PHOTOS FOR YOUR FOTOSHADES- Design your own Lampshade Fotoshades is designed to display and illuminate your favorate photographs either developed or printed on your home computer printer.  Currently to display a picture, you have to frame it and hang it on a wall or set it on a table and shine a light on it.  Fotoshades changes all that.  This section explains how to display and illuminate on Fotoshades. HOW IT WORKS Pictures and photographs are turned into backlit photos by either Transparencies printed on your own printer or bought at a local store or "Duratrans" a Kodak product and mounted on the lampshade using the light from the lamp for illumination instead of a light box.  Pictures can be sourced from digital cameras or scanned into the computer.  There are two different types of backlit photographs, see below.

This section explains the different types of backlit photos and how to mount and frame them.  There are 2 ways to produce photographs for backlit display which are similar to standard photographs.

The best looking backlit photographs are developed like standard photographs except they use a special translucent plastic film to print on (as pictured above).  To have your own photograph reproduced to a backlit photo, contact any professional photo developing shop to have either a Duratrans or a Transparency made.  Duratrans come in 8" x 12" all the way to 12" x 38" and are best for large format pictures.  Kinkos Copies can do Transparencies for about $5 to $7. per print. The other way is to print it on a standard home printer.

PRINT YOUR OWN PHOTOS ON YOUR COMPUTER PRINTER AND MOUNT THEM ON THE SHADE. The cheapest way to get a backlit photograph is to print it on your home printer.  To print your own picture, take a photograph with your digital camera or scan in a picture into your computer.  Buy some overhead projector transparency film made for ink jet printers from the local office supply store.  Run the film through your printer to print the photo or any other image you may have.  Be sure to follow the directions on the film package.  The picture of the flower to the left was printed on a standard home printer and is matted with a 3D hologram.  This cost under a dollar to make this shade.  The overhead projector film comes in 8" x 11" so you can print a picture to this size.