Friday, June 08, 2007

Grrrr...

...no matter how hard I try to fit in, the world of Modern Technology is out to do me in.

I shot some film in Connecticut to go along with a story I'm writing. Yes, film. I love my digital happy-snap camera, and think it does a great job. But when I have to do serious photography, I fall back on more years of experience with film than I care to admit to having. When I fire the shutter, I have a damn good idea of what I'll see.

So I decided to play a little game with one of my geekier clients, who happens to be the one buying this particular story. I asked the processing lab to put the finished film on CDs, so I could submit them the "modern" way.

What I didn't take into account was the lab's use of some special "photo-viewer" software, as if everyone doesn't already have such programs on their computer. The problem is that their software grabs on to the images with the fiercest of electronic grips, not showing me any way to move them to my own files and, ultimately, to put the edited list of images on a disc for my client.

This pisses me off.

At least I'm better off than my friend D., who just returned from Italy where he lost several hundred images shot for clients on his digital camera, thanks to (a) a faulty memory card and (b) some other malfunction within the camera itself.

Me, at least I have the film.

But it still pisses me off.

8 comments:

Doug said...

Can you browse the CD without starting the software? What extension in on the files? And, is it a proprietary format? You need to drag and drop the files to your hard drive and possibly get a program that can see them and save them to what you need. IrfanView is great for that. Fairly simple, and free.

MrScribbler said...

dal -- the images are .jpg as normal, but you can't drag & drop beyond the viewing frame...I tried to get them into a folder, but no go.

Ordinarily, when I have a photo CD, I can choose how/where to open it. Not this one.

Doug said...

If you can see the .jpgs in Explorer, you can drag them off. Hold down the SHIFT key when you load the CD, and browse to the disc. It will work.

MrScribbler said...

Got it, dal! Thanks!

(It's still a pain in the posterior...)

Doug said...

I don't let CDs start automatically, it bugs the hell out of me. There is a place to turn Autoplay off, but I forget where it is. Thank the software gods for programming in a work around :-)

Anonymous said...

I'd be pissed off too and wow, I feel for your friend who lost everything.

Anonymous said...

I love the IrfanView that dal is talking about. It's a great little program. I still have undeveloped film from years ago. Some day I'm going to get it processed to see what's on it. :)

Dorrie said...

many stores have automats where you can view the film first, then select which ones you want on the CD. It means standing up for some time doing it but might be worth while in the end.
I dread the thought of losing all my photos before I get them uploaded! I never delete them from the card until I've viewed them on my hard drive, then I delete them in the camera and the card is free for the next batch.