Digital Camera Master

As far as your computer is concerned, the photos from your digital camera are nothing more than files that happen to contain images. You can treat them exactly like any other kind of document file: Drag them into folders, copy or delete them, and so on. But pictures are different than other kinds of files, so along with a quick review of basic Windows file management techniques, this post shows you how to use Windows XP’s juicy new picture viewing features. Even if you use, say, Photoshop Elements or Picasa as your primary tool for organizing photos, someday you’ll inevitably find yourself shuffling photos between folders in Windows, so this post is worth a read.

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1. Navigating the My Pictures Folder

When your PC slurps in pictures from your digital camera, it automatically places them inside a folder called My Pictures. The considerate designers at Microsoft have customized this folder for your photo-handling needs. For example:

• The folder is factory set to Thumbnails view, so you actually see miniature snapshots (thumbnails), instead of generic file icons. Even subfolders within My Pictures sport one or more images to hint at their contents.
• The task pane, along the left, provides options for working with pictures, like “View as a slide show,” “Print pictures,” and “Copy all items to CD.”
• The Details box at the bottom of the task pane shows the photo’s resolution in pixels along with standard file information (name, size, and the date it was last edited).

Before you begin moving and copying photos between folders, you can set up your folder window to make the job easier. Click the Folders button on the toolbar to display a list of file folders where the task pane used to be. (If you don’t see the Folders button, right-click the toolbar and choose Standard Buttons from the shortcut menu that appears.) There’s a hierarchy to Windows folders, and the folder list in the left pane (now called the Explorer bar) maps it out for you. The plus sign next to a folder icon tells you the closed folder contains subfolders. Click the + button to reveal the folder’s contents. When you do so, the plus sign changes to a minus sign. Click the - button to collapse the folder, hiding its contents.

2. Adding New Subfolders

When you download photos from your digital camera, they often times all end up in one folder, although they may cover a wide range of subjects and dates. Divide and conquer your photo collection by creating subfolders with meaningful names. Folders with descriptive names and fewer photos per folder make it much easier to find the photos you’re looking for. For example, if your Family Pics folder is filled to the brim, you may want to break it down into folders like Vacations, Birthdays, and School Events. Windows gives you three ways to create a new folder.

• In the My Pictures window’s menu bar, choose File –> New –> Folder.
• In the task pane’s File and Folder Tasks panel, click “Make a new folder.”
• Right-click any blank spot in the My Pictures window and choose New –> Folder from the shortcut menu.

When you use any of these commands, Windows creates a new folder and gives it a temporary (if unimaginative) name: Untitled Folder. Windows also selects the folder name, putting you in a perfect position to type a name of your choice.

3. Moving and Copying Photos

You can easily move photos from one folder to another by dragging and dropping. But what if you want to copy a photo, leaving a duplicate in the original folder? For example, say you want to separate out a selection of photos to post on a Web site, without disturbing your carefully organized folder arrangement. The trick is to Ctrl-drag: Select one or more photos or folders, press Ctrl, and hold the key down as you drag the photos to the destination folder. Your arrow cursor sports a small + icon to tell you that you’re copying the selected photos. ——————————————————————————–

Note: In general, when you drag files from one folder to another on the same hard drive, Windows moves the file. If you drag a file to a folder on a different drive (for example, from C:\photos to D:\new photos), Windows copies the file. ——————————————————————————–

When you’re moving or copying, the Explorer bar makes it easy to drag photos to any folder on your PC. But if you have several layers of subfolders and multiple drives on your computer, all that long-distance dragging can strain even the most nimble of wrists. Windows lets you move and copy photos in these additional ways:

• Dragging between windows. If you find the Explorer bar too awkward, simply open the destination folder in a separate window. For example, right-click the folder’s icon and choose Open from the shortcut menu. Position the windows side-by-side, and then drag (or Ctrl-drag) photos and folders between the two windows to your heart’s content.
• Use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands. Select one or more photos or folders, and then choose Edit Cut (to move them) or Edit Copy (to copy them). Select the destination folder, and then choose Edit Paste. You can also right-click and find these same commands on the shortcut menu.
• Use the Copy To (or Move To) Folder command. Select one or more photos or folders, and then choose Edit Copy To Folder or Edit Move To Folder. A small window opens, showing a hierarchical list of folders (just like the one in the Explorer bar). Navigate to the destination folder, and then click the Copy or Move button to seal the deal. This method is the quickest if the destination folder isn’t readily visible in an open window or on your desktop.

