The Digital Photo Guy Blog Gets a Facelift

This is the 6th year for this site. During the first 4 years, it was a static site that was rarely updated because making changes was excruciatingly slow, complex and costly. In 2008, I resolved to fix the problem and commissioned a web developer to develop a new site that I could easily and quickly update myself. He recommended WordPress and the initial implementation took just 6 weeks. As soon as he was done, I started making changes and quickly learned how to do just about everything by myself. I’m no rocket scientist but WordPress makes everything simple and straightforward.

Now, a year after the initial launch, a new static home page has replaced the previous dynamic home page. A dynamic home page was fine in the beginning but, now, with so many articles and posts, it was quickly becoming unwieldly. Readers couldn’t easily find the information they sought. A static home page can act as ”street signs” to help point readers in the right direction. As you can see, some of the signs are still not working. That’s because all the MMTs, posts and articles weren’t always correctly or fully tagged.

Tagging the material at this time would be counter productive because each update would generate an e-mail notification of an update and readers wuld be innundated with e-mails.

Starting in 2010, I’ll be more careful about tagging each MMT, post and article so readers can quickly find all material pertaining to Cameras/Lenses/Gear, Photo Editing and Photography.

In the meantime, the existing tags (right side of main blog) can help you find specific articles or MMTs. You can also use the Seach box along the right side of the main blog.

A website is a never-ending process. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment here. Good light, good memories and good luck in 2010.

Video Monday Morning Tip – 12/14/09

This week is a continuation of last week’s VMMT on Topaz Lab’s ReMask2 masking plug-in. However, in my enthusiasm, I skipped a few intervening steps so it’s a bit like Star Wars where later episodes were aired first, followed by earlier episodes. To quote Jean-Luc Godard, “A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order.” This VMMT shows how to use brushes to touch up a mask where fine, fly-away hair is too complex to mask. As usual, the Video MMT is in the Tips & News area. Registered users can use the password they received when they registered. To register, use the form to the right.

The above photo on the left is the original. You can see how the hairs are too fine to be easily selected. The photo on the right shows the final result after touch up with hair brushes. Click to read more

Monday Morning Tip – 12/07/09

If you’ve ever tried to cut a person or pet out of a photo and found it to be an exercise in frustration, you need to watch today’s Video MMT. Topaz Labs has released ReMask2 and it is an order of magnitude improved over the first version. Here’s a quick example of what ReMask2 can do for you.

The initial pass took about 3 minutes and I spent another 3 minutes cleaning up the edges. It’s still not perfect but much, much better and faster than previous manual methods. Click here to read the rest of this MMT

Today, we have a video MMT to showcase Focus Magic, a Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (PSE) plugin that makes sharpening a slam-dunk simple process. If you’ve been intimidated by Unsharp Mask (USM) and never quite know what it’s doing or how to make it better, Focus Magic will make life much easier. As always, MMTs require a password that is e-mailed to registered users.

If you’d like to buy a copy of Focus Magic, at a discount, let me know. If enough people sign up, it’s normally $45 but I can get it for $39. If you’re interested, send me an e-mail or leave a comment here. If you’re the impatient sort, you can buy it directly at www.FocusMagic.com.

FocusMagic is a small part of what you’ll learn in the full 6 week Photoshop Elements webinar. Learn PSE in 6 easy lessons of 1 hour each week for just $99 ($79 Economic Stimulus Special for Sept 9 session). Click here to go to my Workshop page for details.

Quick Tip

In Bridge CS4, you can open any photo directly into Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) by selecting a photo and pressing Ctrl + R (Win) or Cmd + R (Mac). So, what’s the big deal, you ask? If you want to open a JPEG or TIFF in ACR, it’s a big deal. Opening a raw file in ACR is just a double-click (as long as your camera raw is supported) but opening a JPEG has always been more convoluted. You can accomplish the same thing by selecting a file and clicking the Open in Camera Raw icon (below).

San Diego Zoo Photoshoot

Registering for My Site

HOT OFF THE PRESSES!

Award winning photographer/author to webcast Photoshop Elements with
The Digital Photo Guy

OK, the details aren’t yet firm so I can’t give you exact times or dates. I can’t even tell you the name of the photographer/author but it’s someone that any serious photographer will instantly recognize. In a few weeks, this mystery guest will teach a “Photoshop Elements 1-Click Wonders” webcast that will show you how to get the most out of PSE (all tips will also apply to Photoshop CSx) with the least time and effort. This is for photographers who want to spend more time shooting and less time processing, which is just about every photographer. If we get enough pre-registrations, the class will be less than $50 (his regular classes run from $200-$1000). Stay tuned for details at 11 o’clock.

Monday Morning Tip

This week’s MMT is a continuation of the “back to basics” trend I started several weeks ago. Today, we’ll discuss the two most useful metering modes for amateur photographers. Modern digital cameras sport as many as 4 and 5 different metering modes but, for most photographers including both amateur and pro, 2 are really important.

Pattern Metering (aka, evaluative, matrix, Multi-Segment, ESP, etc) checks the light at multiple points and applies a very complex, proprietary algorithm to develop an exposure solution. Modern pattern meters are very good and will meet the needs of most amateur photographers most of the time.

Spot and Partial Spot Metering is useful in those occasions when the subject is either backlit or spotlit. If the subject is standing in front of a bright window, the meter will be fooled by the backlighting and the subject will be underexposed while objects outside the window may be perfectly exposed. Usually, it’s easier to reposition the subject but what if that’s not possible? Using the Spot or Partial Spot Meter will help you correctly expose the subject, at the expense of the background. In other words, the background may be overexposed but that’s a creative choice for you to make. You can read the entire MMT on the Tips and News page. (you need a password to access all the MMTs, register on this page to get a password)

Quick Tips

In this article, about half-way down, I showed you how to set up My Yahoo! so it would automatically notify you via e-mail, instant messanger or cell phone when new content is added to my blog. At that time, I didn’t know how to set up an auto notification in Google Reader.

It turns out Google Reader doesn’t have an integrated solution but there are several 3rd party solutions here. Basically, you install the small application and it notifies you when an update is posted on this site.

I think it might be easier to open a Yahoo! account and set up My Yahoo! as a reader. You can also use a standalone reader like NewGator.