6. Managing Photographs 2nd April 2007
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Many of us have digital cameras these days and it's nice to be able to manipulate and enhance the images we make.
There are excellent applications on the market such as Adobe's Photoshop and Corel's Paint Shop Pro, but there are also a number of very good free packages available for download.
I've looked at a number of them and recorded my observations below.
Freshview from www.freshdevices.com
Freshview's friendly interface
A good picture viewer, though with very basic editing functions. Can create slideshows which can be burnt to
CD-ROM and shared with friends and family.
a good photo organizer with basic editing functions
FastStone from www.faststone.org
A very friendly image viewer with good editing functions.
What Faststone has over some other applications is the ability to convert file formats, BMP to JPG for example - handy if you're creating images for a web site or simply want to save disk space.
It can also resize images which is particularly handy since modern digital cameras often produce vast images which take up loads of disk space. It can also produce a series of photos of the same or similar size.
There is also a facility for capturing images from your computer screen, which is how I created the graphics on this page.
Faststone's user-friendly interface
great interface with adequate editing functions - worth having in your toolbox
IrfanView and IrfanView Thumbnails from www.irfanview.com


IrfanView's editing page
Although IrfanView's interface is a bit clunky, the application offers enough editing and effects options to suit the average user.
IrfanView also comes with a thumbnail viewer which is pretty basic, Picasa 2 is a better bet (see below).
IrfanView Thumbnails window
good photo editing facilities, thumbnail viewer is somewhat limited
Picasa 2 from picasa.google.com
First and foremost, Picasa enables you to organise all your images into folders.
You can specify which folders you want included and easily set up the program to monitor any changes, which will then be updated automatically.
It can also create CD-ROMs, (provided you have a burner program), slide shows and e-mails.



The opening screen gives access to all your image folders

Individual images can be edited, (cropped, straightened, adjusted for contrast and saturation, red-eye removal, tinting), and quite a lot more:

powerful picture organizer with enough editing options for the enthusiastic amateur photographer

The GIMP from gimp-win.sourceforge.net
The GIMP gives the impression that its been designed by an anorak, and to some extent it has.
The GIMP is open source programming, which means it's constantly being improved by some of its users.
This also explains why this powerful application is free to download.
If you've had experience with Photoshop, you should find the GIMP fairly familiar, but it does take some practise to get used to.
On the positive side, the program boasts a mass of features and is great if you're prepared to spend time with it.
Opening a file is simple enough
Just a few of the many windows in a good interface
not easy to use but well worth the effort
 
Happy snapping!
Please keep in touch via alancooper@blueyonder.co.uk