Custom Photo Albums Capture a Lifetime of Memories

Think of all the memories in your life – your wedding day, your baby’s first smile, your daughter’s first dance recital, and your son’s high school graduation…These memories are the ones you want to hold on to through all the years of your life and are the legacy you want to give to your children and grandchildren. Due to recent advances in digital photo technology, you can now capture all those wonderful memories and more in glossy full color custom photo albums with pictures that will never fade or discolor.

Custom photo albums are all about sharing those precious by-gone days with family and friends on special occasions.

Custom photo books are great for so many events including:

  • Family reunion albums – have everyone send in pictures of their kids and grandkids and then take more pictures during the reunion. You can make a photobook for each family “group” that can be enjoyed for years to come.
  • Grandparents love getting custom designed, long-lasting photobooks that capture all of the stages of their grandchildren’s lives!
  • How about sending these photo albums to family and friends for special occasions to preserve and share the memories?Custom photo albums offer a wonderful way to revisit old times with friends or to capture new memories.
  • Newlyweds also love custom photo albums! They can unleash their creativity and create beautiful photo books while retaining complete control over the layout, backgrounds, themes, and cover types.
  • Everyone loves a photo album of their childhood. What more perfect gift could there be for a “milestone” birthday than a photo book that shows the birthday person at all the stages of their life, from birth up until the present day?
  • Special anniveraries also call for a custom photo album that captures the lives of the the happy couple.

Given how unique custom photo albums can be, you might think it would be difficult to make one, but you would be wrong. Digital Pickle offers a download of their free book design software so you can design your book using digital images and upload it directly to them for production. You approve the proof copy they provide and, once completed, they will ship you the professionally produced photo album.

Still nervous about how creative you might be? In that case, they will be happy to provide a one-stop-shopping experience for you by scanning your photos (or slides & negatives), designing your book, and then providing you with a finished photobook. With flexible, variable photo sizes, customizable covers, and glossy paper, you can preserve your happy moments in a beautiful, professional form. The photo professionals at Digital Pickle can also assist you with scannning or restoring physical photographs to include in your photo book.

For more information about custom photo albums, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730 or email them today.

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Home Movie Conversion To Digital Format

One of the great American family pastimes is making and watching home movies. Almost every family has a collection of treasured moments caught on film. Weddings, childrens first birthdays, holiday parties, family reunions, exciting vacations, and the first days of school are just some of the classic family experiences we love and save. Unfortunately, many of these historic moments in our lives were captured on a medium that has become outdated .

Digital Pickle offers home movie conversion and preservation services that can help you convert your favorite home movies to a modern, high quality format that will withstand the test of time. Whether your memories are recorded movie film such as in an 8mm, Super 8mm, or 16mm format, or in a video tape form like VHS, Beta, Video 8, or DV tapes, home movie conversion will keep your movies from degrading over time.

With Digital Pickle’s professional commercial video equipment, your video home movie conversion will be done in a digital format with exceptional video quality. Our process includes noise reduction and image stabilization, and our experienced video professionals will turn your home movie into a home masterpiece. If you want to take advantage of our custom video editing services, you can choose from a variety of options to take your video to the next level. You can trim, join, or rearrange video clips, create a slide show out of still images, design a navigation menu, and add titles and motion effects. During the conversion process, we utilize an advanced filtration system to reduce noise, minimize jitter, and synchronize frames. We can also convert audio to Dolby Digital.

Digital Pickle’s talented staff are not limited to working with video – we also perform home movie conversion of film (8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm) format! Our meticulous process involves repairing the film, inspecting it for dust and lint, and splicing as necessary. Our transfer process produces exceptional quality video free of flickering. We balance the light distribution and ensure the focus is just right. Your home movie conversion from film to DVD will be done frame by frame, so the digital version operates at the correct frame rate without interference.

Digital Pickle also offers the availability of storing full quality digital video files on an external hard drive for people who wish to edit the digital content after it is converted.. This service is available for both video and film formats.

As times and technologies change, there is no reason to walk away from a lifetime of home movies. Transfer your memories to a digital or DVD format and enjoy the benefits of home movie conversion:

  • Higher quality.
  • Convenience.
  • Safe storage.

