Lilahpops

This is my entry in the Social Photography Project.

Life online - behind the scenes

I’ve always been a bit of a web geek. Not only does all that information on the internet fascinate me but I’m curious as to how the internet works and what makes it tick. So great was my interest that I eventually learned how to code and style webpages and now work as a web developer. Learning about photography is just as absorbing an interest and it seemed only natural that I would eventually create my own photography-related website.

I read bags of blogs on web design and photography and have learned so much along the way. I wanted to be a part of it. But I had never delved into the more social aspects of the internet, in fact I found it all a little daunting. I would read blogs but never leave comments - a self-confessed “lurker” who was a little hesitant to actively participate.

And then I found Flickr.

My introduction to social photography

Early symptoms of Flickritis

I joined Flickr in October 2006. It was easy: the basic accounts are free; the Flickr site is friendly; the instructions are easy to follow; there was software to download to help me upload my images; I found the privacy settings a comfort for family-related photos; I could also add my own copyright. Later, Picnik partnered with Flickr to enable online editing of uploaded photos. It was all very cool!

This is the first photo I uploaded.

Contracting Flickritis

I still kinda “lurked” around Flickr at first. I put a few photos up and spent hours viewing other people’s images, finding them through keyword searches and the amazing “Explore” button. And then I got a comment on one of my macro photos. And then someone invited me to post a photo to a group. Group? What are groups? I read about groups, joined a few, joined a few more, started commenting on other photos I found.

And then someone added me as a contact. Contact? Who are contacts? I read about contacts, discovered I could add my own and found it an efficient way to keep up to date with various photo streams and the people behind them.

And then someone asked to use one of my photos on their website.

Before I knew it, I was an active member of the online photography community. Dare I say my social photography experience evolved “organically’?

Living with Flickritis

The Flickr community was the unexpected surprise for me. I find it very friendly, easy-going and helpful. I look forward to viewing new photos from my contacts and I value their comments on my photos. People pop by to make a comment on a photo they like, they might “fave” it at the same time, they might even give advice on how to improve a composition. I learn. I enjoy. And my photography has improved as a result.

I “fave” photos I like or leave comments, I am no longer a “lurker”.

Playing it safe with Flickritis

I haven’t personally had any bad experiences using Flickr. I do take certain precautions (I mean there are weirdos out there on the web, right?) and use the available privacy control settings so that I’m not posting photos of my friends and family “to the world”.

When I get a comment on a photo from someone who isn’t on my contact list I usually head over to their photo stream to check it out. If I like their photos I often return the comment compliment or “fave” a photo that has particularly caught my eye. If their photos are of a dubious nature, however, I tend to ignore the comment. Don’t take the bait.

If someone adds me as a contact I do the same, check out their photo stream. If I like their photos I add them as a contact, if they are “dubious” I ignore it. I’m sure people check me out, too, if I add them as a contact first. Flickr is addictive, just use a bit of common-sense.

My photography-related website

About six months after joining Flickr I started this website, Lilahpops, with the view to learning more about photography. I regularly link to my Flickr photos and have begun to participate in photography-related projects, such as this one. I write posts on what I have learned and was pleasantly surprised to find that I have been a help to some people. My website does not attract the masses of internet users that other sites do but the traffic is slowly building.

It is all thanks to Flickr

Some of my Flickr-related posts were noticed by the owners of Photophlow, who sent me an invite to test out the beta version. While I have not really spent much time on Photophlow I was interested to read Brian Auer’s “how-to” guide which caught my attention.

It was through Flickr that one of my photos was added to the 4th Edition of Schmap, an interactive travel website which uses photos from Flickr users.

This is the photo that was “Schmapped” - a macro food shot taken at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna.

How do I contribute?

My contribution back to the online photography community is to write posts on my own website; stumble photography posts and websites when I can; bookmark articles on del.icio.us and vote for articles on PhotographyVoter.

I use Stumbleupon as a way of discovering new photography-related websites and to give the “thumbs up” to articles I have enjoyed. I use del.icio.us to bookmark photography information and add them to my sidebar for my readers. And I vote for articles on PhotograhyVoter that have caught my interest.

Flickr is definitely the key to my social photography experience. In fact, if I had not discovered Flickr, I may still be “lurking” my way around the internet.

Related posts

• Have any of your Flickr photos been Schmapped?
• My Flickr collection is now organised
• Edit your photos in Flickr
• 8 simple steps to add your Flickr photos to your blog feed

In iPhoto, resize an image when you export it to be used in another application

Resize a photo using the export option

Emailing a photo or posting an image to a website (such as the ones in this post) don’t need to be large files. In fact, a lower resolution is preferable so you don’t crash your friend’s email program or create a webpage that takes a lifetime to load. Resizing an image will reduce its resolution and hence its file size.

