It is just a lot easier when you let your fingers do the clicking. I think among the best services available on the Internet are online photo services.
These are Web sites that process, scan and print your photographs, often at a low price and sometimes free. You'll have to pay for shipping, though some sites do waive shipping charges for loyal customers.
How does it work and how do you get started?
The service I use most often is Ofoto.com. I have used Shutterfly, which is apparently the most popular of all photo services Web sites, as well as Kodak's Photonet.com. But I keep going back to Ofoto because I like the interface, which is really easy to use, the quality is excellent and, as a semi-loyal customer, I keep getting free prints and free shipping.
Before I begin my pitch, I should say that this is a convenient way of getting your pictures developed only if you have a digital camera. If you do not have a digital camera, the sites offer photograph and negative scanning services. So if you send them your photos or negatives, they'll scan them up and upload the pictures on the site or put them all on a CD-Rom and send it back to you. Most people would just walk down to the nearest shop and get their roll of film developed in an hour.
You could do the same with a digital camera - pop over to a Kodak shop. On Hong Kong Island, almost everyone is five minutes away from one. Just hand over your SD card or Compact Flash card or CD-Rom and they'll get it processed in about three days.
To get your pictures developed online, you first need to log on to a photo services Web site, sign in and then upload pictures from your digital camera, preferably over a broadband connection. You could do it on a dial-up line but the waiting time could be several hours, depending on how many pictures you have.
