MichiganNature.com
|
||
Of InterestBe sure to visit our new Photo Gallery!
|
Filing Your Digital ImagesI love shooting with my digital camera... its great! It gives me instant gratification of the images I've just captured. I take more pictures now digitally then ever before, because the fear of wasting film is gone. You can just let 'er rip! That being said, it didn't take me very long to realize that I needed a good program to help manage my digital images. For the most part I used the software that came with my camera and that was ok for starters, but it really wasn't the application I wanted to use to manage my photography. My search led me to Digital Pro! Primarily designed for Nikon and Canon shooters, it's a great viewing, editing and filing program created by Moose Peterson and developed by Dave Cardinal to help organize your image files. I recently updated to the latest version of Digital Pro (Digital Pro2). This program is really pretty darned awesome, it has everything you need as a photographer to organize your digital images. A software program created by a photographer for photographers... makes good sense! As digital images for editorial use become more widely accepted, a well organized program is a must for any photographer submitting images in the future. You need to know where to get them and not waste time doing it. Using the ProgramFor starters, importing images into DP2 (Digital Pro2) is easy. I just insert my CF card into the reader, click on ‘load card' and then browse to the reader drive and click OK. DP2 then loads all your images on the card into a file called ‘My Shots'. Once done, I just click on the ‘My shots' file and thumbnails of all the images pop into view. The next step and one I really like is the ability to edit my images quickly and efficiently. I go into slide show mode (sort of like a digital light table) which allows you to toggle through the images deleting the ones you don't want right off the bat! Other features include the digital loupe, which helps in checking for sharpness as you run through the images. Also, a tag feature which allows you to tag or mark certain images for a particular purpose, as in: URGENT, or BEST SELLER. Later you can go into your files and pull those that were tagged for a particular purpose... a nice time saving feature. Once editing is completed, creating files to store and sort your images by subject matter is easy. I created a file on my ‘C' drive labeled “photographs” and then created all the other folders as sub folders under that heading. The files you create will be listed in a window in DP2 so all you have to do is click on the one you want to open, and all the images will come up as thumb nails for browsing. If there is a particular image you want to edit let's say in Photo Shop, all you have to do is right click on the image and select edit and it will open the program with the image ready to go. Pretty slick! A new added feature to Digital Pro's website is online tutorials with step by step instructions to help you learn this very valuable tool as quickly as possible. I viewed each one and they were a great help in getting me up and running fast. For a lot of people, reading instructions is one thing, but seeing it done with examples is a better way to grasp and learn. I highly recommend them as a learning tool! There are more great features to this program; I have highlighted only a few of them. It is a program that is fun and easy to use and I highly recommend it to those photographers that are serious about getting their digital imaging management program up and running and right the first time. There are two versions to choose from, Standard or Pro version. My advice is to check out the web site and compare them, then purchase the one which would be best suited for you. This is a great time saving and user friendly program! It was designed to make your workflow easier so you spend more time behind the camera. Which is the best place to be in the first place... isn't it? |
|
MichiganNature.com
|
||
