How do you download pics from a cd to your computer?

[eeyoreforever]

Ok, please don't laugh at my stupidity, but I really am totally clueless about this. I got a new computer with a cd burner. Finally figured out how to burn my pictures so I can erase my CF card (instead of keep on buying new ones). Now, my new computer is not hooked up to the internet yet (we can't get the networking to work-whole different problem), so I was going to try to use the cd I burned on my old computer which is still hooked up to the internet and order some pictures from WalMart. I go into PhotoImpressions (which is my cameras software), look in drive d where my cd is, find a picture, make enhancements, save it. But where is it actually saving it? to the cd? to the hard drive? When I take the cd out, I can't find my picture anywhere to upload to WalMart.

Can anyone please clue me in as to how this works? I am scared to death to erase my CF card until I know for sure I can access my pictures on the cd I made. I'm thinking I'm fixing to go buy another card for my Christmas pictures-my dh is going to kill me.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Unless you save it to some other place than from where you currently have it (the CD), it saves it back there (the CD). If you want to save it elsewhere, use the 'file' dropdown on the toolbar and do a 'save as', where you can select your hard drive. You also can go to 'My Computer' and open the folder tree, then copy the files from the CD to the hard drive. Does any of that make sense??

 

[ndelaware]

eeyoreforever, what I do is copy the pictures on the CF card to my hard drive (C) and to a CD. Some folks will copy them to two CD's to be sure they will not lose them due to a disk error. Then I treat the cd as a negative and put it in a safe place so I will always have the original photo. Then when I make adjustments to my pictures I do it on the computers hard drive and save the changes there. I also rename the file after changes so that the original is still on the hard drive. If you don't change the name the computer will replace the original file with the new one. After I have my albums on the computer the way I want, I copy them to a new CD so I have copies of the finished product. Then I can upload pictures right off my hard drive without having to figure out which CD they are on. When I am done loading the pics onto the computer and a CD, I format the card in the camera and it is as good as new. I also use CD-Rs not CD-RWs so the files on the CD can't be changed accidently. As long as you do something like this you can keep re-using your memory cards without any worries.

 

[robertchance]

go to the library in your town and see if they have basic classes on computers,, sounds like you need to attend one of those to get the basics under your belt. it will be worth the few classes to pick up what you need.

 

[manning]

If you are going to make many changes to a picture at different times change it to a TIFF format, and keep it a TIFF format. Every time you do a "save as" to a jpeg file you lose pixels due to "lossy compression". In other words, and these aren't exact numbers, if you have a picture with 5mp and you do a "save as" it will then be 4.5 mp then save again and it becomes 4 mp and again, it is 3mp. I have no idea what the exact numbers are but you are losing detail every time you do a "save as".

TIFF is a lossless format. Everytime you do a "save as" you do not lose pixels.

If you are going to do "save as" one or two times it may be ok to stay with jpeg.

 

[eeyoreforever]

I haven't been able to post in a couple of days, but thanks for the replies. I did get it figured out with the help posted here. I am so paranoid about losing my pictures, I have them on my hard drive now and burned 2 cd's. I don't think I will be totally comfortable though, until I get them printed and have actual photos in my hands.

Thanks again.

 

[manning]

You're doing the right thing by burning to CD's. Just stay away from cd-rw. As long as you verified the cd burned correctly you're ok. It may be wise to make 2 each.

Here is a good reason for getting them on cd right away. I bought a computer (name brand) a few years back. The hard drive failed after a month.