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After scanning your photos, slides and negatives to digital images, it’s common for people to want to share these old memories with their close friends and family. However, depending on the resolution your opt for, the images you receive might be too large for your website or image hosting provider. The good news is that much of the web-based image hosting services have server scripts built in that will actually re-size your images automatically, without the need for a manual re-sizing.

If the website you’re wanting to upload to doesn’t automatically re-size your large images, you’re going to have to take care of that yourself, or else viewers of your image will experience long loading times for viewing an image 4000% larger than their computer screen. This is also the case if you’re wanting to email your images to somebody. Most email providers have a limit as to the maximum size of any one email, so trying to attach large, high resolution images to your emails doesn’t always work.

Thankfully, re-sizing your images is not hard at all, and really just requires a computer program capable of re-sizing easily. A common photo editing software, Photoshop, can resize photos by first opening your image, then selecting Image->Image Size or ALT-CTRL-I. This will bring up a dialog box asking for the new dimensions. After typing in the new values, you can then save the image as the intended file type.

If you don’t have access to Photoshop, there is a cool online app that will resize your images, and even add effects to them, if desired.

https://www.picresize.com/ will re-size your photos easily by simply choosing an image on your computer and hitting continue. On the next screen, you have the option of adding effects, as well as cropping the existing image down even further.

Uploaded by user brusspup, he explained, “They gave me the statistic of “500 years of youtube videos are watched each day through social media sites” and asked if I could build an illusion around it. I thought VHS tapes would be a nice way to portray “video” and would be easy to work with to create the illusion. The only effects added to this video are the words added to the floor below “500 years” at the end of the video.”

Instagram is the immensely popular iOS app that applies appealing features and retro look to your digital images before sharing them with family and friends on Facebook or Twitter. The one drawback of this app is that you must own an iPhone or other iOS device. Instagram, at this time, is not available for PC or Android devices. What if you want to Instagram your digital photos but don’t own one of these devices? Sometimes after scanning photos, it’s nice to add cool effects to certain images before sharing them with friends.

There are actually several web services dedicated to providing an Instagram experience to your photos.

Pixlr-o-matic
https://pixlr.com/o-matic/
To use Pixlr-o-matic, first upload a picture from your computer. If you don’t have a photo ready, you can take a new photo with your webcam. Pixlr-o-matic has 26 filters, 30 textures, and 31 frames for you to choose from. With each photo, you can use one filter, one texture, and one frame in order to apply a variety of different looks to your images.

Phixr
https://www.phixr.com/photo/
Phixr is a more involved photo editing service that lets you crop, rotate and resize them in addition to applying cool filters and looks to your images. Getting started isn’t hard and you don’t even need an account, just agree to their service terms and upload your own photos!

Our San Diego store is having a special promotion on our video tape transfers. All tapes up to two hours will only cost you $15.00. Save up to 50% off of your video transfer order in San Diego. This promotion is only for video tapes that are being transferred to DVD, and not available with any other offers.

Additional hours and DVD copies only cost $10 extra. This deal will allow you to transfer the majority of your tapes at one low price!

Deal information

For the last decade or so, nearly everything is going the way of digital. Camcorders, cameras, televisions etc are all now based on digital signals instead of the old analog signals. Due to the switch to digital, this also changes the way we record media. Even movie theaters across the country have begun to abandon the old film projector for a digital one. There are actually several differences between capturing images on film versus digitally.

The image resolution is an important factor when it comes time to shoot video or photography, and is one of the reasons that some photographers still prefer film over digital. Currently, the highest powered digital camera can capture an image up to around 80 megapixels, while a top of the line medium format camera can take an equivalent picture on 4×5 film at about 200 megapixels.

Noise and grain can also be a factor between the two types. Typically, it has been shown that digital camera suffer less noise and grainy images than their film counterparts. Nearly all digital cameras apply noise reduction filters, which are built into the camera’s hardware. This is one of the advantages that digital has over traditional photography. Digital cameras are also capable of much higher speeds (sensitivities) than film, and therefore make better photos in low light situations at night or indoors, and are more useful for ultra-fast photography. In addition, on digital cameras the speed can be adjusted at any time, while a film camera requires actually changing the film to change the film speed.

One of the constant issues that photographers face is when dust gets on the image plane. DSLR (Digital single-lens reflex) cameras are especially prone to dust problems because the sensor remains stationary, while film advances through the film camera for each exposure. Dirt or dust in the camera may scratch the film; a single grain of sand can damage a whole roll of film. As film cameras age, they can develop burs in their rollers. With a digital SLR, dust is difficult to avoid but is easy to fix up using a computer with image-editing software. Some recent digital SLRs have systems that remove dust from the sensor by vibrating or knocking it, sometimes in conjunction with software that remembers where dust is located and removes dust-affected pixels from images.

Cost is also a factor between the two cameras. Typically, a digital camera will cost quite a bit more than the film alternative, but the benefit with digital is that the cost of taking photos is free, where with a film camera, you’ll need to constantly be purchasing film in which to develop your pictures from. Some of the costs to consider with digital cameras is the battery costs, memory costs and data storage.

In the end, it really just boils down to what you prefer to use, and what you want your pictures to look like. Each type has their own advantages and disadvantages and are great for certain situations.

Although the video is from the 80s, it does a good job of showing you exactly how film works, and the process behind it. Watch Deane Hutton explain that it’s mostly just a trick you play on your eyes.

Check out our film to DVD San Diego services!

Before converting your whole entire collection of video tapes to DVD, there’s actually a few things to think about. With all of the different options available, you’ll want to make sure you get all of the specifications you’re looking for prior to bringing in your video tape transfer. These are just some points to think about, as not everyone is aware of all of the different possibilities when it comes to VHS to DVD transfers.

Combine multiple video tapes onto one DVD
This is a popular request, especially for people with many tapes of varying short lengths. When we combine your tapes onto a single disc, keep in mind that we can only fit 2 hours onto a disc, so you’re videos will need to be within that time frame in order for them to all fit on the disc. This option is great for short tapes such as VHS-C and MiniDV, where often times we can fit two or more tapes onto a single disc. We can even also fit video tapes of different types onto the same disc, so you’ll be able to combine a MiniDV tape with a VHS tape, for instance. Each video will also be it’s own independent chapter for easy navigation from the menus.

Chapter Markers
By default, chapter markers are inserted every 10 minutes. Chapter markers are useful because they are similar to scenes in that if you hit the “next chapter” button on your DVD player’s remote, it will skip ahead to the next scene, or chapter. We can also provide custom chapter markers to your videos if you’d like. To make things easier, it’s best to map out exactly what time frames you’d like your markers to be inserted. You can review the tapes at home, or make an appointment to come view them at one of our local offices.

Color Correction
Has the color of your tapes faded over the years? We can help bring back some of the vibrancy of your tapes by running it through our video filters. This will help offset the color deterioration, and improve the colors of your video. Please ask our video tape technicians for more information about color correction.

Video Tape Editing
In addition to transferring your tapes as-is, we can also provide a wide range of editing services to your videos. Blank footage is automatically removed from your DVDs, and you’re only charged for the footage on your tape that you want to keep. No editing job is too big or too small. Jobs range from removing commercials from your favorite television program, or producing a featured clip on television. If you need lots of editing done, you’ll actually need to transfer your video to a hard drive first, so that we can edit the video from one of our computers. Editing video from a DVD is not a good idea, because you’ll be working with compressed video, while transferring to your hard drive will allow you to edit the video in it’s full quality.