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Category: How Digital Camera Equipment Works

Photography Question 

Linda Buchanan
 

Saving Images from Digital Camera


I have a new Rebel XT camera and I have some questions. I have shot film for nearly thirty years so this is really new to me. I am learning the camera OK, but how do I go about saving the images from the card to a CD. What kind of CD do I want? I want to be able to do some minor editing, save the images and then upload to MPIX for prints. I have a card reader and the software that came with the camera. I also have Elements and Microsoft Picture IT. Can anyone help me? Thanks.


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October 05, 2005

 
- Gregory LaGrange

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  Use either the camera software or Photoshop to open the file on the card, then transfer the pictures to a file on your computer. Then you open each one with Photoshop and do whatever editing you need. Then save them.
I have never uploaded to Mpix, so I don't know what their guidelines are for uploading to them.
Getting the pictures off your card should be in the owner's manual though.
What kind of CD? I've heard not to get the kind that come in assorted colors. They look good but aren't considered the best for longevity. They'll last a long time, but the plain ones are better.


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October 05, 2005

 

robert G. Fately
  Hi, Linda,
As Gregory has pointed out, you are actually asking a few different questions. So here goes:

"How to get the card from the camera to the CD?" This is a question of file transfer - the memory card in the camera needs to get attached to a computer (I assume you have a computer). This can be done in two ways, basically. Either you would use a cable that may have come with the camera itself, and attach the camera directly to the USB port of the computer, or remove the memory card from the camera and insert it into a so-called "card reader". The latter method is usually considered better - only because you don't use battery time on the camera itself and can be transferring to the computer even while using the camera with another card in it. Either way, now you have the image files (and that's all they are, computer files of the images taken by the camera) on a computer.

"What kind of CD...?" Greg makes a good point - home-burned CDs and DVDs may not last very long (a few years, sometimes less). This has to do with the materials used to make their reflective layers - in cheap CDs these chemicals oxidize with exposure. If you are planning to archive the images in question - that is, keep them a long time - it's best to buy high-quality blank CDs, like Mitsui Gold. These are rated to last decades.

Of course, all this presumes that you have the ability to burn CDs on your computer in the first place. If not, you will need to buy a CD burner and perhaps software for it as well. These have come down in price considerably over the years - to about $100 today.

Not to befuddle entirely, but one other possibility would be to get a CD burner specifically designed for photographers to burn and store images "on the road". In other words, these devices are portable, and are not designed to plug into a computer but instead have a built-in card reader and a power cord. The concept is that you fill up your memory card and then plug it into the burner, burn a CD (or 2, just for backup) and then erase the card and reuse it. Then you can take the CD home to your PC/Mac and open the file in Elements or whatever, and have a party!
Hope that helps.


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October 05, 2005

 
- Dr Silly

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  The simple way if you do not have a CD burner is to take you camera card to Wal-mart and use their machine to make a CD About $3.00. Hope this helps.
Dr Silly :o)


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October 05, 2005

 

Marcia Good
  I had to learn a nasty lesson recently.... new to digital photography. I uploaded into one of those programs (in my case IPhoto) and would do some basic cropping, lighting shifts, etc., and then save as "originals" at maximum size.

Always keep a copy of the original photo, and then edit it when you need it. When you pass it through one of those programs, it loses so much of it's original quality. There are so many photos I loved that are reduced in size, pixels and I even changed my mind about how I would have edited them when the "use" for them changed.

I just copy to a folder on the desktop, and then open my image processing program to look at them, but I don't save them after they've "passed through" IPhoto.

I don't know what MPIX is... maybe you won't have that problem, but it is a very sad ;-( lesson and you might as well learn it before shooting over 2000 photos like I did.

Marcia


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October 11, 2005

 
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