Windows Vista Team Blog : Digital Imaging

Camcorders and DSLRs take over Official Windows Vista Magazine

Nick White — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:18:00 GMT

The Winter 2007 issue of the Official Windows Vista Magazine should be hitting newsstands very soon and will be of interest to those of you considering picking up a camcorder, digital webcam or DSLR camera this holiday season. This issue provides some excellent how-to articles on importing photos from your digital camera, as well tips for editing video from your camcorder. On top of that, the authors review some of the latest DSLR models, such as the Canon PowerShot G7 -- a Certified for Windows Vista product --, in stores now for this holiday season.

Check out this issue's ideas for potential gifts for your family's digital media enthusiasts who're using Windows Vista.

New wallpapers for your Windows Vista desktop

Nick White — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Hamad Darwish has released some amazing new desktop wallpapers for your enjoyment and look absolutely stunning on your Windows Vista desktop. Microsoft contacted Hamad to shoot some photos for wallpapers to include with Windows Vista. His photos titled Destination and Lost Sensations made it into the final versions of Windows Vista now in stores. Long Zheng interviewed Hamad on his experience working with Microsoft and shooting the photos for the project. "I really enjoyed the experience and I wouldn’t think twice about doing it again, if I was given the chance," Hamad says.

You can grab the new wallpapers over off Hamad's personal website. Each of the wallpapers are at 1920x1200 resolution so they should look very nice on your desktop.

My favorite is this one -- it reminds me of a trip I took to Baja California in the late 90's:

... I've configured it as the desktop image on one of my machines :)

Understanding RAW Image Support in Windows Vista

Nick White — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:51:00 GMT

We've posted on Windows Photo Gallery before, but I've been noticing a great deal of questions regarding RAW image support in Windows Vista here on the blog, so it's time to give this specific issue a bit more airtime.

For RAW image support in Windows Vista, Microsoft is working with major camera manufacturers to help provide RAW image codecs for their respective formats so that you can view them in Windows Photo Gallery. As a matter a fact, several of those major camera manufacturers have already provided codecs for their RAW imaging formats:

Nikon (.NEF files)
Sony (.SRF and .SR2 files)
Olympus (.ORF files)

Windows Photo Gallery has a "check for updates" feature that will kick in when any of the above file formats are discovered. Photo Gallery will prompt you for a update that will enable the use of these RAW Image formats from these manufacturers. More codecs are expected to come online and will be available via Photo Gallery's update feature, just as these are today. With respect to the Nikon files, there are apparently compatibility issues that both Microsoft and Nikon are actively investigating, with Nikon hoping to issue a updated codec in the near future.

The Photos and Imaging Experience Team explains the overall idea behind RAW format support in Windows Vista much better than I can (and far more in depth) in this post.

If you're experiencing issues with any of the released RAW image codecs or Photo Gallery, head over to the Microsoft Photography Blog and leave feedback there for the team, as they are actively reading comments and responding to users' needs.

Managing your Photos with Windows Vista

Nick White — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 04:06:00 GMT

I have over 2 years' worth of digital camera photos taken from events and travels -- managing that with Windows XP is next to impossible outside organizing them in folders by date. Windows Vista right out of the box offers incredible ways to manage your digital photos using Windows Photo Gallery -- so I can now organize my photos exactly the way I want.

Import and Fix Your Photos

Windows Photo Gallery gives you full control over your photos. Import your photos from your camera or scanner and "fix" them directly within Windows Photo Gallery. Crop your photos or fix "red-eye" or adjust the coloring. Let’s say I want to crop a picture I took from my recent vacation to Greece:

What if I don’t like the changes I've made to a photo? Windows Photo Gallery allows you to "roll back" to the original file by choosing the "Revert to Original" command. This way you can make sure you adjust your photos to exactly the way you want them, and are free make any and all changes you may wish to, and recover from those changes you don't wish to apply.

Tag Your Photos With Information

Windows Vista allows for extensive file tagging to organize files, and Windows Photo Gallery takes full advantage of this. Add captions to your photos or tag the files themselves very easily in Windows Photo Gallery. All you have to do is click "Info" on the top toolbar after selecting the desired photo to which you’d like to add information.

You can add as many tags as you’d like to any given photo. Here I’ve added three tags. Once you add tags and a caption to your photo, those settings stick with that specific photo in Windows Photo Gallery and throughout Windows Vista. If you browse to that photo in Windows Explorer, Windows Vista’s enhanced shell will display the tags, ratings and captions you've set in Windows Photo Gallery. Tagging your files also provides faster search results for the specific types of photos you’re looking for.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my two-part post on managing your photos with Windows Photo Gallery. In the meantime, you can also check out the Microsoft Photography Blog and get the low-down from the team that brought you Windows Photo Gallery.