Digital Shutters

While reading my comments I came across a question about using TGA file format instead of TIFF or JPEG. I decided to give you a little history on the TGA file format. While the editing process of graphics is more flexable and the compression is less than a JEPG file format, TGA was not originally created for the printed picture.
TGA (Truevision Graphics Adaptor) often refered to as TARGA was created in 1984 for Television, is actually a Raster file graphics format, used these days for mostly for animation and video.
A good article on this is at Wikipedia online. While the TGA file format is good for graphics, 3D applications, and video the printed picture should be left to JPEG.

Wikipedia, File Extensions comparison chart

If you’re into abstract art a fun and cool looking shots can be taken at night. You can either move the camera, and get wild lighting shots or you can make your city come to life and get the light to move for you. The shutter speed is slowed at night to capture all the possible light. Any movement will case the blurred images. This is what makes night shooting the lights fun.
First if you want abstract art with lights that don’t show detail then you will want to move the camera such as in “Camera Tossing�. Or if you’re not brave enough to toss you expensive camera you can drive around your city taking shots from the moving car.
Please be safe and have someone else drive while you do this. Drive down the highway where there will be lights from the city, overhead streetlights, and cars.
• Put your camera on night scene
• Disable the flash
• Point the camera at the lights you are going to take
• Press the shutter and wait for it to snap the picture. It will take a few seconds for the picture to be taken but you will not be disappointed with the results. You will have wavy lines, blurry objects, and a photo that is truly unique. The shot to the right is the USS Lexington taken from our Harbor Bridge while my husband was driving over it.
If you cannot change the settings on your camera don’t worry, I took these example photos with a point and shoot camera many years ago. I was driving home one night by a local refinery when this big blue flare went off. Well I wasn’t going to stop in the traffic to take a picture so I got out my point and shoot and snapped off a shot. This is how it came out. I also took some of passing cars and over head lights. They are truly unique and the better the camera the better the shots will come out. Mine did not have any extra settings so I was stuck with auto shoot.

Wednesday I will have part 2 making your city come alive!

In reviews, it’s not all about what latest camera is out on the market. A lot of the major camera manufactures offer free tips tricks, and downloads for you to use. These are some of my favorite places, I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do.
• Kodak has a cool Tips and Projects area on their website. It has a lot of projects that you can complete. Be sure and read the fine print, not all the things are free, but there are good deals.
• Fuji has a great project site with free down loads, I was not able to download the scrapbook pages with my Vistas Operating system but I have in the past with older versions. Its worth checking out though. There are some really cute things.
• Olympus has online lessons geared specifically for your camera if you own an Olympus Camera, its great help in learning how to operate your camera.
• HP also is another good site for Tips and Tricks, You can use most of their ideas for any camera as long as you check your owner’s manual.

If you are selling or going to sell on EBAY and other online auctions you will need to take good photos. An article by Power home biz gives nice tips and one thing they suggest is to use a light box to diffuse the light and take way shadows.
If you are going to be a serious EBAY seller then I would recommend that you buy the proper equipment; if you just have a few things that you want to get rid of then you can make your own light box. With a proper light box, the light will shine through the walls of the box and diffuse the light, creating fewer shadows. One thing to remember is you want a solid background; only the object you are selling should be in the picture. You don’t want a lot of background objects to distract the buyer. When I first started selling on EBAY it was just a few things that I wanted to get rid of around the house so I made this simple light box with over head lighting. And you can make it too! Find a cardboard box that will fit what you are trying to sell.
• Find a cardboard box that will fit what you are trying to sell.
• Cut down one side of the box to the bottom.
• Now either Paint the inside white or Use a White sheet, or you can use bright printer paper like I did.
• Now take your box outside and shoot in the sunlight. If this is not possible. Use a free standing overhead florescent light (desk task lamp) to add your lighting this will reduce the brownish over cast that a regular house light will create. If you don’t have a florescent light then the brightest regular light bulb will have to work. If you go this route you will have to do a little photo editing.
• Next arrange your object or objects close to the back of the box to reduce the shadows. If you have to lay your objects flat and shoot from over head then bring your task light to the same level as your camera to reduce shadows.
• Using a tripod Get as close to you object as possible making sure you can see all of it, but not to close so that the object is blurry.
• If there are several objects take a group shot and individual shots as well.
• As you can see I took close ups of the doll faces as well as a group shot.
• Next download your photos to your computer and edit the ones you want to use. A smart fix will usually work to adjust them or you adjust the lightness and contrast.
With most online auctions the more photos you use the more it’s going to cost to list them. Using my doll photos I created a Collage of my photos that way I will only use 1 photo for my auction. Have fun and experiment!

