Using the PC

Processing the pictures

Although Nikon supplied Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2 with the 900, we prefer to stick with the Paint Shop Pro that we know and love. It reads the JPEG files from the Nikon without problems. However, all the programs we've tried destroy or corrupt the image header that's on each of the camera pictures when it writes the JPEG file, so that the camera refuses to recognise any image other than an unprocessed one. This means that you can't alter the image in any way - even turning portrait into landscape - and replay the picture with the camera. So far I have two solutions to this, either display the images on the computer monitor, or find a video card such as the ATI Expert@Play which has a TV compatible video output. Unfortunately the latter route results in even more compromises on image quality.

I use a shareware program called Picture Information Extractor (PIE) which renames files from the sequential DSC00001.jpg of the camera into a more meaningful name - I've used yyyy-mmdd-hhmm-ss.jpg, and then I keep all the files for a single day in a one folder. I rotate portrait images to their correct orientation. This structure seems to be a sensible compromise as there's less than 100 photos per day, so the number of files per folder is reasonable, and you can easily navigate to a particular day. I've created a small Access database with information on locations, subjects etc. Eventually, I intend to process each file in this structure as required to crop, correct small rotations, tweak exposures etc. Thus I will have the originals, organised as 20MB card, 1st use, and the processed files organised by date. I'm starting to think of these as "negatives" and "prints" - what would you call them?

Processing JPEG images

Do be aware that each time you save an image in JPEG format you will loose a little quality, so that you should minimise the number of times you make such a save. While processing, be sure to save in a lossless format (use PNG format to reduce file size). There are some tools which allow a certain amount of processing without loss. In addition to PIE, there is also a lossless JPEG Crop and Rotate program. This is free, and can be downloaded from http://sylvana.net/jpegcrop/. There are versions for multiple OSs.

Creating a slide show

Nikon supply software for making a slide show, unfortunately they only supply a trial version which times out after 30 days. I'm looking for something decent, as the software has relatively poor interpolation from, say, a 1280 x 960 picture to a 800 x 600 pixel display (this resolution is TV compatible in Europe), and works badly on a 16 bit colour display. Suggestions for software are welcome and I'll list them here. At the moment, I'm writing a simple slide-show program that can sort and delete slides. I've now used this semi-publicly on one occasion. You can try out the program if you like...