REDMOND, Washington, May 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- Pro Photo Tools and Expression Media 2 address digital photo
organisation issues through geotagging.

Microsoft Corp today introduced two new products to help photographers
manage their digital photos in a new way using location data, a process known
as geotagging. Geotagging is an exciting new way to organise your digital
photos that was previously available only to those with technical expertise.

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Microsoft Pro Photo Tools make geotagging available for all photographers
and can be downloaded for free at the Microsoft Pro Photo web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto. Today, Microsoft also released Expression
Media 2, a new version of its digital asset management software, which is
part of the Expression family of products for creative professionals.
Expression Media 2 is designed to help reduce the amount of time required by
photographers to manage and organise large collections of photos and other
digital media, and it includes geotagging functionality.

"These two products really simplify the process of geotagging and
organising digital photos by location, even without a GPS device," said Josh
Weisberg, director of the Rich Media Group at Microsoft. "We'll continue to
look for ways to simplify features like geotagging that help keep
photographers organised."

As digital photography has gained popularity, so has the demand for
geotagging tools. Photographers, both professionals and enthusiasts, want the
ability to quickly identify the location of their images. With the Pro Photo
Tools, photographers have a lot of flexibility in how they tag their photos,
including RAW formats. They can gather location information from a variety of
sources and apply it to the metadata in their images, drag and drop images on
a map, determine location names based on GPS coordinates, and assign GPS data
to images that are missing it.

"Geotagging is a hot new area in digital photography, and like other
popular digital photo features, I expect photographers will be asking
themselves how they ever lived without it," said Ron Glaz, analyst at IDC.
"Until now geotagging has been hard to do, requiring special expertise and
tools. The time has come for an application that even the weekend
photographer can use. Microsoft's initiative of leading the way and making
geotagging accessible to pros and enthusiasts alike is a step in the right
direction."

The Pro Photo Tools and Expression Media 2 are designed to work together
to help photographers better manage their digital image collections with new
comprehensive digital asset management functionality including geotagging.
Expression Media 2 has an open architecture, supports multiple file formats
including RAW, and can be used either on Windows or Macintosh operating
systems, giving photographers more control over images and greater
flexibility. It also allows quick export of photos into multiple formats to
produce slide shows, video, and interactive Microsoft Silverlight-powered web
galleries. Expression Media 2 will be available for purchase in mid-May, and
a trial version is available at the following link
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/overview.aspx?key=media.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise
their full potential.

About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft
employs more than 16,000 people in over 64 subsidiaries, delivering products
and services in more than 139 countries and territories.

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