So you just took a whole “roll” of digital photos (although it’s not really a roll anymore – it’s more of a “disk” or a “card” or a “stick” full of photos). Now you want to see them in all their digital glory.

The easiest way to view your photo gems is through your camera’s LED preview screen. This has two drawbacks – one, the small image size, and two, that little screen will eat up a lot of your camera’s battery charge. If you’re a long way from the nearest electrical outlet and need to conserve, on many cameras you can turn off the preview screen to save the battery.

To go from really small to really big, some cameras come with a cord that connects the camera to your TV. This is a great way to view your masterpieces with family and friends.

Many photo quality printers come equipped with slots that accept the most common camera memory cards (SmartMedia, CompactFlash and MemorySticks). Insert the card, and the printer reads the images and prints them. Some even offer a small preview screen, with some editing capabilities.

On to the computer. Some cameras come with a “docking station”, which is connected to the computer through a USB cable. Other cameras bypass the dock and connect directly to the computer via a USB cable. You can also buy inexpensive memory card readers (again connected to the computer via USB), into which you can insert just the memory card. In any case, once connected, your computer sees the memory card as just another hard drive.

Cameras generally have their own scheme for labeling photo images. My Sony digital camera names each image captured on its memory card sequentially, using names like “DSC00002.jpg”. This doesn’t tell me anything about what’s in the picture – I can change the name later, either through image management software, or as I would rename any other file on my computer. Hidden within each digital image is some very useful information – the date it was taken, the image size (both file size and dimensions), the camera it was taken with, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, ISO film speed, any automatic exposure setting used, whether a flash was used, etc. You’ll need image management software to get at this data.

You have basically two options for getting your images into your computer. You can do it “manually” by creating a new folder wherever you want it, and copying the image files into it. I give this folder a name describing the date and the subject matter, until I can change the name of each image individually. Or, you can have your image management software do it for you automatically. In either case, once you’re sure the images are transferred, you can delete the image files from the memory card, and the card is empty and ready for another photo adventure.

Most digital camera packages include software of some kind, and both Windows XP and Mac OS X contain image management tools at the system level. Here’s a list of features to look for when choosing image management software: import images from your camera; size and attach for emailing; size and format for printing; create a slideshow with background music; burn to CD or DVD; create desktop pictures (wallpaper); format and upload to a web page; order prints through an on-line service, like Kodak; and, finally, create “coffeetable” picture albums to order on-line.

Next time we’ll look at three popular image management applications in more detail, discuss how to make quality prints, and learn how not to exasperate your on-line friends.

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski