help uploading on old computer

Hello,

I recently bought a canon t6i. I have since been having a grand time taking lots of photos. Until recently i have been uploading photos via the cameras wifi connection to my cell phone. I was given a computer as a gift a couple days ago and was anxious to upload all my photos and do some editing, however im at a bit of a impasse due to im a noob at this...

my computer is not able to open the images from the sd card directly. I downloaded darktable in which im able to view and edit the photos on the sd card however i cant save them to the computer in any practical format.

I need help with finding out which programs i should be using to save and edit my photos. Im new to photography but have been thoroughly enjoying it so far. Im assuming the o.s. im running ( windows 7 ) is just too old. Please help and thank you in advance! Im eager to improve my photography and share my work.

im using a dell / windows 7 and shooting canon t6i raw

Can you see the files on the SD card from your computer? If so, just copy them and paste into the desired folder on your computer. Or possibly I don't understand your question.

deltron3030 wrote:

Hello,

I recently bought a canon t6i. I have since been having a grand time taking lots of photos. Until recently i have been uploading photos via the cameras wifi connection to my cell phone. I was given a computer as a gift a couple days ago and was anxious to upload all my photos and do some editing, however im at a bit of a impasse due to im a noob at this...

my computer is not able to open the images from the sd card directly. I downloaded darktable in which im able to view and edit the photos on the sd card however i cant save them to the computer in any practical format.

I need help with finding out which programs i should be using to save and edit my photos. Im new to photography but have been thoroughly enjoying it so far. Im assuming the o.s. im running ( windows 7 ) is just too old. Please help and thank you in advance! Im eager to improve my photography and share my work.

im using a dell / windows 7 and shooting canon t6i raw

Windows 7 or Windows 7 sp1?

Is your computer connected to internet to receive updates?

The DPP from Canon that comes with the camera perfectly does the job on Windows 7.

no i cant see them on my computer. im not sure if my computer has the right software to view the files...

I bought it second hand so i did not know it came with the dpp disc. I found the disc in the box and have downloaded, thank you.

Now what? I downloaded darktable to edit photos. Is this a good program to use? How can i protect my images from copyright? Again im totally new to photography and clearly not very computer literate. Im hoping to create some cool focus stacks, layering, long exposures etc. Also im planning on doing videography once im comfortable with my tools.

deltron3030 wrote:

no i cant see them on my computer. im not sure if my computer has the right software to view the files...

Your computer shouldnm't need any special software to view the files. Do you have a reader for the SD card that you connect to your computer?

yes I found the disc in the original box

deltron3030 wrote:

yes I found the disc in the original box

I asked if you had an SD card reader that you can plug into your computer, no if you had a disc that (presumably) contains software.

Go to the Canon support site and download and install the whole suite of programs by entering the details of your camera and Windows software.  You'll need to enter the serial number of your camera.

You'll find it includes such programs as:

EOS Utility - which will download from USB cable and also allow remote shooting over USB

Zoombrowser which will also download from a USB card to the same location as specified in EOS Utility (and vice versa)

DPP which is a very good RAW converter which also includes lens optimisation for Canon lenses.

Once you're on top of those you can then develop your use of 3rd party software but the Canon Digital Learning site will offer you enough to keep you going for a while.

It's not the OS that is the problem (Windows 7 will work fine with images from that camera), it's the fact that you are shooting RAW (which is good imo).  When you transfer them to your phone the RAW's are being processed and transferred as JPGs.  On your computer, you'll need to do a simple file transfer of the RAW files (I recommend using a card reader) and then edit/convert them to JPGs to view normally.  I'd start with DPP first, then move on to other software if you so choose.

First, do not try to read the files directly from the SD card: transfer them to your computer first (copy and paste)

Second, make sure you have a good viewer program that can read RAW files. One free viewer that works well is IrfanView. Go to this site and install both the program and the plugins: https://www.irfanview.com/

If you don't know if your Windows 7 is 32 or 64 bits, just take the 31-bit version. Once you have installed the program and the plugins, you will be able to view RAW files easily without any additional software (but remember, it is just a viewer).

