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The typical process for importing digital photos into an image-editing program is to use your camera's utility software to transfer one or more picture files from your camera to your computer. Next, you launch your favorite image-editing software and open the image file to make some adjustments before finally saving or printing the picture. However, several image-editing programs can do the transferring for you, which shortens the entire process.
If Windows or Mac OS recognizes your camera or card reader as a mass storage device (and most such devices that connect to the computer via USB and FireWire are), then the device and all the files on it appear to Windows just like any other disk drive. Consequently, to open a picture for editing in your image-editing program, you simply select the file in the program's File Open dialog box. Make sure the camera is connected and turned on (and recognized by your operating system) before you attempt to open files in the photo editor.
In some cases, the image-editing software uses the camera manufacturer's software to access images on your camera. You still save time by having the option to access that software with a menu command or button in the image-editing software instead of opening the camera software separately. The advantage of this technique is that it not only streamlines and automates the process of using the camera access software, but it also brings the images directly into the image-editing program. As a result, you get to view and edit each image before saving it.
Configuring your image-editing software
 | To transfer images from your camera directly to your image-editing software, you first need to tell the program what camera you use and where to find it. Make sure that the camera manufacturer's software has been installed and is operating properly on your computer, and then configure your image-editing software to access images from the camera. The setup process varies depending on the program, but the following steps are typical: |
1. Connect your camera to the computer and turn it on.
2. Choose File --> Import --> Digital Camera --> Configure (or an equivalent command) in your image-editing program.
The program usually opens a dialog box, but it may also present a submenu instead.
3. Select your camera and (if necessary) the port to which it's connected; then click OK to close the dialog box.
Accessing images from your camera
After you configure your image-editing software, you can use it to access images from your camera. Here's how:
1. Connect your computer to the camera and turn on the camera.
2. Choose File --> Import --> Digital Camera --> Access (or an equivalent command) in your image-editing program.
A dialog box appears, giving you access to the images stored on your camera. This is usually a subset of the camera manufacturer's access software.
3. Select the image or images you want to open in the image-editing program and then click the button or choose the command to begin the transfer.
The software transfers the selected pictures from your camera to the image-editing software.
4. If the image-editing software doesn't return to the foreground automatically, click its button in the taskbar.
The selected images appear in the image-editing program window, ready for you to begin working with them.
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