cataloguing

Okay, I ordered the 505(V), it'll be my first digital camera. Askey's review was the straw. I still don't like some things (I take wildlife shots and the zoom isn't zoomy enough, and the time between pictures is too long), but I'm not prepared to pay $3000 for the new Canon. I'd rather wait a year, the price will go down, the camera will improve, and I'll have two for the price of one.

Question: what do you people use for cataloging? I'm trying "Thumbs Plus" and have an old version of Broderbund's "The Print Shop Organizer," as well as Sony's Picture Gear 3.1, which came with my computer. All of these are hobbled versions, anyone have anything to say about the relative merits of these or any other programs?

As for image processing, I'm trying out Microsoft's program for now. I gather that Adobe Photoshop is the standard...again, my computer came with a hobbled version, so much so that it won't save in jpeg or gif...

thanks for any comments. I posted something like this on the Q&A forum, but it's a much less lively place.

p.s. How do people who say they have the Nikon 990 AND the 550V AND three other equivalent cameras afford it? And why? Why not wait a couple of years between cameras, the difference between any two now is nothing like what the difference is between the whole pack now, and the whole pack a year from now!!

Nina -

I have a feeling that you're a hard person to please in more areas than cameras and software.

Gorewon said:

As for image processing, I'm trying out Microsoft's program for now. I
gather that Adobe Photoshop is the standard...again, my computer came
with a hobbled version, so much so that it won't save in jpeg or gif...

Click to expand...

Which Microsoft program are you referring to?

Image Composer. I didn't say I didn't like all those programs! I'm having a hard time comparing because I have primitive versions of em...

Ulysses said:

Nina -

I have a feeling that you're a hard person to please...

Click to expand...

Member said:

Which Microsoft program are you referring to?

Click to expand...

Nina -

Gorewon said:

Image Composer.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I love that program, too.

But I'll be honest with you. It has a hard time working with images of this pixel size. Not that it can't do it, but once you've resized something, there's no way back unless you're working with a duplicate image.

If you're looking to catalog and organize your images with some minor image editing, I would suggest that you look at something more designed for that sort of thing, such as ThumbsPlus at http://www.thumbsplus.com

If you intend to work with parts of your image, cutting sections of your image out, or painting your image somehow, then you'd need a program such as Image Composer, Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. But these are more advanced and fit a more specific need than a true catalog program such as ThumbsPlus.

I use ACDSee for cataloguing and printing photos. I use Photoshop 5.0, and PhotoDeluxe for adjusting contrast, color balance, etc., etc. I find that the latter two can export and save files in all the formats that I usually use (mostly JPEG or TIFF, depending on what I'm going to do with the result.

I hope this helps.

Mike

nina mollett said:

Okay, I ordered the 505(V), it'll be my first digital camera. Askey's
review was the straw. I still don't like some things (I take wildlife
shots and the zoom isn't zoomy enough, and the time between pictures is
too long), but I'm not prepared to pay $3000 for the new Canon. I'd
rather wait a year, the price will go down, the camera will improve, and
I'll have two for the price of one.

Question: what do you people use for cataloging? I'm trying "Thumbs Plus"
and have an old version of Broderbund's "The Print Shop Organizer," as
well as Sony's Picture Gear 3.1, which came with my computer. All of
these are hobbled versions, anyone have anything to say about the
relative merits of these or any other programs?

As for image processing, I'm trying out Microsoft's program for now. I
gather that Adobe Photoshop is the standard...again, my computer came
with a hobbled version, so much so that it won't save in jpeg or gif...

thanks for any comments. I posted something like this on the Q&A forum,
but it's a much less lively place.

p.s. How do people who say they have the Nikon 990 AND the 550V AND three
other equivalent cameras afford it? And why? Why not wait a couple of
years between cameras, the difference between any two now is nothing like
what the difference is between the whole pack now, and the whole pack a
year from now!!

Click to expand...

Nina,

I had a version of Photoshop, 4.0 I believe it was, and found myself frustrated with it. I usually work with my original 1.0 Photodeluxe that came with my Sony PC also. You may find that by adding more memory will really wake up your PC for the Adobe applications. I'm running 278m of ram and the Adobe applications open instantly.

Hi Dennis,

Aah, we're in the same boat then. Photodeluxe doesn't save files in gif or jpeg; how do you get around that? (I have no problem opening the program, I must have said something you misunderstood.) Do you use Picture Gear too? It's not that bad, but doesn't seem as versatile as some of the others, at least in its 3.2 incarnation.

Dennis said:

Nina,
I had a version of Photoshop, 4.0 I believe it was, and found myself
frustrated with it. I usually work with my original 1.0 Photodeluxe that
came with my Sony PC also. You may find that by adding more memory will
really wake up your PC for the Adobe applications. I'm running 278m of
ram and the Adobe applications open instantly.

Click to expand...

nina said:

Hi Dennis,

Aah, we're in the same boat then. Photodeluxe doesn't save files in gif
or jpeg; how do you get around that?

Click to expand...

Open your Photodeluxe, click on a file saved in PDD. Click on file at the top left and you will have a drop down menu that has Export. There you can save to file types PDD, PSD, PDF, IFF, BMP, RLE, EPS, FPX, JPG, PCX, PCT, PIC, PXR, PNG, TGA, VDA, ICB, VST, TIF, and there is a email that I haven't tried yet. At the bottom of the list there is GIF89a, which I haven't had the need to show an interest in much yet. When your window to save pops up, it most likely will show the file type to save as PhotoDeluxe X.0 (.PDD), click on the arrow to the right side and bingo, there are your file types to save to just waiting to fill up your hard drive. I'll be real honest with you about PhotoDeluxe. I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread because it's my first image program that I managed self taught. It's been there for me in some real tight situations when I know that there are much better programs to choose from. It's plain and simple when you have the time to explore everything it has. I will also say that I don't like the BE version one bit, but it's required on my PC in order to make the scanner save in all of the file types it is capable of.
(I have no problem opening the

Gorewon said:

program, I must have said something you misunderstood.)

Click to expand...

No, I think I know where you are coming from. It's there, it's just hiding around the corner from you. If I lost you on this, drop an email and I'll be more than happy to help where I can.
Do you use

Gorewon said:

Picture Gear too?

Click to expand...

No, don't have it. I gave some small thought to the 4.0 version, didn't get enough response to it and dropped the idea until I have the time to check it out.
It's not that bad, but doesn't seem as versatile as

Gorewon said:

some of the others, at least in its 3.2 incarnation.

Dennis said:

Nina,
I had a version of Photoshop, 4.0 I believe it was, and found myself
frustrated with it. I usually work with my original 1.0 Photodeluxe that
came with my Sony PC also. You may find that by adding more memory will
really wake up your PC for the Adobe applications. I'm running 278m of
ram and the Adobe applications open instantly.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...