The Kenningtons

Digital Cameras for Teachers

Downloading, Storing and Viewing Photos

Organizing and Viewing Photos
1. Organizing your photos:

As you download your digital images onto your computer's hard drive, you will hopefully have some sort of system for keeping track of them. You can organize them the following ways:

By date downloaded. This is the most common way for downloading software such as Kodak Easyshare. All photos downloaded on a certain day are saved in a folder with that day's date on it. If you download more than once per day, the folders are numbered by date and folder sequence.

By subject. Some downloading software will allow you to add an identifying title to your folders, so you know that this folder is "2-22-2005 Vacation to Seaside."

By camera type. If you have more than one digital camera and want to compare pictures, it helps to have them identified by the camera the pictures were taken with.

It is important to know how to find your pictures! Become familiar with your computer's file structure and where your hard drives's folders are. I have dedicated a partition (one section of my hard drive) just to digital photos, so I always know where to download my photos and where find them after I download them.

2. Viewing your photos:

Windows XP: If you are running Windows XP on your computer, the news is good for digital imaging enthusiasts. Windows XP recognizes when your folder is full of digital images, and even shows the contents of each folder if you select "View/Thumbnails".

You can see on the menu to the left of the picture (below) that Windows XP will "Get pictures from scanner or camera," allow you to view the pictures in a folder as a full-screen slide show, print photos online, print on your own printer, set the selected picture as a background for your computer desktop, or even burn selected photos to a CD!

Organizing software and online photo galleries: Even if you don't have Windows XP, the good news, of course, is that there is a ton of great organizing software out there, whether it is commercial or freeware. You even have the option of storing your photos online and making them accessible to your family and friends to look at. Some online photo galleries are free, while others may cost you a yearly fee (up to $29.95).

The best organizing software will search the folders and drives you select for digital images and then arrange them in an easy-to-access browser-type format, usually with your computer's file structure to the left and the photo thumbnails to the right. Pictures are usually organized by the date they were downloaded, although you can customize this option. Below is one of my favorites, Picasa from Google, a totally free software that also does simple photo editing. Are you getting tired of my vacation pictures yet?

For more information on organizing software and online photo galleries, try the following links:

Organizing software

Online gallery links

Digital Cameras for Teachers

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