This page covers two aspects of the MyPhotoAlbum.com picture presentation package I use for photo displays.

How to download images -

There are two different versions of each picture available for downloading. One is 800 pixels wide, the other is the full sized image I uploaded to the album (usually 1200 pixels wide). Which one you want depends on what you want to do with it. If you just want the picture for digital viewing on your computer, the lower resolution is fine. If you want to print the image, you want the higher resolution. The 1200 pixel wide images are fine for 4 by 6 prints. In the rare event that someone wants to print larger than 4 by 6, you will need to request that I upload a full resolution image of that frame. I usually use a Nikon D50 that shoots 3000 by 2000 pixels (about 1.5 megabyte file size).

When you first bring up an album, you will see thumbnail images for each picture. These are presented with 9 thumbnails to a page for how ever many pages it takes to present the entire album. You can click on a thumbnail to see an 800 pixel version of the image or you can click on the SLIDESHOW button to automatically scan through the entire album. The slideshow images are only about 640 pixels wide for fast downloading and viewing. After you click on a thumbnail to see the 800 pixel image, you can cycle through the entire album at this resolution by clicking on the NEXT and BACK buttons at the top of the page.

The 800 pixels wide images are great for computer display, don't take up much hard drive disk space (approx. 60 to 100 kilobytes each), and download very quickly. However, they do not have quite enough resolution to make very good hard copy prints. For printing, you'll want the full-sized images that I uploaded to the album. The full-sized images are usually 1200 by 800 pixels (and sometimes even 3000 by 2000 pixels - depending on what I uploaded). The higher the resolution, the larger the file, and the slower the download speed. High resolution images may take a while to display and download if your have a slow Internet connection. If you have broadband (cable or DSL) Internet, just download the full sized images.

To download an 800 pixel image, position the mouse cursor anywhere over the image and do a Right-Click with your mouse. This will bring up a box with various options. Select the "SAVE PICTURE AS" option. This will bring up a window that allows you to select a location and name for the file you want to save to. The box usually defaults to your "My-pictures" folder. You can use the image name that is displayed or you can specify a new name. Select "SAVE" and you are done.

To download a full-sized image, click on any 800 pixel image while it is displayed. This will bring up the full sized image. Note that the full sized image may be larger than what can be displayed on your screen all at once. Don't worry, that is fine. You can scroll around and view sections of the image if you want, but the real purpose of the full size image display is to support downloading. Do a Right-Click with your mouse. This will bring up a box with various options. Select the "SAVE PICTURE AS" option. This will bring up a window that allows you to select a location and name for the file you want to save to. The box usually defaults to your "My-pictures" folder. You can use the image name that is displayed or you can specify a new name. Select "SAVE" and you are done. Click on the full sized image and it will take you back to the 800 pixel display size.

You can download as many images as you want. That is one reason why I selected MyPhotoAlbum.com. You can also order prints directly from MyPhotoAlbum.com. Just click on the "ORDER PRINTS" button at the top of the screen and select the frames you want. The prices are good for 4 by 6 inch prints. However, as of the last time I looked, they didn't offer matte finish. Since I prefer matte over glossy, I have never ordered prints from these folks. I use Snapfish.com for all my printing. I don't print much any more since the pictures look so good on a big LCD display, and I shoot way too many frames (over 12,000 in 2006).

Downloading may sound complicated, but after you do it once or twice you'll see that it is quite easy.

How to remedy slideshow lockups:

For Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is the web browser most of us use, a user-defined area for temporary Internet file storage is maintained on your hard drive. This area is treated like a first in/first out buffer. When new space is needed, older files are deleted to free up space. This slideshow appears to use a form of high speed file download buffering that sometimes encounters problems when it cannot find free space fast enough. The following instructions tell you how to clean up your temporary Internet file area for Microsoft Internet Explorer. I have not seen this problem occur with Fire Fox or Netscape which don't appear to use the download buffering scheme. It may be a problem with MyPhotoAlbum.com rather than with your computer's Internet cache. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens enough to irritate me quite a bit.

1) Select the Tools menu item near the very top of the page.
2) Select Internet Options from the pull down menu that is displayed. An Internet Options window will be displayed.
3) In the second block titled "Temporary Internet Files", select the Delete Files button.
4) Respond with "OK" to the prompt. (Do NOT check the "Delete all off-line content" check-box.)
5) If you have a large temporary Internet files storage area, you will see the hourglass icon displayed for awhile.
6) When the hourglass disappears, click "OK" at the very bottom of the Internet Options window. You are done.

Also, another good thing to check is the Settings button just to the right of the Delete Files button mentioned in Step 3. When you select this button, a "Settings" window will be displayed. One of the things you will see in this window is a slide control for Amount of disk space to use for temporary Internet file storage. The value you see in the white box to the right of the slide control should be a fairly large number (it is usually initialized automatically based upon the size of your hard drive). If it is not at least 500 MB (megabytes), set it to approximately 500 MB.