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Managing Your Digital Pictures with Windows XP and Beyond
Here's everything you ever wanted to know about downloading, storing, finding, and managing your growing collection of digital photos. Explains what Exif and DCF mean; describes how to use Windows XP to e-mail photos or display your images as wallpaper or a screen saver, describes the best image management programs. This guide is available as a traditional 65 page large-format (8.5 by 11) spiral bound book printed in black and white, and as a full-color, fully searchable PDF eBook you can order on a CD or download instantly.
Introduction
The only serious problem with digital cameras is that you have to understand computers to use them. This book explains everything you need to know about using Windows XP and other programs to move your images from your camera into your computer, and then keep track of them. Complete, clear explanations show you how to download images, and then organize, index, search, copy, move, delete, print, e-mail, or publish them.
Contents
In the Beginning—Digital Pictures and Digital Files
Storing Digital Pictures
Removable vs. fixed storage
Flash memory cards
Magnetic disks
Optical Discs
File Formats Used by Digital Cameras
File compression
File Formats
Choosing a Format
How Pictures Are Stored in the Camera and Computer
Drives
Folders
Filenames
Trees
Paths
DCF and Exif Standards
Exif
CIFF
DCF
Downloading Hardware
Downloading
What to Plug In
Where to plug it
Wireless downloads
Installing Cameras and Card Readers
AutoPlay—Specifying the Program Used to Transfer Pictures
Image Management—Introduction
Programs to Transfer Pictures
Organizing Images
Using the Scanner and Camera Wizard—Basic
Using the Scanner and Camera Wizard—Advanced
Using Windows Explorer
Techniques—Changing Views
Techniques—Selecting and Dragging Files and Folders
Selecting Files and Folders
Dragging and Dropping
Using Windows Explorer—Transferring Files
Using My Computer
Using My Computer—Transferring Files
Searching for Pictures
Annotating Images and Viewing Exif Information
Using the My Pictures Folder
Picture and Fax Viewer
Using Task Lists
Displaying Drive, Folder, and File Properties
Drive/Camera Properties
Folder Properties
File Properties
Associating a Filename Extension with a Program
Customizing Folders
Using Your Images as a Screen Saver
Ordering Prints On—line
Printing Pictures Yourself
Publishing Pictures on the Web
E-mailing Pictures
Sharing or Protecting Pictures
Image Management—Thumbnail Viewers
Image Management—Databases
Choosing Image Management Tools
Basic Features
Search Features
Editing Features
Distribution Features
Intermediate Storage
Long-term Archival Storage
CD discs
DVD discs
Recording Software
Duplicating discs
Printing labels
Disc care
Links
Preface
If there is one question asked by digital photographers more than any other it's a variation of "Where have my pictures gone?" It's asked not only by people new to digital photography and computers, but also by experienced users wondering about those new features in Windows XP that automate so many processes, or about obscure advertising terms as Exif, DCF, and WIA. The purpose of this Short Course is to explain these and related things you need to know when using your digital camera with a PC and Windows. It explains everything you need to know about digital photography between the time you snap a picture and the time you edit, e-mail, or print it—what one writer has called the "chain of pain."
Most digital photos eventually end up on a PC computer's hard drive where they are both stored and used for a variety of purposes. Getting the images from the camera to the computer has always been a problem for many users. As digital photography has grown in popularity, everyone involved in its development has tried to simplify the process. With Windows Me and XP, Microsoft got serious about digital imaging. The result was the introduction of what they call Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) to support digital cameras and card readers. This new system has a number of features designed to make digital photography easier:
- Installs the latest cameras and card readers automatically.
- Links a camera or card reader to an application program so that when you plug in a camera and turn it on or insert a card into a card reader, the application automatically opens.
- Launches a Scanner and Camera Wizard, a series of step-by-step dialog boxes, to guide you through the process of transferring images from your camera to your computer.
- Makes the My Pictures folder a special image preview folder, with links to the most frequently used commands.
- Includes wizards that guide you through printing photos on your own printer or through an affiliated Web site, publishing them to the Web, and e-mailing them.
The need to understand how to transfer images is obvious. However, the related process of image management discussed in this Short Course is like housekeeping. At first it doesn't seem too important but as images accumulate, problems locating the one you want soon arise. The approach of this book is to discuss the underlying principles of image management and the specific procedures you use with Windows. However, Windows isn't the only, or even the best image management program and there are many other tools available. Some are supplied by the camera manufacturer on a CD disc that comes with your camera, but many of the best tools—all described in this book—are created by independent software publishers. Demo versions of some of these are on the CD disc containing the eBook version of this Short Course. Others are described in the Links section at the end of this Short Course. |
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