Question from a reader:

Tony, I don’t have 10,000 photographs but sometimes it seems like it. I would appreciate your opinion for the best program for organizing my files on the computer. I can’t seem to find something that will permit captioning, date recording and tagging. I often wonder how the NGS organizes their collection which must numer in the millions. Thanks

My answer after the jump…

Hiya. First, I don’t have 10,000 photographs either–Lightroom shows I have 29,089. Of course, I delete most of the pictures I take, so I’ve probably taken 100k+.

On to the question–how to organize pictures. I use Adobe Lightroom, which is fantastic. It actually makes you a better photographer by helping to find your best pictures and quickly do basic editing on your pictures. It’s also perfect for stock photographers like myself, because it supports tagging, titles, and captions, which different stock agencies use to help buyers find pictures. Here’s the rub: Lightroom costs $300. Here’s a video introduction of Lightroom:

If you’re not blown away by the $300 price tag, download the free Lightroom trial and see if it’s worth it.

If you’d like something free, but not quiet as powerful, check out Google Picasa. It’ll let you set captions, tags, etc. Date Recording is generally done by your camera, assuming you have the clock set correctly. Here’s a video demonstration of Picasa:

I also discuss managing pictures (including naming and tagging and such) using the tools built-in to Windows 7 in my video tutorial.

Let me know what you decide!

Tony,

I was reading your 70-536 MCTS training book, when I saw that that you were a photographer. I find that to be strange, considering the fact that I too am a programmer who is also a photographer. At first, I found what must be your old website (http://www.northrup.org/). Upon seeing that site, I said that this guy must be joking when he says that he is a photographer. However, fortunately there is a link to what must be your new website (http://www.northrupphotography.com). The pictures on that site are incredible. Not to mention the fact that the layout is very appealing to the eye. However, as a writer of many windows books, what are you doing with a PHP website? That’s like going over to the dark side. After I finish the 70-536, it is my plan to update my site in a manner like yours, however I will utilize Microsoft Silverlight. Well, thanks for the inspiration. Take care.

My (wordy) answer after the jump.

This is an interesting study between presentation and function. Both northrup.org and northrupphotography.com are current, and all the pictures you see at northrupphotography.com are also shown at northrup.org. Northrup.org has about 15,000 additional pictures–I only show my “prettiest” work at NorthrupPhotography.com. If you’re looking for a picture of a baby ostrich (and plenty of people are, surprisingly), Google will send you to northrup.org.

NorthrupPhotography.com gets like 20 visitors a day, while northrup.org gets thousands and thousands. NorthrupPhotography.com costs me a couple of hundred dollars per year to run, while northrup.org makes a very healthy profit from selling pictures and advertising.

I also sell my pictures as stock at all the big stock photo agencies. Everyone other than stock photographers would consider them quite boring, however, because they’re meant for business use.

Re: Silverlight vs. Flash–I’ve dabbled in both, but the Flash I use on both northrup.org and NorthrupPhotography.com was written by other developers. In fact, NorthrupPhotography.com (including the PHP and Apache hosting) is a site I bought from BluDomain.com. I know my strengths and weaknesses, and creating pretty user interfaces is a weakness. So, I bought Flash components for both websites and just plug my pictures in (though everything but the slideshow interface on northrup.org uses a .NET Framework back-end that I wrote and Microsoft server software).

About 95% of my visitors have Flash installed (the rest are probably on an iPhone). I don’t even know how many visitors have Silverlight installed, because my analytics don’t track it. This site does, though, and it seems to be about half:

http://www.riastats.com/

I simply can’t use Silverlight right now because it would leave half of my users without an important component of the user interface. The SilverLight people have already made amazing progress getting it installed on half the browsers out there, and in a couple of years I’ll be able to migrate from Flash to Silverlight.

In summary, I use the .NET Framework for all my own programming, and all my client and server computers run Windows 7/Windows Server 2003/Windows Server 2008. I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel, though, and I’m happy to use pre-programmed Linux/PHP/MySQL/Flash components–as long as someone else is managing them :).

Tony

DPI (dots-per-inch) depends on two factors: the resolution of the picture (“dots”) and the size of the image as you will print it (“per inch”). My website shows the resolution for every picture at the top of the page, as part of the pictures description.
For example, this picture has a resolution of 3072 x 2048:

If you wanted to print it at 3×5, it would be 614.4DPI (3072/5=614.4). Vertically, it would be 682.6DPI (2048/3), but you’d need to crop it vertically to get the 3×5 proportions, so the DPI will be the same once it’s cropped.