For more information about home movie conversion from film or video to a digital format, please contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Improve Your Old Films And Home Movies With Film Transfer To A Digital Format

Have you ever experienced a personal disaster? A fire, an earthquake, or tornados are all horrible events, especially if they destroy your home where you’ve gathered all the little possessions that create your life. Family pictures of holidays and birthdays, swimming lessons, and soccer games hold those lasting memories that none of us ever want to forget. It’s no surprise then that these are the things that people regret losing the most.

How would you feel then if you discovered you’d lost all these important memories already and it wasn’t because of any kind of catastrophe? In most of our attics or basements we all have boxes full of 8mm, 16mm or Super 8 film reels that are collecting dust. These reels hold the cherished memories of your childhood or your kids’ childhood. They’re memories you don’t want to forget and yet they sit up there gathering dust and wasting away to the point that soon you won’t be able to watch them ever again. Most people don’t consider the fact that time and that very dust that fills the attic can destroy the evidence of those memories we enjoy so much.

It’s a fact: film breaks and gets brittle with age. The images we knew and loved will fade and change color over time. It’s for this reason many people are making the smart choice to have their old pictures and film transferred into a digital form. Film and video preservation specialists can not only combine your boxes of film and reels into this modern, high-quality digital format, they can also improve the images by making minor repairs and splicing brittle film that’s broken over time. They have the technology to remove color casts of red, yellow, or blue so that your memories will be restored to their original quality. They can also reduce noise, synchronize frames, and correct over- and under-exposure.

The transfer process uses an aerial capture method that incorporates a 3CCD camera. By using this combination, the technicians are able to produce a digital version of your home movie that is extremely high quality, flicker-free, and in perfect focus. Instead of a real-time copy, the processors go over the film frames one by one, digitizing each frame and reassembling them into a digital version that has no interference. People who remember the flickering, bouncy movies of their childhood will love the new, movement-free version they get when they transfer film to digital.

One of the drawbacks to the old 8mm, 16mm, or Super 8films is that the reels allowed for 3 to 4.5 minutes worth of filming, which meant you needed many reels of that type of film to properly capture a family event. But now, as an added bonus, when the technicians transfer film to digital, they can trim, join, and rearrange the film clips to consolidate those multiple small reels into larger ones for ease of storage. They can even create a custom slideshow complete with navigation menus, titles, and special effects which you can online with family and friends who live in far-off places.

Don’t be the reason you lose the memory of your child’s first steps. The longer you wait, the more chance there is that dust and lint are destroying the quality of your family’s happiest moments. Preserve those happy times through film transfer to digitalso they will last a lifetime and beyond.

For more information about film transfer to digital, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730 or email them today.

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Improved Internal Communications Through Professional Video Production Services

Businesses today are facing new and more challenging demands due to increased problems with the economy and the fact that many consumers are spending less money on a regular basis. Competition for customers has become fierce, with business going to the companies that are seen as being able to outperform the others in service and employee knowledge. For the same reason, companies often have to institute rapid changes in policy and business procedures. If a process isn’t working, business executives need to implement changes instantly throughout the company in order to improve their production and quality. Such changes also require employees to adapt and learn more quickly than ever before.

It is for these reasons that internal marketing and communication has become increasingly important in today’s world. Internal communications is often a combination of presentations and videos used for training or to to roll out new policies and ideas to a company’s staff. The concept views the employees as “customers” through a visual connection. It allows the employees to be part of the company culture and to understand the values, procedures, and goals of the organization. Internal communication strategies also aid in company-wide understanding so all employees are aware of any procedure or product changes or any company updates. New policies or decisions can be instantly transmitted to employees within the world-wide framework of the company so that the entire working body can go in the new direction without any lagtime. This brings coherence to the business and clears up any chances of miscommunication.

Instant company-wide communication means:

  • Micro-managing is reduced because employees have the knowledge required to make correct decisions.
  • Employees get a sense of cohesiveness with the business when they understand company goals and procedures. They feel more in tune with the company and feel more like they are a part of the success of the business.
  • This cohesiveness leads to greater employee efficiency and effort.
  • Miscommunication is avoided because everyone has watched and heard the same message.
  • Training can take place at different company facilities throughout the world and all employees will learn the same concepts and procedures through internal training videos.
  • Sales staff and associates are often dispersed world-wide and can be difficult to coordinate into a focused group with similar goals. Instant communications means that technical and sales training can be accomplished comprehensively and efficiently.
  • Expense and training complexity are reduced through focused training videos that communicate the same message and lessons to all affected employees.
  • Live communications can be directed to certain select groups within a company, or to the entire staff, as needed.

