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Digital Darkroom Basics

Digital Darkroom Basics

The inaugural meeting of our Digital Photography SIG was amazing. We literally had a standing room only crowd and as with all of your Users Groups meetings the information shared was nothing short of fantastic. Here is some of the information shared at the meeting:

Basic computer requirements

If you already have a computer and it is working great for your purposes, don’t take this as a suggestion to buy a new computer. However, if you are in the market for a new computer and want to know what to look for, here are
my suggestions from the meeting.

How to Format Your Hard Drive and Reinstall Windows

WARNING:  I have done my best to outline the steps in this somewhat arduous task, but undertake this procedure at your own risk. Because of the vast differences in hardware and software, I cannot possibly cover every nuance. Please use this Tip as a guide and not the end all. AND BE SURE TO BACKUP ANYTHING YOU DON"T WANT TO LOSE PRIOR TO UNDERTAKING THE TASK!

Since many of the sites that I used to refer listeners to regarding this subject have either disappeared or no longer have the information, I am starting a multi-part tip outlining the steps to reformat your computer. In this week’s tip, I’ll explain the what, why’s, and when’s?

What does it mean ‘format my hard drive’? Formatting a hard drive erases all current information (for all practical purposes) and let’s your computer start with a clean slate. Formatting deletes all applications AND data from your computer. The process itself requires very little technical know how. What comes after the format involves the techy knowledge.

Why would I need to format my hard drive? If your computer uses Windows 95/98 or Me, I recommend formatting and reinstalling Windows at least every two years as a maintenance routine. Performing this routine purges your computer of any little errors and irritations that have cropped up and thus makes your computer feel and run like ‘new’ again. You also would need to format and reinstall if you have encountered innumerable error messages or encounter a runaway virus.

When should you perform this purging and restoration of your computer? I answered that question along with the ‘why’ above….at least every two years for any Windows version but Windows XP. Windows XP appeared almost two and a half years ago and has proved to be quite stable and resilient so I’m reserving judgment as to how often it should be done for XP.

If you use a name brand computer like HP, Compaq, E-Machines or even some Gateway systems, they come with a disk or disk set (on CD’s) called "Restore Disks". These disks make the process very easy. Put the disk in, shut your computer off, turn it back on and follow the on-screen instructions. REMEMBER, this will erase all data on your computer, so backup anything you don’t want to lose.

Saving Pictures from Email II

With scanners built into sub $100 printers and the onslaught of digital cameras, more pictures are being sent via email than ever before. Search through our archives on the most efficient ways to send your digital photos and ways to resize photos that were sent to you too large.

Today’s tip, however, focuses on the recommended method of saving those precious photos from getting lost. One thing I do not recommend doing is saving old email with attachments just so you don’t lose your photos. I don’t recommend this for two reasons; 1) Most emailers don’t back up their email and 2) it takes much longer to look for and view your photos if they are still attached to an email.

Resize an emailed photo for printing

Have you ever been frustrated when trying to view or print a picture that you received via email?

Today’s tip will solve this annoying problem for you quickly and almost effortlessly.

1. When you receive one of these large pictures, save it to your hard drive (and remember where it is).
2. Start Microsoft Word (Word Perfect and newer versions of Works will work as well).
3. Click on Insert –> Picture –> from file from the menus
4. Click in the “Look in” box and navigate to where you saved the photo
5. Double-click on your photo
6. Word automatically resizes the photo to fit in the document.

The efficient way to email your digital photos

I often get emails from family or friends who have recently been on vacation or been involved in some other event and they want to share a handful of photos with everyone in their address book. Some of the email works out great, but other email doesn’t quite make it through the way sender intended.

Emailing photos can be one of the most troublesome things you can do with your email for several reasons.

1. Non-resized photos can take a long time to upload to send through email on a dialup line.
2. Non-resized photos can take a long time to download for everyone you send the email to. Nothing is more aggravating than waiting 20 minutes for a photo to download so you can read your email, only to find out that the photo is of a funny position that the cat fell asleep in.

The efficient way to email your digital photos

by Adam Cochran

I often get emails from family or friends who have recently been on vacation or been involved in some other event and they want to share a handful of photos with everyone in their address book. Some of the email works out great, but other email doesn’t quite make it through the way sender intended.

Emailing photos can be one of the most troublesome things you can do with your email for several reasons.

  1. Non-resized photos can take a long time to upload to send through email on a dialup line.

  2. Non-resized photos can take a long time to download for everyone you send the email to. Nothing is more aggravating than waiting 20 minutes for a photo to download so you can read your email, only to find out that the photo is of a funny position that the cat fell asleep in.

Cookies…are they dangerous, harmless or do they just taste good?

Cookies are small (very small…hundreds of cookies will take up less than a tenth of a megabyte on your hard drive) text files that are deposited on our computer systems by some web sites. For example, the polling service I use for our listener poll will deposit a cookie on your hard drive to prevent more than
one vote per question, but that is all it does.

In the majority of cases, cookies pose no threat to you, your computer, or your privacy. Cookies contain as little data as your Internet providers identifying address or your name and preferences for a web site (like Amazon.com or a personalized Yahoo! page). There have been instances of some advertising
companies attempting to ‘track’ your whereabouts on the web, but again it is more your ‘number’ than you and the data collected is for statistical information only. And to reiterate, cookie files take up a minuscule amount of your hard drive space.

AOL Users – Find your downloads

One common question I get from AOL users is locating files or email attachments they have downloaded. When an AOL user downloads email attachments, by default, they get buried in a sub-folder of the AOL folder. This tip will help AOL folks who have a hard time finding these files.

One easy way to quickly navigate to your AOL download folder is by creating a desktop shortcut…here’s how:

1. Double-click My Computer
2. Double-click the “C” drive (your hard drive)
3. Find your AOL folder and double-click on it (if you are using version 7.0 or greater, you may need to double-click on “Program Files” first). If you have installed the same version of AOL more than once, you will see AOL 5.0b, 5.0c, etc…click on the one with the latest letter)

Alternative Browser

Would you like to have your web surfing speed increased? Would you like web sites to pop-up just a little faster? Changing the web browser you use (Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL) will do just that.

This tip does NOT require you to change Internet services. If you use AOL or any other service, that does not change. And whether you connect via a dialup modem (phone line), DSL, cable or other method, this tip applies across the board. The ONLY thing that changes is what program you use to browse the Internet. Lastly, this tip costs you nothing.

Opera is the name of the browser that I am referring to, and it comes all the way from Oslo, Norway. This program has been around for quite a few years, yet has a very small, but loyal, following. Opera takes up only about 25%-50% of the space that Internet Explorer, AOL or Netscape use on your hard drive. Being small and designed for speed makes this browser the speediest you will ever use.

Windows Tools that Moved

Windows XP has been with us almost eight months now and XP users are starting to request some XP specific tips. Don’t let it be said that I’m not responsive to my listeners requests (I welcome and consider them all).

If you are using the new Windows XP and have been looking for some old favorite tools from your Windows 95/98 days, read onward my friend.

I use Windows Explorer probably more than any other tool in Windows. In previous versions of Windows, it was located in the Programs menu. With Windows XP (and Me, by the way), you have to dig in the Accessories menu to find it. Of course, you can always get to it in any version of Windows, including XP, via the Windows key + E keyboard shortcut.