Whether your shoot Nikon, Canon, Sony or Kodak, use a Mac or PC - to store and edit your photos on your home computer - the same truths apply.

1. You must import the photos from your camera to your computer.

How might you do this? With little exception, there are basically 2 ways:

- USB cord

- Card Reader

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2. You must either store them in folders or in an organizing software.

What does this mean?

- Folders are generally just a place either on your hard drive where the files are stored. You can name them whatever you want, but you can't actually do anything with your pictures until you open them up in a software program

- Organizing software refers to programs designed to let you store AND view your photos and some even let you edit without ever leaving the program. Some of the more common ones are, iPhoto, Lightroom, Bridge, Picasa and Aperture

3. If you choose to edit, you will either edit in your organizing software, or make a trip to and from a specialized editing software.

- Above we touched on the fact that some organizing software also has editing capabilities. Some of the more advanced all in one programs such as Adobe's Lightroom and Apple's Aperture are great, but they are a bit pricey and also take up a lot of room on your computer. If you are are a Mac user iPhoto is a very powerful all in one editor.  Google's Picasa also falls in this category is available for PC and Mac and is free.

- When we refer to stand-alone editors, there is really only one that stands the test of time and has become the standard by which all others are judged - Adobe Photoshop.  It is a very pricey program, but extraordinarily powerful.  There is also a "lite" version called Photoshop Elements that is very useful and about 1/5th of the price.

4. If you want to email or post your photos online, you must somehow export them.

All we mean by "export" is to send them from either your editing program or computer to another place (i.e. email, web or print agent)

The two most common ways to do this is either with the "attach" feature in your email or the "upload" button on your web program

5. If you want to make sure your photos will not go away with a terrible virus or crash, you must archive them.

This step is SOOOOOOOO important and the most often overlooked. Especially by those of us who don't do this for a living! All we are saying here is copy, copy, copy!!!! Whether you choose to make archived dvd discs or get an external hard drive, your pictures need to be kept in more then one location!