Joe and Mary Ann McDonald's

Wildlife Photography

Most wildlife photographers know the name, Moose Peterson, and those who do probably know that Moose has switched completely to digital photography.One of the issues I've had with digital is the problem of image management -- how do you keep track of the images you've made, how do you find them, how do you sort them? That aspect of digital is one of the two Biggies of digital -- the other being the acceptance of digital images by photo buyers -- but Digital Pro 2 Image Management Software may be the solution you've been looking for.

It is an extremely extensive program that covers all the bases. Literally. One of the neatest aspects is the photo LIGHT TABLE that gives you a view of a number of slides at one time. With the zoom function -- accessed simply by clicking and holding on the mouse -- you get a tight enlargement of an area, which can be scrolled across the image to assess different areas of sharpness. For digital shooters frustrated by not being able to see if an image is really sharp or not without going through opening it up in Photoshop, this is a real time saver!

If you have Photoshop 7 you're familiar with the Browser window where you can preview images, and drag and drop images into other folders. DP2 works similarly to this, as one of its functions, but more importantly, the window for DP2 looks a lot like Photoshop's Browser, so it is easy to navigate through. But DP2 does much more than manage files. If you're preparing a digital submission, you can select the images desired, go to "Publish" and when that menu pops up, you can select file type of the submission -- TIFF, jpg, psd -- and the format, whether that's a PowerPoint presentation, a digital slide show, a web gallery, and more. In the Publish menu there are pre-defined settings for sharpening an image, and these can be changed if you wish. In the PRINT menu, you can select one or a number of images to create file tear sheets, or submission tear sheets, where 1, 20, or 63 images can be displayed on the page.

Images can be rotated easily, files can be opened, submissions can be made or documented -- it is a slick program with an extensive (23 page) step by step tutorial. David Cardinal, Moose's partner in DP2, seems to be available virtually 24-7 -- when I was having problems downloading the program I would email David and get answers almost immediately -- I wondered if he ever slept! By the way, I had problems downloading because my Windows Internet Explorer was an old version -- I bought the computer pre 2000, and to download I needed IE 5 or higher. I'm so web savvy I didn't know what IE stood for immediately (Internet Explorer, duh!), but when I got that installed (it can be downloaded from Microsoft, but your computer probably already has it) I was able to download DP2 and had it up and running immediately.

Unfortunately, I got the program just days before I was to start getting myself together for a month long trip out west, so I wasn't able to go thru all the bells and whistles, or start with a fresh importation of digital files, which I will be doing when I return from our predator shoot in Utah. But it is a great program.

Rather than go into an extensive description of the program, you can download a 30 day trial for yourself to explore its possibilities. When I return home, I'll be really working with DP2 and I'll present a follow up description. In the meantime, download it at Digital Pro 2 Image Management Software, and really try it out to see for yourself.