Editing & Creating Beautiful Digital Photo Projects

With the bustle of the holiday season, no time is better than now to for diving into those personal digital photo projects. Whether you use digital photos to personalize gifts, update your blog, or as a way of staying in touch with friends and family- sharing is made so much easier if you follow a few steps.

Here are 5 of my favorite tips for editing and creating beautiful digital photo projects:

1. Organization is key. Create an organization system on your computer or online that works best for you (one that makes photos easiest to locate). A few common methods would be to organize by date, names of individuals in photos, or names of events. My personal favorite method is to create folders by category (people, places, pets, etc.) and then name each image file according to date.

2. Know your photo editing resources. Photo editing is the perfect way to get the most out of your photos. From cropping out photo bombers to changing contrast to adding text and clip art, photo editors can take not so great photos and make them look awesome. For the most editing options, purchase a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements- for more economical options try freeonline photo editors like Picnik which have more limited options.

3. Share efficiently. If you plan on sharing photos online, think about which methods will be the most efficient. Different websites will give you options allow you to share differently. For example, if you want to make photos unavailable somewhere down the line, don't choose an option that won't allow you to later delete photos that you've uploaded. If you want to share with multiple people, you can create an online photo album on a site like Photobucket and share the link with friends and family. Don't want your album available to the public? Choose one that is password protected, etc.

4. Digital vs. print. How do you want to share you photos? Many online photo services will print your pictures in lots of cool and innovative ways beyond the standard mug or t-shirt. You might even purchase digital frames and add personal photos to it as a gift. A great way to make these types of print projects even more interesting and appealing is to apply text or additional graphics and effects to photos before uploading and printing them. Even the small effort of adding text and/or graphics to a digital photo (in the form of an e-card) will be noted by its recipient.

5. Brush up on photo editing basics. Cropping, contrast adjusting, changing photo saturation, resizing images (etc.) are all very simple, very basic tools that you can use to enhance your photos. If you've never tried editing your photos before, chances are you will find the process very simple- it just takes a few clicks of your mouse! Even very basic skills make a huge difference in getting the most out of your images.

Whether you are creating digital projects for yourself or to share with others, organization and some very basic editing skills will ensure that your memorizes are properly immortalized in the digital world for you, your family, friends and future generations to enjoy.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Adobe blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.