I recommend the first thing you do is back up your photos. Don’t do it later, do it now and I recommend backing up to a DVD or to an external hard drive.

The most obvious thing to do once you’ve downloaded your photos to your computer is delete the ones that are no good. You will have a few, perhaps many not so flattering photos so go through and get rid of the ones that will be too much work to edit. This can include out of focus, poorly exposed, and not so pretty facial expressions. Toss them out and never look back!

Color adjustments come next. This is where you’ll want to check your levels, contrast, saturation, etc. If you don’t know how to do all this manually, simply trying using auto levels & auto contrasts. Many times it can make a significant difference and improve the quality of the photo.

This is the time to do any extra editing you want like blurring, dodging, and burning. After this, you can use sharpen.

Now save your photo. I use Photoshop so I like to save as PSD and JPEG. After you have saved your photo, you can crop or resize to your liking. I always do this after everything else just in case I crop too much or resize too small. I know that I have the original processed and saved so there won’t be any need to panic if I mess up.

Printing to Paper

There are many factors that affect how your image will turn out printed to paper vs. printed to web. It all has to do with RGB, more pixels and other fancy jargon. In a nutshell, the higher resolution images result in higher quality prints. To give you an idea, here’s the recommend resolution for certain print sizes.

• • 1 megapixel 640 x 480 4×6
• • 1.x megapixel 1280 x 960 4×6
• • 2.x megapixel 1600 x 1200 4×6, 5×7, 8×10
• • 3.x megapixel 2048 x 1536 4×6, 5×7, 8×10
• • 4.x megapixel 2372 x 1804 4×6, 5×7, 8×10
• • 5.x megapixel 2560 x 1920 4×6, 5×7, 8×10

Here are the minimum resolutions recommended:

• • 4×6–640×480 pixels
• • 5×7 –1050×750 pixels
• • 8×10–1500×1200 pixels

Not all of this will apply to everyone, but what’s great about establishing a work-flow, is finding out what works for you and what steps you can add or avoid for the process to run smooth. Every photographer is different and once you set up a routine, you’ll be able to backup, edit, manage, save and even print your photos in not time.

I had the recent opportunity to see the Walt Disney film of “The Caballeros Collection”, which includes Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.  This has a release date of April 29, 2008 so you’ll have wait until then to get one.  It’s not only fun to watch, it’s also a cool learning experience so I recommend it.  Coming from a Spanish background, I enjoy it that much more.

I waited for my 2 youngest to be around before I watched it so I could see their reaction.  We watched The Three Caballeros first.  I wasn’t surprised at all that my 18mth old was intrigued because there was quite a bit of music and singing happening.  The first thing I noticed was the narrator voice, whom I assume was Walt Disney himself.  It reminded me of when Jiminy Cricket would tell his stories.  The stories take place through South America and give you a real latin feel. I absolutely loved Panchito & his donkey and probably my most favorite thing about the entire collection, was the learning experience.  Even my 12 year old said they were learning about South America in Geography class so he knew exactly what they were talking about.  Heck, I even learned the capital of Peru!  Of course, I’ve know what it was but sometimes you forget so it was fun to be reminded. 

In Saludos Amigos, there are 4 adventures that take you through the Bolivian Andes to the Argentine pampas.  We loved them both!  Some bonus features include:

• “South of the Border with Disney” Featurette – Take a tour with the Walt & friends through Latin America.
• Walt Disney Interview
• “Don Donald” – Donald Duck short cartoon
• “Contrary Condor” – Donald Duck short cartoon

What better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than with this Caballeros Collection.  Not only will you and the family enjoy a classic, I guarantee that you all will learn at least one thing that you didnt’ know before.

 So now you want to know how to win right?  Well, lucky for you, I have 3 copies to give away!!  Woohoo, I love giveaways:)  It’s SOOOO easy to win one of these DVD’S. 

TO ENTER:

• Leave a comment on this post.

For an additional entry, you can blog about it!  Simply link to this contest post and come back and leave a comment to your entry.

FINE PRINT:

This giveaway closes on April 30, 2008 around 10:00pm CST.  I will announce the 3 winners on May 1st, 2008.  The 3 winners will be randomly chosen and will have 1 week to contact me to claim their prize.  If for some reason the prizes go unclaimed, I will redraw for a new winner. 

BUENA SUERTE!

The Disney DVD club rocks!