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Photo Viewing | Photo Editing | Photo Tips | Panoramas |

Latest news

07 Mar 2008: New version of Picasa released version 2.7 Build 37.49. Not really sure what the changes are as release statements are rarely available for Picasa

16 Jan 2008: Faststone version 3.5 released with several enhancements.

15 Mar 2008: FuturixImager version 5.8.8 released as a stable version - best ignore later beta versions for the time being.

Links:

• Canon Europe Downloads
• Picasa
• FuturixImager
• Faststone

Photo / Image Viewers

There are several viewers that I have used and I have added some comments against each one. Probably you will want to use more than one in everyday use because each one of them has particular strengths and weaknesses.

One thing you will quickly realise is that most of the viewers contain basic editing tools including applying filters, cropping and re-sizing, as well as the common viewing requirements such as maintaining an on-line photo album, slide show and zooming. I prefer to use separate software for viewing and editing because I have not found a combined package that comes anywhere near the quality obtained with separates. The picture on the left shows Faststone Image Viewer in action with a list of folders, image thumbnails and a selected image.

Canon ZoomBrowser

I am currently using Version 6.0.1 which is a vast improvement on the earlier version that was shipped on CD Rom with my EOS300D in December, 2004. In fact the user interface was so antiquated that I only used the application for downloading images from the camera. However, I am pleased to say that although it is still not the most intuitive piece of software, it now performs a reasonable job and if you have a Canon camera then go to the download site and update as soon as possible. It is quick to browse all your photo libraries using 3 modes; Zoom, Scroll and Preview. Zoom mode lets you select from thumbnails for a directory and then zoom in and view the chosen picture. Note that when viewing the photo you can also display the auto focus points for Canon. In Scroll mode you can scroll through all the photos held in each directory. You then zoom in and view any chosen picture in the same way as for Zoom mode. In Preview mode you can select a picture and then view more detailed information about the photo, such as file information, star rating, comments, keywords used for classification, histogram and shooting information (for Canon and other popular makes only). You can also set up a slide show easily enough by selecting any number of slides and then left click to move onto the next photo. There are also fairly basic editing facilities such as red eye removal, cropping, brightness, saturation and contrast and you can also call up another editor if you require further tools. ZoomBrowser also contains a link to the excellent Photostitch utility for creating Panaromas. It may well be worth using this application particularly if you have a Canon digital camera. Note that if you want to use the Canon download site you need to have the original Canon software installed which came with your installation CD when you purchased your camera. The purpose of the site is to provide updates to the software - not for new installations.

Canon Software

I certainly found the Canon software download site very confusing with no real recommendations concerning which software and which versions were necessary. I own an EOS300D and a Powershot A630 so I eventually came up with the following list :-
ZoomBrowser version 6.0.1 (for viewing and editing images)
EOS Utility version 2.2.1.3 (for downloading images - much improved over earlier versions)
Photostitch Utility version 3.1.19 (for stitching images)
Setup Utility version 2.0 (for setting up printer)
Camera Window (various versions including MC 6 and DC_DV 6) which controls the transfer of images from your camera to the PC. MC 6 seems to handle the EOS range whereas DC_DV 6 is for the Powershot, Ixus range. It seems Camera Window gets called either by Calmain.exe when you connect your camera to the PC or you can use it when carrying out the Acquire and Camera Settings Task in ZoomBrowser. Of course if you don't wish to use Canon Software to download your images some of the viewers such as Picasa below will perform a similar job. However, you may find that Picasa for example has a few drawbacks with image numbering and downloading duplicates.

There is also a program called Calmain.exe which is an auto startup and appears to be waiting for you to connect your camera to the PC. I would like to just have this running when I connect the camera, so I will try to fix this.

Unwanted Canon Software

I have also found that my machine quickly gets filled up with other Canon software and that I have never used and never intend to use. So I decided to have a spring clean and the following items were surplus to requirements :-
Canon PhotoRecord 2.2.3 (I prefer Picasa)

Importing Images using Card Reader

If you have a USB card reader or more commonly these days a built in card reader none of the Canon software above is strictly required. For example you can insert your SD or CF card directly into the card reader and then use a viewer such as Faststone or Picasa to upload all your images. The advantages are that you don't have to connect your camera to the computer and waste the camera battery, and you don't need to install any Canon software. The only real disadvantage that I can see is that Picasa will just splurge all your images into one folder, whereas the Canon software can put images into folders selectively by date. So if you use the Picasa method you will either have to manually export them out to folders of your choice or use the export feature in Picasa (you can use the copy original size). I prefer to copy them manually because I want to preserve the original image on disk. However, using Faststone you can download your images to a particular location and subfolder based on date just like the Canon camera software. 

Picasa

If you don't mind having your directories catalogued by Picasa then this is a really fast and slick piece of software for managing your photo libraries. It is aimed to be easy to use for the general home user and comes with many useful features. The main view mode is to show a list of directories on the left hand side of the screen and display thumbnails of all the photos in the selected directory on the right hand side. This is similar to the scroll mode in ZoomBrowser. You can view the basic file properties of each image, by clicking picture/properties. When a thumbnail is selected you get a list of basic editing functions on the left hand side and a larger picture view on the right hand side. There are basic fixes such as crop, red-eye, straighten, auto colour and auto contrast. Tuning fixes allow you to lighten, shade, highlight and change the colour temperature. There are also some filter affects such as saturate, tint, sepia and Black and White. There is also a slideshow facility and a very slick export function that allows a web page to be generated with ease. All in all this is an excellent package to have based on its speed, easy user interface and versatility. I'm currently using version 2.2 and looking forward to the next version. Personally, I only use Picasa for cataloguing and viewing my photos. There are far better open source products such as Paint.NET for editing, Lightbox and soon I suspect Silverlight, for creating web pages. However, as an introductory package for the not too serious photographer it has to be said Picasa does a superb job.

