What software do you use?

What software do you use to view your pictures?

Windows viewer sucks. I never use it. It's slow, controls are retard... and the list goes on.

So, what do I use to view my pictures?
Irfanview. It's fast, light and sleek. There's even built in editing functions if you want to do bulk image processing! With the plugins installed, you can even read Exif information right in the program!

This is the default image viewing program for all my home computers. I always use this software for batch processing. Example: I just got back from an outing and have tons of pictures taken. I want to load these pictures onto my digital photo frame. However, the default jpegs from my camera are a few megabytes in size each. It doesn't make sense to load such big files onto the frame. Thus, I'll re-size the pictures to reduce the file sizes. So here's the problem: do I go thru all the pictures one by one and re-size them? That'd take a hell lot of time!

Irfanview to the rescue! Fire up Irfanview, go into the batch processing function, select your pictures, adjust the settings you want, and click batch process! It's that simple! There are lots of things you can do with this software. You can re-size, re-name, add watermarks etc! Try it out! You'll love it!

Sample batch processing screen

Note: The EULA states that it is free only for home use. Commercial / work entities have to purchase a license to use it.


Next software that's gotten a lot of recommendations: Opanda IExif viewer
Use this software to view the Exif information from any photos and you'll be wow'ed by it!
It's very detailed. Includes way more details than what Irfanview provides.

Sample Exif Information

If you are constantly looking at other photographer's pictures and will like to know what equipment and settings they are using, grab this software. It's freeware! Unlike Irfanview, it does not state any limitations for commercial use.

If you have a software that you find really useful, drop a comment with the software name / link. I'll be happy to try it out!