[JR5280]

I want to downlaod GIMP photo software and get rid of Kodak Easyshare. What is the best way to transfer about 100 pictures from Kodak to GIMP? Also, can I transfer pictures from "My Pictures" folder to GIMP? I am running on XP Home.

[mphenterprises]

Hi JR and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




Your question is a common misconception regarding applications. Your pictures are not stored within Kodak and will not be stored within GIMP. These applications are just the tool you use to view and manage the pictures. Your pictures are stored within a separate Windows folder on your hard drive, more than likely, your My Pictures folder that you referenced.

You can simple uninstall one application, Kodak, and install the other application, GIMP. Once you install GIMP, you can access your pictures using GIMP the same you accessed your pictures using Kodak.

[JR5280]

Hi mphenterprises,
Thanks very much for your help.
JR5280

[mphenterprises]

With pleasure. :D



If you need anything else, please post.

[LincolnSpector]

mphenterprises said:

Hi JR and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




Your question is a common misconception regarding applications. Your pictures are not stored within Kodak and will not be stored within GIMP. These applications are just the tool you use to view and manage the pictures. Your pictures are stored within a separate Windows folder on your hard drive, more than likely, your My Pictures folder that you referenced.

You can simple uninstall one application, Kodak, and install the other application, GIMP. Once you install GIMP, you can access your pictures using GIMP the same you accessed your pictures using Kodak.

it's not always, unfortunately, that simple. Yes, the photos are on your hard drive and can be accessed by any program that can read jpgs, but if you've organized your photos in one program, that organization may not translate to another one. This is especially a problem with Photoshop Elements, which keeps its metadata in a separate file.

If you stick to programs that use the metadata capabilities within the jpg format, you don't have this problem.



Lincoln

[mphenterprises]

Hi Lincoln and thank you for that information. I do not collect any pictures whatsoever so I am not familiar with metadata capabilities. Can you clarify that a bit?

[mcbarker]

Hi MPH. :)

Some programs store images downloaded from digital cameras in subdirectories of the program itself. A few of these programs, when uninstalled, will also delete all subdirectories, including those with any downloaded images in them (I don't know if Kodak Easyshare is one of those).



JR

If your images ARE located in a Kodak subdirectory. then manually move them (using Windows Explorer) to another directory like My DocumentsMy Pictures (or a new subdirectory off of that) before uninstalling Easyshare. Let us know if you need help with that.

:)

[mphenterprises]

mcbarker said:

Some programs store images downloaded from digital cameras in subdirectories of the program itself. A few of these programs, when uninstalled, will also > delete all subdirectories, including those with any downloaded images in them (I don't know if Kodak Easyshare is one of those).

Hi MCBarker. Thanks for that clarification. That is reasonable enough. I would presume that such applications would have a warning message before the application gets uninstalled.

[mcbarker]

[quote name='mphenterprises']
>

mcbarker said:

>
> Some programs store images downloaded from digital cameras in subdirectories of the program itself. A few of these programs, when uninstalled, will also > delete all subdirectories, including those with any downloaded images in them (I don't know if Kodak Easyshare is one of those).
>



Hi MCBarker. Thanks for that clarification. That is reasonable enough. I would presume that such applications would have a warning message before the application gets uninstalled.

You'd think so, but it has been my experience over the years that not all applications do give a warning before deleting user created files. Thankfully, those programs are few and far between.

[JR5280]

Hi mph,
Thanks. I will identify each picture that I have in Kodak and then track each one down and be sure that they are removed from any Kodak subfiles. I know I have some already in "My Pictures" so if I put all those to be reloaded into GIMP in one folder it should be easier to move them. This will take me a while to do, so I will let you know how it works out.

I have tried to determine from the GIMP website if they have any reference to "metadata". No luck so far. They do use .jpg type files for default storing of digital photos. Their user manual is very detailed and gives helpful info on how to transfer files to GIMP.

JR

[LincolnSpector]

mphenterprises said:

Hi Lincoln and thank you for that information. I do not collect any pictures whatsoever so I am not familiar with metadata capabilities. Can you clarify that a bit?

Metadata is data on data--data that describes what's contained within the data. Right-click a file in Windows and select Properties, and what you get is metadata. And the contents of a file's Properties varies with file types because different file types have different metadata.

Right-click a .jpg, then click the Details tab, and you'll get all sorts of information on the pictures (and blank fields for entering your own information). The Tags field in particular allows a lot organizational capabilities. Some programs, including Windows Live Media Gallery, use this metadata to organize your photos. Since the organizational data is part of the .jpg files, there's no problem moving the organization from one computer to another, or from one program to another, provided both programs use this metadata.

You can even use Windows Explorer to enter the metadata and to search on it, although it's slow and clumsy.



Lincoln

[mphenterprises]

Thank you both MCBarker and Lincoln for clarifying Metadata. Hopefully this helps more people as well.

[JR5280]

Hi All,
Thanks to everyone for the great info. On Lincoln's suggestion, I found photo software from Google which mentioned metadata in their documentation. I have transfered all (only lost a few) of my photos, cleaned up my C: drive which had photos scattered everywhere and restructered my files. The Google software-Picasa-which is a free download is 100 times better than the Kodak which I struggled with for way too long.
JR