FuturixImager

This is aimed at the enthusiast photographer who is also interested in the technical side of imaging software. There are specialist add on filters and the option to download a system development kit, if you want to experiment with building your own plug-ins. In terms of functionality it has single file image viewer and the ability to run slideshows. There are an array of filters and it has comprehensive file details analysis. Recently, the application has been renamed to FuturixImager and it is much improved. If you are a keen digital photographer then I highly recommend you go and check it out. Just recently in November 2007, the developer announced that he intends to port the application from a mix of Delphi and C++ to C# and C++, and a new version 5.8.8 is in the offing.

Faststone Image Viewer

Recently I have tried out Faststone to see for myself if it is as good as the recommendations found on the web. I started out by using the latest 2.7 version and so far have not been disappointed. It seems very quick and in particular I like the slick slideshow presentation and the magnifier which allows you to magnify a small part of the picture. I also like the means of uploading images to the PC using a card reader, which are superior to Picasa. It also seems to have a means of putting a watermark on your photo, but I have yet to test this. However, if you really want to put a watermark on your photo see the Photo Edit page using Paint.NET it really is simple. In summary, Faststone is a very comprehensive image viewer that provides most features the amateur photographer would want underlining its growing popularity.

Creating Web Pages

Using Picasa

Picasa has a nice feature that allows you to create web pages quickly and easily based on the images held in a folder. Use Folder, Export as Web Page to achieve this which also allows you to set the image size to a smaller value which is more practical for use on the web. One of the drawbacks with using Picasa is that you also get the Picasa logo on your web pages which is fairly unobtrusive and can anyway be edited out if you really do not want this feature. Unfortunately, there is no watermark facilty built into Picasa at present so you will have to use Paint.NET or Photoshop or some of the other utilities if you really need this facility.

Using Lightbox

An even better way is to use Lightbox Java script. This takes a little longer to set up but it is well worth it because you can view images over the text page. this also incorporates a means of grouping images together. You can see my first attempt at this by clicking on the Travel heading on this website. By clicking on an image you get a slideshow for each grouping of pictures and by clicking to the right or left of the image you can move forwards or backwards. It's also nice that you can have some explanatory text associated with each group of photos. There is also a free little .NET project called GalleryCreator (download from the CodeProject) which will automatically do a lot of the hard work involved in using Lightbox.

Silverlight PhotoGallery

I just found this control and decided to check it out with a few photos taken on my recent stay in Berlin (July 2008). You will need to download the Silverlight control from Microsoft in order to view and you can find the original blog at Silverlight Blog. Just a few notes on Berlin - if you are staying for 3 days or more make sure you get the three day travel pass since this entitles you to unlimited S-Bahn, U-Bahn and Bus travel throughout Berlin. If the weather is good then there are many places to eat outdoors - I liked the Hackesche Market (excellent Bavarian style restaurant), the Nikolai Quarter (by the river) and Kreuzberg by the river for something different. Sunday afternoon proved to be a good time to visit the Reichstag and if you register you can go inside to see the German Parliament chambers. The dome designed by Norman Foster is a must. I read a lot of interesting spy stories set in the Berlin of the sixties and it is interesting to see the parts of the Wall preserved, Friedrichstrasse, the forbidden underground stations which were situated in East Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie, the Stasi Museum, Potsdamer Platz and Alexander Platz. The Kolhoff Tower has the fastest lift in Europe and you have great panoramic views over Berlin - from here you can see how the Brandenberg Gate has been dwarfed by other buildings and you have direct views onto the new Sony Center. The TV tower that dominates Berlin is known as St Ulrich's because when the sun is in the right direction the sphere at the top reflects a cross. Museum Island is interesting - when I was there an exhibition of the 'Truths and Myths of Babylon' was featured at the Pergamon Museum which was great. When I was last in Berlin in 1993 the centre of gravity of Berlin still lay in the old West Berlin - now apart from the Kaiser Wilhelm Church and the Ku Damm, you will find most of the interesting places in the old eastern sector.

Digital Photo Frames

As of December 2008 these have just about come of age and it's not too much stretch of the imagination to see these rapidly replacing the traditional photo album when it comes to boring all your friends and neighbours with your latest holiday and family snaps. There are several things you need to watch out for when purchasing the photo frame, so here are a few pointers :-

Viewing Anaglyph Photo Images

I recently came across some software which can quite easily produce an anaglyph image which when viewed with red/cyan glasses provides a 3D stereoscopic effect.

Windows Wallpaper

Using your own photos as Windows Wallpaper is satisfying and also a good way of showing off your best photos. Both Picasa and Faststone have a command to create desktop wallpaper from the selected image.

GraphicEx

If you want to go a step further down the technical path by using your own photos and images in an application, then take a look at GraphicEx which allows many common image formats to be loaded and viewed from a Delphi application and is actually an addendum to Delphi's Graphics.pas. This library is primarily designed to load images as background (buttons, forms, toolbars) and textures (DirectX, OpenGL) or for image browsing and editing purposes as long as you don't need to save images.