Microsoft Pro Photo Tools and Expression Media 2

09/05/08

Microsoft have introduced two new products to help photographers manage their digital photos in a new way using location data, a process known as geotagging. Geotagging is an exciting new way to organise your digital photos that was previously available only to those with technical expertise.

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools make geotagging available for all photographers and can be downloaded for free at the Microsoft Pro Photo website. Microsoft have also released Expression Media 2, a new version of its digital asset management software, which is part of the Expression family of products for creative professionals. Expression Media 2 is designed to help reduce the amount of time required by photographers to manage and organise large collections of photos and other digital media, and it also includes geotagging functionality.

“These two products really simplify the process of geotagging and organising digital photos by location, even without a GPS device,” said Josh Weisberg, director of the Rich Media Group at Microsoft. “We’ll continue to look for ways to simplify features like geotagging that help keep photographers organised.”

As digital photography has gained popularity, so has the demand for geotagging tools. Photographers, both professionals and enthusiasts, want the ability to quickly identify the location of their images. With the Pro Photo Tools, photographers have a lot of flexibility in how they tag their photos, including RAW formats. They can gather location information from a variety of sources and apply it to the metadata in their images, drag and drop images on a map, determine location names based on GPS coordinates, and assign GPS data to images that are missing it.

“Geotagging is a hot new area in digital photography, and like other popular digital photo features, I expect photographers will be asking themselves how they ever lived without it,” said Ron Glaz, analyst at IDC. “Until now geotagging has been hard to do, requiring special expertise and tools. The time has come for an application that even the weekend photographer can use. Microsoft’s initiative of leading the way and making geotagging accessible to pros and enthusiasts alike is a step in the right direction.”

The Pro Photo Tools and Expression Media 2 are designed to work together to help photographers better manage their digital image collections with new comprehensive digital asset management functionality including geotagging. Expression Media 2 has an open architecture, supports multiple file formats including RAW, and can be used either on Windows or Macintosh operating systems, giving photographers more control over images and greater flexibility. It also allows quick export of photos into multiple formats to produce slide shows, video, and interactive Microsoft Silverlight-powered Web galleries.

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools can be downloaded free of charge from the Microsft website. http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto

Photo Quote: The challenge for me has first been to see things as they are, whether a portrait, a city street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have tried to be objective. - Berenice Abbott American Photographer, 1898-1991