As much as I enjoy all of the features of Photoshop, it is a little slow on my laptop, and lacks some of the features I have in Lightroom such as flash gallery creation, although from what I have seen of CS3, this feature has been implemented. One way to get around this little annoyance is by using software by FastStone. This software is very light and just as powerful when it comes down to the basics of editing and creation. It is also much easier for some of us who struggle to find what we are looking for in the Photoshop menu as we attempt something new. FastStone offers 2 programs that can be used to edit photos. One can edit images in bulk and the other has extra features. Why would you want to edit in bulk? Simply because it is way easier to automate watermarks or resizing in bulk rather than one at a time.
FastStone File Size Resizer: This is a great tool for bulk editing and for compressing pictures. Includes editing features such as cropping, changing the color, blur, sharpen, tags, format changes, color depth, markups, watermarks, and rotation.
FastStone Image Viewer: This multi purpose program is lite yet feature loaded, my favorite features include the creation of single file, executable slideshows with the ability to browse the files contained inside. What is great about this is that between this and autorun pro, you can easily create a photo disk to give to someone and make the slideshow start automatically. I personally use this method for those who I am giving a photo disk and know they will need help viewing a slideshow of the pictures. The other cool thing about this is that you can choose what EXIF data you want to be displayed and also add some music for your presentation. Finally this also create thumbnail pages of your pictures in a single TIFF or PDF and edit your pictures with features of File Size Resizer as well as creation of new images such as b y the integrated screenshot feature, but cannot batch edit/resize.
FastStone File Size Resizer: This is a great tool for bulk editing and for compressing pictures. Includes editing features such as cropping, changing the color, blur, sharpen, tags, format changes, color depth, markups, watermarks, and rotation.
FastStone Image Viewer: This multi purpose program is lite yet feature loaded, my favorite features include the creation of single file, executable slideshows with the ability to browse the files contained inside. What is great about this is that between this and autorun pro, you can easily create a photo disk to give to someone and make the slideshow start automatically. I personally use this method for those who I am giving a photo disk and know they will need help viewing a slideshow of the pictures. The other cool thing about this is that you can choose what EXIF data you want to be displayed and also add some music for your presentation. Finally this also create thumbnail pages of your pictures in a single TIFF or PDF and edit your pictures with features of File Size Resizer as well as creation of new images such as b y the integrated screenshot feature, but cannot batch edit/resize.
