About digital photo picture frames

The digital camera has changed photography forever

In the old days we got packets of glossy prints, maybe framed the odd one, and placed the remainder in a shoe box and forgot about them. Maybe some were placed in albums and looked at occasionally.

With digital photographs do you download them onto your computer and forget all about them just like the glossy prints? Would you like to actually view your digital photographs in an easy and convenient way?

Digital photo frames are the answer!

Luckily technology has caught up, and there is now a fantastic way to display all your digital photos easily and effortlessly, without powering up your computer. Imagine your favourite photo in an attractive frame. Now imagine seeing ALL your photos there, one after another in a continuous slide show.

Digital photo frames allow you to display all the photographs that are in your camera. Simply power on, insert your memory card in a slot in the side of the frame and watch. Your photographs will then scroll in sequence; you can speed up, slow down or pause using the remote control. You can place the frame in a strategic spot in your home or office, as you would with any other framed photo - and then amaze your friends when they come round by showing them your Christmas, birthday, holiday or wedding photos without leaving your sofa!

Digital photo frames make wonderful and impressive presents for special people or special occasions. They come in a range of sizes, finishes and prices to suit your needs.

What exactly is a digital photo frame?

This is a device that has an electronic screen, has slots in which to insert the memory card from your digital camera and is usually mains powered. The slots are a form of card reader and are different sizes and are able to accept memory cards in different formats (see our article on Card Reader/Writers and Memory Cards). After inserting a memory card, the photographs are displayed in a slide show, with the ability for you to adjust the display refresh timing.

The image below is of a typical digital photo frame, but they are available in many styles, colours and materials.

Most frames are supplied with a small, credit card size remote control, enabling the display to be paused, advanced, turned on and off, without leaving your seat. Many of our frames have an MP3 player and small speakers incorporated so that sound or music can be played alongside the photo display.

The image below is of a typical remote control shown alongside a 20p coin for perspective.

Advantages and features of a digital photo frame

• Photographs can be shown wherever you like in the home or office
• No need for batteries, infinite display time
• You can customise how quickly the display changes, with the ability to show single or multiple photos, so you don't get bored with the same photograph
• You can add interest to pictures with appropriate sound or music, or use the Digital Photo Frame to play MP3 music
• With the remote control, you can easily change settings without touching the frame or moving from your seat. It is even possible to alter the volume on the MP3 player. There are also control buttons on the frame if needed.
• With the integrated card reader, there is no need to connect to your computer; the camera memory card can be unobtrusively inserted straight into the frame.
• There are many different types of frame, as they are available in a range of sizes, prices, materials and colours to suit your taste.
• Memory cards, depending on their size and the file size of you photos, can easily contain 100's or even 1000's of your photographs, so you don't get bored looking at the same photograph. See the table in the tips section as to how many photographs you can place on a memory card.
• Photographs on the memory card are easily swapped for new ones using your computer
• Some people show digital photographs on their computer, but a digital photo frame is dedicated to showing photographs, is faster to load and more easily handled
• Many of the frames can be wall mounted, if that option is required
• Cameras can cost many £100's, with a digital photo frame you can easily view and enjoy the photos from your camera
• Digital photo frames are light, portable and easily moved from room to room
• With a slim design, the frames can easily fit on window sills, desks, tables, cabinets etc.
• Printing or developing photographs have additional on-going cost, however once the frame has been purchased there are is no more expense

Requirements

• Mains power is required for most frames except for the portable examples.
• In an insecure environment, you may wish to consider security of the frame in case of theft, as they will be an attractive item.

File Formats

If you review the files on your computer, you will see that the files are composed of a name followed by a full stop and three letters. These three letters are called the 'file extension' and they describe the format in which the file has been written.

The vast majority of digital cameras and hence digital photo frames use JPEG (JPG) format for image storage and viewing. It is easy to change the file format of a photograph by using one of the many software packages available such as Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. Below is a list of the most common formats related to photography and digital photo frames.

• JPEG (JPG)
  The most common format for image storage and usually the default for most cameras is JPG. Most computers and digital photo frames can read JPG files. The term JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is a standard method of compression for photographic images.
• Bitmap (BMP)
  Widely used by Microsoft, the BMP format was originally developed for black and white images. BMP files are not usually compressed, so they are typically much larger than compressed image file formats of the same image. For example, a file size of 477 KB in the PNG format, takes about 3.2 MB as a 24-bit BMP file, over 6 times the space.
• Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
  PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a bitmap image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to both improve upon and replace the GIF format.
• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
  The GIF format was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage by web designers due to reasonable high quality images and relatively small file sizes. A GIF image employs lossless data compression so that the file size of an image may be reduced without degrading the visual quality, provided the image can be reproduced in 256 colours.
• Tag Image File Format (TIFF)
  The TIFF format makes it possible to produce very high quality images, say for publication purposes, with consequently large file sizes, which can make them more difficult to manage.
• RAW
  As the name suggests, RAW camera images are stored without any compression or processing being performed. The image will need to be managed by a suitable computer program to be viewed.

Tips

Below is a list of tips that will enhance your enjoyment of your digital photo frame.

Large Memory Card

Using the largest memory card possible in your frame, will mean that more photographs will be capable of being stored and hence viewed. Memory cards are available to buy from digitalframecompany.com.

Based upon an average photograph size of 256k, you would be able to store the following number of photographs. Please note that all the figures are approximate.

Memory card size	No. of photographs
64MB	256
128MB	512
256MB	1024
512MB	2048
1GB	4096
2Gb	8184

Pixels

All digital images are composed of minute components called pixels that make up the image. When taking photographs, it is best to set the camera's resolution to suit the purpose. You will find that setting a high resolution, will improve the number of pixels and hence the quality of the photograph, this will ensure your photographs are in the best condition for use in the digital photo frame.

Landscape and Portrait viewing

To ensure your photographs are presented in the best way possible, you should ensure they are orientated to match the frame before viewing. So, in the case where your frame is positioned in landscape mode, any portrait photographs should be changed to landscape using a photographic software package or similar.

Cropping

Cropping is the process of removing any unwanted edges away from the main subject, so that the picture is focused upon what you want to view. This technique is available on all the popular image manipulation software packages including Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

Remove Red-eye

The red-eye effect in photography is the appearance of red-eyes taken with a photographic flash when the flash is too close to the lens, a common problem especially with compact cameras. As with cropping, this capability is available on all the popular image manipulation software packages including Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

Saturation point

Another problem with some digital images is that they can appear slightly washed out and faded. The result can be that colours are not as strong and vibrant as when it was taken. Using the saturation scale in an image manipulation software package, you can increase the intensity or alter the colours in the image. Changes made will be viewed immediately on the image selected.

Future digital photo frame developments

Developments are likely to centre in 3 key areas.

1. Memory
   As technology improves, the cost of memory will reduce and sizes will increase, this will result in the ability to store your entire photographic collection on a single frame.
2. Connection
   The ability to connect the frame wirelessly by Bluetooth or other method or directly to a broadband connection will mean that friends and relatives will be able to send photographs directly to your frame from anywhere in the world.
3. Content
   It is possible, by having a connection to the internet, that other content could be displayed, typically this would mean the latest weather, news and travel information could usefully be displayed if wanted.

If you have any questions relating to digital photo frames or this information pack please e-mail .

Thanks

DigitalFrameCompany.Com