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Family members can help to keep those memories alive by making photos or video easy to enjoy after converting to digital.  Here are some suggestions:

Digital Photo Frames
Load family photos on an SD card to view on a digital photo frame. It can be turned on in a room where the person spends the most time and the cycling of the pictures keeps the mind active and making connections with faces and events.

Photo Books
Choose pictures from throughout the person’s life and design a Photo Book online to print. This offers a more tangible way of looking through pictures in a creative way all in one book. You may also print names, places, and dates by pictures to help remember the details.

DVD Slideshows
Make a video slideshow out of pictures to view on a TV. With this option you can add music that the person loves the most to mix with the pictures. The combination of pictures and music from the time can really evoke memory and emotion.

Home Movies
If you have 8mm reel films or videotapes with camcorder footage, transfer to DVD for easy playing on TV. Gather the family around and take a trip down memory lane. The person suffering from memory loss will enjoy hearing everyone laugh and tell stories while the video plays.

If you scan the back of the photo itself rather than transcribing another way then you are also preserving the original handwriting for posterity and true digital archival. To ensure clarity with the front and back, name the front file with an A at the end and the back file with a B. i.e. “Family-024A.jpg” and “Family-024B.jpg”

The next issue to consider in keeping your digital image files organized is to name the image files themselves to relate to the subject name. You can either do this by individually renaming each file but if your image files are already named the same except for the numerical sequence suffix, then you can use a batch renaming software to easily replace an entire directory with a new name. i.e. “Image-001″ to “1998-05-25-Graduation-001″ The major benefit of keeping your image file names clean is they can be easily searchable in your image browser or photo management software.

Included with all DVD slideshow projects is the opportunity to download a preview once all the pictures and music are assembled. The sequence of the pictures are numbered for easy identification if you want to: remove, change order, insert new picture, add caption, etc. This way we are on the same page and can perfect any fine details before finalizing the video to DVD.

When preparing for a DVD slideshow product, it is best to first decide the max time length you want it to run, especially if it is for a specific event for an audience. You want to entertain your audience but if it drags on too long they may get bored.

The general rule for events such as anniversaries, birthdays, wedding receptions, etc. is 10-15 minutes. The average number of pictures used per minute is 10-12. Therefore, 100 pictures would produce a 10-12 minute video length. That’s a good rule of thumb in selecting the right number of photos.

Now, how much music do you need? It doesn’t have to be precise because music tracks can be trimmed to fit the number of photos to match a particular song. However, a good rule of thumb is 25-35 pictures per average length song (about 3-4 minutes) It works best to select a sequence of pictures and a song to match in order to break down and manage the project so it all flows together smoothly.

Preparation is key to a balanced video and if you use the right strategy it will a fun venture!

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