Part 3 of 4: New Editing Features

Do you like to be creative with your pictures? Ever wish you could remove wrinkles, touch up circles under your eyes, have whiter teeth and smooth out blemishes? Are you looking for simple tools that turn good pictures, into great pictures? KODAK EASYSHARE Software v7.1 is just for you! We've always had a variety of one click tools for removing red-eye and automatically enhancing lighting and color. Now we've added two new features to our editing toolkit.

The first tool is Facial Retouch. Once in the editor, simply click the icon at the top of the screen and the retouch level will automatically move to medium. If it didn't quite remove all the imperfections or if it made you look just too perfect, simply move the slider left or right to adjust the retouch level.





 Can you see the difference? In the first image, there is no retouching. In the second image, the slider has been moved all the way to a high retouch level. I thought that was a bit much, so I moved the slider just a bit left, clicked accept, then clicked save to replace the original image (if you wanted to make a new copy so that it didn't permanently save over the original, just click save as).

Here's a before and after, side-by-side comparison.



The other extremely useful, new editing tool is the add text feature. This workflow is very easy. Just type out what you want in the text box. To change the formatting, click the little "T" button next to the box. A formatting box will popup to allow you to change the font, size, justification, and color of the text.



Once I typed the text, I clicked accept and then "save as." Since I didn't want this change to permanently overwrite my original image, the save as option allowed me to make a copy of the picture.

The facial retouch feature is especially useful when it comes time to make those holiday cards with the family picture. Just a glide of the slider makes everyone in the family look fabulous! Another tip: add text to your pictures before you upload them to the KODAK Gallery. This software-exclusive feature will add another dimension of creativity to your t-shirts, totes, and mugs!

www.kodak.com/go/downloads

Part 2 of 4: Upload to YouTube^TM

Need a better way to share your videos? KODAK EASYSHARE Software v7.1 is now connected to YouTube^TM to allow you to easily upload your videos to share with family, friends, or if you choose, anyone in the world!

The first time I ever used the video feature of my KODAK Digital Camera was when I discovered my cat, Peanut, was really great at playing fetch. She absolutely loves bottle caps. One day, she dropped a cap on my lap, so I threw it toward the garbage. Sure enough she ran to get it and brought it back. The rest is history. The sight of a cat playing fetch is just so bizarre to me, that I decided to capture the scene on my digital camera.

I really wanted to share the video with my family, but didn't have an easy way to send it to them (too big for email). So that is when I decided to create my very own YouTube^TM account. I felt like the video was worthy of my first upload using the new version of KODAK EASYSHARE Software.

To upload a video using the software, simply right-click on the video and select upload to... YouTube^TM. 



If you've chosen for the software to remember your YouTube^TM account information, then you are just a click away from sharing your video. The dialog box will allow you to add a title, description, tags, category, and select your privacy settings.
 


If you're interested, here's the video: Do you want to star in your own video? Are you looking for a simple way to share it with family and friends? Use the new upload features in KODAK EASYSHARE Software v7.1, download it for free at www.kodak.com/go/downloads.

Part 1 of 4: Copy to...
Believe it or not, EASYSHARE Software is back again with another release, this time, bigger and better than ever! As an avid user of the software, this version is one of the most exciting releases, jam-packed with really cool features! Download KODAK EASYSHARE Software v7.1 for Windows now at www.kodak.com/go/downloads.

The first new feature is the addition of a "Copy to" button in the main layout of the My Collection tab.

This button will come in handy for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is if you have a digital frame connected to your computer. Simply select the pictures and videos you want, and drag and drop them into the picture tray. Then, click the "Copy to..." button, which will popup a dialog box.

The removable media tab will display any connected devices, memory cards, and flash drives. Connected to my computer is a KODAK EASYSHARE M820 Digital Frame with a KODAK SD Card. You can see that the software identified the frame's internal memory and the inserted memory card. This makes it easy for me to understand and select where my pictures are being copied to. There is also a simple resizing option for picture frames. Since I was copying directly to the internal memory, I decided to resize the images to take up less space while still maintaining perfect quality for display.

In addition to my KODAK Digital Frame and KODAK SD Card, I connected my flash drive. It automatically appeared on my Copy to dialog box and exposed the different folders I already have on the drive.

I wanted to copy the pictures onto the drive so that I could take it to a local retailer to make prints on a KODAK Picture Kiosk (grandma doesn't use email). This time, I selected the full size option to maintain the high quality resolution of my pictures for best printing output. Having high resolution images is especially important if you want to make enlargements or photo merchandise, like a calendar or photo book.

Interested in learning more about the new features of KODAK EASYSHARE Software v7.1? Check back to read my blogs on new editing, creative, and sharing options. If you want to check out the software yourself, visit www.kodak.com/go/downloads. 

Many times our favorite memories occur in not so great picture taking locations. For example, when the birthday boy is blowing out candles on the cake, the room is usually dark, or in my case, when a friend or family member is graduating from college, your seat in the auditorium is usually far away from the stage. Last June, I was able to take some pretty close-up shots of the graduates walking across the stage using the extra lens that I purchased for my Kodak P880, but the pictures were really dark due to the lack of lighting.

