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A browser is simply a piece of software that
you point at a folder of images and it shows you those images.
Think of a browser as a magnifying glass to look inside
the folder. Generally they show you the photos in thumbnail
form, and then let you see an individual image in a larger
size. Browsers help you sort and organize photos, and should
allow you to re-name and caption them as well. And a browser
should let you open an image directly from it into whatever
image editor you choose.
A browser can be as simple as the Filmstrip
view in Windows XP or much more complicated and involved.
More powerful browsers will take over the download process
(see the Downloading section) in addition to allowing you
to copy, delete, re-name, caption, email, or create web
galleries and slide shows. Pick a browser that works in
a way that makes sense to you and makes your life easier.
Our personal favorite is Photo Mechanic (www.camerabits.com),
but you may find that a simple browser such as the one that
comes with the camera, the Filmstrip view in XP or one like
iPhoto on the Mac, is all you need. Photoshop Elements and
Photoshop CS also come with a built-in file browser. The
advantage to a stand-alone browser, however, is that it
can be running in the background while you're doing something
else, or you can be using it while your editor is running
a batch action in the background.
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Browsers generally aren't designed to let you
change the images. Some offer basic image editing features,
though you'll probably want to take your photos into more
powerful editing software. What a browser shouldn't do,
however, is make any change to the original file without
your permission. Sadly, a number of them do, and do so when
you simply rotate a photo.
If you've chosen to shoot your photos
in JPEG format (which is the only real option available
in many digital cameras), then simply rotating can harm
your photo in many browsers. Since JPEG is a compressed
format, if you make a change to an image and want to save
that change, the image will be re-compressed. That re-compression
can squeeze valuable information out of an image. Some browsers
do lossless rotation (Nikon View is one), others choose
to do a "soft" rotation (such as Photo Mechanic), so you
see the rotation in the browser but the image itself hasn't
been changed. Neither of these harms the image. The big
question, then, is how can you tell what your browser's
doing? There's an easy way to find out, and here are the
steps:
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1 - Create a new folder, call it "Rotate Tests," and copy two JPEG photos to it. Copy those two images again, and add an "r" to their names.
2 - View those two photos in your browser, then rotate the two with "r"s in the name.
3 - Now open the folder on your computer and look at the file sizes. If the sizes haven't changed more than a few K, there's no damage being done. If you see large changes in image size (usually more than 100K, up or down), then the browser is rotating and re-compressing.
4 - If no damage is happening, relax and enjoy your browser. If it is, either don't rotate in the browser or find a better browser.
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