See the Difference in Digital Camera ISO Settings

The Digital Photography School blog has a great post on how to select the right ISO setting on your digital camera. What I like so much about this post is that they actually show the same image with a low and high ISO setting so you can see the noise that is added. Plus the article goes on to tell when you might actually want a higher ISO setting (low light setting)

RAW Image Support in Vista Not So Seamless

Over on the Microsoft Photography Blog they talk about RAW image support in Vista. I thought that the support for RAW images would be baked into Vista and would be seamless for the end user. Apparently that's not the case as Vista will support RAW images but you have to download a codec from your camera manufacturer:

Windows Vista attempts to solve these problems by providing an extensible platform that allows support for these (and other) new file formats to be added to Windows by the owner of the file format. This support comes in the form of a codec, which users will get from their camera manufacturer, either by downloading it, or provided with a new camera body. The Photo Gallery will even detect the presence of these files and help you download a codec when it exists.

And if your camera manufacturer doesn't give you the codec? Then I guess you are back to installing a third party program just like Windows XP.

I know there is only so much that Microsoft can do since every camera manufacturer saves their RAW data in their own proprietary format but it would be nice if there was a standard. (It is being worked on and thats why you should go support OpenRAW.)

Get a Virtual Makeover in 30 Seconds

You don't need to be a celebrity to have a make over - you can have a 'virtual' make over in less than 30 seconds. Using Photoshop, I'll show you how to change your hair color, whiten your teeth, and get a face peel to make a new you! These are the same basic principles that are used in print media to retouch photos.

Dye Your Hair
Select the lasso tool from the tool palette:



Next, carefully trace the outline of your hair using the lasso tool:


You can also use the quick mask tool (hit Q to enter/exit the tool) to draw an outline around your hair. (Use the brush tool and change the brush size to a thin size) Once you have your hair selected using either method, it's time to create a new layer so we can dye it. Go to Layer -> New Layer -> Fill Solid Color and select Soft Light as the mode:

Now you can select the color picker on your new layer and change the different colors for RGB to get a color you like:


Here I am with a new purple hair style:


Tracing out the individual hairs can be very time consuming but you can use the lasso tool to trace out individual hairs to get a more accurate hair dye. Just keep using the shift key to add sections to your layer.



Whiten Your Teeth
We will use the lasso tool once again to trace out around the teeth: (try not to trace the gums)

Next use ctrl+J to copy your selection to a new layer. Under the layer properties, change the blend mode from Normal to Screen: (below is a screenshot of just the teeth layer with the original layer turned off)

Now you have perfectly white teeth!


The Screen blend mode is a little strong so to make your teeth look more realistic just lower the Opacity on the teeth layer : ( I found a little less than 50% worked for me)


Face Peel
Last we are going to do a quick face peel. Again, use the lasso tool to select an area of skin on the face that you want to have the peel. Select ctrl+J to copy your selection onto a new layer: (below is a section of my chin I selected and copied into a new layer)


Now select the clone tool (it looks like a stamp) and using the alt key click with the mouse on an area of your skin that is nice and clean:


The clone tool will now take the clean area of the skin and put it wherever you click with your mouse so you can click on red or blotchy skin and clear it up: (below is the before picture)


Here is the after picture: (I tried to keep it realistic by keeping it subtle)


So there you have it, a full make over in less than 30 seconds!

What's the Best Underwater Digital Camera That Won't Break the Bank?

Winter is beginning to set in and that means one thing: vacations to warm climates. And while you may have a nice digital camera for all of your land based memories, have you thought about underwater pictures? I remember when I went to the Grand Cayman a few years back I wish I had an underwater camera with me to capture some of that beautiful underwater scenery. I mean, that's the whole point of going to a warm climate, right? You could try a disposable underwater digital camera but those typically have very low resolution. So what can you get without breaking the bank?

Olympus Stylus 720 SW. Kevin over at Cool Tools likes the Olympus Stylus 720 and the above picture (I'm assuming) is from one of his trips. While it may not be the best camera in the world, for the current street price of $280 and 7.1 megapixel it will certainly do the job and then some. You can read a full review at imaging resource where they love the camera but beat up the image quality a little bit.

Pentax Optio W20. I came across this camera on Amazon and it seems to be very popular and has all the right specs - 7.1 megapixel and 3x optical zoom. It comes in cheaper than the Olympus with a current street price of $255.

You can also get a water-proof housing case for your existing digital camera to take it underwater. I know for myself that I wouldn't be comfortable doing that in case something happens and I lose my main digital camera!

No matter what you decide for your next underwater digital photo shoot, go check out Wet Pixel for some tips on taking great photos.

