Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners » Digital Photography

Picasa brings face recognition to the desktop app

Rick — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:18:38 +0000

Google continues to make Picasa the photo orgainzer to beat. Not only is it fast, intuitive, and clean, the feature set continues to grow. Today, Google released an update to Picasa, Picasa 3.5. They brought in the face recognition feature that was available in the online photo album version of Picasa and enhanced it for [...]

Control Photo Size in Email Attachments with Picasa – Video Tip

Rick — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:55:21 +0000

For you Picasa users, this quick tip shows how to control the size of the photos that you attach and send via email using Picasa. The default settings might not be to your liking, so leanring how to contol the size of your photos can let you get the results you want. If you aren’t using [...]

Email of the Week – 005

Rick — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:34:27 +0000

QUESTION Name: Patrick From: GJ OS: Windows XP ———————- 5-12-09 Rick, your digital photography post of February 2009 has these links but they cannot be found: Here are a few good articles covering this topic right here at HelpMeRick.com: * Digital Camera Basics * Getting familiar with your digital camera * Top 10 Digital Camera Tricks * Get [...]

Digital Photography School – Digital Photography Tips for You

Rick — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:41:40 +0000

I stumbled on this fantastic web site the other day and wanted to share it with you. Tons of great tips for digital photographers of all abilities. Check it out! Digital Photography School – Digital Photography Tips for You. Related posts:Digital Photography Basics – February 2009Holiday Digital PhotographyGreat digital photography debate topics

CleVR – Free and easy panoramic photo stitching

Rick — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:08:30 +0000

Web 2.0 (using the Internet to do work instead of your computer) truly gets more powerful every day. CleVR is a free online application (actually uses the Adobe AIR platform) that lets you upload digital photos and then it automatically stitches them together into a panorama format. And it does it quickly! I did the [...]

New Canon Digital Rebel Review

Rick — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:05:09 +0000

For all you camera nuts out there, you might be interested in this review of the Canon EOS Rebel T1i. The Gizmodo crew posted lots of pictures of it, and pictures they took with it. Apparently it has many features of it’s $1500 brother and costs almost half as much. Here’s the link. Canon EOS Rebel [...]

Digital Photography Basics – February 2009

Rick — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:25:55 +0000

Adam Cochran ran our Digital Photography Special Interest Group (DPSIG) for almost six years and all that great information he shared during that time is archived here at HelpMeRick.com. Make sure to use that information.

In today's class we covered the basics about digital photography divided into three quick, hard hitting segments:

Don’t buy a new computer yet

Rick — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:14:00 +0000

2009 is upon us and computer prices are incredibly low, but if you can wait a year to buy a new computer, I would highly recommend it. Why? Microsoft plans on releasing the next version of Windows either late in 2009 or early in 2010. All indications point to the earlier release since Microsoft is anxious to bury Vista.

Thwarted by online poker

Rick — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:02:53 +0000

Today marked my second Linux/Ubuntu casualty in almost 2 dozen attempts. As I've learned more about Ubuntu the past couple of years, I carefully selected clients who would have little problems dealing with a non-Microsoft operating system. You may have read my take on Ubuntu usage for the average computer user before, but here it is again to setup the rest of the story: I believe that any computer users who uses only email, word processing, Internet, digital photography, and maybe a solitaire or mahjong like game can function perfectly and happily in Ubuntu. Those who need proprietary Windows programs or like to buy and try out different types of software will not do well with Ubuntu.

What do you really do with your computer?

Rick — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:38:36 +0000

In my travels, it seems that most home computer users primarily use email. I would love to see 100-200 comments attached to this short article so you can tell me what you use your computer for from day-to-day. You don't have to be statistically accurate or detailed, I'm just curious and this topic is too broad and detailed for a poll. Here's how I use my main computer: Internet (web browsing, pay bills, web site maintenance, etc) - 60% Email - 15% Instructional videos - 10% Word Processing - 8% Desktop publishing (creating newsletters, flyers, calendars, etc) - 2% Skype video calls - 1% Digital Photography (including ordering, editing, and downloading photos) - 1% Games - .33% Other - 2.67% YOUR TURN! Leave a comment and share what you use your primary computer for on average. Thanks!