Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

How To Be More Popular on Flickr

October 4, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Flickr

A few weeks ago, I received an email from another Flickr member asking “how do you get SO many people to comment on your work? how do you manage to not get it lost among the zillions of photos here?”

Ha! If I had the true answer to popularity on Flickr!! Seriously, I don’t consider myself to be one of the most popular photographers on Flickr, and I am not claiming to be an expert. But I guess I do alright.

This article is a snapshot of my journey and how I came to my place in the Flickr community today. It’s just a few things I have noticed along the way.

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Aperture 2 Managing Libraries

September 28, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I am eventually going to run out of space on my Macbook Pro as I import the photos from my iPhoto libraries to Aperture 2.

This means I will have to maintain a smaller library on my MBP (containing current projects), along with a larger library on an external hard drive. Looks like it is pretty easy to do.

I figured out that double-clicking on any library will launch Aperture 2, and I love the idea of creating shortcuts to each library on your desktop or dock for easier access.

Here’s what I learned: Links for managing multiple Aperture 2 libraries

Editing Aperture 2 Autofill

September 28, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

To add, delete, and edit the autofill contents in Aperture 2, choose Metadata>Edit Autofill List

Found @ Inside Aperture

I am loving Aperture 2 more and more each day!

Aperture 2 - Inspector on Left or Right

September 27, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

Using Aperture 2 tonight, I was typing a keyword & accidentally hit the “I” key which hid the Inspector.

I don’t know the keyboard shortcuts very well and I somehow must have hit “Shift + I” and the Inspector reappeared but on the opposite right side of my workspace.

At first, I thought okay, let’s give it a try, maybe I will like it on the right side. But after a few minutes, I wanted the inspector back over on the left side. I tried dragging the Inspector, but it didn’t work. Google to the rescue.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/features/100.html

To switch the Inspector on the either side, click “Shift + I”

I really need to find a list of keyboard shortcuts for Aperture 2. Maybe I should try reading the manual, eh? Ha, there is a full pdf list on the Aperture Support page at Apple.

Download the pdf file directly.

Fantastic Bird Photography Website

September 27, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Podcasting

I found an inspiring bird photography web site the other day. It was referenced on a recent TWiP podcast show, which also included an interview with Arthur Morris.

BirdPhotograhers.net is almost too good. The photos are incredible, and there is so much to learn about nature photography.

I am still a beginner when it comes to birding and bird photography; I don’t know if I will ever be as wonderful as some of the photographers on BirdPhotograhers.net but it’s fun to keep trying.

White Throated Sparrow

Erasing and Reformatting a Camera Memory Card

September 26, 2008 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I was having crash problems with Aperture 2 (my photo management & editing app) when trying to import my photos directly from a compact flash card. See my previous article for more details.

I found what I hope is a solution - Erasing and reformatting the compact flash card in my computer, NOT just in my camera.

I am a believer of formatting your media memory card in your camera before every new photo shoot. But formatting this way doesn’t permanently erase the data; there is still a way to recover the data even after it has been formatted. My thoughts are, if a memory card is fully erased in your computer, then any extra residue will be removed and it should keep your cards running smoothly.

Think of it this way. It’s like when you reinstall Mac OS X or Windows. They say you should never reinstall without an erase and format of your hard drive, right? At least that is my way of looking at it, right or wrong, I don’t know for sure.

Remember, don’t format or erase your card(s) until you download your photos to your computer AND back them up to a second source. Always keep at least TWO copies of your photos!!

This tutorial covers how to erase and format using Mac OS X, but there are other excellent tutorials out there for Windows users. I found one from the Simple Help that is excellent. Just make sure to format as FAT.

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Aperture 2 Crashing when Importing from Compact Flash Cards

September 25, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I have been having a problem w/ Aperture 2 crashing when trying to import photos from my compact flash cards. So, after Aperture 2 crashes, I have to “force quit” and unless I restart or log out/log in, Aperture will not relaunch without crashing again. Very aggravating. It has happened with two different cards, using two different card readers.

Importing works fine if I save all photo files to my hard drive first from the compact flash card.

(Note: it seemed to have started after my last Mac OS X update (10.5.5) but that could be just a coincidence.)

The good news is, I think I found a solution, possibly (hopefully). I erased and reformatted (FAT) each card in Disk Utility, and this morning I was able to import some test shots into Aperture 2 without any issues.

I always format the card in my camera before every new shoot, but I know that doesn’t actually erase everything since photos can still be retrieved after a reformat, so there may be extra gunk lurking. After time, the gunk piles up, and it might just need a thorough cleanup. At least that is my train of thought!! LOL.

I know there are some photographers that say formatting is not necessary, but I have always believed otherwise.

I guess time will tell if my Aperture 2 problem is really fixed.

UPDATE 2008-10-1: I had another problem w/ a card today. I reused a card that had shots already downloaded on it, and I should have formatted it (following my own advice!) I only had a few photos on it; so, after I downloaded them, I stuck the card back in the camera.

UPDATE 2008-10-2: Sigh, I don’t know what is up w/ Aperture now. I can’t import from a card/card reader. It either crashes while trying to read the card, or crashes when I am trying to import from the card. Today, I trashed my preference file (com.apple.Aperture.plist) and allowed Aperture to create a new one. I reset all my preferences and I thought I might have got it working, but it got stuck when trying to read half the photos on the card. Some previews were visible, and the photos toward the end only displayed little square placeholders.

I launched Aperture in my other user account, and the same thing. Only some were displaying previews. I found an article by Tracy Ambrose stating that Aperture chokes on a lot of “different” formats that it doesn’t recognize, and I am wondering if somehow that is what is happening to me. I don’t understand why though, since all I have on the cards are RAW files. It imports them just fine when I import from my hard drive (downloaded from card)

I also found an article on Inside Aperture which recommends to delete any color pickers from your ~/Library/Color Pickers/ directory. I don’t think that would have any affect on me, since my other user account is having the same problem, and there are no color pickers in my Library there.

I will keep looking, but I guess until I find an answer, I will have to import from my hard drive. What a pain!!

UPDATE 2008-11-9: After Apple released the RAW bundle update 2.3, Aperture 2 seems to be working better. Installed the other day, and no problems so far with importing.

Happy Bokeh Wednesday!

September 24, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Flickr

Autumn is in the Air

HBW (Happy Bokeh Wednesday) - Bokeh is all the rage over at Flickr on Wednesdays! You don’t know what bokeh is? From wikipedia:

Bokeh is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

Photoshop Elements 6 Mac - Save For Web Not Working

September 22, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Mac Software • Photoshop

I don’t normally use the “save for web” option in Photoshop Elements, but tonight I wanted to. Click, click, click, I was choosing “File>Save for Web” and nothing would happen.

Google to the rescue. Found this helpful post on Adobe’s forum

I run as a standard, non-admin user so it appears that the Save for Web option is a little buggy for non-admin users.

The thing to do is launch Photoshop Elements in your Admin user account and run the Save for Web option at least once. Then log back into your standard, non-admin account and it should work from then on.

Worked for me! whoo-hooo!

How To Create Photo Diptychs, Triptychs & Montages

September 21, 2008 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Flickr • Photoshop

Creating a photo diptych, triptych, or montage is very easy using one of your favorite photo editors. This tutorial will be using Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac) but most any graphics/photo editor will do.

Note: a diptych is a fancy way to say a montage (or collage) of two photos, a triptych is three photos. Flickr has several groups for dips and trips and other montages.

For examples of diptychs that I have created, check out some photos on my flickr stream (tagged w/ diptych)

Let’s create a two photo diptych first.

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