My Process List, updated 11/24/07

Process One, Automated Method:
1. Shoot photos in large format superfine resolution .jpg mode.
2. Download to the PC using ZoombrowserEX (free Canon software) and the USB card reader.
3. Start Slide Show Wizard freeware downloaded from Microsoft PowerToys.
4. Edit the html to replace MS hyperlinks with vividlee.com links and MS graphic with my custom graphic.
5. Edit home index page to add a text link to the newly created page.
    a. I also like to place one thumbnail from the new page onto my home page and hyper link it.
6. Publish (also known as uploading) to the host using FTP program.
 

Process Two, Manual Method to create Thumbnail Pages with comments:
1. Shoot photos in large format superfine resolution .jpg mode.
2. Download to the PC using ZoombrowserEX (free Canon software) and the USB card reader.
    a. I have photos organized into folders named 2006, 2007 etcetera.
    b I usually download new photos to a new sub folder, I name it with 6 numerals date format: mmddyy.
    c. My memory card limits me to 200 or so images, this means each sub folder is limited similarly.
    d. This helps in reviewing images, you may not like folders with many hundreds of images.
3. Review and select good photos.
    a. Create a sub folder in a sub folder in the web pages directory.
    a. I usually select all new photos and review them with the Zoombrowser slide show.
    b. Images that I like can be marked during the slide show with a mouse click on an icon.
    c. Selected images can now be copied and pasted into the web pages sub sub folder previously created
4. Crop photos from 2592x1944 to 2400x1600 with Snagit 7.
    a. Edit batch convert images trim custom, 172 pixels top and bottom, 96 pixel left and right.
    b. New files are named the same as the original and saved to another sub folder.
5. Re-size images to 1200x800 pixels with Snagit 7.
    a. Edit batch convert images re-size 50%.
    b. New files are named the same as the original and saved to another sub folder.
    c. File sizes are now reduced by a factor of 10 from the original.
6. Re-size images with Snagit 7 to make thumbnail images.
    a. Edit batch convert images scale to width 100 pixels wide use smooth scaling keep aspect ratio.
    b. Rename the files to prefix with t_filename.jpg
    c. File size has been reduced by a factor of 30 from the 1200x800 pixel image.
7. Select one image for the background.
    a. Open image in Adobe Photo Deluxe Business Edition 1.0 for re-size and editing.
    b. Re-size to 800x600 pixels.
    c. Select an oval shape and feather the image with a 50 pixel wide transition, deleting the background and replacing with a cyan color.
    d. Adjust the image to reduce contrast by 50% less and increase the brightness of the image to 50% more.
    e. File size is now reduced by a factor of 4 from the 1200x800 image.
    f. File save the edited image and rename it with a prefix b_filename.jpg.
8. Copy an old web page to the new folder.
    a. Open with word pad or other text editor.
    b. Find and replace the old image name with the new image names, for example find and replace img_6235 with img_7565.
    c. File save the index.html file to the same folder with the images.
9. Edit the new web page using Netscape Composer.
    a. Replace the background image.
    b. Edit the text, titles, etc.
    c. Spell check, file save.
    d. Now all images, thumbnails, background image and index.html file are in the same folder.
    e. Delete all temporary working sub folders and thumbs.db or other junk files.
10. Edit home index page to add a text link to the newly created page.
    a. I also like to place one thumbnail from the new page onto my home page and hyper link it.
11. Publish (also known as uploading) to the host using FTP program.
    a. Send out an email to announce the new photos.
12. Create a back up of new photos and web pages on a CD-R.
13. For scanned images
    a. Scan into Photoshop and file save as a jpg image.
    b. Open with Photo Deluxe, use dust removal filter, touch up with clone tool if necessary and file save.

My OS:
Microsoft Windows XP Home

My Hardware:
Emachines PC (Free, donated by Lily)
    Athlon XP 2600+
    BFG NVIDIA GeForce 6200 OC 256MB AGP
Viewsonic E790 19 inch CRT monitor
Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 optical ($?)
Microsoft Internet usb keyboard ($60)
Epson Perfection 1200u Photo scanner ($350)
Canon s50 5 Mega Pixel digital camera ($270)
Lexar Platinum 512 MB compact flash card ($60)
Compact flash usb card reader (free with $10 rebate)

My Home Network:
Linksys BEFSR41 Cable Modem
Linksys model#? 4 Port Router
Linksys WAP54g Access Point, power adapter replaced
Linksys WRT54g Wireless Router, used as secondary access point

My Software:
Adobe Photo Deluxe Business Edition 1.0 (free with scanner)
Canon Zoombrowser and Stitch Assist version 4.1 (free with the camera)
SnagIt 7 by Techsmith Corp. ($40, nice quality and small jpg file size, version 7 is a free upgrade from version 6)
Adobe Photoshop version 6 (expensive, I only use this to run scanner)
Netscape Composer 4.72 (freeware)
FTP Commander 5.30 ftpcommander.com (freeware) I now use version 7.4

My Host:
vividlee.com is hosted on directnic.com
    a. Domain name registrar and where these web pages are uploaded to, stored and served, $30/year + banner less option $30/year
    b. Directnic is based in New Orleans
    c. yosemitony was my old email on my old dial up service Lanset.net

My ISP:
Gotnet.net (Dial up)
Lanset.net (Dial up for $10/month, 12 months prepaid)
SBC Yahoo DSL (Internet service provider, $15/month)
Comcast Cable Internet ($40-50/month, expensive but fast)

Photo sharing:
Webshots, username:yosemitony
Pbase trial
Would like to use another service like Picasa.

Photo Printing:
Shutterfly (for photo books)
Costco (for $.17 4x6's and $1.49 8x10's)
    a. I use online or in store upload
    b. One hour processing is a nice feature
    c. The photos in our albums are mostly the same as the photos on my web pages

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