Editing Digital photos?

[wayacoyote]

I finally commited to a digital camera. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1. I'm very impressed and surprised by the options.

Anyway, I like taking the high-resolution 5MB pictures for my own benefit. Once I have them on the computer, how can I edit them down to smaller file sizes for emails and posting?

Waya

[George Fergusson]

>I finally commited to a digital camera. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1.

Dood! I got one of those [img]smile.gif[/img] Great camera. Just received my Sony $50 rebate the other day, 3.5 months after I bought it. Still learning how to use it. I like the manual overide of everything in particular, manual focus and saturation. It's way more camera than I'm used to.

>how can I edit them down to smaller file sizes for emails and posting?

First off, get rid of the software that came with the camera. Such junk.. I can't believe it. It's really not even that useful for just getting the pictures off the camera- it shows up as a removable disk in Explorer. Drag and drop `em.

I have access to Adobe Photoshop, but I usually just use Microsoft Photo Editor, it's sufficient for what I usually do which is:

1) Resize. 640x480 is usually plenty. A 2150Kb image resized to 640x480 becomes 120K with virtually no loss of image quality (jpeg compression 10%).

2) Crop. Often you can get what you want composed in a small fraction of the original image, especially a 5 megapixel one.

3) Balance adjust, if necessary. Usually isn't.

There's no doubt loads of freeware/shareware Windows photo editor programs. On uxix systems I'd use Gimp. Nothing finer.

Looking forward to seeing some pictures from you Waya.

[Amanda2fan]

I like Paint Shop Pro also, you can make cool graphics along with editing pictures.

[George Fergusson]

Paint Shop Pro is good, I used it years ago but for just resizing and cropping which is 99% of what I do, it's overkill. I've thought it would be nice to have a program that would automagically generate thumbnails and spit out html to make linked, formatted pages. Maybe one of these days..

[Jim Fischer]

Happy Easter!

"JPEG Resizer" free to download from
http://www.virtualzone.de
is a simple program that only
resizes images on Windoze systems.

If your camera is the type that when
plugged into your computer, looks like
a "removable disc drive" to windoze,
then you can use the program to grab
the images directly from the camera,
and resize them before saving them to
a directory on your PC hard disc.
It renames them, numbers them, and
resizes them to consistent sizes, allowing
you to choose sizes, compression rates,
and so on.

I've installed it on the PCs of friends
and family, which is one of the best
endorsements one can make. I also use
it myself, even though I have Photoshop
and many other image-manipulation programs.

[George Fergusson]

You know Jim, I remember you posting about that util before and today I wished I had it. I'll go grab it now before I forget.

[5 minutes later] Nice. Very nice.

[size="1"][ April 16, 2006, 07:16 PM: Message edited by: George Fergusson ][/size]

[artic]

George Fergusson, though I honestly have not used it much, if you want to create static HTML photo albums you may want to give JAbum a shot. It is free and runs with Java, however unfortunately it does not work with JPEGs out of the box, you have to install the patch by SUN that is available here. In most cases this software can be overkill if all you want is a simple gallery, but the features does have can come in handy.

Some examples can be found here

[George Fergusson]

Thanks Robert, I'll check it out.

[Craig W.]

http://picasa.google.com/download/index.html

Picasa is software that makes it easy and fun to view, organize, edit and share the digital photos on your PC.

This is a cool software program and for free hard to beat try it out.

Craig

[George Fergusson]

>This is a cool software program and for free hard to beat try it out.

Many of the best things in life are free, and this often applies especially to software. As a programmer I know for a fact that you don't always get what you pay for in fact, all too often, the more you pay for software the more likely it is to contain nasty bugs, useless features, and fatal design flaws not to mention suffering from sluggish execution. Why is that?

Give me free software or give me death!

No wait a minute, I didn't mean that.

[MichaelW]

http://www.gimp.org/

The Gimp is the best free editor I've used. I use the windows version. Its overkill for resizing and cropping, BUT why not get used to using a good editor for that? When you get more comfortable using an editor, you can start learning about adjusting color levels, contrast, etc. You may want to burn or dodge an under or over exposed area, or stamp out an anyoing piece of garbage in your lanscape photo.

Photo editors are the darkroom of the modern age. Now you too can employ the techniques of Ansel Adams and other great photographers in the comfort of your own home!

[wayacoyote]

George,
I had a hard time committing to a camera. Consumer Reports spoke highly of this one, but then again, it didn't really discuss close-ups. But then I saw your pic of the Crocus that you posted and decided that you had a camera that did what I wanted to do. So if it turns around to burn me, I'll be coming after you, bud!

Waya

[wayacoyote]

George,
I'm having trouble with the packaged software. How do I access the images on the camera from the computer to transfer them? I can't use the package software as it says, "you must have macromedia flash." yet I already HAVE macromedia flash. I would like to get away from the package software like you said.

When I connect the camera, I do get the USB device icon in the task bar next to the Date/Time. However, it doesn't show up in windows explorer as a drive/device.

All I can think to do right now is uninstall macromedia, reinstall, and start anew.

Waya

[wayacoyote]

George,
Disregard. I did find it in windows explorer. Wow, that is a lot easier than dealing with additional software. NOt to mention that the package software insists on running at startup which only slows down the computer. It's a gonner.

Thanks
Waya

[George Fergusson]

>So if it turns around to burn me, I'll be coming after you, bud!

You'll have to catch me first! I'll run and hide!

It's interesting to think you can take a good close up of a bee from 4' away.

>Disregard. I did find it in windows explorer.

As I said, the software that came with the camera is crap. All you need is the driver to allow Windows to see the camera as a removable disk. Drag and drop dood, drag and drop.

>The Gimp is the best free editor I've used. I use the windows version.

Gimp for windows? I'm on it! Thanks!

[Craig W.]

I have a Olympus 4.0 megapixel 40X zoom Camedia. I went to Cnet.com and reviewed their pic and prices and got what I could afford at the time. They also have lots of neat stuff, software, shareware and freeware.

[George Fergusson]

Man.. Gimp for Windows and Picasa all for free. I'm in seventh heaven [img]smile.gif[/img]

[George Fergusson]

Waya- how you making out with your camera?

I shot about 50 pictures of bees on apricot blossoms today and got 4 that were keepers. It is a challenge to get closeups nicely focused. I need to experiment more with manual settings, in particular aperature.

http://www.sweettimeapiary.com/pics/...04-27-06_4.jpg

George-

[wayacoyote]

Sorry I took so long George.
I'm doing fabulously with the new camera. Very handy. You'll see some photos posted in my brand new folder on Organics....

It has revolutionized my life. Went canoe shopping and took photos of styles and prices for later mulling over. the grass seems greener through it, the skies are sunnier, the birds are happier and the flowers smell sweeter. i really like it. A pocket camera would be nice as well now that I'm into this digi camera stuff.

Thanks for guiding me to it. One question for you, when doing close-ups, do you prefer to stand back and zoom in or to use to macro setting?
Waya

[George Fergusson]

>the flowers smell sweeter.

I didn't get one with the enhanced smell option...

>do you prefer to stand back and zoom in or to use to macro setting?

Undecided at this time. I think I prefer to stand back and zoom in. Focusing in either case can be tricky. Fortunately, film is cheap [img]smile.gif[/img]

Glad you like the camera. I certainly like mine but in all honesty, I'm still learning how to use it and I've had it for 5 months!