Windows Live Photo Gallery

[Gerlinde]

I have become a big fan of the Windows Live Photo Gallery and would like to bring it to your attention if you have not heard about it yet.

What I find so great about it is you can edit, organize and make creations without having to open a special program. Everything is non-destructive, no additional files are created ( except when you stitch a panorama or a new group shot picture), and if you don't like the result, it's easy to convert back to the original photo. It also has a great noise reduction filter.
Here are two links with a better description than mine:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... to-Gallery

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-ph ... lery-using

[JohnnyO]

I use this as an organizer when I make videos using MAGIX MEP. It recognizes my AVCHD-Lite video and I can just drag the clips to the timeline.

I was disappointed in that it does not recognize PSD files.

For editing with PSE/PRE, I do prefer to use the PSE Organizer.

I do admit that for a free program, Windows Live Photo Gallery is not bad. I tried lots of free ones and I like that the best.

[Ken Jarstad]

I've been using Picassa and Picassa WebAlbums. The editor makes quick work of touching up a large group of photos - 30 photos in 30 minutes seems very efficient to me. It's OK for almost all touch up but the real tough stuff. The rare, tough, one of a kind, must save, photo will still need a more sophisticated tool.

I haven't had the time to look into the Windows Live offerings yet in any depth so I do have a couple of questions. Does Windows Live, Photo Gallery or the other apps, allow multiple galleries for different purposes - multiple and separate sites - or is it geared only toward a 'one-off' personal page? And, does it allow for multiple authors like Google Apps does? Thanks.

[Ken Jarstad]

I use this as an organizer when I make videos using MAGIX MEP. It recognizes my AVCHD-Lite video and I can just drag the clips to the timeline.

JohnnyO, please help me out here. You use Windows Live Gallery (WLG) as an organizer for MEP? That sort of thing would not occur to me! Do you have unlimited bandwidth? It wasn't so long ago I still had to suffer with a dial-up connection. It seems bizarre to upload your video files to WLG and then download them again for editing. Or have I gravely misunderstood?

[Gerlinde]

Ken, I have not used the online features like Cloud, or my online storage and backup space. I was more talking about the app, that you install on your computer. And I think that is also what JohnnyO is talking about. No bandwidth necessary in that case. But you have to option to share your creations to facebook, youtube and others .

[Ken Jarstad]

Looks like I misunderstood. Thanks for clearing it up.

So, there is a client/server configuration - able to be used as a local, stand alone module. Hmmmmm.

[Gerlinde]

Ken, here is some more info for you, maybe this will clarify things a bit more for you. I was talking about the Windows Live Essentials part:

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-es ... s?os=winxp

And this are all the things available:

http://explore.live.com/home