Step 2: Organizing and sharing photos
Windows Vista has an inbuilt photo gallery that displays image thumbnails in its default view, making files easier to identify; however, Windows 2000 and XP users can achieve the same effect, and arguably a better one, with the programs listed below.

Picasa, Google's free photo software, is a full-service image manager (for Windows and Linux only, but there is a Mac uploader for Picasa Web Albums) that makes finding and sharing photos painless. Picasa optimizes photos for export via email, uploading to a Picasa Web album, posting to Blogger, and rolling a geotagged image into Google Earth.

Webshots Desktop similarly organizes with an intent to upload, but situates itself as a desktop manager that allows shutterbugs to drag-and-drop photos to their online Webshots account.

Flickr is Yahoo!'s photo sharing service. With the standard free account, users can upload 100MB of photos per month via the Web interface, email or mobile phone. You can organize photos into sets, tag images and let friends and family see your shots by sharing the URL on your Flickr account. Pro users (for US$24.95 per year) have unlimited uploads and additional photo editing tools.

Tags: Image-editing, Camera, Microsoft Windows, digital photography, freeware