31 January 2012

Photo Tips #6

Top tips for you and your camera

# 6 - PRINT YOUR PHOTOS
Here we are with our digital cameras busily snapping away, downloading the hundreds (or thousands) of images and uploading them to our Facebook or Flickr accounts or sharing them with family or friends via email. In the days of analogue, when we had to put a film into the back of our camera, we had to wait for our film to be processed and then collect the prints.

What seems to be missing in this digital age is something to hold in your hand, put into a frame or stick into a treasured family album.

Let's start printing some of our favourite images. You can do this yourself, if your printer is up to it, or find an online print monkey to sort them for you. Jessops, Snapfish, Boots, Photobox, Truprint all offer deals and offers for anything from 6"x4" prints to large canvasses. Now you just have to decide what to do with these lovely images:

*  Make a Wall of Achievement - Collect images from trips, epic weekends, and the time you met your favourite celebrity. Dedicate a wall in your home and adorn it with a framed display of all the cool things you've done so far in life. Mix and match frame styles for visual interest. Make your images into posters and postcards and stick them to the wall in amongst your framed images too. 


*  Make a Journal - If you want somewhere to keep a record of your ideas and memories think about making a journal. There are a number of tutorials online showing you how to turn your printed photographs into a journal that you can use for notes or doodles or inspiration.


*  Make an Album - Instead of having magazines, newspapers and remote controls on your coffee table - make a flick through photo album and leave it laying around the when your friends call round they can pick it up and start flicking through and start giggling at the memories.


*  Make a Calendar - obviously this tip comes a little late in the year - but perhaps it will give you inspiration to work on images through this year to create a calendar ready for 2013. There are tutorials to make your own calendars available online as well as a variety of printers who will take your images and turn them into and print your calendars for you. Check out Snapfish, Vista Print, Photobox, BigHugeLabs - there are many.


*  Make a Portfolio - If you love your images you will want to show them off at their best and be able to carry them around to show others. Think about creating a book (Blurb, Snapfish, Lulu, Jessops) full of your stunning images using their layout options to be creative. Or think about a traditional portfolio. Silverprint offer everything from clam boxes to leather bound A3 portfolios.
Celebration PhotoBook

Whatever you decided - set your images free - get them off the computer and out into the big wide world. What is better than having fun showing off your images and sharing your memories.

  
Next top tip - Landscapes - next week.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .