Photo Albums

Basic Photo Instructions

The Parents Association encourages the sharing of photos as a means of fostering communication and support among parents of cadets.  It’s hoped that this sharing will help folks “break the ice” and communicate directly amongst each other.  These images offer a glimpse of a missed son or daughter (of a parent who is unable to visit frequently) and reminds us to support them as well as each other – and that’s what it’s all about.

Some Brief Issues Regarding Photos

While we encourage the sharing of photos to foster communication and support among parents of cadets, there are a few important items to keep in mind!!

We reserve the right to refuse your photo link request.
This site is owned by the US Coast Guard Academy Parents Association which solely retains all rights and privileges of use.

The internet is PUBLIC DOMAIN -- DO NOT EXPECT PRIVACY.
Therefore, you might be 'selective' of the photographs you post as ANYONE viewing the photo DOES have the capability to download (copy) it.  Be wary of revealing too much personal information in your picture captions. Use just first names or last names.

We ask that all pictures should be of a positive nature.
The photographs should reflect the pride and accomplishments of your (and other's) cadet!

Some pictures are just too "expensive".
Obviously, this will not apply to many cadet and academy photos (unless they reflect poorly on the cadet or academy -- see the above).

However, the world has changed since 9/11.  Disclosing locations and travel plans of your graduated ensign, duty assignments and/or fleet operations over the open nature of the Internet could be dangerous and place people at risk. Please use common sense.

And finally, You may be asked if some of your pictures may be utilized for USCGA publications!!

Steps For Posting Your Pictures

The steps for making your pictures available for anyone to view --

1. Gather your pictures as files on your computer (explanation of this below).  These should be organized into sets for one or more photo albums you would normally create.
2. Establish an account with a web site, which offers photo storage and viewing services such as webshots, yahoo, etc.
   (See http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/albums.html for a listing of example sites providing such services).  This only needs to be done once.  This account is used to create as many photo albums as you choose.
3. Create a photo album on the site selected, and upload your pictures to the album.  The mechanisms to do this will vary slightly from site to site.
4. Post a Link to your new album. Go to the CGAPA photos web page and record the location of your new photo album.  The location and a link to it will be made available through the CGAPA web site by submitting your album information on the Parent Photo Album form.  This central point is a convenience to CGAPA members, permitting an easy way to find relevant photo albums like the one you’ve set up.
5. Accept accolades and thanks from many other parents wanting to catch a glimpse of their cadet!

The last 3 steps are repeated for as many photo albums you wish to create.

That’s all there is to it!  (For those of you who don’t believe that statement, it is really not much worse!).  The following sections will try to discuss each of these steps in some more detail. 

Gather Your Pictures Into Graphics Files

The above steps assume you already have some knowledge on how to store your pictures (digitally) on your computer.  Today (July 2004), most photographic developing locations are actually using digital equipment to print your photographs.  Once the pictures are files on your computer, then you just need a means to display these electronic versions on-line.

If you use film, you can usually request your photos on "CD" when you drop them off for development. 

There are other ways to get your existing photographs into a digital format. You can use a "scanner" to scan an existing photograph into a graphics file, or, if you’re lucky enough to have a digital camera, downloading the pictures directly from the camera into files on your computer.

If you are the user of a digital camera, we will assume you’ve read the instructions on how to copy and edit graphic files (pictures) on your computer.  For the remainder of us, we will assume we are working with film.

The mechanics of scanning a photo into a graphics file will be left to another discussion, however I will pass on the following recommendations:

**Use a "JPEG" file type

Ensure your images are in “JPEG” (definition) format.  The definition of JPEG has been shamelessly copied below.  Most popular image editing software can produce files in a myriad of formats.  The most common, suitable format for our purposes would be the JPEG format.  These types of files can be readily identified as files with names ending in “.jpg” or “.jpeg”.

JPEG ( jay-peg) is the best choice to use with photographs on the Web. JPEG stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group." (Bet you could have gone all week without knowing that!)  JPEGs used to be supported only as external images, but today Netscape and other major browsers support them as internal images.

