The Future of Memories: Sharing Moments with Photoshop Elements and Digital Cameras

reviewed by Harry {doc} Babad

Author: Dane M. Howard http://www.futureofmemories.com/ Publisher Peachpit Press Book Series: One-off books http://www.peachpit.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321383990&rl=1 Released: January 23, 2006 Pages: 256 $31.50 USD ISBN: 0321383990 Audience: If you own a camera, Then you should read this book. The book is about empowering you to be more effective in preparing, documenting and sharing your memories. It’s not about the techniques for using your camera and your graphics software. — You grow into the techie stuff, as you want to more elaborately share of photos with others. Note: Apparently a similar book by Dane Howard was published by Microsoft Press in February of 2004 called Sharing Digital Photos: The Future of Memories. I’d not read that version. Major Strengths: I own several books on digital photography including excellent ones by Scott Kelby including The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers. http://www.peachpit.com/title/0321269055 (Peachpit-New Riders Press). There are many books out there on digital photography, mostly how-tos that are basic. None of them induced me to seriously start using my digital camera. What Dane does in this exceptionally well-illustrated and annotated book is attack the issue of picture taking from a completely different point of view - how to use the images to tell a story and how to share those stories. Weakness: To get the details I was interested in, I too often had to use a magnifying glass or go to the author’s website.
Where appropriate the instructions in the book was tested on a 1 GHz dual processor PowerPC G4 Macintosh with 2 GB DDR SDRAM running under OS X 10.4.6
Product and company names and logos in this review may be registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Publisher’s Overview — “You have amazing stories to tell and rich new ways to tell them with. Learn how to capture-and share-your life experiences in dynamic new ways! This colorful and innovative guide expertly demonstrates how to turn static photos into rich stories and compelling presentations using your digital camera, PC, and the Web.

“Megapixels and memory cards capture the moments—but you create the memories. In Sharing Digital Photos, you’ll learn how to craft great stories—and capture lasting memories—from the images you’ll shoot and share with your digital camera. Discover simple ways to organize photos into a “living library,” find themes in your imagery, and build a compelling narrative. The author, a professional designer and devoted dad, expertly guides you through the easy, effective techniques and tools for exploiting all the vibrancy and immediacy of digital photography—extending the fun and the future of your own memories. 



“Discover how to: 


·            Try new approaches to your photography—freeing yourself from the view finder


·            Create a simple system—a living library—to organize, store, and retrieve your photos


·            Learn techniques for capturing the impact of the big—and small—moments 
•Know the key principles for developing great narratives


·            Make editing your day’s shoot an easy routine


·            Extend the reach of your memories—from prints and e-mail to digital picture frames, movies, and mobile devices


·            Experience the digital storytelling expertise of professional designers, photographers, and artists to inspire your own projects.

There are plenty of books out there that can tell you how to create great images using your digital cameras with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. However, such individually great images do not equal great stories. Nobody knows this better than author Dane Howard. He draws on his years of professional experience as both a photographer and storyteller to demonstrate how you can use everyday technology to share your stories in dramatic new ways. By focusing on the tale rather than the technology, Dane provides the tactical and practical advice you need to create a compelling narrative through digital images.

In the end, the story—not the tools—dictates the process, and at each step along the way Dane urges you to ask the right questions, set up your shots, organize your images, and use your tools in a way that will advance your stories. With complete coverage of all of today’s photo-sharing mediums (including photo-blogging, mobile devices, image-sharing sites, and more), this colorful, creative guide shows users you how to build visually rich narratives to share with family and friends.

Review Introduction

Okay, We’ve owned a long line of cameras — a lens-rich Cannon A-1 35 mm, several point-and-shoot 35 mm film camera and most recently a Kodak LS-443 Easy Share digital camera. We’ve accumulated the usual shoeboxes of snapshots and for our crafts business, slide boxes of everything unique we’ve ever created. A large collection - Yes; Accessible to share - not at all. Indeed, I found that my wife and I were treating the new digital camera as if used actual film. We continued to be careful not to waste that digital film.

Disposable Shooting WHEN COST = FREE The economics of shooting pictures has changed … Because it saves you money and gives you more freedom  (Page 61)

Dumb – no, uninformed – it seems so. After reading the promo materials on this book, I decided that there had to be a better way to use the slightly dusty digital camera more actively. After reading Future of Memories, my interest in using our camera has been kick-started and with a little bit of luck my ability to share the memories, cued by photos of our lives, with family and friends will also become alive.

