002 - Feb. 4, 2010 ----- Getting the pictures out of your camera
So – you’ve been busy snapping pictures and eventually get a message “Card Full” and the camera won’t take any more pictures. “Card Full” is telling you the camera has saved as many pictures as the memory card you’re using will allow. It’s a little like filling a bottle – it will only hold so much. You’ve got some choices as to what to do. You can keep viewing your picts on the back of that camera and get another camera to take more picts (expensive). You can get another memory card and to put more picts on and store that first card (possible, but there may be better ways to do it). You can take the camera to a printer or print service and print out all of the pict files (maybe a little impractical – I’ll explain later). You can take one last look at the picts on the camera and erase the card (all those priceless picts gone forever). You get the picture (sorry for the pun). You need a way to save the really good pictures for later.
Keep in mind, the pict files on the camera’s memory card are the equivalent to the celluloid film on old cameras that you needed to get good reprints. Save those files in case you want to make more prints or to easily view the picts on a computer in the future. The camera’s a computer – so where better to put computer files than on another computer? And it’s not hard to do. (I’m a PC person so Mac people may have to translate for your computer.)
First, make a new folder on your desktop (< right click> on the desktop / select New / select Folder>). You’ll see a folder labeled “New Folder” appear on the desktop. Let’s rename the folder with “year / month / pict subject” (click on the folder, then click on the name); for example, those picts of New Year’s day would go into a folder named < 1001NewYearDay > (translate – year: 2010, month: 01, subject: NewYearDay). [Illustration 1] Open the folder and move it off to the side for now.
Next, with the camera off, connect your camera’s memory to your computer. Two easy ways to do this. With either method, your computer should recognize the camera’s memory as an external hard drive. Find the slot on your camera to plug in your USB cord -- there will be a port called something like “A/V out Digital”; a USB cord should have come with your camera. The small USB plug goes to the camera, the large USB plug goes to the computer. [Illustration 2] Turn the camera on and the computer should recognize the camera and give you some choices. Click on <open device to view files>; other choices will be available, but there may be no telling where each of these choices wants to put your pict files. You may have to click on the icons that appear in several successive new windows to finally get to your pict files – you’ll either see a list of those files or thumbnail views of each pict. (You can change the view by clicking on <View> at the top of the window. [Illustration 3]) Move the window of your camera’s picts to the side so you can see the folder you want to move them into. Now select all of the pict files <CTRL + A>; click and drag these highlighted files into your 1001NewYearDay folder.
Finally, burn this folder to CD or DVD to permanently archive the picts. Check to make sure the files are burned onto the DVD (after burning, open the DVD to make sure the computer can read the disk); label and store your DVD in a safe place. Leave the folder on your desktop so you can select or work on picts.
Your pictures are important, so make sure you have two backup copies of your files BEFORE you erase the files on the camera card.
Most computers nowadays have decent picture file viewers on them, so open your folder and enjoy the picts. As you do, inevitably, you’ll see an advantage to viewing on the larger monitor: you’ll see better detail of both the good - and bad - picts (But they all looked really good on the back of the camera!).
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Tip #1: Backup your pict files!
Tip #2: I prefer an alternate way to bring the pict files to the computer by using a card reader [Illustration 4]; simply slip the memory card out of your camera and into the card reader. Your computer should find the card and the steps will then be the same. With a second memory card you can keep taking picts while transferring the first picts.
Tip #3: Don’t wait for your memory card to be full before transferring to computer. What happens to those important picts if the camera and memory card get damaged, or comes up missing? I like to transfer files after each event to make cataloging my picts easier.
Tip #4: You now have the pict files backed up on DVD; so you can view the picts in the desktop folder and if a pict is terrible (ie. out of focus, missed the smile you wanted, bad expression, bad lighting, etc.) you could delete that file. Leaving a bad pict on the computer won’t make it better. Later if you decide you need that bad pict, it’s still burned onto DVD.
Next issue: Sorting picts for viewing and printing.
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