Print Your Photos

Polaroid Style Prints

I have nearly 1600 photos on my camera roll and have posted over 800 on Instagram.  Like most of us, I never get around to printing photos on my phone, until I came across Printic.  It’s an incredibly easy app to use allowing you to free your photos from your phone.

Printic App

Simply download the FREE app for free and then select the photos you want from either your camera roll or your Instagram account, you can also add text to your photos and as a child of the 80s I love the Polaroid feel to them.  They come in a cute orange envelope.

Photo Printing by Printic

You can also order calendars and photobooks.  The Photoboxes would make great gifts for Graduations, Weddings or momentous birthdays!

The prints work out to less that .30p each and they offer FREE international delivery.

Now is your chance to win one set of 10 Printics.  Simply use the rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.

What to do with all your digital photos

Buried under a mountain of Digital Photos like me?

I really must sort out the photos on my iPhone.  I have nearly 2000 when I accessed the photos by my PC today I saw this…..

Too many photos on iphone

Most of my digital photos can probably be deleted and the rest filed but it’s such a mammoth task that I can’t face.  I really need to set aside some time to slowly, in bursts, go through them and file them.  I’m not worried about losing them as they are backed up but I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of photographs that I’m amassing and with very little organisation this is only going to get worse.

As a blogger and due to copyright issues I tend to keep a lot of my photos, thinking, I may one day need them for a blog post.  You never know when you’re going to need some random photo of a courgette!

It’s such a shame that they just sit on my phone and I do very little with them.  I do create the odd Facebook album and share via Instagram.

So today,  I’ve spent some time trolling the net for inspiration beyond the typical printing on canvases, coffee mugs or an iPhone cases and thought I’d share some of the ideas with you.

8 Different Things to do with your Digital Photos

Screen Saver

You can also do this on your PC or desktop.  However, we have an AppleTV, which is not actually a TV but a device that allows me to access my iTunes content via the TV.  I have set the screen saver on the Apple TV so that it scrolls through my camera roll which is great as we can enjoy some of the photos.

Personalised Photo Books

Personalised Photos Books By Huggler.comI keep meaning to do this but again due to time I haven’t.  There are so many companies out their such as Blurb, Snapfish, Photobox and Huggler to name a few that allow you to upload your photos and create your own photobooks.  These would make great gifts or coffee table books that you could flick through on a rainy day.

Printed Scarves

Personalised Photo Scarves by Bags of LoveI absolutely love this idea and had no idea that it could be done. Have one of your favourite photos printed onto a scarf.  I have a thing for scarves and can see myself getting one soon.

Create a Movie

You could use things like Movie Maker (free on PCs) or iMovie to create your own movie using the images.  They are fairly straightforward to use and you can add your own narration, music, etc.  Then publish to YouTube so you can share it.

Create a ScrapBook

I’m definitely not a scrapbooker, as I don’t have the patience for it,  but my sister has made them for me in the past and I really cherish the ones I have.  Simply print a few off and get started.  This may be a good project for the little ones

Coasters

Personalised Photo Coasters by HandpickedCreate your own personalised coasters, saves the red wine rings on surfaces, by simply inserting your own photos.  I recently saw some on Handpicked, I’ve made a mental note for Christmas presents for Granny.

 

 

Musical Video

It’s amazing the difference it makes by simply adding music to your photos.  A while back I used Memory Blender, which is incredibly easy, simply email your photos to them.  Then they select a theme, put it to music and send you the finished movie so you can publish and share it.

 

Storage Tin

Personalised Photo Tins by Bags of LoveYou can never have enough storage tins.  But instead of labelling them you could have relevant photos printed on the top of the tin (e.g Biscuit Tin, Pencils, Keep Sakes, Nuts and Bolts).  Again another fab idea for gifts.

Photo Credits Bags of Love and Handpicked

Win a Personalised Hardcover Photo Book from Huggler

In addition to all this talk about what to do with all your digital photos, the lovely folks at Huggler.com have offered my readers a chance to win a voucher for one of their Personalised Hardcover Photo Book .

To enter simply use the form below.  Full terms and conditions are at the bottom but in short.  It’s open to UK Residents, aged 18+ and closes on the 9th October 2013.

Good luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.

How to Take Decent I-Phone Photos

I’m not a budding photographer.  I do have a digital camera and an i-phone, but I rarely remember to take my camera out and tend to rely on my i-phone. Unfortunately, the camera in the i-phone is inherently crap. The biggest problem is the slow shutter speed, which results in blurry photos.

I don’t want to be looking back at photos of Madame in 20 years and be gutted that they’re all blurry.  I would really like to be able to take decent photos with my i-phone but to date I haven’t had a lot of luck.  So, I’ve been doing a bit of research and this is what I found…..

How to take decent photos with an i-phone:

  • The best tip I found.  Every time I tried to take a photo I would press the button, phone would wobble, and I’d end up with a blurry photo.  I didn’t realise that it is actually releasing the button that takes the photo.  Hold your finger on the button and don’t let go until you are ready to take the photo.
  • Play Statues – shout freeze before you take a photo.  I-phones can’t cope with movement at all.  This is a lot easier said than done with a 3 year old
  • Hold the phone horizontally as it is much more stable
  • If you can, brace your arm on a table, wall etc.  Alternatively, hold your elbows firmly at your sides and take a deep breath.
  • Don’t bother taking distance photos as it just won’t cope and you’ll be disappointed
  • Ideally, the object you are focussing on should be no more or less than 2-12 feet away from you.
  • Bright rainy days are the best.  Luckily, this isn’t a problem in the UK
  • Try taking photos from unusual angle.
  • If you want to take a self portrait use the shiny Apple logo on the back of the photo as a mirror.  It will take a couple of goes to work it out.
  • Remember that colour is your friend.
  • Avoid bright white backgrounds, including the sky.  Neutral (natural) backgrounds work a lot better.  Too much white freaks it out.
  • Take loads of Photos, the beauty of digital photography.

Over the weekend, I tried to apply some of these techniques.  The results aren’t brilliant but an obvious improvement.

If all else fails, you can always tart up your photos with these apps.

1.) One of my favourites….Colour Splash.  Lets you quickly convert to black and white and then add a splash of colour.

2.  Picture Show – loads of weird and whacky things you can do with photos.

3.) Quad Camera – allows you to take continuous shots.

I hope this helped in some way.  Do you have any other hints/tips/suggestions?  I would be most grateful.

How to Stop People from Tagging you in Photos on FB

This is a major pitfall of Facebook as there is no setting to automatically stop people from doing this. There is nothing like going out on the razz and then finding your face plastered (in all senses) all over FB for the world to see, including family, spouses and possibly future employers!

You can untag each photo individually but I have better things to do than go searching for them all. Plus, I don’t want to offend the person who tagged me in the first place.

The only solution I found was to limit who can see the tags to ‘just you’. Try this and let me know if it works and if you know a better way do let me know!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4SjmXpqzwY