Need advice on camera software

[dubeni]

Hi!
I'm not a pro neither an amateur, I use photography for work. I'm an architect and mainly photograph buildings under construction. After using my Nikon FM2 for decades I started using occasionally my brothers Canons 350D(Rebel XT) and 400D(Rebel XTi). I recently bought a 600D(T3i) and a Canon zoom lens EF-S 17-55mm, f2.8, I also bought for my wife a Canon PowerShot S110, I'm pleased with both and my question is related with the software provided with the cameras meaning that now I have installed at least seven different programs that do almost the same thing: 600D - Digital Photo Professional; ZoomBrowser EX; EOS Utility and Picture Style Editor; S110; Digital Photo Professional; ImageBrowser EX and Map Utility.
How do you usually managed this?

Sincerely
Bernardo Andrade

[Manfred M]

Generally the software provided by the camera makers is fairly basic and most people progress to something a bit more sophisticated.

While there are many different packages out there, some online (Picassa), some free (or shareware) GIMP and some commercial applications that one buys (or in the case of the higher end Adobe packages), subscribes to on a monthly basis. In terms of pure numbers, the Adobe packages; Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop are probably the most popular in terms of the number of users and covers all skill levels from casual photographer to grahics artist.

[dennybeall]

Taking real estate/architectural photos often requires you to get the verticals totally vertical and the horizontals totally horizontal. Some situations with a wide angel lens will really bow in the verticals. I use Photoshop CC(2014) and I know that can fix this distortion. Not sure about the capabilities of some of the less expensive software. Anybody know?

[pnodrog]

Taking real estate/architectural photos often requires you to get the verticals totally vertical and the horizontals totally horizontal. Some situations with a wide angel lens will really bow in the verticals. I use Photoshop CC(2014) and I know that can fix this distortion. Not sure about the capabilities of some of the less expensive software. Anybody know?

Using the Lens correction options in Lightroom I find I can adjust for most perspective adjustments I require in real estate photography. Occasionally I need to use Photoshop but mainly for cloning out a car, rubbish bin or oppositions sign.....

[dubeni]

Hi!
My question is more about the software that manages the libraries and photos info. I like the full information that both Zoom and Image browser provide, but do I really need two? one for each camera?
I don't do real estate photography, I photograph buildings under construction so that I can identify possible mistakes and the work in progression. It's fun but not artistic. Although I am trying to undertake a project about workers in construction, but it's not easy because most are camera shy.
As for the distortion I don't usually correct the photos, and most photos are set at the widest angle provided by the lens. Buildings, including houses are most of time to large and to close to fit on a corrected field. I stitched several photos many times, it’s hard, and light is the culprit, it changes every time the camera rotates. Actually I think most architects like stretched perspectives , not always.
Below is a small sample out of more then 2000 photos I did on this construction site alone, with a compact Samsung camera.



You can see a few more on my album “under construction”
Thank you for your attempts on helping me, but what I’m looking for is way of configuring one of the browsers or utility for both Canon cameras.

Another question, is there a way to have thumbnails from the CiC albums?
Sincerely
Bernardo

[Kodiak]

Hi!
My question is more about the software that manages the libraries and photos info.

In the camera? NO WAY! It would not be recommendable anyway. Cameras have
very limited amount of inboard memory… just enough for the camera functions and
setups. The real memory for your photos is the flash card, there is plenty of memory
there but the OS of the camera uses the card to empty the buffer (very short term
memory). You may store many photos on the card but the OS will only import speci-
fic files for it update needs.

What you need is a folder on your computer where you download, from the camera to
your HD, all the pictures you made (keep your cards empty and reformatted) to review
them and organize them from within a RAW converter… the later is normally very capable
to render all the metadata you will need.

[Manfred M]

If you are looking for content management, then there are a number of commercial packages that allow you to file, tag and otherwise organize your images. Adobe's Lightroom is probably one of the most popular ones, and while I personally do not like it, a lot of people do. These image management packages allow the users to tag the images with specific keywords (if desiged or required) and identify images by a number of parameters that can be accessed via the metadata written to specific image files; i.e. which camera or which lens are used. date, keyword(s), etc.

And no, you don't need a different piece of software for each camera being used.

Yes images can be stitched together; I use Photoshop for my work, but as you have discovered,software alone is not the solution, your exposures have to work for you. As you have already noted, different levels of light require different exposurs; simply said, there is no magic solution...

From a storage standpoint, I use two schemes; one where I store images by project and another I store the chronologically (I use one or the other for a specific image or sets of images, not both)

[HaseebM]

For Canon, any model, latest ZoomBrowser, DPP and ImageBrowserEx, EOSutility will work. I have bought four Canon's over the years and only updated these software.

[loosecanon]

For ease of use and power of adjustment Lightroom is hard to beat, things like getting detail to show in shadows and so on. Also the map function would enable you to geotag your images which would make finding them so much easier in years to come.

[dubeni]

Hi!
Thank you all, this is actually a non issue. I've been storing my pictures by camera model and date, with continuous file numbering. Some are then placed on project folders with proper names. Also, I usually delete images from camera after downloading.

What I found odd is two cameras of the same brand using two utilities. Eos utility and ZoomBrowser work fine with the 350D, 400D and now the 600D, but it doesn't recognize the PowerShot S110, so! I had to install the software provided with the camera, it's not a big deal...

I've heard of LightRoom but never tried it. I love photoshop since 1992, but I do not have it at home.

By the way Haseeb I liked your brief review on the CLS II clip filter, I have the same but haven’t had the chance to try it, yet.

Bernardo

[Manfred M]

If your camera is not recognized, the problem is often that the software has been updated to include profiles for newer camera models. If you are running the most current versions, I would not expect that you would be seeing this issue. I don't shoot Canon, so I'm not sure how they handle this, but I would expect that things woul not be all that different than how Nikon do things, and update their software three or four times a year.