It's likely that you've accumulated quite a backlog of digital photos stored on all manner of cameras, cards, discs and hard drives.

That's frustrating to some.

But you don't have to look far online to find a whole universe of ways to manipulate those images into some eye-popping presentations.

First, lets's try something new from Microsoft Live Labs called Photosynth. It is designed to take a bunch of your images and turn them into a three-dimensional online presentation.

The Photosynth Web site features a "synthed" look at the Taj Mahal in India. The software attempts to stitch together a series of photos (179 in this case), giving you the ability to "move" around the object.

You can download the free software that generates this magic (Windows only, sorry Mac fans) and use it to process your own photos. It's designed to work with pictures taken in a single location. Photosynth examines each frame and tries to match it up with the other snapshots.

Theoretically, at least, the more photos you have (taken according to instructions on the Photosynth site), the better the end result.

There's no Taj Mahal in my home town, so I went to Beard Park in Little Elm to create a Photosynth of the historic old post office.

I snapped 79 photos in all as I circled the tiny wooden structure at sunset, getting every possible angle with some extra shots of the front of the building.

The Photosynth software took an hour and 45 minutes on my Windows XP notebook computer to process and upload all the shots. I tried the same job on my Windows Vista desktop computer, but the software crashed with an error message.

Unfortunately, the end product (which you can view using the link at the end of this story) was not as fluid as I had hoped, even though I tried to follow the detailed instructions.

There appeared to be little flow from one image to the next. I anticipated being able to recreate a "walk" around the perimiter of the post office property, but while the individual images could be accessed, the software didn't appear to be able to place them in context.

There are no manual options for the Photosynth software, so it's not possible to "help" it sort out the puzzles posed by a range of images.

Looking at some of the other "synthed" photo montages online, it's clear that Photosynth works better with some subjects than others at this point in its development. But because it's free, why not give it a try? Photosynth suggests starting small — perhaps with a flower arrangement on a table.

• LINK: Photosynth
• LINK View Walt's Photosynth of the Little Elm post office

Like Photosynth, Animoto uses your own photos, but Animoto slices, dices and animates them to a musical score — automatically. You can upload your own song selection or fall back on Animoto's royalty-free assortment of tunes in a variety of genres.

To try it out, I grabbed some images from Friday night's Cowboys pre-season game that we had posted as a slideshow on the WFAA.com Web site.

After uploading about 20 pictures to Animoto, I chose some music ("March of the Toreadors") and then let Animoto go to work. Within five minutes, our slideshow had been turned into an action-packed 30-second montage of photos that zoomed, moved, spun around and generally dazzled.

Not satisfied? Click the "remix" button to get a second opinion from the Animoto computer! While you have no creative control over the final product using this option, you can "spotlight" as many images as you wish; Animoto will emphasize those photos.

There's also an "editing remix" function that gives you the power to add, delete and even rearrange images.

Animoto is only free, however, in 30-second chunks. If you want to create a lengthier production (or one that you can download to your own computer), it'll cost you $3 per video or $5 for a DVD-quality download. Animoto also has a $30 annual "all-access pass."

Animoto recognizes the value of its technique for helping young people create school projects. Teachers can sign up for an account that can be used by students. Another account category covers commercial users (wedding photographers, real estate agents, etc.).

Bottom line: Using Animoto is a lot more fun than Photosynth, because your picture selection doesn't have to be as targeted and you get the results a lot faster. But I expect that the team behind Photosynth will be fine-tuning its product to improve its capabilities.

Both are worthy of your attention.

• LINK: Animoto
• LINK: Watch Walt's Animoto test | Watch the remix

Watch Computer Corner every week on News 8 Midday at noon Wednesdays or online any time.

E-mail askwalt@wfaa.com