The Only Photoshop Elements User Site

1. Go to wow.photoshopelementsuser.com

2. Click on any link

3. Learn more about using Photoshop Elements to clean up, beautify, and change your digital photos

4. Thank me for finding you this link

Follow these simple steps to get the most out of Photoshop Elements for your digital photos.

Create a Web Page in Photshop

This is a nice digg pointing to a tutorial on creating a complete webpage (with code) using Photoshop. You use the great features of Photoshop to layout your web page (and make all of the graphics and logos of course) and then save off your webpage as gif files with placeholders for your HTML text. The tutorial includes the complete code so you can go through it step by step.

Cheap Digital Photo Viewer with 2.5 LCD Screen

I saw this mentioned by PC Magazine that the Kodak EasyShare Picture Viewer was only 30 bucks after rebate at TigerDirect. The Picture Viewer is a credit card sized device that has a 2.5 LCD screen so you can view and share your digital photos. It has some built in memory (not sure how much) but it also has a SD/MMC slot so you can store as many photos as you want! For 30 bucks this would make a great gift – like a mini digital photo frame!

Review of Top Four Non-Linear Video Editors

This is a great digg pointing to a DV Guru post reviewing the top four non-liner video editors: Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony’s Vegas Video, Avid Express, and Apple’s Final Cut Pro.

Finding the right editing software can make the difference between quality and crap, fast or frustrating and even success and just suck.  We've compiled the top four non-linear editors according to ease of use, price, motion effects and learning curve.

Lots of opinions on what the best editor is – I’ve only used Final Cut so I can’t really compare but what’s your favorite?

Create Clouds in Photoshop

Another Lunacore Photoshop tutorial on how to create clouds in Photoshop. This is pretty neat and a great example of why you need Photoshop.

This tutorial will show you how to create clouds. Most clouds tutorials are based on Photoshop’s clouds filter, which is ok if you want a few fuzzy looking clouds without too many details, but I want to show a different approach. The clouds filter will also be used in this tutorial, but only to create a clouds brush and it's this brush that we will use to actually paint the clouds.

Photoshop Tutorial on Touching Up a Landscape Photo

Lunacore has another tutorial out on how to touch up a landscape photograph. This is a great step by step tutorial on how to use Photoshop to fix a landscape photo that originally didn’t have the correct colors and clarity. Go to the end of the article and see the before and after. Photoshop can really work wonders.

Photoshop Podacast by the Photoshop Guys

If you don’t know who the “Photoshop Guys” are don’t worry but these Photoshop experts are now offering a Photoshop podcast for your video iPod chocked full of industry news and tips and tricks. You can also watch the episodes right on their website as well. I think the video iPod is going to ignite some very interesting video podcasts in the future …

Basic Digital Photography Tutorials

I can’t remember where I came across this link but Silverlight Photography has some great basic tutorials up on digital (and film) photography covering topics like exposure, shutter speed, and aperture. Pretty basic but also explained simply and effectively. Here’s an excerpt:

Aperture and f-numbers.
The aperture is just a hole whose size can be varied to allow more or less light to pass through it. The size of apertures are expressed in f-numbers. You can calculate an f-number, if you are keen or don't have much of a life, by dividing the lens focal length by the diameter of the aperture. The range of f-numbers follows a standard sequence with each f-number being half as bright, passing half as much light, as the previous one. A typical aperture range may look like this:

f 1.4; f 2; f 2.8; f 4; f5.6; f 8; f 11; f 16; f 22; f 32

There are smaller and larger f-numbers but the actual numbers used are always the same and will maintain a constant value over different lens focal lengths. This just means that f-8, for instance , will always pass the same amount of light no matter what camera or lens you may be using. Similarly, f-16 will pass half as much light as f-11 and f-4 will pass twice as much as f-5.6. The difference in value between one full f-number and the next is known as a 'stop'. If you change aperture from f-8 to f-5.6 you will give your film one stop more exposure.
The smaller the f-number is then the larger the aperture is and the more light it will pass. The f-number is also used as a guide to the light gathering abilities of a lens. Lenses with large maximum apertures ( small f-number ) are described as being 'fast'.
Generally the aperture will always be held open at its maximum irrespective of whatever value you may have set it to and will not actually close down until the moment of exposure. The main reason for this is to produce the brightest image possible onto the focusing screen. To see the aperture in operation you will have to remove the lens, unless you have a preview control, and look through the lens while turning the aperture control ring.