There are two options to resize a photo using iPhoto.

Option 1: A simple but effective way to resize and email a photo

Select your image and choose the Email button at the bottom right corner of the iPhoto window. This pop-up box will appear:

The one option you have is to select a file size: Small, Medium, Large and Actual Size. You don’t have the option to select a width or height, but the pop-up will display the file size for each option you select. The smaller the file size the quicker the photo will download to the recipient’s computer.

Select Compose and the Apple Mail program will open for you to write and send your message. This is the most basic option and will only be useful if you use Apple Mail.

Option 2: For more control over resizing your image in iPhoto follow these 3 steps

Step 1 - Choose your image

Select your image and choose File -> Export. A pop-up window with three tabs will appear.

Step 2 - Select a file format

On the File Export tab there are several options you can change - you want the Kind and Size options. The Kind option has five file formats to choose from. Three of these allow you to resize the image: JPEG; PNG; or TIFF. If you select JPEG (a common format to email) you also have the option to select an image quality, ranging from low to maximum, and this will affect the final file size of the image.

Step 3 - Select a size

On the Size option you can simply select Small, Medium or Large, but if you want a specific size select Custom. This is my preferred option.

If you choose Custom select a specific height or width. Click Export and save the image to a location on your computer. And that’s it!

Example of the various file sizes

If you are concerned about the file size of your exported image here’s an example of the different options on one of my photos.

The original dimensions of this image below are 1928 x 1427 pixels with a file size of 1.4 mb. That’s too large a file size to email or add to this post and you would need to scroll across the page to see the entire image. My preferred image size for this website is 400px.

Custom resize

Resizing the original image to a 400px JPEG breaks down to the following dimensions:

• maximum quality = 184kb
• high quality = 44kb
• medium quality = 28kb (this is the one I’m using above)
• low quality = 16kb

Small, medium and large sizes

If I simply want a small, medium or large image (without using the custom option) the original image would become:

• full size = 436kb with the same dimensions
• large = 192kb at 1280 x 947 pixels
• medium = 56kb at 640 x 474 pixels
• small = 20kb at 320 x 237 pixels

Remember…resize on export

I have to admit this resize option in iPhoto hid under the radar for me for a while but it’s actually a very simple process. Having the resize option available when exporting it from iPhoto makes sense. And most importantly, resizing an image on export leaves the original version intact.

Related posts

• Add special effects to your images with iPhoto
• Use the tool in iPhoto to edit your images
• Make your images outstanding using iPhoto effects

Enhance your photos quickly and easily with the versatile effects in iPhoto

I previously wrote about using the tools in iPhoto to edit your images. In this article, I’ll explore the special effects that are available in iPhoto which let you make changes to your photos in just a few clicks.

So, let’s see what cool things we can do with an ordinary image.

In iPhoto, select an image, however ordinary… Actually, I quite like this photo. You can see where the sun hits the tree branches at odd angles.

Click the Edit button and select Effects.

The Effects box

The Effects box gives you thumbnail previews of what your image will look like with each special effect. Simply click an effect to see an immediate change on your image. If you aren’t happy with the changes you’ve made click the center icon to restore the image to its original colors.

Looking at the thumbnail icons for this image I am instantly drawn to the Sepia option. The tree takes on a sunburnt aspect and the sunny background looks as though there could be a fire looming.

That makes a difference to the image…but it’s still not quite right.

Mix and match the special effects

The sepia tones look great and the sun bouncing off the branches really stands out. But let’s try mixing and matching the options to achieve a better result.

A color boost with the sepia tones might just do the trick.

Intensify the special effects

It might be too small to see in the image above but on the Boost Color thumbnail the number three is visible. I clicked the color boost option three times; it can be clicked up to nine times. Check out the image below, now the sepia combined with the color boost (at number nine) looks like a sunset…or a very fierce fire.

Choose effects that are right for your image

With a little experimentation you can really make a difference to your photos using the iPhoto special effects.

The Antique option combined with an Edge Blur brings a lovely nostalgic feel to this photo (below).

This combination of Matte and Vignette (below) enhances the view out of an aeroplane window.

Experiment and admire your new images

So, back to the tree. I’ve settled on the sepia tones with a color boost of four. Click the image to see a larger version in Flickr.

We’ll explore more iPhoto wonders in future articles.

Related posts

• How to resize an image in iPhoto
  
• Use the tool in iPhoto to edit your images
• Give your photos a retro feel with the GIMP
• Make your images outstanding using iPhoto effects
• Make a cartoon effect on your images using iPhoto

Enjoy the power of iPhoto without buying expensive imaging software

The more I use iPhoto the more I love it. There are so many useful tools in this image editing program and I have realised I rarely use other photo editing software for these enhancements. It has been a personal mission, recently, to get the most out of iPhoto and online image editing tools to see just what can be accomplished without having to resort to the more expensive imaging software (I still use PhotoShop to learn the more intricate post-production techniques) and iPhoto has a lot to offer.

