You can build your own slideshow by purchasing software. My favorite is Pro Show Gold by Photodex. This software is relatively simple to use and has lots of features that make the project fun. You just add your photos to the program, then drag them into the order you want. With Pro Show Gold you can edit your photos and color correct, add your own music and then synchronize it to the photos. You can add text to the photo in the location you choose and use the “Ken Burns” effect to zoom from place to place on your images. With Pro Show Gold you can play your slideshow on TV. You’ll be amazed at how good your 4×6 photos look on a 50″ TV.

If you need slideshow freeware you’ll find it on the web. Different free services and software are suitable for different purposes. Some make it easy to create and upload your slideshow to social networking sites. Some are simply slideshow creation software. Spend some time exploring the features that are offered, and always download from a familiar site. Sites like Goggle Picassa, Extra Photo Slideshow Free, and Wildbit software can include music and photo editing capabilities. They may not allow you to show your slideshow on a TV.

You may want to think about placing your slideshow in a digital picture frame. Prices have come down on digital picture frames with some 14″ frames selling for as little as $99. Some of the smaller frames now go for under $25. We expect this trend to continue. With memory card prices also hitting new lows you can afford to put your entire digital photo library on them. Lots of digital frames come with slideshow software installed, and some will play audio. So when your friends come over you can crawl into the back of that closet to dig out the box of gradually fading photos, or you can flip on that beautiful digital picture frame.

Look at some of the online slideshow hosting services. These can help keep friends and family from needing to download and store your slideshows. Sites like Picturetrail and Iwebphoto can make viewing your slideshow easier, especially if you have a lot of images, and allow you to edit, remove, and replace your items at will. Remember to add text to your images to help everyone understand what they are. And then go crazy with special effects. Have fun!

Make sure you choose a photo scanning service that scans at 300 dpi, and don’t pay for more. See if you can find a service that includes automatic photo enhancement at a reasonable price. This can do wonders for some if not all of your images. And be sure to insist on a complete copy of the original scans that have not been rotated, enhanced, or manipulated in any way. Then always make a copy of your master scans to use for anything. Shop around, scanning costs can vary greatly.

Scanning photographs permanently protects them from destruction and loss. Once your images are stored on a DVD and sent to two or three different places you are assured of always being able to retrieve at least one copy. You can generate copies on your computer for the price of a blank DVD to share with your friends and family. Day to day loss of quality is no longer an issue. Your treasured memories are safe and sound.

Don’t fail to include your older photographs in your slide show creations. Pete Fontaine invites you to learn more about photo scanning at his website www.nickelscan.com

Don’t limit yourself to just using just your digital photos. All of your old photos can be sent to a low cost scanning service to be digitized. For as little as a nickel apiece you can add hundreds of your favorite memories to your scrapbook.

Perhaps an even greater benefit of scanning your photos than making them available for your digital scrapbook is protecting them from possible destruction or damage. When a scanning service saves your photos to a DVD it makes it possible to store a duplicate in two or three different locations. This insures their permanent survival, protecting your photographs from natural deterioration and damage from mold and moisture. Scanning to a DVD also allows you to share a set of your pictures with others.

Once you’ve gotten your photos scanned for scrapping you can use them to build photobooks online and upload them to a free photo sharing site to share with your friends. Online businesses that sell photo novelties like cards, calendars, and T-shirts are easy to find and use. With a few services you can even build a slideshow with music that you can view on a TV or on a digital picture frame.

The optimum resolution for scanning your photo prints is 300 dpi. Don’t accept lower and don’t pay for higher. Nothing is gained by scanning at a higher resolution than 300 dpi, and you’ll be handling much larger files. That means any use of the scans will be slower. Do make sure your scans are saved as high quality jpeg files. This means that the scans are saved with very low compression and thus higher quality. You will be able to use free photo editing software to reduce the file size for copy to use on the web, if needed.

Find a photo scanner who offers an inexpensive photo enhancement service. These services can make descent improvements to most of your photos. Don’t pay a lot for this because it won’t perform miracles, and it won’t fix all of the problems. But beware; always enhance a copy of your original scans. Don’t let a photo scanner send just the enhanced scans. Photo enhancement as well as any manipulation or rotation of your scans means they will be recompressed. Repeated recompression means loss of image quality.

The web is loaded with digital scrapbooking accessories, communities, and educational materials. You can find e-books and embellishments of every kind. Put these tools together with scans from an economical photo scanning service and you’re on your way!

