burning photo CDs for the novice

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Hi I've got a question about putting photographs on CDs. Recently, I was clearing the attic and found old photographs from my college semester in Germany. This was all of ten years ago. I want to have them put on CD and then have messageblaster.com mail them out and send invitations for a reunion to every possible contact number and email I have. But how do I burn a CD with photographs? How do I make twenty copies? Am I going to go broke?

This is obviously not my industry. I'm a vet. tech. but I thought someone here could explain something about this process and give me a cheap option? Do I have to have negs or can I work with just the photos themselves?

Seirih

-- Seirih (seirih8@4children.com), February 09, 2000

Answers

I assume you own the copyright, of course, otherwise what you propose is illegal. You don't need the negatives.

You could take the photos to a shop, and get them to scan them to CD and make 20 copies.

You could get a computer with CD-ROM writer and flat-bed scanner. Scan the photos to hard disk, then copy them to 20 CD-ROMS. Once you have the equipment, each CD will cost you a couple of dollars, plus your time. It might take you about 20 minutes per photo, plus 20 minutes per CD.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan@snibgo.com), February 09, 2000.


Your best bed would be to go to a PhotoLab and have them create Photo CDs from scanned images. Generally they'll be able to scan the prints for you. You'll want to check to make sure what file type they are returning. If they return TIFs or BMPs you'll need to find a JPEG conversion program if you plan to email these pictures.

Your other alternative would be to get a computer setup with a scanner and all that, but unless you are going to make a hobby or profession out of this, I'd suggest a visit to a local photo lab. They'll be able to tell you who in town does that kind of work.

-- Jeffrey Sevier (jsevier@one.net), February 09, 2000.


Another option you might want to try is using a software package called FotoAlbum from http://www.fototime.com. This software package will let you organize your photos into albums. You can then publish these photos to your own private account at fototime.com. If you want other people to view these pictures, you can send them an invite email that has a link to your web-site account.

-- Karl Swierenga (kswier@hotmail.com), February 22, 2000.

I am not sure why you want to use cd's at all. I might have the cheapest alternative for you, just use a scanner to scan the images in and attach them to the emails. Messageblasters sneds email to Germany if thats where these are being sent. Cynthia

-- Cynthia Guendel (cyncycler@email.women.com), February 28, 2000.

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