If you are going to download images onto your computer, you need to design some type of filing system that will help you remember when and where you took the photos. This might seem a bit silly at first, but believe me, when you get to the stage where you have 6,000 images, it can be messy trying to recall each and every one, the dates, the places and so on, especially if you travel.

Rather than leave it until you have a massive collection of digital media, deal with potential confusion and time wasting by setting up a sound filing system BEFORE you go crazy taking shots. I recommend that you file under date, place and describe the event eg, 6 Jun 07 - Home - Grandson’s Birthday Party.

If you use the same filing methodology consistently, it will be much easier to find what you want, when you want it. For example, if you can’t remember the date, you may remember the event or place … or vice versa, which will make a search more productive.

If you don’t have a software program to help you manage your digital images, then set up folders on your computer that reflect the above. If you use Windows XP you will have a folder titled “My pictures”. Under that folder create additional folders for each photographic event or collection you create, but also keep an eye on your hard disk space because photographs in their native format can be large and it doesn’t take long to chew up 10-20 Gigabites of disk space.

An excellent free program that will not only help you categorise and file your images, but also enhance them by getting rid of red eye, reducing their size, improving contrast, cropping and so on, is Google Picasa. It enables you to see in a glance what photos are in what directories/folders. It has many other features too that make it very useful eg, you can copy files to a CD or DVD and set them up to show as a slide show. If you visit the Google site go to the right of the horizontal menu under the Google logo and select “More …”. You’ll find information and a download link for Picasa. It’s easy to learn and easy to use.

Once you have your file management system in place, the next thing you need to do is decide where you will store the images indefinately. Storing on your computer’s hard disk is not a long term option as you get more and more images taking up increasing loads of space. Here’s what I do with my images:

1. When I first download them from my camera I view and delete any imperfect images so as not to retain files that aren’t worth keeping
2. Next I file them locally until I’ve had time to view and do what I want with them
3. To archive them I either move them from my computer hard disk to a CD/DVD disk or move them to an external, portable hard disk drive (80 GB) that I bought for that purpose

Both archiving options mean that you don’t unecessarily bog down your computer with a load of files.

No matter how many digital images you create, you really do need to consider how you will file and manage them. This short article should have given you some ideas.

Copyright 2006 Robin Henry

The next article in this series discusses how to resize and crop your images and prepare them for email or the Internet.

Robin Henry is an educator, human resources specialist and Internet entrepreneur. He helps home-based businesses and individuals improve performance by applying smart technology and processes and developing personally. He runs his business Desert Wave Enterprises from his home base at Alice Springs in Central Australia, although at present he is on temporary assignment in the United Arab Emirates.

Tags: digital images, digital photography, filing photos, graphics, images, photography, storing imagesdigital images, digital photography, filing photos, graphics, images, photography, storing images

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Using a digital camera to verify pictures is great. It’s cushy and quick. Just as cushy and hurried is impinging up those digital photos. Is your ikon likewise dark? Is there a brightness that is moving the represent quality? Red eyes are ofttimes added difficulty with using a flash. Many of these things and others crapper be rectified with the ingest of digital represent touchups. Here are whatever hurried tips to rising your represent quality.

Probably the prizewinning artefact to mend digital represent touchups is to not hit any! As manifest as this sounds, it is a ordinary difficulty that crapper be rectified easily. Read your owners drill that came with your digital camera. Learn how your camera reacts to assorted reddened situations, shadows and glares. Prepare your represent by using your LCD screen. Taking a represent correct is the prototypal travel to not having problems with digital represent touchups.

Even still, mistakes and unheralded problems arise. Know your camera’s digital picturing software. Most digital cameras become with code that crapper support you. Again, feature the manual!

Software is available! Yes, you crapper acquire whatever enthusiastic code to support you with digital touchups as well. If you are esurient most having the prizewinning pictures discover there, you crapper encounter whatever programs that module enable you to mend issues apace and simply. But remember, a beatific example of code shouldn’t outlay you a ton either.

Standard code should wage for flushed receptor removal, racket reduction, cropping, and another digital issues. Make trusty the products you acquire do these ordinary things.

Use the black and albescent and brownness features to compound the calibre of your pictures in a unequalled way.

Check discover the programs acquirable online that crapper support as well. Find these by doing a scheme see for digital picturing software. You haw modify encounter a liberated information as well.

Use the tools provided to you on your camera. Many digital cameras hit features correct on them to enable a country shot, broad partitioning and more. Check your owner’s drill and see to ingest these.

There is an oceanic turn of options acquirable to digital photographers and their cameras. Buy code products that hit whatever of these features if they welfare you.

