FAVORITES

Here are some of my favorite photography & software resources and products that I have found to be invaluable in my work and might be of use for your own needs.

Software

XnView
This free software allows you to view and convert image files of almost any format. It has many features including batch file renaming, resizing, greyscale conversion, and much more. It also has basic quick and dirty photo editing tools such as cropping, brightness, contrast, and color balance adjusting. It doesn't take too long to get comfortable working with this software. As a photographer, I use it all the time for batch renaming and image resizing. Support of more than 400 graphics formats! It's amazing that it all for free use. Of course you can support the project, by registering your version for a nominal fee.

Picture Shark Watermarking Software
This free watermarking software is great for putting your stamp on you images to help protect them from getting stolen on the internet and to give yourself credit for the images you do post. This simple, easy to install, and use tool is free to download and use, though you can help support the guys who wrote it by registering your version for a small fee. I love it and use it all the time.

PC Inspector File Recovery
Ever reformat your digital media card for your camera by mistake and wish you could get it back? Not to fear, you can often recover images on your camera's card even after it has been reformatted, but you will need a tool like PC Inspector File Recovery. It can inspect your card or hard drive and often find files that have been erased but not deleted. This can be an invaluable tool that can save you heartache (and money). It's free to download and use!

Enkoder Tool from Hivelogic
This great little tool from Hivelogic is great for reducing spammers from lifting your "mailto" e-mail address from your web site. The Enkoder helps protect email addresses by converting them into encrypted JavaScript code, hiding them from email-harvesting robots while revealing them to real people. This online form will also encrypt any html code that you put in the form and return it too you automatically to cut and paste within your web page. Free!

SQL-Front
This is a great front-end MySQL database browser software. This lets you easily create databases, browse table, edit data, and run queries in real time. It can be a great help for building new databases and debugging data issues. There is nominal liscense fee to use, but worth it.

Registry First Aid
Tired of Windows crashing? Sick of having software lock up on you or taking forever to load? The problem could be incorrect registry entries caused by software installations and un-installations that didn't run completely.

Not all software un-installations do a complete job leaving behind numerous old file references in the Windows registry pointing to files that no longer exist. In time, you can end up with hundreds of these files that may slow down your computer and cause software to lock up, requiring a hard reboot of your computer.

There is a nominal cost for this product.

AVG Anti-Virus & Firewall
This is a powerfull anti-virus and firewall combination that is very affordable. You can purchase a 2 year license for the price of one year for most of the mainstream anti-virus programs. What I like about this particular anti-virus software is that it is not a big hog on your computer resources which can slow your computer down. I also recommend their firewall which is easy to configure and offers more protection the Windows built-in firewall. AVG offers a wide range of security products for your computer including anit-spyware as well.