Archive for October, 2006

The BBC Tips On Photography

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I think that the BBC is the master of all media. I am constantly impressed by the documentaries, articles, etc on the BBC site. Yesterday I was checking out the photo tips from Tom Ang, a professional photographer and a senior lecturer in photographic practice in London.

The page is called “How To Take Good Photos” and the layout is simple. There are six categories. (Compsition, Light, Colour, Landscape, People, Being Ready) And, there are four to six subcategories under each main category. What I like about this is that each subcategory only has 3 or 4 one liner tips. Sometimes that is all it takes to get you started.

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Link: BBC: How To Take Good Photographs

Digital Picture Frames…I Want One

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Digital Foci released a new digital picture frame today and it looks really nice. I has a remote, an 8″ screen, auto on/off, and a place to insert memory cards.

Ever since I saw the first digital picture frames, I’ve wanted one. I’d love to get a large one to hang on my own wall. Also, I think it would be the perfect gift to give to grandparents. There are some that are wi-fi enabled. You could get it set up for them and just subscribe it to a feed of photos. Each day, the photo would change so they’d have something new to look at on the wall. I can just imagine my grandma eagerly awaiting the next photo.

The problem is that these frames are still so expensive. (The one mentioned above is $229 dollars.) I guess that’s not a huge amount in comparison to any other screnn (e.g, for a computer) but it’s not quite in the price range to be giving away as gifts yet. (At least not on my budget.)

Does anyone have a digital photo frame that you use and like?

FMP Flickr: Airplane

This is great. From what I can tell, the picture was of the plane flying thru the desert. But, with the post productions, he cropped out the background and made it look like the plane was flying out of the picture.

Very creative.

(If you’d like your photo to be featured on FreeMacPhoto, just submit it to the FreeMacPhoto Flickr Group)

Using PicLens To View Photos Online

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This morning on TUAW, they posted about a great new Safari Plugin called Piclens. With this plugin installed, visiting sites like Flickr and Facebook are way more enjoyable.

To install, just download the package and run the installer. You’ll have to restart Safari to activate the plugin. Once installed, anytime you mouseover thumbnails on a page there will be a little icon that pops up. (pictured above) Clicking on that icon will create a slideshow of all the pictures on that page. It’s much like a iPhoto slideshow, but pulling pictures from the internet. When you’re done, just hit “esc” or click on the x in the corner.

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The plugin is for Safari only and it’s in beta right now. But I used it for 15 minutes on different sites and had no problems. Fun!

Canon Offers Rebates on Their Products

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If you are planning on buying any Canon products, be sure to bookmark this page. Canon recenly released a whole list of items that they’ll offer a rebate on. This includes some SLR’s and a bunch of lenses.

So, find the best deal you can and then be sure to make it a little sweeter by sending in this rebate. (If you buy two products, you can double the rebates.)

Link: List Of Available Canon Rebates

Five Fabulous Freewares For Flickr

Today on FreeMacWare, I posted about a great new tool for uploading your photos to Flickr.com. That tool will make it even easier to share your photos.

Below are five Mac OS X freeware Flickr apps that you should know about:

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  1. Gleam - Gleam is the best way I’ve found to upload images to Flickr. The interface is just perfect.
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  3. FlickrGet - When you find a Flickr set you like, paste the URL in this app to download the hole thing at once.
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  5. Sniper - It’s like iPhoto for your flickr account. Cruise your photos with this app instead of the cliick after click of navigating Flickr.
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  7. Tickr - You can choose any keyword or user and have their images scroll along the side of your Mac screen.
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  9. Flickr Backup - With all the work you’ve put into your Flickr account, be sure to get a nice backup of it all.

If you have another one you like, feel free to leave it in the comments. We’re always looking for new freeware to check out.

(Please digg this post)

FMP Flickr: cloudhopper

I don’t even know where to start with this one. What beautiful colors and great detail.

(If you’d like your photo to be featured on FreeMacPhoto, just submit it to the FreeMacPhoto Flickr Group)

How Big Can I Print My Photo?

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Today on Design215.com, they put up a nice chart to show you how large you can print your image according to the megapixel of the camera. For instance, they say that a 3 megapixel camera can create a nice 5inx7in photo.

This is a really common question among new photographers. It’s really nice that they’ve created to reference. One thing to keep in mind is that they have figured this out with the notion that there will be 300ppi. (pixels per inch) Three hundred is the number required for “true” photos in magazines and such. However, I’ve had photos printed at 200ppi with no problem.

For instance, my old Digital Rebel XT is an 8 megapixel camera which the graph pegs at 8 1/2 x 11 as a maximum. But, I’ve had the shots printed at 12×18 and they still looked great.

So, this graph is a good reference, but don’t be too disappointed. Just try a few experiments with your camera and see where your personal max stands.

See The Chart

(via photojojo.com)

FMP Flickr: Spider silhouette

(If you’d like your photo to be featured on FreeMacPhoto, just submit it to the FreeMacPhoto Flickr Group)

Download All The Aperture Videos From Apple

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If you have ever wanted to learn more about Apple’s Aperture, here is a good way to do it.

Today on Mac OS X Hints, there was a hint that showedDownload all Aperture Quick Tour movies at once. Basically, you’ll want to take the listed urls, highlight them, then drag and drop them on the Downloads window in Safari. (Which can be found under the “Window” item in the menubar.

By the way, the fella that submitted this tip has a blog full of Aperture tips and tricks. Check it out here.