Software That Works with Your Digital Camera

Pictures don't always turn out the way we intended. Perhaps your uncle Hank's nose intrudes into the left edge of your otherwise perfect holiday card, or maybe the family feline's red eyes make her look more like a hellcat than a kitty cat. Or if your pictures are perfect, then perhaps you'd like a new and easy way of organizing and sharing them - this is the digital age, and with the help of imaging software you can repair less-than-perfect pictures and find novel ways to bore the family with a slideshow of your trip to the Corn Museum!

Getting Started

The great news is that new computer operating systems like Windows XP and Mac OSX come prepared to help you with these tasks, and there are a number of free tools available online to help enhance and organize your digital images. Almost all digital cameras come with software that will help you connect your camera to your computer, and some even come with image editing programs. So don't buy any additional image editing software until you you've tried the available free tools and know that you need more.

Image Editing Software

Image editing software lets you perform some amazing tricks with your pictures. Some of the most helpful tools include:

Cropping. By far the most useful feature for most photographers is the cropping tool, which gives you a second chance to decide where the edges of your pictures should be. Cropping offers the ability to correct two of the most common photographic mistakes - taking a picture with the subject too far away or including too many distracting elements in the frame.

Redeye Correction. The built-in flash on most digital cameras has a basic flaw: It is too close to the lens. When people or animals look directly at the flash, their eyes act like mirrors and reflect the light back into the lens, creating the all-too-common problem of redeye. When this happens, you may be able to fix your image using image editing software's redeye correction feature. But don't get your hopes up - eliminating redeye involves the painstaking work of filling in what is essentially a "missing" part of your image. PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro, and Ofoto's software all offer automatic correction - but they are not very good. While the manual process is time consuming and requires a lot of trial and error, when you get it right it can save an otherwise lost image.

Contrast/Brightness, Color Balance and Saturation adjustments. If your picture came out too light or dark, washed out or overly harsh, you can use these adjustment tools to make dramatic improvements.

Black & White, Sepia and other Special Effects. Because of digital imaging, black & white photography has experienced a recent resurgence in popularity. Imaging software can convert your color picture to black & white or sepia with a few simple clicks, providing an easy way to add variety to your snapshots.

Frames, Borders, Holiday Cards and more. Software can add decorative frames and borders to your favorite pictures, or convert them into holiday and greeting cards. The only limit is your imagination!

PhotoShop or Not?

Adobe's PhotoShop (tm) is universally recognized as the premier image editing program. Indeed, people often talk about PhotoShop as though it were the only alternative out there. However, it is really designed for professionals. While it is an incredibly powerful and sophisticated program, it is difficult to learn and operate, and includes many tools that most amateur photographers will never need. At $600, it also comes with a hefty price tag.

Photoshop Elements, Adobe's slimmed down version of the professional software, is a better option for the average user. Stripped of many of the advanced functions, Elements includes the most important tools for amateur digital image editing. Another excellent product is Paint Shop Pro, from Jasc Software - it's about 1/4 the cost of PhotoShop, with most of the same great features.

Printing Software

Today's inkjet printers are very good at printing digital photos. Unfortunately, printing pictures at home can be time and labor intensive, and the cost of ink and paper can quickly add up. While printer and camera manufacturers are hard at work developing new products that will make this experience simpler and cheaper, printing photos at home remains a challenging, time-consuming, and potentially expensive task.

For now, an easier and more economical approach is to use an online printing service like Ofoto.com. Ofoto offers free basic editing software, and lets you upload your own images to the Ofoto site. You can then create online albums and order prints of the images you like. The pictures are printed using the same paper and processes as regular film pictures, and look much better and are far more durable than the images produced by all but the best inkjet printers. Ofoto and its competitors also let you to make your online photos albums available to friends and family, who can then order prints directly. Ofoto also sells frames, cards, and all sorts of other useful services.

Photo Album Software

If you have a disorganized shoebox full of prints and negatives from your old film camera, you'll be happy to know that you can create computer photo albums to help keep track of your new digital photos. No more searching through stacks of dog-eared prints to find the one you're looking for!

Slide-Show Presentations

Many programs provide the ability to create a slideshow. Some are simple, but others include useful extras like audio commentary. Many allow you to save your pictures on a CD and provide a program to run the slideshow.

Website Creation

It is also possible to create website photo albums of your work. You may not know, but it's very likely that the company providing your internet connection also provides the ability for you to host a small web site - here's a great chance to use it! These tools do all the hard work of transferring files for you, allowing you to concentrate on adding commentary and arranging the images.

Share with the World

Want to improve your photographic skills or get inspiration from accomplished photographers? There are a number of sites that let you upload your pictures and ask for comments and reviews from other site members. For the most part, these services are free - PhotoSig.com and Photo.Net are two of the more popular sites.