# Sticky  Looking for FREE imaging software? Look here!



## DonaldG

Hi and welcome. :wave:

Thanks for passing by. The photographer's Corner is for *amateur still photography* of all levels ranging from the absolute beginner to more advanced enthusiast.

If you need answers on graphic design, digital imaging or media problems, please visit the TSF Forum that addresses those specific subjects in depth.

You can find them here:
Graphic Design, Digital Imaging and Multimedia Forum


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## DonaldG

*Image recovery software*

Have you deleted images or formatted a drive or camera storage card?

All may not be lost. Literally!

The following is a list of software that will recover those precious pictures. I hope that this list will grow as folk add their faverite image recovery programmes:

1) Zero Assumption Digital Image recovery (ZAR)

The full programme (ZAR 8.4) is not free however the the image recovery portion if the programme is free:


> Original Digital Image Recovery was freeware, but ZAR 8.4 seems not?
> The digital picture recovery functions are implemented in the trial version of ZAR 8.4 in full. Hence you just need to download the evaluation version of ZAR 8.4 and it does the job at no charge.* So, picture recovery functions are actually freeware. There are no plans to charge for it.*
> ----------
> Current version (ZAR 8.4) supports digital photo recovery for the following file formats:
> 
> GIF
> JPEG
> TIFF
> CRW - Canon RAW data
> MOV, AVI movie
> WAV - Waveform audio
> CR2 - Canon CR2 RAW format (see notes below).
> ORF - Olympus RAW format


ZAR even recovered half an image on photo that was overwritten by another file.

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This is a posing from Arfamo 21 July 09, which contains much useful info:


> Hope this might also be of help to some people in understanding how to best recover deleted photos when disaster strikes!!
> 
> You can often successfully recover deleted photos from a PC, camera memory card or USB Memory stick, it just depends on what’s happened since the photos were deleted.
> When you delete photos the data itself isn’t deleted, just the index entry that says where the data for those files is located. The space containing the deleted photos is also now marked as free space so it is available to the system for any new files to be written there instead.
> 
> If and when that happens, then it becomes too late to recover your deleted photos so it is very, very important to not save any new files or data to the device concerned.
> If the deleted photos are on your PC, use another PC to browse the internet for a solution as internet browsing causes lots of temporary files to get written to the disk. Download any photo recovery software, for example, to a memory stick, plug that in the computer with the deleted photos and run it from there.
> 
> If the deleted photos are on a memory card or USB memory stick, just don’t save any new files to it.
> 
> One of the easiest ways to see if you can recover deleted photos is to try some photo recovery software. There are many such products available, both commercial and free – also of varying quality!
> 
> A good tip is to try the free demo version of a good commercial product that will scan the device for deleted photos and show you exactly what photos can be recovered. At least that will show you if you can recover the deleted photos at all or if it’s too late already. You can find more useful information on photo recovery at http://www.recoverdeletedpictures.com


Thanks for that Arfamo :wave:


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## DonaldG

I am indebted to Koala for this info and link;

It links to an OPEN SOURCE Free alternatives to Photoshop. There are Fifteen alternatives listed and linked.

15 Great And Free Photoshop Alternatives

Artweaver
Fotographix Beta 3
Gimp
Inkscape
Krita
ChocoFlop
Picnik
Adobe Photoshop Express *
Paint.NET
CinePaint0.23
PhotoPlus

* Adobe actually has a free web based photo editor of their own. Adobe Photoshop Express has all the basic functionality you’d expect as well as a few advanced features (sadly though, no layers), and interfaces well with a number of photo sharing websites. Again, completely cross platform.

(Thanks to AlbertMC2 for the updated link above)


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## Done_Fishin

*NEWLY FORMATTED 4GB Compact Flash Card *OUT OF MEMORY**

This is a tip for anyone like me that decided to add a spare 4GB Compact Flash card to their Kit only to find after 
(apparently successful) formatting within the camera that it is "OUT OF MEMORY" when you go to use it to take pictures.

Looking at my 2GB Card using a CF-USB adapter I noted that the card format is FAT ie 16 bits. 
That basically means that one can only use up to 2GB of memory (2048 MB) just like in the good old days of DOS.
Partitioning is required to make it useful.

Whilst looking at the CF card from within windows you will need to copy the contents of the formatted CF Card into a folder.
You could use a new folder on your Desktop for example .

It MUST be copied back to the card after creating the 2GB partition. 
Without this information you'll need to reformat using your camera & you'll have to start all over again!
If you don't have the ability to do this from within Windows it is possible to do it another way as explained later. 

Unfortunately it's not so easy to create a partition on removable media using Microsoft as your workstation. 
If you can boot into a DOS Floppy that has USB support then you could use fdisk to create a DOS partition, 
but so far I haven't seen any bootable DOS floppy disks with that option. That doesn't mean that they don't exist, just that I haven't found any.

I used *Parted Magic LIVE CD* and having placed my 4GB card in an adapter and plugged it into a USB port, I then Booted from the live CD,










****NOTE that if you have problems, after booting, with seeing your Display, reboot & select #6 on the menu 
Safe Graphics Settings (VGA = Normal) ****

"mounted" the 4GB CF card, created a folder on my desktop and copied the contents from the CF card to the Folder.

This can easily be done by opening two windows, one with the CF card and one with the New Folder, just click on each to open a window. 
Left click (just like Windows) and you should see the commands Copy (& Paste after you have used Copy to place something in Memory) 
(this is not shown in the photo's unfortunately)

DO THIS BEFORE YOU PROCEED ANY FURTHER SINCE WE ARE ABOUT TO REMOVE ALL CONTENTS FROM THE CF CARD!! 

Also remember that since we are using the LIVE CD whatever we place on our desktop will disappear if we lose power or shutdown!










Select Partition Editor from the Desktop and when open select the USB device from the drop-down menu listing the storage media. 










Click on the drive (under where its says Partition), click on DELETE and afterwards APPLY, both found on the menu bar.























































Click now on the "Unallocated" area, select NEW, leave the setting as Primary Partition, adjust the size to 2048 MB and File System to FAT16.

Click on apply and then confirm to proceed.
































































A second FAT16 partition can also be created by clicking again on "unallocated", selecting NEW then "Create as" EXTENDED,

Apply and confirm the action if & when asked.





































Now select the unallocated space in the extended partition, Click NEW, leave the size untouched and select FAT16 again. 

Click apply and confirm when asked.
































































You will now have two partitions on your CF card that have been formatted as FAT16. 

Close the Partition Editor Window and then from the side bar on the window where you were working with the CF Card contents, 
you should see the 2 NEW partitions listed. Click on the 2GB partition and select "mount". 










Open the other window where you had pasted the original contents, copy and paste them back into the 2GB partition.
Click on the side bar to "unmount" the partition and you will be able to remove the card and check it out on your camera.

It should see the partition and be working normally now, without an error message!

You will not be able to use that 2nd partition with your camera since the camera will only see the Primary Partition.
However it could be a useful Hidden area for transferring files around using your CF card reader.










Once finished just logout, remove the CD from the drive and reboot into your normal operating system.


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## DonaldG

*Re: Image recovery software*

I have just discovered this Photo Recovery programme. 
I have not had time to test it, however it is yet another potential Photo Recovery tool.

Photorec Digital Picture Recovery

It is 'Open Source' and is free


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## zuluclayman

*overview of freeware photo editors*

This overview covers a wide range of freeware photo related software - some are Mac only, some are Windows only, some are Ubuntu as well as Mac or Windows.

Free Photography Software: A Guide | Popular Photography


*Note: *- Thread merged with 'Sticky' - WereBo


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