Fun ActivitiesPhotography

Excerpted from Digital Photography For Dummies, 5th Edition*

You have a camera full of pictures. Now what? You transfer them to your computer, that's what. Some digital photography aficionados refer to the process of moving pictures from the camera to the computer as downloading, by the way.

Digital camera manufacturers have developed several ways for users to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer. You may or may not be able to use all these options, depending on your camera.

The following list outlines the various transfer methods, beginning with the fastest and easiest choice.

• Memory card transfer: If your camera stores images on a floppy disk, just pop the disk out of your camera and insert it into your computer's floppy disk drive. Then copy the images to your hard drive as you do regular data files on a floppy disk.
• If your camera uses CompactFlash, SmartMedia, or Memory Stick, or some other type of removable storage media, you can also enjoy the convenience of transferring images directly from that media, provided you have a matching card reader or adapter.
• Cable transfer: If you don't have the luxury of using either of the preceding transfer options, you're stuck with the "old-fashioned" method, which is to connect your computer and camera using the cable that came in your camera box.
• In some cases, the connection is via a serial cable, which transfers data at a speed roughly equivalent to a turtle pulling a 2-ton pickup. Okay, so maybe the speed isn't quite that slow-it just seems that way. Fortunately, most newer cameras connect to the computer via a USB port, which makes the transfer process faster.

The steps in the next section explain the transfer process, whether you use serial or USB cabling.

• Infrared transfer: A few cameras have an IrDA port that enables you to transfer files via infrared light beams, similar to the way your TV remote control transfers your channel-surfing commands to your TV set. In order to use this feature, your computer must have an IrDA port.

In case you're curious, IrDA stands for Infrared Data Association, an organization of electronics manufacturers that sets technical standards for devices that use infrared transfer. These standards ensure that the IrDA port on one vendor's equipment can talk to the IrDA port on another vendor's equipment.

• If you do manage to get your camera and computer to communicate via IrDA (this can be a challenge), you simply place your camera close to your computer and start the camera's transfer program. Your image-transfer speed depends on the capabilities of your computer's IrDA port.
• Different IrDA devices work differently, so consult your camera and computer manuals to find out how to take advantage of this option.

Regardless of which transfer method you use, don't forget to install the image-transfer software that came with your camera. If you're using direct memory card-to-computer transfer and your camera saves images in a standard file format (such as TIFF or JPEG), you may not need the software; you can open your images directly from the card (or other removable media) in your photo-editing program. But some cameras store images in a proprietary format that can be read only by the camera's transfer software. Before you can open the pictures in a photo-editing program, you have to convert them to a standard format using the camera transfer software.

Cable transfer how-to's

Transferring images via a camera-to-computer connection works pretty much the same way from model to model. Because transfer software differs substantially from camera to camera, you need to check your camera's manual for that information. But in general, the process works as outlined in the following steps:

1. If you're connecting via serial cable, turn off your computer and camera.

This step is essential; most cameras don't support hot swapping-connecting while the devices are turned on. If you connect the camera to the computer while either machine is powered up, you risk damaging the camera.

2. If you're connecting via USB, check your camera manual.

You probably do not have to shut down your computer before hooking up the camera. But, please, check your camera and computer manuals to be certain. You may or may not need to turn the camera off.

3. Connect the camera to your computer.

Plug one end of the connection cable into your camera and the other into your computer. If you're going the serial-cable route and you use a Macintosh computer, you typically plug the camera cable into the printer or modem port. On a PC, the serial cable usually connects to a COM port (often used for connecting external modems to the computer).

The setup is the same for cameras that come with a USB cable. Plug one end of the cable into the camera and the other into your computer's USB port.

Note that if you use Windows 95, your computer may refuse to recognize the presence of the camera, even if you install the Windows 95 update that is supposed to enable USB.

4. Turn the computer and camera back on, if you turned them off before connecting.
5. Set the camera to the appropriate mode for image transfer.

On some cameras, you put the camera in playback mode; other cameras have a PC setting. Check your manual to find out the right setting for your model.

6. Start the image-transfer software.
7. Download away.

From here on out, the commands and steps needed to get those pictures from your camera onto your computer vary, depending on the camera and transfer software.

Take the bullet TWAIN

Chances are good that your camera comes with a CD that enables you to install something called a TWAIN driver on your computer. TWAIN is a special protocol (language) that enables your photo-editing or catalog program to communicate directly with a digital camera or scanner. Rumor has it that TWAIN stands for Technology Without An Interesting Name. Those wacky computer people!

After you install the TWAIN driver, you can access picture files that are still on the camera through your photo-editing or cataloging program. Of course, your camera still needs to be cabled to the computer. And your photo-editing or cataloging program must be TWAIN compliant, meaning that it understands the TWAIN language.

The command you use to open camera images varies from program to program. Typically, the command is found in the File menu and is named something like Acquire or Import.

Camera as hard drive

With some digital cameras, the manufacturer provides special software that, when installed on your computer, makes your computer think that the camera is just another hard drive. You can double-click a camera icon to display a list of files in the camera, just as you would to review files on your other drives. Then you can drag and drop files from the camera to a location on your hard drive, an option that's typically quicker than downloading the individual images through the camera's transfer software.

How this feature works – if at all – depends on what version of Windows or the Macintosh operating system you use as well as on your camera. Check you camera's manual for details.

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