As so ably noted by Rebeca Andarias de Prado (Rome, Italy) “this simple and lovely book is not about how to use my new sophisticated digital camera (I will have to study the manual). But it has encouraged me to free my amateur photographer mind from concepts carved {in stone} there like ‘don't shoot until you are pretty sure the scene is good enough and that film is not wasted’”.

The Book Itself

This book gives you examples, instruction and inspiration for action. It is designed to be referenced, browsed, or read in any order that suits you. It is organized into four major sections incorporating the fundamental pillars to personal memories creation. I discuss these later in the review.

This book is about capturing experiences in your daily life to share with family friends or even for your old age. It teaches you how to capture those memories, to create memorable or memory evoking stories, by using photos rather than words as the enabling metaphor.

The book is aimed at both the digital photography beginner and a mechanically experienced digital camera buff who is interested in learning how to take and create photos that tell a story.

I love the three key principles espoused by the author (Page 33) that are get closer, be flexible and move around. – Its what you need to make you pictures more interesting. They thus become a better part of any story you tell.

As noted by Robinstien (Seattle, WA USA) in a review for Amazon.com entitled Sharing memories, not just pictures. April 5, 2004 http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ADZSSIZZR9ZIT/ref=cm_cr_auth/002-7225515-7940860?%5Fencoding=UTF8

“I was originally looking for a book to help me expand the way I use my digital camera when I came across "Sharing Digital Photos". What an unexpected surprise. As soon as I went through it, I knew it was a great find and was amazed at the breadth of possibilities that exist.

“Dane covers a multitude of options available for the digital photographer, and covers various methods, programs, and techniques for sharing, managing, and tweaking images. The clarity and simplicity with which the book delivers this information is refreshing. He delivers clear descriptions of the mythology and uses personal family experiences as examples. These personal stories form the heart of the book and make the concepts easy to understand. Each chapter continuously serves up an honest and straightforward delivery that helps create a solid perspective on the different techniques.

An example of a great story by the author

As I noted below about Dane Howard’s website “Access to website links allow you to experience the solutions and further demonstrate the possibilities. He {Dane} uses "easy to follow" language, plenty of photo examples, and well laid out graphics in various combinations to effectively communicate the essential message in each lesson while encouraging you to dive in along the way. This book has changed my [Robinstien] as well as doc_Babad} paradigm concerning digital images so they no longer sit idly in a hard disk!”

… In addition, of course the obligatory description of the books contents.

Table of Contents
 — After an easy to read and attention catching introduction the author discusses:

·            More Effective Stories, Section 1, which includes Getting Started, 
Find, Your Audience
, Working Quickly, and more.

·            More Effective Images, Section 2
 — It focuses on both capturing such images with your camera and then in your computer. This chapter although being technical in nature is “newbie” tech, easy to read and understand.

·            Organizing your Living Library, Section 3 — Although I have effectively, for me of course, organized my hard disk to capture documents, it never occurred to me to do so for the images I shoot. This section focuses on Life-Building (e.g., collecting you life in images), Photo 
Annotation and Key-wording, Location and Mapping of you images
 and Choosing what's Important (e.g., 
Photo Editing - Making those Personal Choices.)

·            Sharing Your Memories, Section 4 
 — The Share Map
 (e.g., to share with whom and how much), Hard Copies
 (The usual cost vs. quality and quantity tradeoffs) and 
 Soft Copies
 (E-mail
, Slide Shows & Presentations, Movies and Media and in this world of cell phone and pocket PCs) 
 Mobile Memories. [This does not to describe a senior moment, and for the technically adventurous, is worth your time.]

There are several worthwhile appendices and of course a well done Index.

As you read this book, you’ll note, as did Bill Camarda, “how to coax a compelling story from a day trip, a vacation, a ball game, even a few quiet moments at home. The authors show how to bring immediacy, authenticity, and intimacy into your photos. [Its about] how to shoot and use sequences, how to tie together your vacation photos with digital maps. With digital, you can share your images in whole new ways...but it’s even more than that. Suddenly, images can begin to suffuse your life.” http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&pwb=1&ean=9780735619920

Kudos and more Kudos

Individual Chapter Review Lists — These are full of keywords containing checklist that remind you of the messages and methods discussed in that chapter. Mr. Howard has made singularly good use of this teaching tool. If the concepts summarized don’t ring a bell in your head, go back and read more slowly.

The Basics: Use Story Stick Figures (Pages 34 ff) — Its all about using the metaphor of a stick figure works to guide you through the mechanics of telling a story with photos. [(1) Closer  (2) Related Context]

How Big Is Your Circle Of Influence? — What can you or do you want to control when planning and telling your story, to all those with whom you’d like to share it. It makes a difference in what you chose to share. Dane, this is a great paradigm which I always remember when I’m writing but not until now when I’m taking or using photographs!