While JPEGs set no limit on the number of colors and generally result in smaller files of a photo image than do GIFs (definition), GIFs remain the best choice for line art and simple images with large blocks of a few colors. The type of compression used in JPEGs just doesn't lend itself to large blocks of the same color.

When converting to JPEG format with a program such as Photoshop you will get a choice that is essentially a trade-off between image quality and compression. You can have relatively little compression and high image quality and lots of compression and low image quality, or anything in between. The best way to see what happens with any given photograph is to experiment. Right now (January 1996) compression is very important to speed up the delivery of an image. I usually take a middle ground when creating JPEGs, giving moderate compression and moderate image quality. With faster delivery system this may not be very important in the future.

**Set your "Picture Resolution" to be at least 150 dpi for casual viewing and sharing.  Use at least 300 dpi if you want higher quality prints.

Picture resolution controls how "clear" your picture was recorded or stored.  (Yes, the camera might take a high resolution photo but your photo editor might be set to automatically REDUCE your resolution.  This is because greater clarity comes at a price!  This price is paid in terms of the size of the file required to hold the image file containing your picture.  The larger the file, the longer it may take for you to upload, and other to download (view), your picture.

Much like the resolution on your TV or computer monitor, the number of lines of resolution or the number of pixels (dots) used to compose the image, dictates how clear an image can appear when viewed or printed.  The greater the resolution – often defined in terms of “dots per inch” (DPI), the more defined and clear the image may appear.

**Photo-editing for improved quality

Once your pictures are digital graphics files, you’ve one more opportunity to make adjustments before posting them.  Often a good graphics-editing program can make fine adjustments and improvements to your image files.  While I will not go into the details of any of the specific programs on the market, many are quite good and reasonably priced.  If you have a scanner, it is more than likely an image-editing program was provided with your scanner.

Programs range from the professional image editing software such as Adobe “Photoshop” ($500-600!) to much simpler fare such as the free software provided with most scanners.  The low-end software should be fine for most folks if it can perform the following basic functions:

• Enlarge or Shrink the image (to save space and up/download time)
• “Red-eye” reduction (getting rid of that space-alien look in many flash photos)
• JPEG file optimization (fine-tuning the rate of compression of JPEG format files)
• Modification of color balance (fixing color problems in photo development)

Each of these features can be found in almost all, basic image-editing software.  For the more advanced features, you quickly move into more serious money.  I personally use Adobe Photoshop.  Some will say it is not an easy program to master, but Photoshop is the Cadillac of image editors and is “the” standard for image editing professionals/artists.  It is not for the faint of heart, nor thin of wallet.

I have friends who use “Paint Shop Pro” from JASC Software.  The software can be downloaded for a free limited time trial and the package is low to mid-ranged price.  It has a tremendous range of features – some say approaching Adobe Photoshop – for just under a hundred bucks ($100).  They've used it for years and have been quite happy with it.

 I have not done an exhaustive search but have used both of the above packages somewhat extensively. 

How to Establish An Account With A Selected On-Line Photo Site

Before we get into this discussion, I'd like to take a minute to post ANOTHER warning.  DO NOT RELY on any of these photo services to PERMANENTLY STORE YOUR PHOTOGRAPH FOR YOU.   DO NOT DELETE your photo off of your hard drive after posting it.  Copy it to a disk/CD or print it out.

These websites, unless you have actually contracted for permanent storage space, can shut down with no notice at all.  OK, back to the topic at hand.

Unless you have a web site of your own and are willing to put the time into creating a page or two for viewing pictures, you will most likely need to use one of the web-based services noted in the http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/albums.html.  As with most web sites, the content and features of these services vary greatly.  The services relevant to our needs will entail some or all of the following:

• Ability to collect and edit pictures in the context of a photo album
• Ability to review all pictures in an index to review the entire set and selectively enlarge targeted photos.
• Develop film and convert (or scan) final pictures into graphics files
• Provide additional CD of images (photos) from developed film.
• Service to scan developed pictures mailed to the service provider, into graphics files.

An excellent source of information I found regarding current on-line photo album is at http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/albums.html. This site lists the sites I’ve tried and many, many more.  This site is a page from www.Andromeda.com ‘s photo services business and therefore includes lots of info concerning their site.  The presence of lots of links to other services makes this page worth a look!