Video production companies have the capability of creating high-quality internal communications videos that combine presentation details with clips of videos or synchronized video streams. Companies like Digital Pickle offer professional video production services for technical training sessions and internal communications such as those mentioned above. They provide the camera crew and any necessary recording equipment. Sales and marketing training can be done via edited digital content that may consist of presentation slides synchronized with the presenter video or any other combination of multiple, synchronized, video streams in virtually any digital format required for online streaming, downloading, or archiving. The videos that are created (whether training or internal communication) are produced to include the slide presentation that was made.

Post-production services are no problem. Arik Paran of Digital Pickle notes that the company gives full-scale service, from the filming right down to the editing, formatting, special effects additions, and improvements to picture and sound. The final digital products are film-quality training videos that can be distributed among departments, dispersed over geography, formatted for streaming or downloading on the web and even saved and reused for future employee training. Media archiving services are also available so videos can be repurposed for later marketing uses. Another benefit to using the Digital Pickle professional video production services is that company training material can be loaded into their corporate Learning Management System (LMS) for web streaming off their internal server.

Instant communication with the entire employee body, no matter where they are in the world, is critical any time. Professional video production services such as those provided by Digital Pickle can broadcast changes in policy and procedures, new or continuing training and education, and internal communications throughout the world-wide company system, and can make the content ready to share instantly.

For more information about professional video production services in the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Metro Areas, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Video Transfer Services Convert Old Films Into A Long-lasting Digital Format

It wasn’t that long ago that VHS tapes were the primary form of video entertainment across America and the rest of the world. Today, however, the VHS format is quickly becoming obsolete. In Europe, the VCR is all but gone and it won’t be too much longer before they disappear from U.S. markets, as well. This leaves millions of people with collections of home videos and VHS movies that contain vast amounts of material that could be lost if steps are not taken to transfer them into a digital format.

Video transfer services offer the means to do this. High tech companies like Digital Pickle operate dedicated commercial equipment complete with noise reduction and image stabilization when they transfer home movies to DVD. Digital Pickle specializes in digitizing the following formats:

  • VHS, VHS-C, and S-VHS
  • 8mm
  • NTSC
  • PAL
  • Video 8 and Digital 8
  • WMV formats
  • Laser Disc

Recent reports have shown a growing number of video tapes are deteriorating past the point where a digital transfer is even possible. It is for this reason that it is most important to utilize video transfer services as soon as possible. This deterioration problem is seen mostly in Video 8, Hi 8, and Digital 8 tapes as well as older VHS formats. Fortunately, Digital Pickle can complete any necessary format conversions as well as professional video editing and DVD authoring to your requirements. They also have vast experience with a high volume of video archiving projects and can transfer video tapes to DVDs as well as uncompressed video to external hard drives or mini-DVs in AVI, Quicktime, MPEG4 (H.264), and any required proprietary format for editing and archiving. We recommend that you preserve an uncompressed master copy of your film. It will be invaluable in the future.

If you are one of the millions of Americans who still have dusty VHS videos filling up your attic or basement, consider changing them to a digital format as soon as possible. Video transfer services will convert them so you’ll be able to enjoy them for a lifetime. Waiting too long can result in the loss of precious family memories or the loss of money originally spent on the tapes. The next time you walk past your collection of videos, think about how much time and money went into them and you’ll realize how horrible it would be to lose them in the near future.

For more information about video transfer services, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website atwww.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Custom Photobooks Make Great Gifts

When it comes to giving gifts to your friends and loved ones, choosing the perfect gift can be a very stressful process. With so many birthdays and holidays on today’s cultural calendar, it can be easy to run out of gift ideas. Many people succumb to the temptation of giving the easiest and most convenient present: the gift card (or worse, cash!). While all gifts are kind gestures, gift cards and cash don’t communicate the thoughtfulness, uniqueness, and sentimental value contained in the best gifts. That’s why custom photo books are a great way to rejuvenate your gift giving and show your friends and family how much you care!