Discomforts

Despite what may seem to be a long list of gripes about this book, it is indeed wonderful, not perfect, but exceptionally well done.

Glossary, or Lack Thereof — There were unfortunately too few definitions of the technical terms associated with photography and image processing for a novice digital camera user. Alternatively, the author could have provided links that define the alphabet soup of acronyms for novice photographers.

Image Size and Accessibility — I couldn’t read text in many of the examples (e.g., Page 30, even when using a magnifying glass to partially decipher the text. Alas, in a number of spots in the book, reading the text in the example was needed to best connect with the author’s message.

I’m Still Hungry for More — Despite the additional detailed provided on the author’s website, I feel the addition of a CD of examples would greatly enrich my ability to learn more rapidly ho to become a digital photo based storyteller. Perhaps the CD listed on Dane’s website — Sharing Digital Photographs: The Future of Memories
 Trainer: Dane Howard, 
Running Time: 5 hours Price: 49.95 www.lynda.com/futureofmemories will solve this problem.

Flow of the Narratives — At times the flow and connection between adjacent narratives seemed jerky and somewhat disconnected. Initially there seemed to be no central unifying theme to a group of paragraphs. However, I usually found when I slowed my reading speed to savor a page or two; it all comes together (e.g., Pages 20-27.) My treating the book, as suggested by the author, as a set of individual topics rather then a linked whole; I enhanced my enjoyment of the book and therefore its usefulness to me.

Macs and PCs — Although PC tools are described clearly [e.g., MS Photo Story, and MS Digital Image Suite – Pages 18 and 166], there are many features of both iPhoto and PhotoShop Elements for Mac (v. 3 or 4) or GraphicConverter that serve the same purpose as those itemized for the PC. Alas, dealing with the strong capabilities on the Macintosh platform to implement Dane Howard’s teaching was severely neglected in the book, although it was well referenced on the author’s web page. That’s a problem since I’m not sure how many readers will take the extra step to check out the information of the web site.

From the Author’s Website: “This is the kind of thing missing from the book!
iPhoto is Apple's photo organizing tool. If you have iPhoto installed, you can use Future of memories iPhoto Export to automatically generate galleries using the templates provided. Installation and usage instructions are located here. The iPhoto Export feature will automatically resize your images to 800x600, generate thumbnails, and export the 'title' of the photos from iPhoto so they appear as 'comments' in the gallery. Rather than trying to be fancy with multiple galleries, the application does everything for you. It will give you all the necessary files for every single gallery you make, so you can immediately upload the results to a website.”

In Closing

From the moment I starting reading and absorbing to alien to me concepts about digital photography, I was hooked. A paradigm shift – digital pictures are free, at least until you print them! Stop using the viewfinder – it gets in the way of composing your shot. Don’t pose folks, they’re alive – catch them when you can – you can always toss the duds.

The book is all about telling stories, not just capturing friends on a couch for several hour to show all those slides you accumulated on your trip. Don’t do this too often or you many have to find new friends. To my greatest amazement, it’s like doing a technical presentation. It’s the quality and clarity of the material, not quantity that counts. I must be getting a bit long in the tooth, because these Ideas I’ve used professionally for over 50 years did not, prior to reading this book, spill over to taking pictures to create memories. Rating – 4.5 macCs

P. S. I totally agree with Adam Pratt who wrote “I believe this book will have a lasting impact on the world of photography because it helps the reader capture better pictures, streamline the tedious parts of digital photography, and how to tell effective digital stories with photos. Stories and memories, isn't that's why we take photos anyway?” 

Adam Pratt
 in an Amazon.com Review http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735619921/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/002-7225515-7940860?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Author BIOs

About the Author

Dane M. Howard has been telling stories with pictures for 11 years. As a designer and new as a father, Dane is using his background in sequential media and experience-based design to express his passion for sharing the stories of loved ones. His search has brought him to discover existing and evolving technologies that will shape the future of digital photography and self-publishing for the mass market. The reinvention and expression of narrative is carefully observed and evident in his work and research. He maintains a personal project to document the events of his family. The interest in this project www.chloehoward.com spawned this book to help tell others how to document and share life's events.

He has developed creative strategies and products for Microsoft, BMW, Major League Baseball, Avaya Communications, Quokka Sports, NBC Olympics, Rolling Stone, CBS, Merrill Lynch, Pulse Entertainment, and Disney. His clients and collaborators include key management of Design, Marketing, Research and Development, and Chief Executives. Dane currently works at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington. He is a Design and Program Manager for their Smart Personal Objects Group, creating and designing new products.