may have some artistic merit. If you’re interested in the artistic possibilities, I’d wait and cull on the larger computer screen where you can more accurately assess what sort of shot you have.
4. View pictures, don’t save: Every time you save a file as a JPEG format image, you permanently lose some quality. Just opening and viewing it doesn’t do that, but saving will compromise quality.
5. Best size for e-mailing photos: For e-mailing, I suggest 800 x 600 is the best maximum size. For printing, you need a lot more image. I like to resize the image to a resolution of 300 dpi and then adjust the size in inches to the final print size. Your photo software will have a tool for resizing images.
6. Photo backups: When you downsize a photo you’re going to permanently lose that data so consider using CDs or DVDs to back up your photos. When you do that, make a couple of copies to CD or DVD just in case a disk fails. Also, buy good quality disks from a reputable manufacturer.

AdObE TaCklEs RiSkY HoleS in AcRoBaT, ReAder

update Adobe Systems has issued updates to fix security flaws in its Reader and Acrobat software that could allow an attacker to remotely commandeer a computer.

The vulnerabilities affect Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat Standard, Professional and Elements versions 7.0.8 and earlier, as well as Adobe Acrobat 3D, Adobe said in its advisory. Secunia rated the Reader flaw as "highly critical."

The version 7.0.9 updates issued Tuesday are designed to address holes that could allow outsiders to gain access to hard-disk drives via a malicious link that targets PDF files on vulnerable computers.

The attackers could then take the compromised system and read and delete files, execute programs and forward information from the computer.

Adobe recommends that Reader users upgrade to Reader 8, the most recent major version, to fix the problem. Those whose computer systems are not compatible, or who do not want to move to version 8 can install Tuesday's 7.0.9 version instead.

That means people will have to do a full installation of a software version to protect their computers. Typically, companies will provide a patch to fix security holes--a less time-consuming process--but Adobe has not done that in this case.

The 7.0.9 update is slightly larger than a patch, an Adobe representative said. The company was already working on the update when it added the security features, so Adobe was able to get out a full installation faster than it would for just a patch, the representative added.