Images come in many file formats the most popular is the JPEG, Last week I was asked how do you convert a TIFFF Image to a JPEG? If you’re like most people, when you download or print your pictures you are using a JPEG image. Tiff images are not that popular since almost everything these days is geared to the internet and you need compressed images. In the early days of the internet the GIF file format was used but it was limited to only 256 colors. Photographs came out fuzzy and not very clear.

As you can see by the photo I took of myself many years ago with one of the first digital cameras on the market. If has limited color is sort brownish grey looking. Although Gif file formats should still be used for line drawings, transparencies, and animations, the JPEG should be used for Photos, The JPEG format is being replaced with JPEG 2000.

The JPEG came along as the need for better internet photos was needed and technology increased. The JPEG was created mostly for ease in transmitting images over the internet and still retaining its colors.
But the JPEG is not without its limits considered to have lossy compression, which means that as you manipulate edit, or save it to many times, you will lose quality a good article on this is at Wikipedia online.

A JPEG is a compressed image, you can make the picture smaller but you cannot get it much bigger without it becoming fuzzy, blurry, or very mosaic. See my previous article on resolution.

The TIFF file format is used for uncompressed images and is easy to manipulate, edit and save over and over without losing its quality. It is also what is considered a container for other file formats. Again visit Wikipedia for a more in depth article.

But back to the original question how do you convert a TIFF to a JPEG. That’s easy any photo editing program will do this you open your TIFF File, change the image to 300 DPI and then save as a JPEG file. By changing the DPI you will be able to edit the JPEG version easier.

Playing with the images I have found that you can convert JPEGS to TIFF images and TIFFs to JPEGS. But as with all images the more you enlarge them the more blurry or mosaic the image will become. I experimented and converted the images back and forth and with a TIFF at 300 DPI I was able to double its size without losing any quality, the JPEG at 300 DPI was able to double in size but the edges were a bit fuzzy. But this is for another blog in FUN STUFF

To find out more about the different file formats Wikipedia online has a comparison chart you can refer to. This is helpful when using your graphics editing programs.

When taking photos that you are going to print you will want the best resolution you can get from your camera, this will ensure the best print possible. I always recommend that you set your camera on the highest possible setting even though you will get fewer photos per disk. But what is resolution?
Resolution according to Webster’s online dictionary
a : the process or capability of making distinguishable the individual parts of an object, closely adjacent optical images, or sources of light
b : a measure of the sharpness of an image or of the fineness with which a device (as a video display, printer, or scanner) can produce or record such an image usually expressed as the total number or density of pixels in the image a resolution of 1200 dots per inch

Or in other words its how many pixels make up the image. Most experts according to Wikipedia on line encyclopedia do not like to use Resolution as a term to describe digital photography. But rather use Image resolution or otherwise known as Pixel count or DPI

The best way I can explain it is, Resoulution is a recipe of 3 things.
Pixels, Compression, and DPI

So what is a pixel?

A pixel is the smallest part of an image, a dot. And how many dots that makes up an image will determine how large you can print the image and how clear your image will be. Low pixels count will give you a blurry image or one that comes out looking mosaic. A higher pixel count will give you a clear sharp image. As you can see from my example; I used the same picture reduced the pixel count (compressed the image) and then reized it to the same size as the original photo.

High pixel count size 300 X 225 DPI 314

Low Pixel Count 300 X 221 DPI 72

Compression you may come across this term, someone might tell you to use a higher compression rate to safe disk space and get more pictures and what they are telling you is use a smaller pixel count. the more you compress an image the less DPI you will use.

DPI just means dots per inch; which when you are printing means how many dots of ink per inch are going to go on that paper. (But that’s all going in another direction and we’ll talk about that later. )

Most point and shoot Cameras have a set Compression rate to give you a 72 DPI. If you have a high end Camera or SLR you will be able to set your compression rate to get more DPI. Check your manual. If you cannot set the Compression of the camera use the highest pixel count allowed. This will give you the largest picture you camera is able to take without loosing clarity.

When you buy a Digital Camera and take all those photos you’ll want to print them. And as always there will be those you want to print but they just need a little touch up.
A good program is Adobe Photoshop Elements. Their new release is Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 with Elements Premier 3.0. These days Adobe is bundling Photoshop Elements 3.0 with Cameras, Printers, and new computers. So if you’re in the market for a new camera check to see if this is in the bundle. Most good graphics programs are basically the same and you can do this with any of them.
I have a boating pictures that I took over the weekend and I want to crop it and take some of the water away.

