Products to turn your computer into a photo album

By Tom Coakley, Globe Staff, 05/06/99

*See home multimedia inside the house of the future How pictures get from film to disc In Fuji's version of the equipment used to digitize film, the film is first developed by a standard chemical process in an automatic machine. Then it is moved through a film carrier and a highly stabilized light source shines light through each negative. The light passes through a lens, and the image is scanned by a high-resolution, three-line charge-coupled device capable of turning reds, greens and blues from photo images into electric signals. Those signals are sent to a converter, which digitizes them. The digital information from the image is held in memory and then passed into an image processing system that uses a complex circuit board and a 450-megahertz computer to adjust for problems such as red eye, sharpness, color gradation, underexposure, overexposure, contrast, and excessive backlighting. Then the image is passed to output systems. To print the image, the information goes through three lasers to a polygon mirror, which reflects it though a lens onto another mirror and onto photo paper. To store the information for use on a computer, the information is passed through an image controller, which uses dual 450-megahertz computer servers to process it for copying on CDs or floppy disks. The copying requires some compression of information since the files that reach the server are a minimum of 5 megabytes and those that are copied on a floppy are 58,400 bytes if a whole roll of film is put on the disk. There is less compression for CDs, which are capable of storing 650 megabytes. The image controller can also send the images through a modem for uploading to Internet sites for viewing and downloading by cutomers. The image controller can also handle digitized photos stored on disks or storage cards used with digital cameras. That information can be sent to the laser's mechanism for glossy prints. -TOM COAKLEY

Your neighbor Jill sent out Christmas cards containing computer photos of her kids, and admit it, you're jealous.

But you're also not so sure you want to completely give up the security of holding a real live snapshot in your hands.

You don't have to.

An array of photo digitizing services available everywhere from camera shops to supermarkets and drugstores is targeting an increasing demand for computer imaging among the mainstay of the business: customers who want their film developed and turned into prints.

Make no mistake: ''Mom'' is still the biggest user of photo developing services, and as Brian Noble of Hingham-based Noble Camera points out, Mom ''isn't going to trust her kid's baby album to a computer hard drive.''

''She's always going to want a hard copy, something she can put in that album,'' Noble says.

Increasingly, however, Mom and her family are computer users who relish the notion of getting both prints and digitized copies of those prints that they can transfer to their computers, improving the quality of shots, cropping them, printing them, copying them, e-mailing them to friends and family, and, like Jill, dropping them into greeting cards.

More computer-savvy customers - those who own their own scanners and digital cameras - can input photos directly into their PCs. But it's the average picture taker who is creating a huge demand for digitizing services. As more and more services become available, more people try them and get hooked.

''We are convinced that the next wave of amateur photographers is poised to enter the digital arena, and in a big way,'' says Paul Gordon, vice president of marketing and corporate communications for Konica Photo Imaging. ''Consumers understand electronic media, are comfortable with it, and want in on the party.''

Noble says 3 to 5 percent of his customers now ask about digitizing services, but ''we expect that to increase dramatically now that computer and printer prices are dropping,'' he adds.

And Eastman Kodak reports that customers asked for its new Picture CD product with 4 to 6 percent of the rolls processed in test marketing conducted in Salt Lake City and Indianapolis. Most of the customers asking for the new service did not have scanners or digital cameras.

Floppies and CDs

These days, customers can put their photos on floppy disks, compact discs, and in special files on the Internet.

You don't have to buy special software to view or manipulate your photos; the floppies and compact discs contain software that allows you to view, change, copy, and print photos. The Kodak Picture CD, with a larger capacity than a floppy, allows it to carry even more options, such as adjusting brightness and contrast. (Most of this software is designed for use on PCs, although some, such as Konica's Picture Show and the Kodak Picture CD, also offer Macintosh software. But even with those products that do not have Macintosh options, the digitized photos can be brought up on the computer screen with any program that can read images in the JPEG format, such as Picture Viewer, which is part of the Macintosh operating system.)

Some retailers also have kiosks where prints can be digitized through a scanner and then enlarged or otherwise modified. Or you can have photos that are already on a floppy or CD enlarged.

However, there also is software you can buy at your local computer store that lets you do a lot more with your digitized photos: programs such as Adobe Photo Deluxe ($50) and Microsoft Publisher ($70).

Photo Deluxe is a scaled-down version of Adobe's expensive Photo Shop program. In addition to the basic photo fix offerings, it allows you to resize photos by dimension (5 by 7 inches, 8 by 10 inches, etc.) and by file size (bytes to megbytes), to balance colors (more yellow, less blue, more red) and to prepare image files for upload to the Internet.

Microsoft Publisher is a basic desktop publishing program that allows you to drop photos into text, such as many other word processing programs, but also provides greeting card and other templates and a fairly extensive clip-art gallery.

Prices for retail-level digital services vary, and often are in addition to costs for developing and printing. Putting a roll of film on a floppy runs about $5 or $6, and getting images on a CD will cost about $10 or $12 for regular consumer versions and much more for professional quality. In-store enlargements cost about $7 per print.

Film is often shipped out to labs and the disks/discs are returned in two days to a week. But a trend in the industry is to install sophisticated equipment to develop and print film and turn images into digital files on site in less than a day.

''Our vision right now is we wanted people not to have to pay a penalty in time to get their image digitized,'' says Rory Gumina, Kodak's director of marketing for digitization products. ''Whenever you want your pictures, you should be able to get your digitized images as well.''

Noble's Hingham store has equipment that can put photos on floppies or compact discs the same day you bring in the film.

And Cameras Inc. in Arlington, Lexington, and Stoneham has ordered similar equipment from Fuji Photo Film USA. If the company decides to install the machine, it, too, will offer same-day service on digitized products, says Rick Gaskell, who runs photo labs for the company.

CONSUMER OPTIONS As you decide which service to use or product to buy, remember that the most important consideration is how you intend to use your digital photos. . . . [ More ]

Internet photos

Another option is to store your digitized photos not on a disk or disc, but on the Internet.

You simply check the Internet box on your photo order when you bring in your film. It costs $5 or $6.

Along with your negatives or prints, the film processor will return a card containing the Internet address you use to get to the online photo service (such as www.konica.com or www.kodak.photonet.com) and an access code.

Connect to the Internet, go to the page, and use the code to access your photos, which are stored on a page for 20 or 30 days.

The photos pop up as thumbnail images. You can choose among several thumbnail sizes. You can also download photos (including a higher resolution image for $1), e-mail them, or give others the Web address so they can look at the photos on their computer.

Clearly, more consumers are buying into the digital age. Tom Hoerrner, Fuji's marketing manager for lab systems, says Fuji will sell more digital mini-labs this year than traditional photo-processing equipment, even though the digital setups are 15 to 20 percent more expensive.

The Fuji equipment, like other such mini-labs, allows even customers with digital cameras to bring in photos on digital camera storage cards such as Smart Media and get finished, glossy prints.

So after you import your favorite photos into your Christmas cards, you can also tuck them securely into that photo album.

Tom Coakley is an assistant metro editor for the Globe.