First of all, this takes practice and it takes time. It is a mistake to think of digital images as 'instant' images, the simple truth is that 'old fashion' film takes less time and costs less money. But since you are reading this you have taken the plunge into the digital image world and need some advise on getting what you want.
You must have some type of image editing software, without it there is nothing you can do with your images other than look at them. That being said, every camera (usually) comes with the software needed to perform basic editing functions. There are so many different software titles out there it will be impossible for me to be specific about the functions of any particular brand. I will have to keep it VERY generic. There are some free-be image editors out there on the web but I would be cautions when downloading them. Make sure your security system is up-to-date.
If you are wondering about what I use, I have Adobe Photoshop, I have been working with Photoshop for almost ten years, it is professional software and very expensive and requires training and practice. It is also incredibly powerful software and can do some really amazing things. Adobe offers a consumer version which I highly recommend, it is very versitile and reasonably priced. Soon I will add a link for information on their software.
Always have you camera turned off when or if you are removing your media card. Also read your directions and manuels. When ever possible have your camera set on the highest image resolution possible, that will give you larger image files to work with. Some cameras call it 'Best'. The more information you have to work with the better. The down side is you don't get as many images on your media, but the simple equation is the 'the larger the file size the better the image', this is especially true if you are doing larger prints, 8x10's on up. It is easy to make a large file small, but it does not work in the reverse.
Now to submit images for editing, upload and prints, you must have your image files transfered from your camera (or media card) to your computer. Use the hook- up cable or if you have a media card reader use that. With Macs you can drag and drop the files onto the desk top, with Windows it depends on which version you have, but most of them will either let you drag and drop to the desktop or store them in 'My Pictures' folder(s).
Once the image files are on your computer, you should be able to use your editing software to crop, adjust the brightness and the color of your images. Most changes you make should be subtle, it is easy to overdue a change. Keep this in mind, the computer is not a 'magical fix all' for images. There are limits to what even the best software can achieve. If an area of an image is too black or too white, then there is going to be a lack of image definition and that is bad. This may be a difficult thing to grasp, but if an area of an image is all black, there is no detail other than black and without detail you cannot make detail appear. Now if there is a little bit of detail then you often have some room to work. The same goes for white, pure white on your image also lacks detail and you cannot make details appear when there are none.
The correct file size for the print size is important. Earlier I stated that the bigger file is the better file, but there comes a point of overkill, too much information will not add extra quality to your images. If you can adjust your size and resolution with your software this is what you want to get. Size 4x6 resolution 300dpi or pixels per inch that should give you a file size of about seven megabytes. An 8x10 with 300dpi should give you a file size of about twenty two megs. At a resolution of 400 your file size will be about 39 megs for an 8x10. For our purposes this will be as high a resolution you will need. A word of warning, large files need lots of computing power and lots of memory and lots of hard drive space. Your best friend will be a cd-rom burner. Save your work often, back up to your cd-rom, and don't delete the image from your media card untill you know you have a good edited version. Despite the claims of file recovery software, if you delete it, it is gone.
When saving your work, there are many file types out there. That is different methods (or software solutions) of filing the images. Most common today is Jpeg, in Windows it follows the file name...for example 'thedog.jpg'. Pronounced J-Peg, it is the most universal file type used. Older PC's often used '.bmp' for bitmap. What Jpeg does is it compresses the file size down to a smaller file size, this makes for faster transfers. The other common file type is '.tif', Tiff is an uncompressed file type. So if your computer says your image file is 10 megs, then that is how much space that file will take up on your hard drive. With Jpeg depending on the quality you assign that same 10 meg file might be squashed down from 6 megs to less than 1 meg. A logical question is, 'does .jpg alter or degrade my image?', the simple answer is 'yes' but the changes are so small (or slight) that only the extremely well trained eye could see the difference. Also when writing your own file names it is important to not have open spaces, for example 'Bills dog.jpg' is bad, on some systems the image file would not work at all. You need to keep the characters together, for example, 'Billsdog.jpg' or 'Bills-dog.jpg' or 'Bills_dog.jpg'. Often I work with several versions of the same file, I use a letter or number to seperate them, example..."sunset1a.tif or sunset3.tif" And lastly you want to keep file names short, eight to ten characters is good. A file with a name like 'Grandmas and Grandpas Anniversary Party July 2003.jpg will not work, don't laugh...I have seen this and it caused fits for the lab guys and their state of the art quarter million dollar printer. Also make sure when your save your files that you give them the correct file name, it is easy to have the file type .jpg selected and to type in the .tif. If this happens you probably won't get a print.
You need to be connected to the internet, by what ever means you are connented. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator should work. From there go the website (where you are already). Click on the 'upload your images'. When that page finishes opening, select how many images you are going to upload. Keep this in mind, the more images you upload the longer it is going to take. If you are running a 56k modem it can take what seems to be a very long time, over an hour may not be uncommon. Times like this are when DSL or Cable modems come in handy. Remember, be patient! You are moving a great deal of information and it takes time. Use the 'browse' button to find and select the image files you want to upload. Then follow the instructions. You can arrange to have the images shipped to your home or work address, but you will be charged for shipping, to pick up from the store there is no charge for shipping, and it is faster by a day or two.
If you have a question please use my 'contact' page and send me a note or give a me a call.