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Tip: If the task pane is showing, click “Move this file” or “Copy this file” to open the same Move Items or Copy Items box. ——————————————————————————–

4. Deleting Photos

You delete photos just like any other files in Windows. In other words, you have more choices than you’d care to count. For example:

• Select the doomed images, and then press the Delete key, choose File –> Delete, or click “Delete this file” in the task pane.
• Right-click the photos and choose Delete from the shortcut menu.
• Drag the photos to the Recycle Bin.

All of these methods send the image files to the Recycle Bin. If you have second thoughts about a deleted photo, then you may be able to rescue it. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop to open it. If you see the file you want, right-click it and choose Restore. The length of time a file remains in the Recycle Bin depends on your computer settings. Usually, you have at least a day or two to restore it.

5. Customizing Windows Folders for Photos

Sometimes, you’ll create folders for photos outside of My Pictures. Perhaps you want to create a folder on another drive where you plan to keep backups of all your photos. Follow these steps to make any folder just as photo friendly as My Pictures:

• Right-click the folder you want to customize, and then choose Properties from the shortcut menu.The Properties dialog box opens revealing basic folder information like location, size, and date.
• Select the Customize tab. This tab’s options help you fine tune the folder’s appearance and behavior .
• From the drop-down list, choose a folder type: Pictures or Photo Album. The choice you make here determines what view you’ll see when you open the folder. Choose Pictures to make the folder open in Thumbnails view (just like My Pictures). If you choose Photo Album, you get Filmstrip view. This view displays a single large image, plus a filmstrip along the bottom to help you navigate through your photos.

What kind of folder do you want to create today? You can make any folder photo-friendly by tweaking the settings in its Properties box (also available by opening the folder and choosing File Properties Customize tab). This box’s helpful descriptions explain each of your options.

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Tip: No matter what view a folder opens in, you can always switch views on the fly by choosing from the window’s View menu or clicking the Views toolbar button: Filmstrip, Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List, and Details. (The Filmstrip option appears only for Picture and Photo Album Folders.) ——————————————————————————–

• Turn on the “Also apply this template to all subfolders” checkbox. After all, the folders you put inside this folder will probably hold photos, too.
• If you wish, dress up the folder’s outward appearance using the “Folder pictures” and “Folder icons” settings. In Thumbnails view Windows chooses four photos to show on a folder’s cover. You can select a different photo for this job by clicking the Choose Picture button. Click Change Icon, and then you can choose the same icon as My Pictures or any icon that suits your fancy.
• When you’re happy with your custom settings, click Apply to save your changes. If the Apply button is grayed out, that means you haven’t changed any settings.

Examining Photo Properties

Have you ever taken a terrific photo and later wondered what went into making it look so great? If you could only recall what shutter speed you used or whether you zoomed in with your lens, you could recreate those superb results. With digital photography, you’re luckier than pro photographers of the past, who kept painstakingly handwritten logs. Your digital camera records such details as bits of text called properties and stores them right in the photo file.

In Windows XP’s Filmstrip view, click the Previous and Next buttons to browse through your photos one by one. To quickly scan the folder’s contents, use the bottom scroll bar, and then click an individual thumbnail to make it the large image.

Note: Windows XP recognizes the photo properties of universal JPEG and TIFF files (the most common formats produced by consumer cameras), but may not be able to read the properties of photos in the RAW formats developed by different camera manufacturers. A few programs, like Photoshop Elements, can handle these proprietary file formats.

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To learn all about a photo, simply check out its properties in Windows:

1. Select the photo you want to examine. If you want to see details such as exposure and aperture settings, examine properties for a single photo file at a time.
2. Choose File –> Properties (or right-click the file and choose Properties from the shortcut menu). The file Properties box opens to the General tab, displaying common computer-related details, like name, file type, location, and file size.
3. Click the Summary tab. Now here’s the helpful photo information. Different cameras record different properties when they take pictures. You may see the make and model of the camera, the focal length of the lens, whether or not a flash was used, aperture size, exposure time (shutter speed), and even more esoteric information about your photograph.
4. When you’re through investigating, just click OK to close the Properties window.

The Properties box shows details about a single photo file. The Properties window for this photo file shows the make and model of the camera as well as information about the state of the camera when the image was taken. The button at the bottom of the box reveals more detailed properties. Click it to toggle the view between Advanced and Simple modes.

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