Any of us who need to change the shape of an object or correct a lens’ chromatic aberrations will appreciate the new warping capabilities. Simply specify points on an image that can and cant move, and CS5 will allow you to move objects around while maintaining their shape. The demo below shows repositioning a referee’s arms into different calls. I just wonder how it would work with a real background instead of solid white–certainly it would require more work.

The demo also shows how to warp a picture to correct distortion at the edges of a wide-angle lens.

Tony I am a novice with a laptop on vista. I tried to put the software for photocam and it crashed my computer. Saying vista does not take this software, I am looking for a software to put in so I can put my pictures from my camera to it and size it to put in ebay.  Can you help and suggest something?

Thanks,Carole

Answer:

Hiya, Carole.

Your computer is trying to run the software that came with your camera. You could try to download an update to that software that works with Vista–visit the camera manufacturer’s website to find the update.

Or, you could just use Vista to download your picutres. Try this:

1. Connect your camera or insert your memory card into your computer. Ignore any errors that pop up from the program that’s currently set to import pictures.

2. Click Start, and then click Computer.

3. Right-click your memory card (it’ll be somewhere under Computer), and then click Open Autoplay….

4. On the AutoPlay dialog, select the Always do this for pictures check box. Then, click Import pictures using Windows.

That’ll use Windows to import your pictures this time and automatically in the future. The wizard interface is pretty easy. If you want to check out some different tools for importing pictures, read this post.

Good luck with it!

 Is there a way I can get the MS Scanner and Camera Wizard on my laptop that has Vista?  I really do NOT like the way the pictures download with Vista (no preview available to see the pictures I want to download before the download starts and save, is my biggest peeve).  Plus I must immediately name the group and it’s too quick to ask me if I want to delete them.

I don’t usually delete photos from my camera/card until I have downloaded and burned them to a disk.  So if I take more pictures, when I go to do the download, it gathers ALL the pictures I’ve taken and groups them.  Grrrrrrrrr

Maybe I’m being stubborn to change, but I tried playing around with the Vista download from my camera for over 2 hours (trying different things) and I still wasn’t happy and went back and downloaded the pictures on my PC with Windows XP.

Is there a way to change settings for the picture download in Vista (I can’t seem to find them) or is it possible to get the MSSCW on my laptop.

Thanks a bunch!

Answer:

Hi, Holly. I get a lot of questions like this, because many “little” things changed in Vista, and since you’re already used to XP, it’s very disorienting.

First, I don’t know any way to get the Microsoft Scanner And Camera Wizard onto Vista. Instead, my advice is to check out third-party products that might better meet your needs. Your camera almost certainly came with software to download pictures (check your camera vendor’s website for a download). Adobe Photoshop Album and Google Picasa are free and might fit your workflow better.

Or, just change your workflow to fit what Vista can do. I just download everything to my computer at once, reformat my memory card to leave room for new pictures, and then selectively delete the bad pictures from the computer. I set Vista up to automatically backup my pictures to an external hard disk, so I’m not worried about losing them. If something does happen to my hard disk before the backup runs, I can recover pictures from the memory card after formatting it–so that backup still exists.

Hope that helps. Check out my pictures, if you’re bored.

Riccardo Raneri demonstrates how to use a free tool from Microsoft, Group Photo Fixer. To use it for your next group photo, take several shots of the group. That’s a good idea anyway–with digital cameras, pictures are free, but so many people still only take a single photo. After you load your pictures onto your computer, if you discover that no one photo has everyone smiling with their eyes open, you can swap a person’s face from another photo. Give it a shot.

Update: James O’ Neill provides another interesting use for this tool–removing moving objects from a still image, such as crowds or cars walking in front of what you want to shoot. I could have used that in Pompeii.

Lifehacker offered a post about how to use your My Pictures folder as a screensaver in Windows XP. Here are the steps to do that in Vista:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Appearance and Personalization.

3. Under Personalization, click Change screen saver.

4. The Screen Saver Settings dialog appears. Click the Screen saver list, and then click Photos.

5. Optionally, click the Settings button to adjust the default settings, or click the Preview button to watch how it works.

6. Click OK to save your settings.

The screen saver provides a variety of different techniques for fading between pictures, and can even stack pictures on top of each other. It reminds me of Windows Photo Story. If you have multiple monitors, it’ll only show on one, unfortunately. For dual-monitor support, check out Ultramon.