Most of these sites are in business to develop your film.  In addition to the delivery of your actual prints or slides, they offer on-line storage and viewing of the developed pictures.  I’ve not tried these development services however I use the free services for the posting of prints I scan directly.  Please note that I make no recommendations or critique of any of these sites, simply a description of how I utilize some services.

One site I have tried with success is:

My personal choice is www.webshots.com  insofar that the service is free and I store other albums there and I like using what I am familiar with.  Your mileage may vary.  Please take the time to assess your own needs and compare them with the great array of really good service providers out there.

To begin we must inform the site of who we are, establishing an identity with the on-line photo service.  Virtually all of these services require we provide some “personal information” so no one else can manipulate our own photo albums.  While we can permit public viewing and downloading (copying) of the pictures in our albums, we do not want others making any modifications to them.  Only the owner of the photo albums should have the ability to make modifications.

The manner in which you establish an account with an on-line photo service will vary depending upon the services and whether or not there are periodic fees for their service.

Create Your On-Line Photo Album

Once you’ve established an account with a service, you will need to follow the directions for this service to create a photo album (a collection of picture, or “.jpg” files).  The means to do this varies greatly among the services.  All offer ability to manager your photo albums with a web browser while the better ones provide a small windows program to do it more easily and effectively.

Creating a photo album is usually as simply as clicking a button to add the album and giving it a name.  Once the album is created, files may then be uploaded to the on-line service where upon each picture file is then associated with the specified photo album.  Once the files are attached to a photo album, most services provide a modest capability to manage the photos in an album.  Photos can be added, removed, sorted within or among photo albums.  Additionally photos can have comments or captions associated with them – very helpful for us viewers to understand which cadets may be in the picture, or the action taking place-just don't provide full names, addresses, phone numbers or other personal information.

An important piece of information about a photo album is its “URL Link”.  This is the “Universal Resource Locator” string (or address), which the service designates for your photo album.  Various services provide this information differently.  It is important to note that this URL is needed in the next step – posting this URL (or “Link”) on the CGAPA Photos Page.  Once your photos are posted, arranged the way you want them, and you’ve obtained the URL for your photo album, you are ready for the next and step.

An example set of instructions is included in following sections, describing the steps to set up a photo album on www.webshots.com

Post A Web-Site Link To The National Web-Site Album List

Others will need to know how to find your photo album.  This is done by posting a link to your photo album via “Add a Parent Photo Album Link” page of the CGAPA Photo Page.  This page requests all the detailed info on labeling and accessing your photo album for other CGAPA members:

• Name
• e-mail
• Your Cadet
• Location taken
• Date of Photos
• Name of Photo Album
• URL of Photo Album – This is the most important piece of information insofar that it provides the internet link to which members will point their browser.  This will be displayed as a link with the other information above so members can quickly and conveniently access your photo album.
• Optional comments

Once this information is posted, all you need to do is collect the accolades from appreciative parents who get an opportunity to see the Coast Guard and their cadets!

Some Tips on Scanning developed photos

For those of you scanning pictures in for posting, a normal setting of 150 dpi (dots per inch) is more than satisfactory for casual viewing and sharing of images.  If you wish to share pictures with others for the purpose of others to download and print your pictures, other considerations should be made.

For high-quality printing, pictures should be scanned at a higher resolution.  I would recommend starting with a resolution of 300 dpi and experiment with various scanner settings to see which produces the best results for your equipment and goals.  By simply doubling the resolution, the resulting file will probably quadruple in size (that’s right, 4 times the size).

Other factors affecting scan quality is the “color depth”.  This is the number of different colors that can be represented by each dot scanned in the image making up your picture.  Again, I would recommend starting with your scanners default value, which is likely to be labeled “TrueColor” or “24-bits”.  This setting provides the ability for any single dot on the image to be one of approximately 16 million colors!  The most equipment used by home users can take advantage of this depth of color and provides a good smooth appearance to the electronic image.  Lower values can certainly be used for saving space (file size).  Again, some experimentation would be in order but start with the default values!

For the latest independent list of photo album sites, visit http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/albums.html.