Photoshop Tutorial - Put Your Best Face Forward

The Unofficial Photoshop Weblog has a great link to a photoshop tutorial on how to ‘beautify’ a face. What exactly does this mean? It’s a step-by-step process to change everything from the eyebrows to the color of the person’s teeth to make the photo better. (Check out the before and after – amazing results) These are a lot of tips and tricks that professionals use to make photos better. It’s a very thorough tutorial – there’s more good stuff on the website too.

Save Your Memories in Hi Def with Sony's HD Handycam

So you’ve upgraded to a big and pretty hi def TV but you’re still recording your life events on a standard video camcorder? Well, this is the digital camcorder for you – the Sony HDR-HC1 HDV 1080i Handycam. This claims to record in 1080i definition on a standard MiniDV tape. Here’s the specs:

Introducing the industry's smallest and lightest HDV 1080i camcorder (as of August 2005).

• 1080i high definition video recording and playback
• 1/3" CMOS sensor with the Enhanced Imaging Processor
• Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar® T* lens with 10x optical and 120x digital zoom
• 2.7" wide (16:9) hybrid touch panel Swivelscreen™ LCD display¹
• Super Steadyshot® Stabilization

The Sony HDR-HC1 will set you back about 2 grand but you can put your neighbor’s home videos to shame!

Turn a Black and White Photo to Color

A good digg on a Photoshop tip on how to turn a black and white photo into color! This is a nice step-by-step tutorial if you don’t have a good photoshop book

Long Exposure Shots With Your Digital Camera

Here is a nice and simple digg on how to take a long exposure shot with your digital camera. The trick is setting your shutter speed to the right time length so more of the image is exposed.

3. Set your shutter speed
Set your shutter speed to more then 2 seconds, this differs from different manufactures. Consult your instructional booklet for more information on setting the camera modes. Experiment with the different settings and choose one that you like.

Change the Depth of Field in Your Photo

This photoshop plug-in (it works with other applications as well) will allow you to change the depth of field on your photo to anywhere you want! Just try the interactive demo and you will see what I’m talking about. Here’s a little more from the website:

Depth of Field Generator PRO is the result of ongoing research, development and programming collaboration between Richard Rosenman and Martin Vicanek in an effort to produce a plugin capable of delivering high quality, sophisticated Depth of Field and Bokeh effects quickly and efficiently as a post process.

It looks like this program goes for about 30 bucks – not too bad for what you get I think. I’m going to have to play around with the demo program and see if I can fix some of my photos!

(via Thomas Hawk)

Create a Magazine Cover with Flickr

You can create your very own magazine cover using a photo from Flickr and this website. This is a fun little program that allows you to take any photo from the web and create a magazine cover that you can customize. You can check out the Flickr magazine group for some great ideas. (This website also has some other cool things you can do with Flickr photos like trading cards and a calendar)

This neat little program will add a frame to your Flickr photo (or any digital photo on the web) to give it a different look. Then you can save your new image and repost it to Flickr as they suggest. You can choose from a bunch of different frames like the ‘film’ one above. I really dig these side Flickr programs!

(via lifehacker)

Microsoft Windows Vista to Include Color Management

Digital photography has a come a long way but the concept of color management – where you need to match what you see on your screen with what you are printing – is still confusing. The basic problem is that every device you use in digital photography – the camera, printer, scanner, monitor, and printer – all manage color differently. So what you see when you take a photo may not necessarily be what you get when you print your photo. The process to try to ‘manage’ the color in your photos can be as simple as a setting on your computer’s display properties or require a PHd thesis on the physics of light.

The good news is that ZDNET is reporting that Microsoft will be including some color management software in the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s next generation operating system.

The Windows Color System is designed, among other things, to help make digital photo prints that better match the images that appear on the screen.

"There have been advancements made in the past to try and solve the fundamental problem that what I see on my screen doesn't match what I see from my printer," said Josh Weisberg, Microsoft group product manager. "Those advancements have helped for professionals and advanced users but didn't really do much for the rest of the world."

Hopefully this will be implemented in a user-friendly way that will aid in getting better pictures out of your printer.

Flickr Photo Book

QOOP is a new service that allows you to print your Flickr photos as a bound photo book (I’m pretty sure you need a Flickr account to use this service). It looks like they use a ‘soft cover’ bound that allows them to keep the costs down – you can get a 28 page book for under $15. There are a ton of options to choose from when it comes to laying out your photos (like one full size photo a page or a bunch of thumbnails) and including the captions and titles from your original Flickr photos. This is a great way to create a cheap photo book as a gift or personal memento. As long as the picture quality comes is good this looks like a great service. And they also do posters from flickr as well!

(via Thomas Hawk)