Some cool free software and David Ziser…

First let me give credit where credit is due, I learned of these from David Ziser, he uses these two pieces of software as part of his workflow and if one of the most talented and successful photography studios uses them, why wouldn't I?

The first is IrfanView, a fast and compact image viewer/converter. IrfanView lets you open, view, and edit images, rotate, zoom and so much more. You can also cut, crop images, and apply batch conversions.

What I really like about IrfanView is the ability to copy/move images quickly and easily to different folders. How it works is simple, as you browse through a folder of newly downloaded images for the very first time with a singe keyboard command (F7 to Move or F8 to Copy), you can select from one of ten (customizable) folders to drop images into for later processing.

Another cool feature is the ability to convert an image to grayscale with a single click (not permanently, just to see what it would look like), this is helpful in the sorting process as well, as one of the folders I sort to is specifically for black and white conversion.

Want to batch convert an entire folder to black and white or sepia? IrfanView can do that too.

Lastly (not that this is the last thing it con do, just the last thing I am going to mention) should you be so moved, and again with a single click, you can open any image into the image editing software of your choosing, in the customizable settings you can setup up to three separate external programs to be used for opening an image.

This is an impressively powerful piece of software and there is really so much more you can do with this, what I have mentioned does not even scratch the surface and I would strongly suggest you give IrfanView a try.

The second is Batch Rename .EXE.

Batch Rename .EXE allows you to run your files through an extensive array of filters to label and organize files exactly how you want them. You can add information, remove information, change capitalization and more.

The selection wizard walks you through creating file lists for batch processing and allows you to build a list by using both file directories and drag and drop list creation. You can add single files, directories and sub-directories.

Batch Rename .EXE allows you to include short or long extensions, capitalize words, remove double spaces, make filenames completely upper or lowercase, replace underscores, remove numbers, remove extra periods and to dynamically fix common spacing errors.

You can rename the files into their original folder, or select a new destination folder for them. Though the second option should be your choice, as you always want to be to return to the original files for whatever reason!

Here is a great tutorial on how BatchRename. EXE works.

Back to David Ziser for just a minute, if you are a wedding and/or portrait photographer, this man can teach you something! The best $69 I ever spent was purchasing his "Digital Wakeup Call" a two DVD set I have watched three times (so far). Be sure to check out his blog as well.

Thank you David.

Until next time -take care, and be safe.