You’ve taken digital pictures for years across multiple systems and camera upgrades, and now your collection is a mess. These free tools and techniques will fix your photos’ metadata, weed out duplicates, reorganize folders, and otherwise whip your digital photos into shape. More »
Windows only: Adebis Photo Sorter digs through all of your messy photos from eons ago, sorting them by date, groups and type. Because sorting through 16 GB worth of photos is everybody’s idea of fun. More »
Whether you’ve got a DSLR or you’ve turned your point-and-shoot into a super camera, those fancy features are useless if you don’t understand them. Want to capture a perfectly exposed picture? Learning to use your histogram is a good starting point. More »
Windows: National Geographic’s web site has some stunning photography, and a lot of it makes for good rotating desktop backgrounds. The NatGeo Wallpaper Downloader we’ve previously enjoyed has updated with interface improvements, bug fixes, and access to thousands more images.
The app’s developer writes that while his first release of the app made it convenient to grab a few hundred of National Geographic’s photography contest images, this 2.0 version broadens your access to more than 5,000 images. Future versions should expand the range even further. It’s a Windows-only app, but Linux and Mac users with some command line savvy can still get in on the NatGeo action.
NatGeo Wallpaper Downloader is a free download for Window systems.
No matter how talented a shutterbug you are, a dirty lens can detract from even the most amazing shot. DIY compendium WikiHow has drawn up a step-by-step guide on removing specks and other dust particles from your camera lens with a vacuum.
As the post notes, you’ll want to proceed with caution before cleaning off your lens with a vacuum (that means use more traditional methods first); the vacuum method should only be used as a last resort, since even the lowest vacuum power could harm your camera.
This trick involves getting rid of [dust particles] with a vacuum cleaner, when all else has failed and the costs of cleaning the inside of the lens are prohibitive compared to the cost of buying a new camera.
If you’ve run into some stubborn particles that you just can’t clean with traditional methods, the six-step cleaning process involves rolling up a plastic wrap (“forming a thin sausage and leaving a section unrolled”), then wrapping it around the opening.
Browse the full post for the remaining instructions, and if you have a safer lens cleaning method, let’s hear about it in the comments.
Windows only: Freeware application FotoSketcher takes your photos and turns them into pencil drawings, oil paintings, or sketches—with impressive results for very little effort.
Using the application is easy enough—just launch it and drag a picture onto the interface, or open a new image from the File -> Open menu. Once you've pulled up the image, use the Edit -> Drawing parameters menu item to choose the filter you'd like to use, tweak the filter settings, and click the Draw it button to render the final drawing.
Readers will note that you can do the same thing from your fully licensed, totally legal copy of Photoshop, but for people without hundreds of dollars to spend, FotoSketcher produces some impressive results, easily, and for free. FotoSketcher is a free download for Windows only.
