Handling digital pics a snap
Handling digital photos can be easy, fun — and free
By DWIGHT SILVERMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Chances are you've got a digital camera in your home. And by the end of the year, you're more apt to own one than a film camera.
Sales of digital cameras long ago surpassed those of film models, and the Photo Marketing Association International predicts that 52 percent of American households will own them by the end of 2005.
Once you own a digital camera, you've got to figure out what to do with the photos you take. Here's a look at three Windows programs for managing and editing images. One of them is a must-have, considering how good it is and because of its price: free.
• PICASA 2 — Free, Google. Every time I fire up this program, I shake my head in astonishment. Picasa 2 is easily the most impressive freeware I've used.
It passes all the tests to qualify as great software. It does what it claims and does it well. It's very easy to use. It's quick, nimble, yet still full-featured.
Picasa is primarily a photo-management program that makes it easy to find and organize digital images. It has rudimentary photo-editing features, but they may be enough, particularly if you mostly print, e-mail or share photos online.
Picasa works best if you keep photos sorted into folders on your hard drive. But even if you don't, you can select different views, such as organizing by date in a slick, 3-D timeline view.
You can tell Picasa which folders to keep an eye on, and when you add an image, it will automatically include it.
To edit a photo, just double-click on it from the library. You can lighten, automatically adjust contrast and brightness, fix red-eye or straighten an image. You can reduce, crop or apply effects, from applying film grain to "warmify."
Picasa can automate the creation of a Web page to display a folder's images, which can then be uploaded to a hosting service. You can create a movie-based slideshow, a screensaver or a photo collage.
To share photos online, Picasa incorporates an intriguing chat service called Hello. You can invite friends to chat with you and then instantly share photos with them via Picasa.
It works with all versions of Windows starting with Windows 98 and newer. You can get Picasa 2 at www.picasa.com.
• PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 3.0 — $100, Adobe. Earlier versions of Photoshop Elements were basically Photoshop Lite — same interface, but not much to make the software easier to use and understand. Elements 3.0 makes a huge leap in the right direction.
The new version combines Elements and Photoshop Album, giving you powerful photo editing and organizing in one program. You get to either of these — known as the Editor and the Organizer — through a simple startup screen that lets you choose a task.
The Organizer opens with a timeline of your photos stripped across the top. Move the slider across the timeline and your photos appear below. You can also view your photos by folder or in calendar format, with thumbnails appearing on the dates the images were taken and holidays highlighted. This is great if you want to see all photos taken, say, last Thanksgiving.
The Editor launches from the welcome screen or the Organizer, and can be used in two views. QuickFix is designed for novices, with only the most basic editing tools available. Standard Edit gives you a powerful set of features, including layers, special effects and even Photoshop's Healing Tool, which automates the fixing of many blemishes.
One of my favorite features is Photo Compare, which lets you pair photos that are similar, making it easier to decide which is the best shot.
Photoshop Elements is far more powerful than Picasa in terms of editing, but it's also much slower. Like Photoshop, it takes forever to launch, and moving from the Organizer to the Editor can be sluggish.
The Windows version works only with 2000 and XP. A version for the Macintosh requires at least OS X 10.2.8. Trial versions of both are at www.adobe.com.
• PAINT SHOP PRO 9 — $100, Corel. Paint Shop Pro 9 was already in the pipeline when Corel bought Jasc Software last year. The company decided it wanted to emphasize the professional market, so Paint Shop Pro contains features aimed at those who are serious about digital imaging.
Paint Shop Pro's interface and approach are not that different from version 8, but some powerful new filters and features have been added. For example, a new Digital Camera Filter finds and fixes the flaws most common to lower-end digital cameras.
The program also has new features aimed at artists. Corel recently acquired the high-end art program Painter, which lets artists work with digitally simulated "natural" media, from paints to markers to even crayon. Paint Shop Pro now also features this capability in its drawing tools, complete with a Palette Mixer that lets you blend colors similar to working with oils.
I particularly like the new Selective Undo, which lets you choose which goof-up you want to correct.
While Paint Shop Pro has a basic photo organizer, it's not as good at keeping track of images as either Picasa or Photoshop Elements.
Despite its early roots as a simple shareware image editor, Paint Shop 9 is a fairly complex program, and some novice users may find it confusing. There's a "lite" version with a somewhat friendlier design, Paint Shop Pro Studio, that might be a better for digital image newbies.
Paint Shop Pro works with Window 98 SE or newer, and a trial version is available at www.corel.com.
