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Has anyone done this? I'm considering doing it for a local animal rescue organization I'm involved with - any advice? Now that I have an awesome camera, do I need to have a special printer to print quality photos, or can I just use my ancient Dell printer. Also, It seems like the photo editing that came on my Mac is pretty good (can adjust exposure, contrast, saturation, definition, noise level, etc.) Should I consider investing in editing software anyway? i.e. are there features available that I may not know about or does it sound like I have what's important?
Also, in terms of binding the pages to form a calendar - is this difficult to do in order to achieve a professional look?
While you can create calendars with the software that came with your Mac, iPhoto is not the best photo editing application. If you work at any school, or are a student (faculty, staff, student), you could buy PhotoShop CS5 Extended for $199.00, or LightRoom for the same price. With either one you can do photo-editing. Also, for a relatively cheap and very sophisticated photo-editing application for the Mac, there is one that has been called for many years, "the poor man's PhotoShop." This one is "Graphic Converter," created by a German fellow named "Lemke." It costs $35.00, and you can download it from Lemke Software. Lemke updates this application just about every month, and the updates are free. In my view, Graphic Converter is one of the best photo-editing applications for the Mac, other than the two mentioned above.
That said, all depends on how much photo-editing you do. For example, if you shoot RAW, then you have to consider a photo editing application. But if your DSLR Camera is made by Canon, it comes with photo-editing software. What you do is to edit the photo, and then import into iPhoto.
My camera is a Canon SX230 - a point & shoot although I can manually adjust a few things. Do you think it is still worth it to purchase the Lemke product you suggested, or is that only useful when shooting RAW pics/pics from a DSLR camera?
My camera is a Canon SX230 - a point & shoot although I can manually adjust a few things. Do you think it is still worth it to purchase the Lemke product you suggested, or is that only useful when shooting RAW pics/pics from a DSLR camera?
It;s useful for both JPEG, RAW, and all other formats. All depends on what you can do with iPhoto. If you need to do more than what iPhoto can provide, then I would consider PhotoShop Elements or Graphic Converter. Since the latter only costs 435.00, this would be my first choice. But like other applications, there is a learning curve.
Do it the easy way. Upload your pics to snapfish.com and they will make it for you. I've been using them for years and have never had a problem. They're fast, reasonably priced and all you have to do is order what you want. I usually get my calenders within a week of ordering them. Good luck!
Do it the easy way. Upload your pics to snapfish.com and they will make it for you. I've been using them for years and have never had a problem. They're fast, reasonably priced and all you have to do is order what you want. I usually get my calenders within a week of ordering them. Good luck!
I love both those ideas ... need to have a good photo editing program for my own pics, AND would love to have somebody else actually make the calendars for the charity!!! I foresee many frustrating hours of pages not aligning properly, etc. if I attempt it myself. However, I need to make about 50 of these calendars as cheaply as possible, using my pics, to sell as a fundraiser for a local animal rescue organization. It looks like Snapfish isn't discounted, so we wouldn't make a profit if we used them. Good to know about them though, never heard of that company before ...
I usually make about 20 calanders at a time for Christmas presents, etc. Snapfish is always sending out coupons and a lot of times I wait til they send out their 50% off coupons to make my calenders. The hardest part I have is trying to decide which pics to use and what months to put them in.....
I've done calendars (about 400 hundred) myself..... once... I always had them made afterward from professional printer with images I provided . It's expensive and time consuming to do them yourself. You don't save much, subpar quality especially if the ink isn't waterproof and if you factor in the time you don't save anything.
Having said that if you're just going to do a few of them it might be worth it. First figure out what the paper is going to cost you, ink etc. and compare to retail cost.
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thanks for the info, RayinAK