Photobooks allow you to produce a professional, beautiful, long lasting photo album using your very own pictures. The process couldn’t be easier! You start by simply select a series of digital photos from your hard drive or personal albums. Then you custom design the layout, backgrounds, themes, and cover types. Professional photo service providers like Digital Pickle can assist you with this process, lending you the support of their photo and design professionals. They can also provide you with a proof copy to review before the final edition is printed. Among the many options you can choose, your photobook can be produced with matte or glossy pages, custom covers, and with various size specifications.

Your imagination is the only limit when it comes to custom photo books. Do you need the perfect thank you gift for your wedding guests? Send them each a photobook with photos from the festivities. Custom photo books are great for holidays as well. Albums of family pictures can help keep your relatives and loved ones apprised of what you have been up to for the year. Other great opportunities for gifting photo books include vacations, graduations, birthdays, and retirement parties.

For more information on custom photo books, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730 or email them today.

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Photo Restoration And Retouching Services

Everywhere you look nowadays, someone has a camera. We have them built into our phones, tucked into our purses and backpacks, or sitting in our car’s glove compartment so they’re available wherever we travel. A quick glance around will find them dominating birthday parties, weddings, picnics, vacations, graduations, or any other occasion we truly want to remember – after all, that’s the purpose of taking pictures. Photographs are a very vulnerable medium and, unfortunately, most of us don’t take care of our photographs the way we should. The vast majority of people tuck them away in shoe boxes in the attic or basement, making them more susceptible to damage such as cracks and scratches, tears, discoloration, water damage, and mold spots. Even photos that are quickly separated into photo albums can be subject to aging or chemical discoloration from the album material.

If you’ve run into these types of problems the best solution is to contact a professional photo restoration and retouchingcompany like Digital Pickle. Depending on your specific needs, restoration experts will rejuvenate your favorite photos in a variety of ways, using:

  • Chemical restoration. Best for black and white images, chemical restoration uses a black and white developer medium to activate the oxidized silver found in many old photos into silver metal that clarifies the image.
  • Electronic restoration. Photos can be uploaded into a computer and restored digitally through photo editing software. Professionally trained artists have the technical abilities to make damaged photos appear just like the original.
  • Physical restoration. This method utilizes a combination of photography, neutron irradiation, and autoradiography to restore your pictures using hard-to-find equipment that ensures your photos won’t be damaged during the process.
  • Airbrush restoration. Professional restoration artists use airbrush equipment to “brush out” defects like scratches and cracks. They can also correct over- and under-exposure and contrast defects found in many photographs.

No matter what your particular needs, professional photo restoration and retouching companies like Digital Pickle can assess the damage to your treasured photographs and ensure you get the best results possible. Before you know it those old family pictures from your parent’s or grandparent’s childhood will look as if they were just taken yesterday.

For more information about photo restoration and retouching, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website atwww.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Photo Album Scanning Can Save Your Old, Faded Pictures

When it comes to reliving memories, the first place many people turn to is their stack of photo albums. These albums have been lovingly filled with images that capture a lifetime of experiences. Most people have these picture books stuffed with photos of everything from their wedding and honeymoon right up to birth of their first baby, their child’s first day of school, and the birth of their grandchildren. One of the problems with many of these old albums, though, is that often the photos have started deteriorating over the years. This happens because many times pictures are taped or glued to album pages that are made of non-archivable paper. This type of paper degrades and fades the pictures as the years pass by. Another problem that is found in old photo albums is that the pictures themselves are starting to deteriorate and fade due to exposure to light and the toxins from the glue that was used on the plastic covers. Plus, older pictures were also printed on non-archivable paper so they are subject to the same problems found with the pages in these albums.

It’s not too late to stop this aging process. You can preserve your old photos in a digital format which stops the fading and cracking of your pictures. Digital imaging service companies can perform photo album scanning and photo restoration that will keep your pictures looking fresh and new. These companies use high-end commercial scanners to scan each individual photo in your album or collection of pictures. Once the photo album scanning is completed, the new digital photos are loaded onto a CD or DVD so they’ll last a lifetime without fading or cracking. Often, a photo that has been digitalized looks better than the original picture because these companies can remove dust and scratches from the surface of the image before it is scanned. They also use automated tools on the pictures prior to scanning, so the original color and composition of the photo is restored. And at 500 stored images per CD or 4,000 stored images per DVD, you can put many albums onto just one storage medium for easier locating.

