Edit and Share Photos and Videos with Windows Live Photo Gallery

Along with updated betas for Windows Live Messenger 8.5, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Live Writer - users can now install and test the second beta of Windows Live Photo Gallery. Back in June, Microsoft announced Windows Live Photo Gallery as the successor to Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista with a closed beta program. Starting today - anyone can now choose to install and try out Windows Live Photo Gallery.

This new release of Windows Live Photo Gallery offers some impressive enhancements over the previous beta as well as the existing Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista.

First off, users get improved color adjustment and cropping capabilities for fixing their photos. These enhancements allow users to easily make changes to their photos before sharing them. You can now adjust the detail of your image by sharpening your image up or change the levels of shadow and highlights in the image's exposure. Under "Adjust exposure" users now have a Histogram of their photos. This will help in adjusting the right levels for making your images look the best. 

A new feature has been added to Windows Live Photo Gallery that will make many users happy (I for one am crazy about this feature). Users can now right-click on an image file to resize that image. You can even select multiple images and resize them together (batch resize was a popular feature request by users).

I do a ton of resizing images and being able to do this right from Windows Live Photo Gallery is a deal thing for me.

With shooting a ton of photos, not all of those photos turn out to be worth anything. So why import them onto the PC? With Windows Photo Gallery I was unable to preview and pick and choose the images I want to import off my camera. With Windows Live Photo Gallery you can with the new Photo and Video Import tool.

  

The Photo and Import Tool is a lot smarter in Windows Live Photo Gallery. It will list your images by date and allow you to enter names and tags for different photos on different dates.

After importing your images and fixing them all up - Windows Live Photo Gallery lets you publish those photos to your Windows Live Space. This makes it incredibly easier to share photos with friends and family. In importing photos to your Windows Live Space, you can create an entirely new album of photos or add the photos to existing albums already on your Windows Live Space.

 

You'll notice that Windows Live Photo Gallery supports the recently announced new optimize feature for your photos when publishing them to Windows Live Spaces. By choosing to "Optimize photos for printing" - your photos will be uploaded to Windows Live Spaces at a higher quality so that you can either print your own photos or order prints of your photos online. Users can also enjoy impressive full screen slide shows from Windows Live Spaces after uploading higher quality images through Windows Live Photo Gallery. Through Windows Live Spaces, you can take advantage of their new partnership with HP Snapfish (U.S. only currently - with more markets expected to come online later). Click here to read a bit from Windows Live Spaces Product Manager Chris Keating on Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Spaces.

Users are not only able to publish photos to Windows Live Spaces, but also videos to Soapbox on MSN Video.

  

Another on my favorite new features is the ability to create a panoramic photo. You can take a series of photos and stitch them together to create a panoramic photo. Here is a panoramic photo of the parking lot at my apartment complex (I stitched 8 photos together to create it):

If you love Windows Photo Gallery - you're definitely going to love Windows Live Photo Gallery. .

Keep your eyes on the Microsoft Photography and Video Blog. Matter a fact, Program Manager Scott Dart has posted pointing people to where they can download Windows Live Photo Gallery. Expect to hear more from Scott and his team very soon.

In testing out the latest Windows Live Photo Gallery release, be sure to submit feedback using feedback.live.com. This is the best place to submit bugs you may found.

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Comments

  1. tino
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 7:18PM  

    Please hire some good ui designers. All Windows Live programs look ugly and are even more chaotic designed than the Vista apps. Didn't they learn from Vista? Or didn't they even read some of the Microsoft blogs about UI, design and usability?

    Unbelivable.

  2. ForeverDestiny
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 7:49PM  

    Randome question here. If i want to get a 64bit version of vista and right now i have a 32 bit. do i need to buy the operating system again?

  3. torobucks
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 8:20PM  

    NO compare to picasa2, Very poor effect, slow speed, and huge size!

