Free Photo Software
Here are links to various free software packages which may be of interest to photographers:
- • Mutifunction Optical Calculator [BobAtkins.com]
- Calculates depth of field, hyperfocal distance, magnification and various theoretical parameters such as spot size and resolution
- • Optical Blur Calculator [BobAtkins.com]
- Similar to the multifunction optical calculator, but this one also calculates just how blurred an object will be at given distances from the focal point, which can be usueful for estimating how much background blur a particular lens at a particular aperture shot at a particular distance will give.
- • Google Pack [Google]
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Google Pack is a package of free software fron Google which includes the Picassa digital image organizer as well as other programs like the Google desktop search, screensavers and various utilities (anti-virus, anti-spyware etc.). You can chose which components to download and install.
- • Picassa [Google]
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This used to be a commercial image organizer until Google bought the package from the developer and released it for free. It will automatically catalog images on your PC, creating thumnails and allowing you to add labels (so, for example, it will show you all images you've tagged with the label "dogs"). Images can have multiple labels. Picassa also has some image editing functions as well as being integrated with services like Blogger and Hello and a host of online photofinishers. Worth a look. - • :Rawshooter Essentials [Pixmantec]
- Rawshooter essentials is a free RAW conversion utility from Pixmantec. It's a pretty good piece of software. However Rawshooter was bought out by Adobe and will be incorprorated into Adobe's "Lightroom" (which certainly isn't free). Rawshooter Essentials is still available as a free download for a while, but it won't last forever so grab a copy while you can.
- • IrfanView [Irfanview.com]
- No, it's not for fans of IR photography, "Irfan" is the first name of the developer, Irfan Skiljan. IrfanView is, in it's author's words "...a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003". In fact it's more than an image viewer, it's also an image format converter with basic editing functions, an EXIF viewer, a slideshow maker and more. It's free, but the author accepts donations.