Amazing Photoshop Elements: Toolbox

The Amazing Photoshop Elements Toolbox There are so many wonderful things you can do with Photoshop Elements. You will find many of our tips in our notes from previous meetings. Photoshop Elements Part I Photoshop Elements Part II Photoshop Elements Part III This time we will spend most of our time discussing the Magical Photoshop Elements Toolbox. There are three kinds of tools in the Toolbox: Hover your mouse over any area...

Taking Better Pictures (Part II)

Taking Better Pictures   Part 2 You will find many great tips on taking better pictures all over our archives. Here are just a few of the notes from past meetings on related topics: Better Holiday Photos Giving Photos a Professional Look Outdoor Photography 101 Theory and Practice of Photography Taking Better People Pictures Taking Better Pictures (Part I) For our meeting this month we discussed common...

Taking Better Pictures (Part I)

Taking Better Photos Part 1    Composing Photos:   No reckless shooting of innocent civilians. Take aim, compose the shot and FIRE!   The Rule of Thirds:   A rule of composition that splits the photo into nine equal segments (3 rows X 3 columns). A good composition will never place the subject directly in the center of the photo, rather it will lie on an intersection of columns and ...

Taking Better People Pictures

Taking Better People Pictures: Taking pictures of people should involve more than just pointing the camera in a person's general direction and pressing the shutter button. Here are a few ideas and styles for taking great pictures of people. Remember the rule of thirds. As a general rule place your subject in 1/3 of the photograph. <<— Notice how Allen's face is not centered in the...

Giving Photos a Professional Look

Giving Photos a Professional Look Have you ever wondered what makes professional photos look so. . . umm. . . professional? The following tips will help you create photos that look like you know what you are doing! Taking Better Pictures: There are several links in the group archives giving tips on composition. Here are some other helpful tips. Use the color wheel. Whether you paint, quilt, or photograph – the...

Better Holiday Photos

Better Holiday Photos Here are some of the basics we discussed at the Meeting    Use the Zoom: Try to catch the splendor of the season with lots of close up pictures instead of a few wide angle shots of the entire room or setting. This will result in photos that will be treasured rather than tossed in the drawer of old pictures. Don't be afraid to zoom in close to the subjects face to catch their surprise or...

Photo Blogging

How to Create and Use a Photo Blog What is a Blog? A blog is an online journal. What you type in, email, or send via cell phone to your blog page automatically gets posted onto the web. Sounds scary. Why would I want to do that? Have you ever gone on a vacation and wanted to keep the folks at home posted on what you have been up...

Sharing Photos Via the Internet

Sharing Photos via the Internet When you have a lot of photos that you would like to share with a lot of people, there are several great sites out there that let you share several photos at once with a simple link. Sharing photos this way prevents you from having to send a large email to a lot of people. It also prevents people from having to download a large email to view your pictures. RESIZE YOUR...

How to Email Your Digital Photos

Emailing Your Digital Photos A few things to remember: Always save a copy of the ORIGINAL photo You can always go down on resolution, but you can never go up. 72 dpi for email and web – 300 dpi for printing Never email more than 150k of attachments Black & White takes up less space How to do it:   Outlook Express Create a new email message. Click ...

Retouching Photos

Touching up your photos Before you begin touching up your photo, you should decide what size you want to print it and what programs you are going to use to do the job. There are several tutorial sites out there that will help you learn how to do basic touch ups but the true techniques must be learned first hand using lots of practice. There are the basic tools you will use: l Clone tool: This is my favorite...

Photo Restoration

Digital Photo Restoration Restoring old photos is one of the coolest things you can do in digital photography. The best part is that anyone can do it. All it takes is a scanner and a nice image editing program. Important Photo Restoration Tools There are many several tools that you just can't do without when it comes to restoring photos. Cloning tool This is my favorite tool. Depending on the program it may go by ...

Organizing and Viewing Digital Photos

Organizing and Viewing Your Digital Photos The key to organizing your digital photos is sorting them from the beginning. I begin by saving a folder to my desktop called "Camera pix," but it can be named anything. Inside this folder, I put a folder for each month. Inside each of those folders I make new folders as I need. For example, In my Camera Pix folder for last year I had a folder called...

Organizing and Backing Up Photos

Getting organized: The best way to get your photos organized is to start with a system that works for you. My system is to create a single folder for all my digital photos on my hard drive. Inside that folder, called "Digital Pictures," I place a sub-folder for each month of the year. In each month's folder I may place more folders for each activity held during that month. For example: Digital Photos...

The Magic of Digital Filters

The Magic of Digital Filters In the world of film photography, filters are transparent coverings that are placed over a lens to enhance or alter the image. Digital filters serve the same purpose, but in a much more dynamic and dramatic way. DIGITAL FILTER: Almost all image editing programs contain filters although they may be called by a different name such as Effects or Adjustments.   Before...

Create Your Own Slideshows and Screensavers

Create Slideshows and Screensavers Here are some of the basics we discussed at the Meeting   FINDING THE RIGHT PROGRAM   Good Shareware Sites: Hotfiles Download Make sure to check if the software is trialware or freeware. HOW TO MAKE A SCREENSAVER USING YOUR OWN PICTURES IN WINDOWS XP Windows Me had a similiar screen saver option, but Windows XP made the feature even better. Since many...