  4. marshall
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 8:59PM  

    Given the fact that WLinstaller refused to install the apps on x64 platforms, and there is no way to separately install these apps on Vista x64 by downloading the individual packages, supporting x64 at release probably means that the apps will begin beta testing for x64 at release....

    Guess we should wait for SP1 (or if these apps are upgrades.... SP2?) for these apps....  I don't know about you but I certainly feel shunted by MS on touting 64-bit support and now something made public (beta or not) from MS is not supporting it......

  5. Brandon LeBlanc
    Microsoft
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 9:18PM  

    Marshall, actually, all of the apps (Windows Live Messenger, Mail, Writer and even Photo Gallery) all worked on 64-bit PC's at Beta 1. So its no secret they work on 64-bit PC's. Its the new shared installer that does not work currently.

    Also: the Windows Live apps have absolutely NOTHING to do with SP1 for Windows Vista.

    torobucks, not sure what you mean by "huge size" - the app itself isn't very big. If you're having performance issues (you shouldn't be) be sure to let the team know at feedback.live.com.

    - Brandon

  6. Brytown
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 11:19PM  

    so based upon what your saying tho many vista users like the style of the original it wont be updated with the stuff from live apps.. I mean are there any plans to update the original viewer with theese things?

    Brytown.

  7. Brandon LeBlanc
    Microsoft
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 11:26PM  

    Brytown, Windows Live Photo Gallery is the successor to Windows Photo Gallery.

    Updates won't occur to Windows Photo Gallery.

    Here on out - its Windows Live Photo Gallery that will continue to be updated moving forward.

    - Brandon

  8. Brytown
    Posted on: September 06, 2007 at 11:42PM  

    I'm also going to agree with tino's comment (if they are going to try and match the blue from vista use the same colors, I don't think its picky to say none of it matches??? When using the beta mail i noticed the colors on the top bar and the sleek transparency (i got it about a week ago) Then i get this and its 2 shades lighter blue no transparency but the splash screen was the same. Also i cant change the background color? Or did that move. I just think that ult users or vista users should just get an updated version that matches the other apps i am an (UI) interface designer So it sticks out like a soar thumb for me maybe allot less for others. The same with windows vista Basic windows inside of are glass enabled endowment, I think they should tune to the appropriate shade of the glass tent.. Its one of the things in my day to day experience that i notice and in the back of my head i know cosmetic changes to vista will come last.. I only hope people remember consistency visually can improve an experience greatly. I know its suspose to be a suite but i had most of theese things already tuned to the style of vista. I just hope its not like xp where those things turn to antiqies. I think good coding and design is the presuit of prefection... Not dumping one thing and premoting the updated version as a "whole seperate entity". MS does this ALOT, meeting space / for the new one Windows mail / for the new one/ ect ect. I find my self a bit conflicted because i LOVE to hear ms is working on new things but in the end its the way they go about it maybe? Even after all the obvious things are said It still comes back the same. Totaly agree with tino in that respect.

  9. Brandon LeBlanc
    Microsoft
    Posted on: September 07, 2007 at 12:16AM  

    Forever Destiny, you can order the 64-bit media for Windows Vista here (remember that Windows Vista Ultimate comes with a 64-bit disc). You do not need to buy the OS again. Just order the media.

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/2057/ordermedia/default.mspx

    - Brandon

  10. kev_gordon
    Posted on: September 07, 2007 at 8:15AM  

    Brandon,

    did MS include my suggestion (on a previous article on Windows Live Photo Gallery) to automatically reorient thumbnails based on the exif information?

    My biggest complaint about Photo Gallery (and the Windows built in pictures screensaver) is that it does not automatically rotate pictures and thumbnails to match the portrait/landscape orientation information present in most files, as most digital cameras now include this info.

Trackbacks

  1. Posted by: LiveSide - News blog on September 06, 2007 at 12:53AM

    Well it's taken a while to get here, but it looks like Windows Live is becoming a better defined

  2. Posted by: hoover high school football roster alabama on September 07, 2007 at 7:54AM

    hoover high school football roster alabama

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