NOCCC Beginner's Digital Photography SIG

Sidewalk Breakfast

SIG Leader: John S Krill

Sunday’s meeting I will discuss two software utilities that may help you keep your photos up to date and a handy web site that allows you to send very large files to anyone. Lastly we will go over Photoshop Elements Organizer. We have spent a lot of time with Picasa but very little with elements native image organizer.

SyncToy 2.1 is a free application that synchronizes files and folders between locations. Typical uses include sharing files, such as photos, with other computers and creating backup copies of files and folders.. You can download the utility from here.

The second utility is a web tool called You Send It. The web site is www.yousendit.com. Because most, if not all, e-mail services put a limit on the size of files you can send you need another option for sending large files. If you send photos to friends and family you may have already encountered the size restrictions at your e-mail service. You Send It lets you send very large files. If you are sending more than one file you only need to ZIP your files and then upload it toYou Send It. All they require is the e-mail address of the recipient. They will notify them when the file is ready to be downloaded.

Photoshop Elements Organizer is Elements native tool for keeping track of all your photos. We will go over Importing your pictures, Adding Keyword Tags, and using Albums for collecting photos from multiple locations with a common theme.

As always we will answer any and all questions.

If you have a special request for information regarding digital photography let me know. E-mail me using the address listed below.

Email: noccc.bgphotosig@gmail.com

Picasa Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/noccc.bgphotosig

Storm Surf

During our meeting Sunday morning one question that came up was: What is fine art? What I said was that is was art for art’s sake. Something to be enjoyed. It has little or no additional meaning.

I decided to look up Fine Art on the web and got pretty much the same definition. Here are a few of them:

Fine art describes an art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application.

Those referred to by scholars as being chiefly concerned with the mind and imagination. In short, art for art’s sake. Not created for decorative, illustrative or commercial purposes.

art: the products of human creativity; works of art collectively; “an art exhibition”; “a fine collection of art”

works made to be enjoyed, not functional, and judged by the theories of art.

April Meeting Plan for NOCCC Beginner’s Digital Photography SIG

Printing can be a trail. It was and still is the most difficult procedure to master. I’ve had conversations with photographers who have been printing digital photos for years and still many of them still aren’t entirely convinced they’ve got it right.

Editor’s Note: I’ve added this link to The Online Photographer just to emphasize the pain printing can cause. Read it!

There’re many variables:  Computer hardware and the OS. The software application used to view, edit and print your pictures. The printer. The paper. It gets worse. Under each of these variables there’re are more variables.

But there is a straight forward method. Ignore all the variables and just make prints. If you’re using glossy paper then it all just got a lot easier.

I’m not an expert at printing. It scares me at times. But in most instances I just make the print and forget the rest.

Printing is a two part process: First is the application’s print options; Second is the printer setup.

This month we will discuss Picasa’s print options.

I’ve thought about this for a while and decided to go through the process at the meeting and then post something here afterwards. Whole books have been written about printing so doing a explanation in one posting isn’t going to work.

I’m going to ask that you come to the meeting with information about what kind of prints you want to make and as time permits we will go through the process for each.

Picasa Print window

Printing with Picasa:

1. Select the photo(s) you want to print.

2. At the bottom of the main Picasa window select the Print button.

3. Select a Layout. You may be printing 4×6 or a contact sheet for several pictures. There are more layout options and I will show you how to select other layouts.

4. Select a printer. You probably only have one so this shouldn’t be a problem.

5. Setup the printer. The really FUN part. We may get to this depending on our time limits.

6. Print.

Other subjects we will cover:

We will go over making a movie from your pictures and also creating a collage.

A really cool flatbed scanner. Any and all questions about anything you can think of.

Picasa Import Pictures

Importing your photos from your camera is straight forward and limited in what it can do. You can select a directory where ALL your imports will go to and you can select a directory (Folder) where the current import will go. But you can’t rename the images. Whatever name your camera gives the images will be the name used when the photos are imported via Picasa.

Instead of going through the process I will just direct you to the location in Picasa help where you can get instructions for the import. I do this because it’s jest easier for me and also because you as a users of any application should get used to that application’s Help.

So to get help with an import go to the Help menu on the menu bar and select ‘Help Contents and Index.‘ Under ‘Getting Started with Picasa‘ select ‘Importing Pictures.’ From the Importing Pictures page select ‘Add New Photos.’

While you’re at the Help site for Picasa browse through it and get used to what’s there.

The best way to learn is to just do it. Mistakes happen. Learn from them.

Remember Photography is fun and Digital Photography is pure fun.

We’ll go over the Import at the meeting.