When people take digital images and put them on their computers, the pictures are generally not perfect. This is where enhancements come in, they will make it so your picture looks almost professional. One enhancement that is used often is the sharpness enhancement. The sharpness enhancement is extremely helpful. Basically it improves the quality on a fuzzy picture. Almost every editor has the sharpness too, sadly most of them aren't the best. The best ones use algorithms internally to help with the enhancement of the photo. This tool is extremely useful for blurry pictures or one with fuzzy lines and borders.

What is re-sampling and how does it compare and differ from resizing? Both these tools are used to either enlarge or reduce a photo. Re-sampling is a little less heard of than resizing but a nice image editor will have it. The difference is this: re-sampling is actually the use of algorithms that you can select that will either re-calculate the amount of pixels (reducing the size of the image) or use interpolation to enlarge the photo. Re-sizing is a lot less complicated. All it does for enlarging is double the pixels and for reducing the image it just takes pixels out and sometimes completely deletes thin lines in the picture. Re-sampling is the preferred method for professionals because the image comes back clear and appearing unchanged. Resizing doesn't work as well; it is the preferred method for beginners and amateurs because it is quick and easy. The picture ends up being blocky and choppy and won't look as nice as re-sampling. Most image editors will have the option of both.

Big question for everyone is how to convert photo files in order to get smaller pictures. This is really helpful if you want to send photo files over the internet. There are two ways to do this: the lossless and the lossy formats. Lossless means that the image stays exactly the same as it was originally. Basically different methods are applied to get a smaller but virtually untouched photo. The most common format that photo software can hand is .png. The disadvantage is the image can still end up too big, but the image will be completely unchanged. Lossy formats will actually lose some information. The advantage to this way is you will be able to pick the size you want it to end up in. The common form it is saved in is a .jpg. This will create small photos that will upload places quite easily. There are the ups and downs for both of these forms, basically do you want a smaller original or do you mind some of the photo being lost in order to make it really small.

Having a half decent image viewer is just as important as actually changing them. Having the ability to easily access and change your images in a process that isn't complicated to you is essential. There should be some definite functions, like the viewer should easily be adapt to your needs, be able to enhance photos and be beneficial to your use. Aquiring photos and adding them to your database should be quite easy. Managing EXIF data and being able to batch process is helpful. A couple recommended viewers would be Photophilia and Zoner Photo Studio. These are both amateur accessible and function filled. Helpful functions that you could have would be the batch function, editing function, a file filter would be nice and the image size via pixels.

Lets say you want to have 100 images changed, well you don't want to do that manually. What if you wanted to do multiple thing, like resize add border, then compress them? That is a tedious and time consuming task. Well good news to you, that won't be time you have to waste. They have these nifty things called batch processors. Sometimes you have to download them separately others come with your photo viewer. All that processing and time consuming image changing would be done however long your batch software would be able to do it with. But no matter how long it takes, you don't have to do it. All that you need to do is queue it up in the program with takes 15-20 minutes max press the run button and all your images are being run through, changed and put in a new directory of your choice ready to go. Anytime you don't have to spend messing around with images the better. Choosing a batch program is pretty easy there are dozens out there just make sure it has what you want it to do.

A handy tool to have if you don't intend to collect thousands of pictures is a digital photo album. This is handy because you can add descriptions and make sure you get a nice looking album for people to look at. This is different from a photo view because it actually stores all the photos no matter where they are located. The program will actually go and find all your photos. This would not be recommended if you have more than 2,000 photos because if a file gets corrupted you could lose all your pictures. An online viewer would actually be useful because then after you used a batch processor you could upload them all to the site and have just as nice of an album online. In the end it is up to you whether even want an album in the first place.

Lots of questions come in everyday about different types of batch software, and other image processes here are a couple: Q: My photos have EXIF data, but no "taken date", how can it be ? A: Basic information like the date, aperture, shutter speed etc should be written into the EXIF data of the photo by any camera. "Normally" differences between camera makes should only be with the "makernotes". Makernotes are mostly completely different with different makes.Nevertheless some cameras seem to save EXIF data without saving the "taken date". The user who did report the problem did send me one of his photos. While the other EXIF fields (camera name, aperture, shutter speed etc...) were present, the EXIF date fields were empty. The camera of the user is a Nikon Coolpix 880. Now I do not pretend that every Coolpix 880 shows the same problem. It may be one out of a given series, it may only be the Coolpix 880's sold in a specific Country, it may even be that some fake (and unperfect) Coolpix 880's have found their way to the market. Who knows? Q: I can't find any way of getting my digital camera to work on my pc. A: With most digital cameras you get a pc software. This software is intended to be used to get the photos onto the pc and to do some other tasks too.Indeed most of these programs are not very convenient and you can easily go without ever using them. Easy ways to acquire your photos (i.e. get the photos onto the computer) are described at PC camera software or how to by-pass them to acquire photos.