Of course, in a perfect world all the photos we snapped wouldn’t need any retouching at all…

In this article, I’ll focus on some of the tools you can use in iPhoto to improve your photos in just a few simple steps.

First, get a Mac!

Mac users are lucky: iPhoto is powerful without being difficult to learn. As with most of these things it simply requires a bit of exploration and experimentation. I won’t talk here about the ease of importing your photos to your computer, sorting them into albums, creating smart albums or making slideshows. I want to focus on editing your images with iPhoto, especially retouching, cropping and straightening.

Second, get an image

Take this image, for example. While it might not be the most creative of images, it happens to be a photo of one of my most favourite houses that I walk past quite regularly. There’s an intriguing mix of spookiness and tranquility.

So while the subject of the photo is interesting, the image itself could do with some improvement. Look at those telephone wires! And the corner of that car. And…isn’t the house a bit crooked?

Third, use the iPhoto tools

Retouch

Double-click the image and hit the Edit button. Select the Retouch tool. You’ll see a new option appear on the image that says Click or drag over blemish to remove and a Size slider.

The size of the retouch tool depends on the area you wish to retouch. As I am removing telephone wires here I chose a relatively small size. Once you are happy with the selected size you can click and drag it over the area to be retouched. This worked really well with the telephone wires. In the image below you can see that the click and drag effect seems to white out the blue background.

But as soon as you release the mouse button the background appears as desired. Below you can see the start of the disappearance of the telephone lines.

Straighten

What else? The house is crooked, isn’t it? Once again in Edit mode click on the Straighten tool. Grid lines appear over the photo making it nice and easy to straighten the subject. I lined up the front eaves of the house with one of the grid lines.

Crop

Lastly a crop to get rid of the car and to remove any unnecessary distractions from the house and we’re done!

Fourth, admire your new image

Here’s the final image.

So as you can see with a few simple steps you can really make a difference to your photos.

iPhoto has much more to offer and we’ll explore other tools in future articles.

Related posts

• Add special effects to your images with iPhoto
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I have the opportunity to experiment with this vintage camera, the Voigtlander Vito BL. What a change from digital! And I have only owned a digital camera for two years. The Voigtlander really takes you back to camera basics. No automatic settings, no way to visibly focus a shot; I was initially going on blind faith. The Voigtlander camera is totally manual and it’s so ‘old’ it doesn’t even need a battery.

I have to get film processed!

How old is this camera?

The camera belongs to my father. He bought it second-hand (from his future brother-in-law) way back in 1959 when he was 15 years old.

Not a lot of information is available online about this camera but I found that the Voigtlander Vito BL is camera was first produced around 1956-7.

Camera description

This vintage camera is in good condition, a rust spot or two, but I don’t think it will affect the performance. It still has the original brown leather case with hand strap. The case has a small bolt on the bottom right hand side which screws into the camera itself and holds it firmly inside the case. It means you can flip open the top half of the case and shoot a photo without taking it all the way out of its housing. Quite handy. And it adds to the stylishness of the piece.

Thanks to my father’s interest in history the manual has also survived - a bit of sticky tape here and there, but a very useful introduction all the same. And some great images.

Using the Voigtlander Vito BL

The camera is quite weighty but not too heavy, it feels very solid or secure, somehow, in your hands. It’s fun to use. Every action is manual. The lever to wind on the film to the next frame is fabulous. Even rewinding the film requires a separate button to be pressed, which pops up another button (in the image below) on top of the camera with which you wind off the film.

Being accustomed to a digital camera, and before that a simple point and shoot, means this will be a bit of a learning curve for me. I think it’s going to be quite an experience learning more about photography with the Voigtlander. I’d love to know what your impressions of using ‘old-fashioned’ cameras are and any tips you may have.

This image shows the Light Exposure Meter. Using the graph you set the meter to the film speed (so for instance an ASA reading of 200 indicates you set the meter to “F”). The manual includes a more detailed table to help you set the exposure. As you point the camera towards your subject, the needle moves along the black and white segments of the window and the final reading is what you set the light scale ring to. Sounds complicated, huh?

Let’s see how the pictures turn out…

A search for “Voigtlander” on eBay turns up more than a few results!

Looking for a camera manual for the Vito BL?

I’m more than happy to scan the camera manual for the Voigtlander Vito BL if you need a copy (no doubt the copyright has well and truly expired). Use the contact form to drop me a line.