HoustonChronicle.com - Computing: Handling digital pics a snap
By DWIGHT SILVERMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Chances are you've got a digital camera in your home. And by the end of the year, you're more apt to own one than a film camera.
Sales of digital cameras long ago surpassed those of film models, and the Photo Marketing Association International predicts that 52 percent of American households will own them by the end of 2005.
Once you own a digital camera, you've got to figure out what to do with the photos you take. Here's a look at three Windows programs for managing and editing images. One of them is a must-have, considering how good it is and because of its price: free.
• PICASA 2 — Free, Google. Every time I fire up this program, I shake my head in astonishment. Picasa 2 is easily the most impressive freeware I've used.
It passes all the tests to qualify as great software. It does what it claims and does it well. It's very easy to use. It's quick, nimble, yet still full-featured.
Picasa is primarily a photo-management program that makes it easy to find and organize digital images. It has rudimentary photo-editing features, but they may be enough, particularly if you mostly print, e-mail or share photos online.
Picasa works best if you keep photos sorted into folders on your hard drive. But even if you don't, you can select different views, such as organizing by date in a slick, 3-D timeline view.
You can tell Picasa which folders to keep an eye on, and when you add an image, it will automatically include it.
To edit a photo, just double-click on it from the library. You can lighten, automatically adjust contrast and brightness, fix red-eye or straighten an image. You can reduce, crop or apply effects, from applying film grain to "warmify."
Picasa can automate the creation of a Web page to display a folder's images, which can then be uploaded to a hosting service. You can create a movie-based slideshow, a screensaver or a photo collage.
To share photos online, Picasa incorporates an intriguing chat service called Hello. You can invite friends to chat with you and then instantly share photos with them via Picasa.
It works with all versions of Windows starting with Windows 98 and newer. You can get Picasa 2 at www.picasa.com.
• PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 3.0 — $100, Adobe. Earlier versions of Photoshop Elements were basically Photoshop Lite — same interface, but not much to make the software easier to use and understand. Elements 3.0 makes a huge leap in the right direction.
The new version combines Elements and Photoshop Album, giving you powerful photo editing and organizing in one program. You get to either of these — known as the Editor and the Organizer — through a simple startup screen that lets you choose a task.
The Organizer opens with a timeline of your photos stripped across the top. Move the slider across the timeline and your photos appear below. You can also view your photos by folder or in calendar format, with thumbnails appearing on the dates the images were taken and holidays highlighted. This is great if you want to see all photos taken, say, last Thanksgiving.
The Editor launches from the welcome screen or the Organizer, and can be used in two views. QuickFix is designed for novices, with only the most basic editing tools available. Standard Edit gives you a powerful set of features, including layers, special effects and even Photoshop's Healing Tool, which automates the fixing of many blemishes.
One of my favorite features is Photo Compare, which lets you pair photos that are similar, making it easier to decide which is the best shot.
Photoshop Elements is far more powerful than Picasa in terms of editing, but it's also much slower. Like Photoshop, it takes forever to launch, and moving from the Organizer to the Editor can be sluggish.
The Windows version works only with 2000 and XP. A version for the Macintosh requires at least OS X 10.2.8. Trial versions of both are at www.adobe.com.
• PAINT SHOP PRO 9 — $100, Corel. Paint Shop Pro 9 was already in the pipeline when Corel bought Jasc Software last year. The company decided it wanted to emphasize the professional market, so Paint Shop Pro contains features aimed at those who are serious about digital imaging.
Paint Shop Pro's interface and approach are not that different from version 8, but some powerful new filters and features have been added. For example, a new Digital Camera Filter finds and fixes the flaws most common to lower-end digital cameras.
The program also has new features aimed at artists. Corel recently acquired the high-end art program Painter, which lets artists work with digitally simulated "natural" media, from paints to markers to even crayon. Paint Shop Pro now also features this capability in its drawing tools, complete with a Palette Mixer that lets you blend colors similar to working with oils.
I particularly like the new Selective Undo, which lets you choose which goof-up you want to correct.
While Paint Shop Pro has a basic photo organizer, it's not as good at keeping track of images as either Picasa or Photoshop Elements.
Despite its early roots as a simple shareware image editor, Paint Shop 9 is a fairly complex program, and some novice users may find it confusing. There's a "lite" version with a somewhat friendlier design, Paint Shop Pro Studio, that might be a better for digital image newbies.
Paint Shop Pro works with Window 98 SE or newer, and a trial version is available at www.corel.com.
HoustonChronicle.com - Computing: Handling digital pics a snap
posted by hkghkghk at 2:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home