.
• First I resize the photo to 300 DPI. Note the original Pixel count.
• Then using the select tool I drag it over the image selecting the area of the photo I want to keep
• Find your crop tool; In Elements it’s under the Image tab, the photo is now the part that you selected.
• Resize you image this time to the same pixel count that the original photo was. As long as you don’t crop away too much of the original photo your final picture shouldn’t lose any of its quality.
• Next do an auto fix; the program will determine the best settings depending on the existing, content, contrast, and Hues.
You photo is ready to print!
If you don’t have any Photo editing software, you and always use the Printing Kiosks, Both Kodak and Fuji have them. I’ve checked both sites and only Kodak gives online instruction on how to use their Kiosk. But either one will give you the same result and if you need assistants the photo lab specialists at your store will be glad to help

In the world or reviews and news;

Canon – No news releases for April as of yet;
Their site has a great selection of camera’s and where to buy them, with a compare up to 3 products feature.

Kodak - on April 3, 2007 Announces its Donation of the TRENDSETTER 800 III QUANTUM Platesetter and PRINERGY EVO Workflow System to California Polytechnic State University. But nothing in the line of Camera news
On April 4, 2007 Announces US orders for its Medical Digital Image Capture Systems

Olympus – No new news from the Olympus site, It posts upcoming AARC events for April

Panasonic - According to Digital Photography Review Panasonic releases the Lumix DMC-TZ3 is a 7.2MP Auto Focus with 10X optical Zoom.
Although I went to the Panasonic site and there were no press releases for this Camera.

Nikon - Apr. 5, 2007 releases new LCD steppers FX-803 and the FX-903N although these are not Cameras and are geared toward cell phones and in-vehicle applications maybe they might start using this technology in the cameras. It a good article to check out.

HP has no new press releases on digital cameras. But they do have good articles and information.

The other day there was this beautiful full moon, the overcast skies made it look right out of one of those old horror movies. I decided to take pictures of it.
I stood on my porch where I have a Big China Berry Tree and the moon was comming through the branches and started snapping photos. The final shot (above)came out so cool; even if I do say so myself; that I had to share how I did this with you.

There are several techniques to do that. But this is what I did.
First I set up my tripod for stabilization, since the shutter speed is slow. It is almost impossible for a person to hold still long enough for the camera to collect enough data without getting a blurry picture.
I took examples of this with out the tripod. You may not realize that there is slight movement happening. When shooting at night your camera shutter will be slow so be patient and wait until you hear the shutter before moving the camera, It took several seconds to get these photos taken;
My camera settings were on night portrait which would open the Aperture value to allow more light but yet use the flash to highlight the foreground.
As you can see in the original photo (below); it came out dark and not very attractive. But this is where the photo editing programs come in handy. I used the Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Elements that came bundled with my camera. I just did a smart fix and presto! All the colors and everything came into view.
I could have taken it a step further and lightened the image more, changed the colors a little. Its just up to you as to what you want to do with your photo.
Adobe is great for bundeling their software with gadgets and they also have online training at their e-learning center that gives great tips; the only problem I find with the site is its hard to navigate and find what you are looking for. But when you do find it it is pretty good stuff. Another section (which I find more entertaining) is the Adobe kids club

With the approaching holiday, we want great pictures; there will be lots of snapshots and group shots taken. Here are a few solutions to common problems that we run into.
Children and Pets are on the go, contently moving causing blurred photos.
• Most cameras these days have multiple settings. If your camera allows you to set the scene mode then set it for the action shot. This will help stop the movement without getting a blurred image. Check you manual on how to do this.
• If you have one of the older models that doesn’t have this feature then you will need to keep your finger on the trigger and be ready for the action. An article that touches on this is at Betterphoto.com . Although sometimes I think that techies are assuming that everyone has the lateset and greatest. It is a good article that touches on several topics of interest.
• During that Easter egg hunt don’t miss the cute shots by constantly checking the picture you just took and erasing the bad ones. Bring along extra disks and only edit or erase when the action has slowed or you start to run out of disk space.
Red Eye reduction,
• Red eye is caused from your cameras flash, to help reduce red eye shut off the flash. Most cameras have this feature. Check your manual on how to do this.
• If you have red eye on your pictures the best method to fixing it is using the camera itself and its built in feature. Check your camera manual to see if this feature is offered, some of the older models do not have this feature.
• Also the printing software itself will help you with this.
If your like most people you’ll take your disks to Wal-Mart to the Kodak Kiosk, the Kodak site itself has a section on how to use the Photo Kiosk; it’s a great place to check out before you go to the store.
Once you have you pictures check out my Fun Stuff blog from yesterday and see an easy way to make a fun collage of them