DT&G Magazine Photography Department
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Organizing your Digital Photos

The ever increasing popularity of digital cameras is making picture-taking easier and easier. Since the pictures no longer 'cost' to be processed and printed, the digital-shutter-bug can shoot away and have a ball. If you don't like a shot, simply delete it. This wonderful new digital world does have one minor drawback: you accumulate literally thousands of photos. I got the first digital camera to come to the market, the Cassio, back in 1995. I've been hooked on it ever since. A digital history is a fantastic thing to have. The problem is, my collection is now pushing five gigabytes.
      If you get into digital picture taking, you'll need some management...

Free Photo Management?

So you've been on vacation with your new digital camera -- but didn't consider what you were going to do with all those photos once you got them home.

In the true spirit of freeware, Triscape's FxFoto 2 (Standard Edition) is now free -- banking that you'll like the product so much you'll spring for their $30 FxFoto Deluxe version. Actually, FxFoto does compete favorably with Adobe Photoshop Album, Apple IPhoto, Jasc Paint Shop Album, Microsoft Digital Image Library, and Picasa from Picasa. So, if you're on Windows, you may want to try FxFoto. The free FxFoto Standard does include nag messages encouraging you to upgrade.

This photo-editing and management program provides the major tools for handling your digital photo collection. You have a choice of scrolling window or timeline view, plus keyword and annotation features. You can edit with a one-click image enhancer or adjust attributes manually. Also supported are red-eye and blemish erasing, cropping, cloning, and more. The $30 FxFoto Deluxe Collage Edition lets you create and save animated photo collages, panoramas, and slideshows. For $40, the Pro Media Edition includes those features, plus tools for turning photos into MPEG-format video files and Web sites.

Triscape's FxFoto

At the end of the day, my strongest recommendation however is Adobe Photoshop Elements. It has all of the features of all those programs combined, and can be had for under $80, and in some cases for under $50 depending on the deal you run across. You'll also note that many graphics and digital photo mavins agree with me. See Richard Lynch's "Photoshop vs. Elements" article. Pick up Elements for Windows $63, and Elements for Mac $47.99

Other downloadables for consideration...

Courtesy of PC World.com

Thanks for reading... and happy picture taking!

Fred Showker
Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine

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