There are a couple of ways to fix common pictures problems, such as poor lighting, in KODAK EASYSHARE software v7.0. The first way is to open the image in the editor workflow and use the scene balance tools to manually adjust exposure, shadows, and highlights.



Personally, I find this manual adjustment too time consuming mainly because I do not really know what is wrong with the image. Typically, I randomly slide the bars using a guess and check method until the picture is in a better state than when it started.

Whether you're an amateur photographer, like myself, or just a time-starved professional, KODAK EASYSHARE Software v7.0 has an automated enhance button that allows you to easily fix the lighting in your picture with just one click. The enhance button uses KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology to not only reduce dark shadows but also richens detail and brings out vibrant colors creating an even better picture than you could have made by just using the manual scene balance.

Think that's impressive? Well here is the best part. We've added this enhance feature as a right-click option in the My Collection tab so that you can select multiple pictures and enhance them in a single batch rather than opening each image individually in the editor.
Simply highlight the pictures, right-click, and select enhance.
 


You can select as many pictures as you want, but just keep in mind the more you select the longer it will take for KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology to work its magic. We have created a progress bar to keep you updated on the status of the batch enhance.



Before you know it, all of your selected images will be enhanced in your collection!
 


Have a bunch of dark pictures that you want to enhance? Give it a try yourself. You can download the latest version of KODAK EASYSHARE Software at www.kodak.com/go/downloads!

Part 3 of 3: Search

Welcome back! Have you visited www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw to download your free copy of EasyShare software v7.0 for Windows yet? If not, I am sure that you will after you read about the final new feature, search!

The new search capability in EasyShare software v7.0 is what makes tagging your pictures worth your while. If you did not see it in the screenshots posted in the star rating or tagging entries from the other day, here is what the new search bar looks like:

This new feature allows you to find any picture quick and easy. Simply type in a tag or caption and hit enter. The really cool part of search is when you enter multiple tags. Just be sure to separate each word with a semicolon and no spaces. Rather than typing tags, I find it easier to select from the drop down menu:

So here is how the feature works. If I search for pictures of Maddox in my collection, EasyShare software v7.0 brings up the 293 images that I have tagged as Maddox. The pictures span over seven years and come from many different albums in my collection.

If I click back into the entire collection and search on the term Halloween, the result yields 49 images that I have tagged as Halloween. These images may or may not have additional tags associated with them.

Now, if I click back into my entire collection and search on both terms "Maddox;Halloween" the result yields 37 pictures that are tagged both Maddox and Halloween, allowing me to quickly see all of the different Halloween costumes that Maddox has worn over the years.

When searching on multiple tags, there are a couple of different choices available to you in the advanced search options menu:

The "result matches all" is similar to an "and" function meaning that the search will only yield pictures that matches all of the terms typed in. For example, if you were to search for Maddox;Halloween you would only get back images that were tagged both Maddox and Halloween.

The "result matches any" is similar to an "or" function. For example, if you were to search for Maddox; Halloween you would see pictures that were just tagged Maddox, just tagged Halloween, and pictures that were tagged as both.

Most people organize their pictures in albums by time. Even if the name of the album is not a specific date, there is generally a date associated with the group of pictures. Tagging allows you to eliminate the element of time and view your pictures by theme. When organizing pictures by theme, stories will often emerge that were not apparent before. EasyShare software v7.0 gives you the tools to find your pictures quickly and tell better stories with those pictures. Download it now, for free! www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw

Part 2 of 3: Tagging

Welcome to part two of the series on the new features available in EasyShare software v7.0 for Windows! Yesterday, I told you about our new star rating feature. Today, I am going to talk about another new organizing tool, tagging!

A tag is a label used to describe your pictures. Tags are customized to your picture collection. You can create any tag you want, but most people use the names of family members, events, and holidays. Tags should be single words like "birthday," not phrases like "Matt's birthday party." Tags should be generic enough that they can be applied to pictures throughout multiple albums over many years.

Within the software, we have built many different ways to tag your pictures. I will show you some of the basic in the My Collection tab. First, you will need to create a new tag. You can do this by right-clicking on the word "tag" in the left hand menu. This will create a tag on the outer most level. I usually have a two-tiered tagging system. So my first tag is a broad category, like family. Then, I add tags for the names of my family members. To add a nested tag, simply right click on the category tag that you want the new tag to be under. For example, to add a new family member name, simply right-click on the word family.

Once you have created a new tag, you can simply drag and drop your pictures onto the tag!

You may have also noticed that we added a new button along the top of the My Collection tab, called "Tag Pictures." Clicking the icon brings up the Picture Properties menu. Here you can type in a new tag or simply check the boxes to tag a picture with an existing label.

The third way to tag a picture is in full-screen view. Simply type the name of the tag in box at the bottom of the screen, or right-click the image to pop-up the Picture Properties menu.

Well that's a quick lesson on tagging. Hopefully, you understand what a tag is and how to create one in EasyShare software v7.0! To download the software for free, visit www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw.

Come back again for the final part of this series. I promise it will be the most exciting entry yet because the final new feature is the coolest one of them all!