As for edition, there are plenty of programs out there. My own routine is as follows:

1. Copy and paste RAW files from the SD card to my computer;

2. View the files with IrfanView and discard the files I don't want (simply press "delete" while viewing a file).

3. Open Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) and adjust your files to your taste and convert them to JPEG or TIFF (I prefer TIF because there is no image loss).

4. Open a good photo editiing software and edit your TIF file to your liking and then save it to JPEG for distribution (like showing them on this site). Note: I am a PaintShop Pro fan; not expensive and easy to use; been using it for more than 10 years. Or as I mentioned higher in this post, there is some free software out there (I am sure people could list a dozen).

5. Once you have saved your files in your computer and that you are sure that you have a second backup of your computer (like a copy on an external hard disk), then you can erase the files from your camera (directly from the SD card or from the camera itself).

This is my method and it is only offered as a suggestion. But it works well for me. Some people will most likely add comments to my method.

Good luck!

You are the goat. thank you.

thank you to everyone for all the help. I have downloaded dpp and figured out how to convert save and edit my photos now. still need to get the hang of using it.

should I be editing my photos raw then converting to jpeg or convert them first and edit them as jpeg?

here are a couple samples i have taken so far...

.

.

.

I am eager to improve my photography. Any and all critiques, comments or tips are appreciated. the pics i posted are unedited. One thing i think im struggling with is focus. knowing where to focus or whats the best aperture to use. especially when shooting the city at night i find myslef trying every combination of aperture and focus possible.

Usually I first start with DPP and adjust the picture a bit if necessary: sharpness, white balance, exposure, etc... Then I save it to TIF and then I continue editing the TIF file with a photo editor program. Once I am am done, I save the TIF and then convert to JPEG.

You have to understand that JPEG is a "lossy" format meaning that each time you save the same file over and over it loses a little bit of quality. TIF is a "losseless" format meaning that no matter the number of times you save it, it will not degrade.

In my opinion, JPEG is the last step in saving your files (for distribution). And also, I never erase my RAW files and even TIF if I have done a lot of work on it. But I definitely keep the RAW file because the RAW file is a little bit like the negative of your photo when there was only film. I saw people throwing the negatives more than 20 years ago and keeping only the photo but when came the digital age and the possibility of scanning the negatives, they realized that they had make a mistake because the copy (the photo) was never as good as the negative which remains the original.

deltron3030 wrote:

thank you to everyone for all the help. I have downloaded dpp and figured out how to convert save and edit my photos now. still need to get the hang of using it.

Way to go Benji’.  Nice work.

R2

I have been using dpp pretty regularly now and i feel pretty comfortable with it. still have a couple things im not sure i fully understand. But i want to be able to have more tools or features when editing. suggestions? also looking for photo downloaders..

deltron3030 wrote:

I have been using dpp pretty regularly now and i feel pretty comfortable with it. still have a couple things im not sure i fully understand. But i want to be able to have more tools or features when editing. suggestions?

There are plenty of software out there, some free some not. The ultimate one would probably be Adobe Photoshop but it is very expensive. The free ones usually have only the basics. As for my self, I am using Corel PaintShop Pro. It is very affordable and you can try it before you buy:

https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/products/paintshop-pro/standard/?sourceid=psp2019-xx-ppc_brkws&x-vehicle=ppc_brkws&campaignid=1630671039&adgroupid=65780401367&adid=311953505409&gclid=CjwKCAiAyrXiBRAjEiwATI95mVwPGIp_GMQNRSRGhjruGvraumQxtjkijN3y6cE9edDnYiK1KVDCRhoCRNoQAvD_BwE

also looking for photo downloaders.

What do you mean by that?

.

something to sort my photos (group,delete,rate) from the card before i save, rather than doing it in dpp. i think you did suggest something before not sure if thats what it was. i like to compare my different options though

deltron3030 wrote:

something to sort my photos (group,delete,rate) from the card before i save, rather than doing it in dpp. i think you did suggest something before not sure if thats what it was. i like to compare my different options though

Not exactly sure if I'm following correctly.

Do you want to (group, delete, rate) before you upload from the card to the computer?

R2

Ah. You mean some kind of photo organizer that will download and organize your photos. Unfortunately, I do my management manually.

Canon had ZoomBrowser but it is now discontinued.