Basic Photo Management
The introduction of digital cameras and digital photos has allowed us the freedom to take photographs with complete freedom. We do not have to worry anymore about the cost of developing a roll of film or printing copies of photos for family members. The only limitation these days is perhaps storage for all of those photos.
If you haven’t found a good method of managing your photos, you may find that you have a problem finding the great photos that you have taken. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing you have a great photo but not knowing where that photo is. This can happen with hard copy printed photos but it can also happen with digital photos on your computer.
It is important to have some type of filing system for storing your photos. The system that works wonders for me is to store photos in folders according to the event at which they were taken. So, all of the photos from an event will go in to the same folder. I will then label that folder by date (yyyymmdd) and then with the name of the event, for example, “20081225Christmas”, or something similar.
There are a few editing tasks that most digital camera users find they need to do on a regular basis. Often, they want to adjust the lighting in a photo. Either the photo is too dark or too light. Another issue is, knowing how to crop photos. Have you ever taken a beautiful photo of someone only to look at it later and find there was someone in the background pulling an ugly face or making some type of symbol with their hands? This is the type of thing you would want to crop out. Also, you will often have photos that need to be turned 90 degrees so that they are right way up.
All photo editing software functions slightly different to another. Usually, when you buy a digital camera you are offered some type of free software that allows you to edit your photos. It is important to read through the basic instructions that come with this software to learn how to do the three basic editing tasks listed above. If you did not receive editing software with your camera, your computer usually has at least one program installed upon purchase that offers basic photo editing. With PCs running Windows software, Paint is that program. If you don’t already know how to do these tasks, check out the Help section in Paint (or other programs) to learn how to use these great features.
