I know that when I first began to migrate from film to digital pictures, I was really excited about easier organization and viewing of my prized family photos. So long to hundreds of prints stuffed into old shoe boxes and “I’ll get those into albums soon- I will!” After all, seeing and sharing is the goal, not just taking. Sadly, as with many technologies, the reality has fallen short of the promise, and we now have thousands of digital files lost in the abyss of our computer’s hard drive and “I’ll get those organized and printed soon- I will!”

I’d like to tell you about the perfect, integrated solutions to help you organize, tune-up, print, and back-up your digital pictures with the greatest of ease- but I can’t, since they don’t exist. However, there is, at least, a very good option- Apple iPhoto. Intuitive organization- check. Means to easily create slide shows or photo albums to be printed- check. Editing tools- good enough. Automatic back-up- not so much.

Apple was able to make the iPod and iPhone revolutionary products because they designed the whole digital chain. With cameras, a typical chain would be a Nikon camera, a Dell PC, Adobe software and an HP printer. There are so many hand-offs in this relay that the baton is often fumbled. But iPhoto is pretty darn good at smoothing some of those transitions. The closest equivalent for PC is Picasa, available via (FREE!) download from Google. Picasa is only for organization, but it is very intuitive. Add Adobe Photoshop Elements ($85) for editing and you’ve got a solid set-up for removing red-eye, making a photo collage, etc.

Now that we’ve got those pictures looking great on the computer, we need to get them into prints and slideshows and on a big screen for family viewing. iPhoto makes slideshows, prints and bound albums all pretty painless. It’s all quite doable on the PC too. Costco has a great online print service- top quality 4×6s are 17 cents each, pick-up or mailed to you or others. Kodak’s online service is also excellent. Factoring in the shorter lifespan of home prints, there is little reason to struggle with ink cartridges at home any longer.

LCD picture frames are literally mini TVs and a fantastic way to show off your shots. Forget about networking or service subscriptions offered with these. If you give an LCD frame to Aunt May just drop an inexpensive memory card with fresh shots in the mail to her every few weeks. Apple TV takes pictures from the computer to the TV seamlessly, but it’s pricey and picture quality is only OK. Instead, the Oppo 980H, in addition to being a world class DVD player (tough to tell it’s not high-def), also has the combination of a USB 2.0 port and HD-JPEG capability. Translation: Drop your pictures onto one of those inexpensive “thumb drives”, plug it into the Oppo and hit the couch for high-definition (HD) widescreen slide shows. All that for $169.

And remember, still pictures clearly show the advantages of the top HDTV formats. That’s right- I just gave you the excuse you needed to buy a new high-def TV! You’re welcome.

–“Tech Dad” John Svoboda is a consumer electronics enthusiast, manager and business owner since the time of the 8-track, and holds a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Eco Family, Green Technology, Parenting, Play. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.