Technology is no different than politics in that there are a variety of topics that people have opinions on. While you may not know much about these topics now, what you know about them can have a great impact on knowing who to listen to when it comes to learning more about digital photography and related topics.
PC vs. Mac:
The Mac people will tell you that Macs are better for graphics, easier to use more stable.
Organizing your digital photos is so important. Too often I see people who have major computer problems and think that everything is backed up only to find that their digital photos were so spread out on their computer that the only had a portion of them backed up.
Many people simply copy their digital photos onto their computer wherever a given piece of software puts them and they have no idea where that is. These notes will help you setup a system for managing your digital photos so they will be easy to find and backup even without programs like Picasa.
Here are a few links that will help you:
Here is what we will discuss at tonight's digital photo user group:
1. How to find information in the Manual
If your camera didn't come with a manual, it is likely on the disk that came with the camera. You may also download it from the manufacturer's website.
2. How to insert and remove the camera memory
3. How to set your camera on full auto mode – this is the setting that lets the camera do all of the thinking
It may be indicated by a green square, the letter "A" or the word AUTO.
One of the disadvantages to digital photography (if you can call it that) is that you don't get prints as often. Photos tend to sit on disk or on your computer's hard drive and never get shared. The photo album is sadly becoming extinct.
If you would like to start printing out some of those digital photos, here are some pointers.
Install Picasa:
We talk about it a lot, but not often enough. Picasa will make selecting, organizing and printing your digital photos easy. In fact, there is little or no need for any other software for most people.
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
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 December. Inside my December folder I have three other folders, "POL" for Parade of lights, Christmas, and "Misc."
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 –> April –> Easter –> Grandmas
I then place the digital pictures into their respective folders.
Filters: Various filters found in most good image editing programs allow you to make drastic changes to a photo in one fell swoop!
Holiday Greeting Cards
Using the techniques discussed this month you can create a stand-alone post card style greeting card, or make the photos on the front or inside of your greeting cards much more personalized.
Although the card above does not look that much like one you would send out for the Holidays, it uses several important effects and techniques that are only limited by your creativity.
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.