How to import photos from your camera to your Windows 10 computer

Digital photography is more than taking pictures with a camera.Enhancing your snapshots with image editing software is another part of the art of digital photography.To do this, you'll need a desktop or laptop to access the images on the camera's memory card.

On Windows 10 Importing (transferring) photos from a digital camera on a computer does not require installing third-party software.Windows 10 An app and wizard are preloaded that allow you to import photos for viewing and editing.Here's how to import photos on your Windows 10 computer.

First, connect the camera memory card to Windows 10 PC

To be in Windows 10 PC To access your camera's memory (SD) card on your computer, you need a way to connect it to your computer.There are several ways to connect an SD card to a PC to access the photos on it.

Here are four ways to connect your camera memory card to your computer:

1. Connect the memory card to the PC with an SD card reader.

2. Connect the camera to the PC with the memory card installed.

3. Insert the SD card into the memory card slot of the PC.

4. Connect the memory card to the PC with the camera dock.

Many digital cameras come with a USB cable that users can use to connect to a computer.Therefore, you most likely have a cable in the box with your camera to connect to your computer.Plug the USB cable into the camera's micro-USB connection port, then into the computer's USB slot.

It's not uncommon for a computer to have an SD card slot.There are small slots on desktop computer cases and laptops that accept SD memory cards.So look for a card slot on your PC and see if you can access your camera's photos that way.

The camera dock enables users to charge and transfer images from compact digital cameras.Some compact digital cameras are sold with a dock included.If your camera comes with such a dock, you can use it to attach a memory card.Place the camera with the memory card on the dock and connect to the USB port of the Windows PC.

An SD card reader is a USB device that accepts a memory card and connects it to a computer.If you can't otherwise connect your camera's storage device to your computer, consider purchasing an SD card reader.The device is inexpensive and readily available on Amazon.

How to manually import camera photos

Once you connect the SD memory card to your computer, you can manually copy photos from it to your computer through File Explorer.If you just need to transfer a photo or two to your computer, this basic photo import method will do just fine.Here's how to manually transfer photos from your camera to your Windows 10 computer:

1. To access the Windows File Explorer tool, click the Explorer taskbar button.

2. Click SD Memory Card in the Explorer sidebar.

3. Double-click the DCIM folder to view the memory card's image files.

4. To view thumbnails of images, click the View tab and select Large Icons.This allows for intuitive identification of photos.

5. Click on the photo to move it to your computer.

6. Then hold down the left mouse button, drag the picture file to the folder, and copy it to the left sidebar of the resource manager.

7. Release the mouse button when you see the Copy to tooltip appear.

Importing photos this way will copy the files into the selected folder.If you prefer to move files around on your Windows PC, hold down the Shift key while dragging files.That way you'll see the "Move to" tooltip.

In Windows, hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple files.Or hold down the left mouse button and drag a box over all the pictures that need to be selected.You can then drag a selected group of photos into different folders, just like dragging individual files.

How to Import Camera Pictures Using the Photos App

Photos is a pre-installed image viewer that lets you import photos from your camera's memory card. This app is best used if you need to import many pictures at once. You can use Photos to import pictures to a Windows PC like this:

1. Select "Photos" from the "Start" menu to open it.

2. Click the "Import" button near the upper right corner of the Windows 10 Photos app.

3. Select From a connected device to view the Import Items window.

4. Click the checkboxes on the photos you want to import to select them.

5. Then press Import Options.

6. Select OK when the import is complete.

Photos imports images to the user's Pictures folder by default. However, you can also click Change Destination in the Import Items window to choose a different folder. Then select the directory and click Add this folder to Pictures.

How to Import Photos from Your Camera Using the Import Pictures and Videos Wizard

Windows has an Import Pictures and Videos wizard for importing photos.However, you'll need to connect your camera to your Windows 10 computer with a USB cable to use the wizard.Here are the steps to transfer photos using the Import Pictures and Videos wizard:

1. Go to "File Explorer" and click "This PC" to view connected devices.

2. Right-click the icon of the connected digital camera and select Import Pictures and Videos.

3. Wait while the wizard finds all the pictures on the camera's memory card.

4. Click More Options, and the window shown in the figure below will pop up.

5. Select the "Browse to import images" option, select the folder where you want to transfer the photos, and click "OK."

6. Then select OK to exit the Import Settings window.

7. Click the "Review, organize, and group items for import" option, and then click "Next."

8. Select the checkbox of the group containing the photos you want to import.Click View All Items to see what's included in the group and modify the selected picture.

9. Then click the import option of the wizard.

Or you can choose another option "import all new items now".Selecting this option will import any new photos on the camera memory card that have not been previously transferred to the computer.

How to edit photos from your camera without importing them

Note that you don't need to import photos from your camera's memory card to access them.These photos can be accessed when the camera memory card is connected using any method.This means you can choose to open and edit them from File Explorer if you want.

To edit images from the camera without importing, open the connected SD card folder in Explorer as described above for the manual import method.Double-click any photo in it to open it in your default image viewer software.Or right-click the image, choose Open With, and then choose Image Editor.

You can apply edits and choose to save the original image on the camera memory card when inserted into your PC's SD card slot.Or select Save As to save a second copy of the picture on the memory card.This way, you don't need to transfer edited images back to the camera memory card for printing at the photo booth.

If you see error messages when trying to modify files stored on the SD card, the card may be locked. The SD card has a lock switch and is read-only when locked.

Edit and display photos with Windows software

Once you've imported your photos using any of the methods above, you can use a variety of Windows 10 image editing software to enhance them.You can modify photos with the best photo editing software packages like Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.NET and PhotoScape.You can then print the photos into a non-digital photo album, or showcase them using a photo slideshow app or even on your Windows 10 desktop.