This digital picture format is much more versatile than a plain photo. For example, you can print out the photographs to put into a new photo album of your choosing. And, once albums are digitized, they can be recreated in beautiful photo books that can be coffee table books and will last a lot longer than albums. These digital photo albums can be customized with personally selected backgrounds, layouts, themes, and covers. You can also share the newly digitized photos with friends and family online or send them by email. You can even make gifts out of the newly digitized pictures by printing them on mugs or putting them on various items such as mousepads, keychains, or t-shirts.

You’ll love your new digital pictures so much, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to convert your paper photographs throughphoto album scanning. It’s easy to put them into a digital format so you have them to share with your family for generations to come.

Digital Pickle can help you with photo album scanning so you can save your aging hard-copy photo albums from deteriorating. Contact the experts at Digital Pickle today at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them for more information.

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Use Fragile Document Scanning To Store Important Documents Digitally

Have you ever come across aged records from generations past? These records can consist of anything from old wedding announcements to birth certificates of grandparents or great-grandparents to immigration documents – in short, simple items that quickly become treasured by living generations. The same can be said for many different businesses and organizations. A library or historic preservation society, for example, will often have fragile documents that relate important information that occurred many decades ago. Anyone who has seen these types of papers knows they must be handled with extreme care. After being worn down from age it can take very little to destroy old documents. It is for this reason that many people are working toward digitizing fragile documents so as to make them available for many years to come.

Professional Photo Restoration companies like Digital Pickle are able to handle any type of digital or document imaging andfragile document scanning requirements that may arise, including EMR (electronic medical records) conversion. Utilizing the latest in flatbed scanning technology, they can export full-color, high-resolution document scanning of delicate documents that require flatbed scanning and special handling. They will assist in the organizing and digitizing of the content, and work with you on digital asset organization and management to help you import those important documents into content management systems.

Fragile document scanning is performed on high resolution full color flatbed or cradle scanner and only when the state of the documents and the requirements permit it, on ADF-equipped, high resolution gray-scale scanners. And as an added bonus for special projects, the Digital Pickle team is able to perform scanning and conversion services on-site with their own equipment so that delicate material does not need to leave your premises.

Through these fragile document scanning services, your important documents can be digitally stored and preserved so future generations can fully enjoy and appreciate them. This means your grandchildren will be able to see the birth certificate for your great-grandfather, the public can view turn-of-the century documents that were important to their city, and no one has to worry that the paperwork will be handled improperly.

For more information on fragile document scanning, please contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website atwww.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Save Your Memories With Photo, Slide, And Negative Scanning

If you’re like most people, you have probably accumulated a large collection of old photographs and negatives featuring the most memorable and happy moments of your life. Unfortunately, photos don’t last forever. As the years pass, they degrade: they get scratched, ripped, or torn, they suffer water damage, or the image simply fades. While you can’t reverse the forces of nature, there are ways to restore and revitalize your favorite photos.

Many people think the most economical option is to purchase their own slide, negative, or photo converter. While this will get the job done, these consumer devices may not yield the quality you are hoping for. Also, you might find that you won’t get enough use out of one of these machines to justify the up front cost. And, let’s face it - scanningphoto, slide, and/or negative yourself can be extremely time-consuming and can drive you to the edge of insanity!

Alternatively, you can find a professional photo scanner who uses high end commercial scanning equipment. Not only will top of the line technology produce unmatched quality, but expert imaging technicians will analyze each frame. This ensures the best quality exposure, focus, color fidelity, cropping, and orientation.

One particularly valuable service that you won’t get out of a home scanner is dust and scratch removal. Professional photo technicians will carefully clean your materials with compressed air. CleanScan technology is a sophisticated optical process that “sees through” dust and scratches during the digital conversion, producing a nearly flawless digital image.

Using a professional for your photo, negative, and slide scanning is easy! Simply browse the available products and services online, make your selection, and mail your materials in. You will receive the finished product in the form of a photo CD or DVD or digital electronic format. Photos are generally provided in JPEG or 8 and 16bit TIFF formats.

Digital Pickle, ranked by CNN Money as the #1 photo scanner in the US in 2006, is a great source of information about photo, negative, and slide scanning. To ask how they can help you keep your cherished photos forever, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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