Photo Software
I've found myself explaining this to a lot of people lately, so I
thought I'd throw it up here. I've got a lot of photos (as of 6/24/05, I have 13.8 GB
in 11,733 photos) and I need to organize them. I spend a lot of time sifting through them,
and like to share them with friends. There are a few tools I like, so here they are:
- Adobe
Photoshop Album 2.0
-
This software is pretty slick. Once you have so many photos on your hard drive, you
need to catalog them (more than just by folder name), and that's what this software
does. It lets you tag all of your images with metadata (which means data about data),
such that I can put a "Brian" or "Hiking" tag on any photo I've
got, then later on I can say, "Hey, what hiking photos did I take?"
Additionally, it provides basic touch-ups like red-eye reduction, rotation, color
balancing, etc. It costs about $50.
- Adobe
Photoshop Elements 4.0 <-- Brian recommends this
one
-
This is the newest version of Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 (see above), despite the fact
that the name doesn't indicate it. This contains a watered-down, easy to use
variant of Photoshop (a wonderful photo tool), plus the Organizer, which is essentially
Adobe Photoshop Album. Unlike Album 2.0, though, the interface is improved and it lets
you save the tag information with your photo (so when you email your photo to a friend
with the same software, they will receive your tags as well...important to some people
like myself).
This contains a lot more features than Album 2.0 does, so if you want to do more than
simple fixes, this is a great tool. The slideshow features are far better than those in
Album 2.0, so if you want to make neat slideshows for friends, I recommend this one. It
costs about $100.
- Adobe Photoshop Album 3.0 SE <-- Brian recommends this
one if you want it for free
-
So you want the cataloging features of Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Elements 4.0, but
want it free? This is your tool. Still more full featured than Google Picasa, this tool
has almost all the catalog capabilities of the full Album 2.0 and Elements 4.0, with
fewer editing abilities. Plus it's free!
- Picasa
-
This is another fantastic photo catalog. The big advantage of this is that it's
free! Even better, it's made by
Google!
It's almost as good as Photoshop Album, and better in some respects. All in all,
it's a significant step up from using the cheap software that comes with your
camera to organize your photos.
- ArcSoft
Panorama Maker
-
Normally, for a good panorama, I'll pull my photos into Adobe Photoshop (not
Photoshop Album) and stitch them together by hand. Unfortunately, that's
non-trivial, but it allows me to smudge over any stitching problems and perfect the
image.
Photoshop, unfortunately, requires a lot of Photoshop knowledge, and a lot of
time...two things that not many people have. So, if you want a more automated panorama
stitcher, this software works REALLY well to stitch together several photos into a
seamless panorama. It's relatively inexpensive too.
- Microsoft PhotoStory
-
Both catalogers above make slideshows that are very nice, but PhotoStory takes it a
notch higher (much like iPhoto on the Mac). You can easily create a great slideshow
that not only allows you to narrate each photo and add background music, but also adds
something I've heard called, "The Ken Burns Effect".
"The Ken Burns Effect" essentially lets you pan, zoom, or manipulate the
images in between slides -- something that you always see whenever still photos are
shown in a documentary (particularly, those by Ken Burns...). It makes the slideshow
far more dynamic and watchable.
Last Update: Sunday, June 12, 2011
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