Jan 22

Organizing and Sharing Digital Pictures (Spring 2003)

Technology Tuesday Add comments

[NOTE: Picasa mentioned below was bought by Google and is available free from picasa.google.com]

As you take more and more digital pictures and put them on your computer
hard drive, it becomes harder to find that one picture from last year’s birthday
party and your aunt really wants. It’s time to organize your pictures so
you can enjoy and share them more easily.

The different tasks

There are five main tasks involved in getting your digital photography library
organized and useful:

  • Image Browsing/Viewing: the digital equivalent of a light box which allows you
    to browse through your image files before selecting one for enhancement
    and printing
  • Image Cataloging: software that allows you to build ñalbumsî or catalogs of
    images grouped by topic or other criteria. Some allow you to add ñmetadataî to
    the images so you can search later on that data.
  • Image Enhancing:
    the digital darkroom software that allows you to crop photos, enhance
    colors, adjust brightness or even remove red eye.
  • Image Archiving:
    saving your digital images to removable media such as CD, DVD or Zip
    disks to make room on your computer hard drive and to have a backup in
    case of drive failure.
  • Image Sharing:
    putting your digital images out for view by others whether via email,
    web pages, slideshows or printing

Most digital cameras come with some software that will do all or part of
these tasks. It is not always that powerful but it might be enough for your
needs. Often, it is a “light” version of commercial software that has much
more capability if you purchase the full product. Some options include:

For PC Users

  • ACDSee from ACD Systems
    (www.acdsystems.com)
    prices ranging from $50 – $80 with free trial
  • Picasa from Lifescape, Inc (www.lifescapeinc.com)
    $30 with free trial download available
  • XnView from Pierre Gougelet (www.xnview.com)
    free for non-commercial work
  • Photoshop Album and ActiveShare from Adobe (www.adobe.com)
    ActiveShare is free, Photoshop Album is $50
  • SmartDraw Photo from SmartDraw (www.smartdraw.com)
    $70 with free trial available

For Mac Uses

Other options for sharing include Yahoo! Photos (http://photos.yahoo.com),
oFoto, (http://www.ofoto.com/) and Shutterfly
(www.shutterfly.com)

 

ACDSee 5.0

Picasa 1.5

 XnView

Active Share

SmartDraw
Photo

Image Browsing/Viewing

Yes via thumbnails

Acquires from camera, files, scanner, screen, PhotoDiscs

Yes via thumbnails

Acquires from files, camera

Yes via thumbnails

Acquires from files, screen capture

Yes via thumbnails

Acquires from camera, folder

Yes via thumbnails

Acquires from camera, scanner, CD, files

Image Cataloging

Create catalogs, add keywords

Searchable

Create albums, add keywords

Searchable

None

Create albums, add info

Create albums, add keywords

Searchable

Image Enhancing

With additional software

Basic: red eye, rotate, autoenhance

None

Basic: red eye, rotate

Beyond Basics: rotate, adjust color

Crop, add text/paint and effects

Image Archiving

Create zip file that can be saved to other media

None

none

Back up to Zip disk

None

Image Sharing

Print contact sheet;

Print photos;

Order prints;

Email prints;

Post on ACDs free web hosting service; or create HTML

Slideshow;

Email;

Print contact sheet;

Create HTML pages;

Order prints

Create HTML pages;

Slideshow;

Print contact sheet

Web albums on Shutterfly server;

Email;

Print;

Order prints;

slideshow

Web pages on SmartDraw.net;

Email;

Print;

Create screensaver/wallpaper;

slideshow

Cost

$50 (can add image enhancing software/more)

$30

Free for non-commercial

free

$70

System Requirements

Pentium

Win98/2000/XP

64 MB RAM

IE 4.02+

or Macintosh

Pentium (300 Mhz)

Win98 or higher

64 MB RAM

60 MB hard drive space

Windows

No other specs given

Pentium

Windows 95 or higher

IE 4+

32 MB RAM

Pentium

Windows 95 or higher

30 MB – 300 MB hard drive space

Quick Links and References

About.com’s Image Management Software Reviews (http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/imagemanagement/) – A grouping of software along with annotations from the About.com guide in charge of maintaining the collection of links to freeware, shareware, and commercial software for viewing, organizing, manipulating, and sharing your images.

Digital Photography Center http://photo.cnet.com – This site has useful links to consumer reviews of digital cameras, a tool to help you choose a camera that best fits your needs and links to software that can help you store, manipulate and share your digital images.

Digital Photography Review (2001,  Askey.net Consulting) http://www.dpreview.com – This site maintains reviews of digital cameras, discussion forums, side by side camera comparisons and a database of camera features and specifications

Comments are closed.