SORTING THROUGH YOUR PHOTOS
by Phil Ball
Q. I need a good computer program to look at and sort through my photos. I
don't care for the one that comes with Photoshop Elements because it throws
all my photos together regardless of how I've carefully sorted them into
folders and Windows Live Photo Gallery is just too limited in what it can
do. I don’t have much extra cash so I would prefer that it be inexpensive or
free.
A. For years, I have used FastStone Image Viewer to sort through my images
and decide which are keepers and deserve further enhancement in my photo
editor. The best part is that it is a free download for home users. It looks a lot like a super-sized version of Windows
Explorer when you first open it, showing large thumbnails of the images
within my folders. By double-clicking an image, it fills the screen with
that image. I can zoom in further to check the sharpness and examine fine
details.
While these are the main reasons I use it, it has many other tricks such as
being able to create a spontaneous slideshow or being able to compare up to
four images so I can choose the best one. There are pop-out menus hidden
around the four sides of the full-screen view and I find that the most
useful one shows a histogram and the EXIF information about that image so
you can recall such things as the date taken, the shutter speed and
aperture, the lens focal length, and even whether the flash fired.
Other features allow you to quickly rename and resize your images singly or
in batches. Just be careful with this since you cannot easily undo it if you
make a mistake. You can also do some minor editing work but I prefer to do
this in Photoshop Elements since it is more capable. A simple menu choice or
keyboard command will transfer the image over to Elements for more detailed
editing. To see it in use, visit the Prescott Computer Society's Digital
Photo meeting at the Prescott Public Library on June 8th.
Published: Courier 6/2/13 - Page 3C