Microsoft today has made available a new tool for photographers using Windows for their digital photos:
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1. This application lets you quickly edit the metadata on digital photos you've shot with your camera - including RAW formats.
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools also allows photographers to use geotagging for their photos. Geotagging is the ability to "tag" something with location information - and in the case of photos the location of where your photo was taken. You can quickly add location data from a GPS device or Live Search Maps to a photo's metadata.
Download: Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1 (x86)
I use Windows Live Photo Gallery to manage all my photos. I'd like to note that changes in any specific photo' s metadata using Microsoft Pro Photo Tools will be reflected of course in Windows Live Photo Gallery - including title and tags.
You'll see here I've added a title, description, and keywords (aka tags) in Microsoft Pro Photo Tools to one of my photos.
In Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can see the title and tags I've added in Microsoft Pro Photo Tools are displayed in the Windows Live Photo Gallery UI (specifically in the Info pane). The metadata is also in the photo's properties as well.
In Windows Live Photo Gallery currently, the UI doesn't call out metadata for geotagging. But by geotagging your photos in Microsoft Pro Photo Tools now - it's in the metadata so in the future, that metadata can easily be called out by any app designed to call out geotagging from photos.
It's great to see us making investments in creating a better experience for photographers using Windows.
For further background on Microsoft Pro Photo Tools - CNET's Stephen Shankland was able to talk with Josh Weisberg, Microsoft's director of digital imaging evangelism, in a really nice in-depth post looking at Microsoft Pro Photo Tools including its origin and its future.