DLSR Newbie with question..many to follow

[Lil_George]

Ive just ordered my first dslr an Olympus Evolt E-420 & it will be here in one week.

Was wondering...... whats the best place online to store photos that wont resize them in the process? I have some old photos in Photbucket & the resizing there is permanent.

Whats a good starter imaging program...thats free.... if possible?

I will be taking mostly outdoors pics & night shots.
I have NO idea what Im doing yet..my only experience is w/ 35mm.

Thx for reading

[RovingLenses]

Hi there, George! Welcome to DPS forums. ^^

I've seen most people use flickr as their main online photo storage space. Flickr, however, does resize the pics, but I've heard that they somehow do a better job at compression than some of the other sites.

A good (free) starter imaging program would be Gimp. I have not personally used the software (I started with PS 7.0), but from what I've read, Gimp usually is the first option that comes up when someone is looking for a free imaging software. =)


~AC

[dlambert]

I've started using 500px for some of my shots, and I'm pretty happy with how they present photos, but this isn't a substitute for keeping your own backups, if that's what you're fishing for.

In addition to gimp (which is really powerful, but has a bit of a learning curve), you can look at Paint.Net -- be sure to do some googling for addins for it, as there are hundreds of good additions available for free.

[RovingLenses]

Originally Posted by dlambert

I've started using 500px for some of my shots, and I'm pretty happy with how they present photos, but this isn't a substitute for keeping your own backups, if that's what you're fishing for.

Ah yes, 500px. I started using that sometime ago and I like the interface (quite similar to a social networking site). However, the free account has limitations of 20 photos/week which is where it loses out on flickr. But overall, it's a pretty decent place if you want to upload selected pics. ^^


~AC

[dlambert]

Yeah, I think the idea is to just put your best stuff up there. The quality of photos, in general, is really impressive. It'll be interesting to see if it stays this way as it scales.

FWIW, I wouldn't put all my photos on *any* online site. I don't see that I'm going to end up with more people viewing my photos by posting all my junk. Again, I don't think a photo-sharing site is a substitute for a backup plan. Now, if you're lookling for a cloud backup option, that's a whole other discussion, but those photos aren't going to be shared with everyone.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by RovingLenses

Hi there, George! Welcome to DPS forums. ^^

I've seen most people use flickr as their main online photo storage space. Flickr, however, does resize the pics, but I've heard that they somehow do a better job at compression than some of the other sites. C

Flickr re-sizes to make smaller versions, but you can allow it to keep the full-res ones up too, and hidden to everyone except you.

[Hill Country Hack]

Hello George!

Welcome to DPS. I hope you enjoy your stay. There is alot of great information, tutorials and other resources here for the new/learning photographer. I've only been shooting about 6 months now and I can't believe the improvement in my photos. Read, read, read...then shoot, shoot, shoot.

[ishootRAW]

Hi and welcome,

+1 for GIMP, I own Photoshop but I still use GIMP for 70% of my shots. I only use PS for hardcore editing.

I use the 4 servers in my garage, For just storage, there are many websites where you can get 5-10GB of storage. For sharing I use Flickr, Picasa does not re-size, and if I remember imageshack does not ether.

EDIT:
If its just for storage, get an external Hard drive, You will need it. with a DSLR you will find yourself taking a LOT more pics. That and if you start using RAW, the amount of space you need will like triple.

[Lil_George]

Originally Posted by ishootRAW

Hi and welcome,

+1 for GIMP, I own Photoshop but I still use GIMP for 70% of my shots. I only use PS for hardcore editing.

I use the 4 servers in my garage, For just storage, there are many websites where you can get 5-10GB of storage. For sharing I use Flickr, Picasa does not re-size, and if I remember imageshack does not ether.

EDIT:
If its just for storage, get an external Hard drive, You will need it. with a DSLR you will find yourself taking a LOT more pics. That and if you start using RAW, the amount of space you need will like triple.

Think I'll try both sites then...Flicker & Picassa.
I can kinda guess what RAW is

Is RAW the ultimate setting for quality?

I listen to alot of music & I DONT want to store photos on cd/dvd for they degrade & are unplayable in a few years. I get 50G here free for my music https://www.adrive.com

Are those sticks good for years?

Like, everyone will want to show to their grandchildren these pics.
What,besides printing them on good paper, will stand the test of time?


Wow thats alot of questions..sorry

Lil_George

[RovingLenses]

Originally Posted by Lil_George

Is RAW the ultimate setting for quality?

RAW is not really a quality setting. It's more like a 'no-compression' mode. I'm sure you are aware that image formats like jpegs and tif compress the image to make them lighter (in size). Not to mention, compression also means loss of data.

So, while an average jpeg will be between 2Mb to 5Mb in size (resolution and quality dependant), a RAW file is usually between 17Mb~20Mb (camera resolution dependant). Since the RAW file is not compressed, there is no data loss in the pictures you take.

While the size of the RAW file is the downside, the advantage is that a RAW file gives you a lot more flexibility and options during post-processing the image.

Originally Posted by Lil_George

Like, everyone will want to show to their grandchildren these pics.
What,besides printing them on good paper, will stand the test of time?

Personally, I'd store ALL my pics on a portable HDD (1/2TB) and upload selected ones onto flickr/blog. But, that's just me... =P


~AC