When you befriended someone in the past, they'd pull out their wallet and unfold a 2-foot-long chain of images of their loved ones to show you. Instead, most individuals can now take out their camera — or even their cell phone — and sift through dozens to hundreds of digital photos with the touch of a button.

Even though you lament the fact that print photographs are becoming less frequent, digital photographs have numerous advantages. Although you may still make print copies from digital images, a digital photograph of your spouse or children can now be used as the background of your cell phone display or as the wallpaper on your computer desktop. Perhaps the most significant advantage of digital photographs is the ease with which they can be shared with others.

E-mail is one way to distribute digital images, and it's a rather simple process. Whether you use a desktop email program like Microsoft Outlook or Apple's Mail, or a web-based service like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, the basic procedure for adding a photo is the same:

Save the digital photo to your computer with a name and in a folder where you can locate it later.

Create a new message in your e-mail system.

Look for a "attach a file" option on the toolbars. A paperclip is commonly used as the icon for a file attachment. Alternatively, your e-mail provider may have a "File Attachment" option under the "Insert" menu (located on the same toolbar as the "File" and "Edit" options).

This should bring up a new window where you can look through the files on your computer. (Or, if it doesn't open automatically, pick "Browse.")

Find the photo you saved earlier in the browsing window, right-click it, and select "Insert" (or whatever version your computer uses, such as "Attach" or "OK"). Alternatively, merely double-clicking the file may suffice).

And there you have it! Your photo should be included to your e-mail message at this point. You have the option of sending your message to a different e-mail address.

However, there is a chance that your receiver will not receive the email at all. Continue reading to learn what it is and how to avoid it, as well as other helpful hints.

E-mailing Photographs: Some Pointers

Digital images can be quite enormous, occupying a lot of storage space on your computer and on your e-mail accounts. A large photo can be beneficial when you need a high-quality image, but it can also be detrimental if it is too large to transmit over email. Your recipient's e-mail account, in instance, may not have enough space to receive the photo.

When you right-click a file and choose "Properties" or "Get Info," you should be able to see its digital size in "Details" viewing mode in a browser window or when you right-click the file and choose "Properties" or "Get Info." Any file with a size of less than 1000 kilobytes (KB) should suffice; 1000 KB equals 1 megabyte (MB). Any photo larger than 2000 KB should be avoided (2 MB) [according to Microsoft]

What if you have a photo that is too large? The quality should not suffer greatly as a result of the reduction in size (for purposes of viewing on a computer, it will be fine). There are various ways to minimise the size of a photograph. One method is to save the image in a compressed graphic format like.jpg,.png, or.gif (by choosing one of these options in the "Save as type" drop-down menu when you are saving the file).

Your computer may be set up to reduce the size for you instead of following the process on the previous page. Right-click the file and select "send to e-mail" from the menu (which will automatically attach it to your default e-mail). It may pop up a window asking if you want it to shrink the size.

You have additional options if this isn't an option or if you don't want to use the default e-mail. The Windows Paint application, as well as the more powerful Adobe Photoshop, among other tools, have the ability to resize images. Several free software packages, such as Shrink Pic, are also available for download online and can help you minimise the size of your photos. If you transmit images frequently, you might want to consider downloading one of these.

Another tip is to send numerous huge photographs in separate e-mail messages if you're sending many large photos. This will improve their chances of passing [source: Microsoft].

You should be prepared to share special experiences with your friends and family if you follow these guidelines.