10Tips to Preserve the Happy Memories of your 2010 Holiday

You've just returned from a great vacation – full of memories. You've taken some wonderful pictures, too.

Now - create your album and story and print on your own inkjet printer.  Quick, easy and fantastic quality with OPUS Print & Bind and Photo Art.

The events of a holiday form a story.  Whether it is a three week adventure or a three-day short break, there is plenty of material to put it into a form that you will remember – and can look back on after years. 

 Our recommendation - use OPUS Albums

(of course we are biased!)  

Start with Print&Bind – quick, easy and economical;  functional and, above all good looking – even beautiful. -  15 (expandable to 30) pages of quality photo-glossy paper, neatly bound into an elegant compact plastic cover.  Pages can be added or removed at will  That's why we recommend a pack - you will be making more and more albums and giving them away as presents.  

 Using Dg Foto Art Essentia or Gold – or your favourite album design program, make up one or more pages for each event – print and add to your expanding record.  Add your story line too.  Whenever you have something more then get the camera out – shoot, edit print and add a few pages.  It’s so easy, enjoyable – and gives such When you are confident abut your albums - or want to be more ambitious - for a small extra investment you can have the high quality OPUS Photo Art album.  We recommend soft textured paper.

Don't leave those precious photos on your computer disk.  (1) You'll never look at them (2) you could lose them through hardware/service failure or technological obsolescence. 

 Ten Tips to make a turn a Vacation to a life time Memory

OPUS Album Tip 1

Do it NOW whilst your memory is fresh.

OPUS Albums Tip 2

 Feature people.  People make a vacation – and you will want to remember them.  Note down their names, home town, e-mail address etc and add it to the file record (and when you print the album put it in the titile).  Add them to your Christmas card list – which you will probably print yourself anyway with OPUS!

OPUS Albums Tip 3

Have your own viewpoints. 

Get the views that the guide books don’t have

-                     That particular sunset that only you saw

-                     The local fête that you stumbled upon

-                     The sea/beach as it was

-                     The lines and reflections in the sand

-                     The meals you enjoyed

-                     Nature in action

-                     The unusual viewpoint/perspective

-                     You/your partner (or both) in the picture

-                     The wide view (use wide-angle)

-                     The detail (use telephoto or macro) – but remember that you can always crop later.

-                     The particular surroundings

-                     Pictures before you left

-                     Pictures when you were back home

Take plenty of pictures so don’t be short of memory capacity  - a portable viewer with 20 or more GB is a worthwhile addition.  If you take a lot of high-res/RAW pictures even an 8GB card won’t be enough!

Think before taking  Don’t make picture taking a burden – but ensure that:-

                     the flash settings are right,

-                     there isn’t anything to distract (unwanted people, vehicles)

-                     you have something for the foreground (take a red bag or jersey with you)

-                     that you have something to rest on (especially if light is poor, or you are taking long distance.

Of course a lot can be changed later.  Thank God for Photoshop!  Cropping – deleting unwanted detail, changing the light etc – but a little thought will save a lot of work.  

 OPUS Albums Tip 5

Be in the picture.  If somebody offers to take a picture of both of you – accept – but think “Does this person know how to take a photo”.  If in doubt get close together otherwise the picture will be focussed on the background between the two of you. 

OPUS Albums Tip 6

Jot down the notes for a story –  You should have a story behind the album so whilst you are going along jot down the happenings – and the places (as well as the people – see above”.  Otherwise you will be saying “Was that Mt Forbes or Mt Lyall?” afterwards. 

-                     That particular sunset that only you saw

-                     The local fête that you stumbled upon

-                     The sea/beach as it was

-                     The lines and reflections in the sand

-                     The meals you enjoyed

-                     Nature in action

-                     The unusual viewpoint/perspective

-                     You/your partner (or both) in the picture

-                     The wide view (use wide-angle)

-                     The detail (use telephoto or macro) – but remember that you can always crop later.

-                     The particular surroundings

-                     Pictures before you left

-                     Pictures when you were back home

Take plenty of pictures so don’t be short of memory capacity  - a portable viewer with 20 or more GB is a worthwhile addition.  If you take a lot of high-res/RAW pictures even an 8GB card won’t be enough!

Layout the album by subject – Make it flow – keep the material together – whilst chronology is important, the subject mater is more so, especially if you spent several days in the same place.    Make sure that it is balanced – not too much on one aspect – but not too little either.  Cover the whole vacation – from before you left till you were back home.

Use a good album layout program – We recommend  Dg Foto Art - unless you are doing a lot of weddings, the Essentia version – it helps with layout.  However if you are into scrapbooking a program like Nova Scrapbook Factory may be better.  However don’t make the result messy.  Embellish your album but don’t overdo it.  

OPUS Albums Tip 10  Write a good story.  Have a balance of textual and photographic material – and make the story interesting.  Add facts, anecdotes etc.  Not too much or you will never read the story. It might be a good idea to use the reverse side of the album page for the story and low quality pictures (e.g. from the web).  Warning – not all reverse sides of photo paper are suitable. Finally - Enjoy yourself – don’t make heavy weather of the album.   After all you are doing it for your own pleasure too!