Be enduring and play! Yes, to contact up your digital photos you should essay newborn things and experiment. Be enduring and see every that is to see most your software!

John histrion is an esurient digital photographers. Visit his
website for tips and tricks at: Digital Photography

©2005 Evangelist histrion All Rights Reserved. This article may
be publicised in scheme supported or telecommunicate modify as daylong as this
assign incase is bespoken and the hyperlink is active. It
haw not be changed or altered in some way.

Tags: digital cameras, digital images, digital photographs, digital photographydigital cameras, digital images, digital photographs, digital photography

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A photobuyer calls you and says, “We like the photos you sent us and have scanned two dozen of them into our database.”

“You what…?” is your response.

The photobuyer responds, “You have a lot of pictures that we feel we could use in the future. We’re building an in-house reference file. Any problems with that?”

Consider it a compliment. Scanning of photos by a photobuyer needn’t be a threatening experience. Twenty-five years ago, when photocopy machines were new, a buyer copying a photo “for the files” seemed tantamount to copyright infringement to stock photographers. Gradually, however, stock photographers saw they were getting sales from the photocopied reference photos on file with photobuyers.

The same is happening today with scanning. The photobuyer scans photos to obtain low resolution (i.e. not reproduction-quality) “thumbnail-size” images to put into their reference “view-only” database. A software program cross-references them.

In the future, scanning your selections will be commonplace. No need to fear thievery any more than you do at the present. And particularly if you are working within the confines of a photobuying community where you know your buyers and they know you. It’s important to remember that the editorial photobuying community that you are working in makes all the difference in the world when it comes to the issue of thievery. It would be rare to hear of larceny.

In the editorial stock photo field, I’ve never heard of a photobuyer intentionally “stealing” a photo. There’d be no sense to it. The photo editor has a budget to work with; there’s no material profit to him or her to “borrow” a photo on the sly. Besides, the photo will be seen by hundreds, thousands of viewers. Most gangsters say this is not a profitable way to get away with something illegal.

In commercial stock photography, however, there can be a different attitude and circumstances. The commercial field can brew more reasons and opportunity to “borrow” someone’s photo, especially for a local or regional brochure or promotion.

If you’re involved strictly in editorial stock photography, the above kind of information might be news to you. If you deal extensively in commercial stock photography, it’s not a surprise.

You have a choice which area you want to work in.

Scanned images come in a variety of forms. The 72 dpi-scanned image is an excellent reference image. However, the image can be “decompressed” and in some cases be used as a 300-dpi image.

A graver problem regard digital images is that it’s possible to easily pass them on to others (swapping). If an ad agency goes out of business (check the Yellow Pages and you’ll see how often this happens from year to year), or photobuyers begin trading images, your images, or parts of yours, could be involved in the action.

THEY KNOW YOU

Again, however, if you are working as a specialist and deal with repeat buyers in the editorial field, you will know your buyers and they will know you. You can encourage these folks, potential repeat buyers, to scan your photos for their reference files.

I should say that I am in the minority on advocating that you allow photobuyers to scan your photos. But most of those with the opposite view are in the commercial field, or are editorial stock photographers who spend a portion of their time on commercial work.

My own thirty-five years of involvement in and observing stock photography, tell me that for the editorial stock photographer, thievery has never been a problem. But if you are like most people, and want to deal in both the editorial and commercial divisions of the stock industry, it is an important issue to consider. With this in mind, here’s one photographer’s negative experience.

Ann Purcell is an author and nationally-known travel photographer. She relates this adventure with a commercial client who scanned some of her images:

“Here’s one of my experiences with scanned in-house reference photos. One of my photo agencies sent a selection of photos to a printer company for an ad. None of the photos were selected to be used, but they were all scanned. Lo and behold, about six months later, one of the photos came out as a full-page ad for the printing company. The company ended up paying me $15,000 for the copyright infringement.

“They also paid me $10,000 for use of the picture. Then they must have changed photo researchers, because……. Lo and Behold…..Six months later, another follow-up ad used the SAME photo, again without permission! This time they paid $10,000 for the use/copyright infringement of the picture. That’s $35,000, all due to having had in-house reference scans and photo researchers who knew
nothing about USA copyright laws!”

Yes, this does happen in commercial stock photography. But does it happen when you deal with editorial publishers such as textbook companies, book publishers and magazines? Rarely, and then it’s usually an honest mistake. We’re all entitled to a few of those. -RE

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. Telephone: 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: http://www.photosource.com/products

Tags: Ann Purcell, copyright, digital images, editorial, keywording, scanning, Thievery, Travel photographerAnn Purcell, copyright, digital images, editorial, keywording, scanning, Thievery, Travel photographer

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