Scanning photos for digital scrapbooking permanently protects them from destruction and deterioration. Photo Scanning makes it easy and inexpensive to share a complete copy of your family’s photographic history with each family member. Find out more about photo scanning at Pete’s website www.nickelscan.com

Wouldn’t it be great to take a complete set of all of your photos with you, neatly stored away on a DVD or two? Digitizing your ordinary photos is the way to make this possible. Whether you decide to purchase an inexpensive photo scanner and do it yourself or send your photos to a low cost scanning service. You can find excellent scanning services for as little as a nickel per scan.

Scanning your photos puts an end to their natural aging and deterioration. Your images are permanently preserved and because they are now easy to copy, you can put complete sets of your images in different locations. This will prevent you from losing your photos to natural disaster. You’ll also be able to share complete sets of your photos with each family member.

One great way to view your photos once you have them scanned is to create a slideshow that you can watch on TV. This is the perfect project for those evenings “on the trail”. Slideshow software makes it easy to add captions to your photographs and also include your favorite music. If you’re not feeling that creative, you can easily find companies that will build a slideshow just the way you want it.

Digital picture frames are a great way to view your newly scanned photos. And the good news is that they are getting to be relatively affordable. Some of the more expensive frames allow you to play a slideshow, add captions to your images, and add music. The low cost of high capacity memory cards now makes it possible to store all of your digital images right in the frame. Having your photos organized in a digital picture frame when you are visiting family or making new friends on the road is definitely worth the effort.

If you have large numbers of photos then doing them yourself could be an incredibly boring task. You could consider using one of the photo scanning services found online. But, shop carefully as prices and services vary greatly. Make sure you understand what your requirements are. For example you shouldn’t be paying to scan ordinary photos at a higher resolution than 300 dpi. You can find other articles online by this author that discuss some of these money saving topics. You can find great photo scanning services for as little as a nickel.

So now you’re in business. You’re rolling down the highway, your family’s precious memories are not only protected from damage and destruction, but wherever you go you have that little piece of home with you. You can add new digital pictures you are taking to your collection, but now they won’t be in two different forms. They will all be digitized, easy to store, easy to duplicate, and easy to view and enjoy. Happy Motoring!

Are you considering photo scanning for your recreational vehicle or to permanently protect your family’s precious memories from damage and deterioration? Pete Fontaine talks more about scanning photos at his website www.nickelscan.com

Once your ordinary photos are digitized they can be added to and organized along with your collection of digital photos. And when the work is done you’ll be able to use your newly scanned images to generate wonderful photobooks and photo specialties. Several online businesses offer free software that lets you use your digital images to create an assortment of items from mugs to puzzels to t-shirts and more.

An online photo novelty company was used recently to provide t-shirts with the photo of an injured player for the entire team. The decision to attempt to boost the morale of the team in this way was based partly on the fact that producing the shirts could be done quickly and affordably. The effect on the team and the fans was something to remember.

A small Michigan firm encouraged each of it employees to bring in photos and create their own photo mug. They then hung them on a rack in the lunch room. Some mugs showed the individual as a child or a teenager. Some had big hair and bell bottoms; some were mountain bikers or cheerleaders. But everyone in the office knew each other a little better just by sharing a cup of coffee.

Impressed by the slideshow display that the funeral parlor had put together for a family member’s funeral service, one family had the digitized photos made into photobooks for all of the relatives and friends. The photos tied people’s memories together in a way that brought everyone closer together and expressed what it means to be a family in a way that words fell short of doing.

A group of guys in Maine used photo books to immortalize themselves and permanently record their Memorial Day fishing trip to Lobster Lake. Their advice was to hold the fish as close to the camera as possible so that it looks bigger. As time goes by and memories fade those photo books will become an important part of their life stories.

Many high school teams and clubs have discovered that they can easily and inexpensively pool their special digital photographs and create photobooks that are exclusively dedicated to their particular organization. Some teams have used photobooks to raise money while others have put them together just for fun. Everyone likes the idea of their group having complete artistic control of their own project. These keepsakes will more treasured as the years go by.

Some photo specialty companies offer photobook creation software with exceptional features. Be sure to look for software that automatically performs the layout function. This feature will quickly display endless combinations of photos and layouts until you find one that you like. Another great feature allows you to use one of you photos as the page background. Imagine the artistic possibilities. Software that allows you to complete the entire project on your computer before sending it in is much preferred over systems that make you upload at every step.

So get your photos scanned to protect them from loss, damage, and destruction. And once you’ve included them in your digital photo collection you will be able to let your creative side run wild designing your favorite photo specialties easily and inexpensively online.

Scanning photos for photo specialties permanently protects them from loss and damage. Sending your photos to a photo scanning service makes it easy and inexpensive to share a complete copy of your familys digital images with everyone in the family. Learn more about digitizing photos at Pete’s website www.NickelScan.com