Photographs - Editing and Showing

Which computer platform are you using?

Windows PC (not Mac)

Vista?

Vista I did buy a Windows 7 O.S. but have been very reluctant to rock the boat by trying to install it so if Vista is enough to do what is needed....

Do you have any software at the present time to organize your photos? Picasa has nice photo editing and organizing software that is free. The software that came with your camera may work. Do you shoot in raw or jpeg? If raw, you will need a good raw editor and although Picasa does this it is not as good as some others but those usually cost. You should organize your photos into different folders and put your Scotland photos in one folder and Spain in another. You could even divide those into smaller folders if you wish to separate certain destinations from one another within the same country. Once you do this the software should organize your phots by date shot if you choose that option. Windows has a slide show program but I don't use it. Picasa too. I use an excellent program from Photodex and have for years but it does cost. I have the professional version, Proshow Producer, and it is fairly expensive but they have excellent programs that cost less. I have used this for my own slide shows as well as doing slide shows for others and am very pleased with it. The proshow programs by Photodex automatically retrieve your photo folders as you load to your computer. All the photo software programs will do this and there are some good ones out there. Picasa is a nice free one that I have used and still do sometimes but mainly I post process my photos with Capture NX by Nikon mainly because I shoot raw and it works well with my Nikon camera.

I suggest you try Picasa. Since it's free, you have nothing to lose if it doesn't do what you need. The more I use it, the more I find out what it can do (and it does do collages). As for your invitation to the travel show party.... I'm willing to watch yours if you want to watch all of mine.

Phil, I normally use a Mac and iPhoto, but friends that use PC's have suggested ProShow. The cost for the "Gold" version seems quite reasonable. Have a look at the features to see if it might work for you. Cheers!

The Proshow Gold that Ken mentioned is a very good program for slide shows. I started with ProShow Gold several years ago and eventually upgraded to ProShow producer. Photodex allows a free upgrade within the same program for a year from date of purchase if they improve that program and also an upgrade to a better program for a reasonable cost. There can be a steep learning curve to get the best out of the programs they offer but you can put together a nice show from the beginning with the very basics. I did talk to the folks at Photodex and asked about a program for the Mac users and they said they did not have anything yet but hopefully would in the future.

When I load Picassa it searches for and reads/loads every .jpg stored anywhere on my computer. Can one make 'copies' of shows to save on a local back up? If you run up against Picassa's storage limit can you 'delete' pictures from Picasa storage (and still keep copies on our own computer? Thanks

Yes, you can make copies of shows on CD, for example. The software to run the show automatically goes with it, so you could even mail CDs to others and they could play it with no trouble. We have used this method to show picures via a DVD player at other peoples' houses. You can also post your show to the web, where you can make it public or designate it as private. You can then send email invitations for others to view your show online. As far as Picasa on your computer, it has no storage limit. It only organizes your photos, they don't "live" on Picasa. When you import new photos from your camera you specify where you want them stored (the default is My Pictures), and Picasa organizes them into folders that you set up. If you move a picture from the place that Picasa looks for it, it won't appear on Picasa. It's easy to rearrange photos on Picasa if you want to adjust the sequence, too. Just drag the picture you want to move and drop it in the place you want it to be.

Thank you all! Picasa it is.