In a week when i re-adjust to life generally in 2012 as an armchair photographer, I am sitting here at my kitchen / dining table dreaming about nostalgic times in the past and a few pre planned trips that I hope to fulfil this year. My Mother is now back home and there are different concerns to worry about but I am mainly assisted by a professional team who are supervising her three times a day. I visit her most nights I can for about an hour and then return home to a regular rotational e-mail list to report on the progress. Contrary to what followers think, I haven't abandoned or stopped blogging but it's been difficult trying to fit everything in. Just as I wanted to publish something in February, I will endeavour to comment on blogs over the next week, sorry for my absence to your works.
In a parallel journey, my internet problems this year have led me to explore issues of watermarking and although I have moved on in life from the previous post, hence why I need to post something new ... the Hotel who were not directly profit making from the photo, apologised, removed the image and offered me a free cream tea !! ... probably worth around £5 !!
.... it's a nice thought but not the easiest of places to get to, 370 miles in the car, possibly 2 or 3 nights Bed and Breakfast ... in The Sidmouth Harbour Hotel ... moving on to the next paragraph...
The first step in my editing journey was the complex issue of Photoshop elements 10. It seemed like a great idea to sign up for the free 30 day trial. I have come to the conclusion like anything to do with computers ... "it is easy if you know how". My journey began with the difficulty of trying to access the beast. Personally I think 30 days is not long enough as it is more important to gain an understanding of how the system works during the period rather than perform advanced editing.
I managed to create some brushes thanks to a YouTube link from Petra and a Seeing to pictures post from Adrian. However I had difficulty creating a standard size brush for both cropped and uncropped images which Adrian answered personally but I couldn't understand why this didn't work. I asked a question in a Forum to which it took several replies to ascertain that my elements page had been corrupted in some way and it was unfortunate that he spoke a different computer language to me !! As I had spent too much of the month on this issue, I had a desire to sample other features of Elements ...
... next on the list was the other hot topic on my page of eliminating distorted verticals on buildings. As an introduction, all my photographic life, I have used standard lenses with the option of moving up to zoom lenses on a variety of cameras. With my lack of knowledge on the wide angle lens ... of 24mm from December 2010, the temptation was too great to push it to the limit in an area that I was unfamiliar with.
This process of correction was difficult at first but with two YouTube clips I found a complex and detailed link...
followed by a simpler one who sounds like one of my Yorkshire friends ....
Unfortunately the file was 70MB and wouldn't load through my photo storage supplier. I found by accident a short and unusually swift presentation of how to reduce the MB size of an image or rather "Get as many hits to the link as you can because there's no way you are going to understand this after 4 plays " !!
Unfortunately, I may not have been looking at the correct video because after the file of specific images were reduced to 3.8MB or even 1.5MB, loading was still an error.
I discovered by accident that I could copy from the Facebook note page but would not load the initial file of 70MB, however after re sizing it did. Yeah, that nasty website meant that you are looking at the next four images.
"Computers are easy if you know how" !!
I was overwhelmed by support and ideas in the comments section of the previous post. All these ideas and programs need time to explore. Wind ... you have gone way beyond the call of duty, I appreciate your input and your comments have been noted. As a tribute to Wind, here's my take using some past images...
I dream of escaping ...
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| My door ... in Summer |
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| My Car ... stuck |
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| My door ... in Winter |
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| My dinner .... lol |
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| My next trip !! |
Ah well, best go and get the milk out of the fridge and make another cup of tea !! ..........
I must say, I do like the fridge! Sorry to hear about your Mother. We are dealing with my Mother-in-law currently with many health issues and care issues. It is a time consuming and stressful thing. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michelle, I hope you find a workable solution with your Mother in law. The daily problems seem relentless at the moment as my Mother is re-orientated back into her own home.
DeleteIt is very good, that you keep your mind on another devil called computer..
ReplyDeleteI am not the person who can give help in this matter..
Many hugs, dear J!!!
(and as their is a German saying "Hold the ears stiff").
I try to improve with the computer Monika, but it is very trying. There is light at the end of the tunnel in a small issue but it is a long tunnel.
DeleteGood to see you back! I hope that all your problems will find a happy solution!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ola. It will be a while before things improve but small steps in all directions.
DeleteLOL. And I thought MY fridge was full of magnets. :-) 'Great minds...' and all that.
ReplyDeleteYou might enjoy my (coming) Friday post with the picture of Yorkminster, if only because I didn't get it completely straightened. lol Oh well. I'm not a perfectionist. But I'll have to say that after all the complicated stuff you've been through lately, I'm pretty satisfied with my ancient Paint Shop Pro 7.
SO good to hear from you again! I am glad that things are settling down with your mother's health issues, although I know how draining can be.
Cranberry Morning, I remember a photo of some of your magnets, we share the same York one ! ... amazing considering there are so many different ones there. Even though I haven't got much to show from this year I have loads of material from last year. The straightened building was an experiment that was easy to do but difficult to load on here. At the moment a lot of arranged visits and appointments are now coming through & it is difficult to try and fit them all in, I've arranged three for friday when I'm off work.
DeleteWow what a fridge!! I had to look hard to find the door!.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a good job with those photos, your right about the 30days not being long enough its finding the time to have a play with it, but you will find the more you use it gets easyer.
There might be a short course running on elements at a college in your area it has helped me no end the one I'm on.
After your 60 days trial of Elements have ago at the 60 day trial of lightroom you can them compare which one would suit your needs, having played with elements for the last two years, I was sold on lightroom and got the software.
Gald your mom is back home.
Jan
Intresting youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j0x-YnhfGM&list=UUFrmZQhRSVgnCreE0mM2QQg&index=41&feature=plcp&noredirect=1
Jan... Thanks for your good ideas, I appreciate that. At the moment time is a bit precious and wish the computer issues could have waited until about the month of May but such is life. A course is what I need to find, great idea and the lightroom clip is an interesting comparison.
DeleteI see you also have a lot of magnets on your fridge, J_on_tour, like myself:)
ReplyDeleteI am not very happy with the new entrance in the Cathedral. I also have a photo taken in the 90'. By then, the Catherdral looked more armonious, that's my opinion.
I am glad you started to be present in the blogosphere again!
Travelling Hawk... The Cathedral entrance is a bit strange, I'm not sure what is going on there at all even now ...
Deletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16061387
My, oh my, you have had some challenging times. I do hope all goes well with your Mother--it is quite worrisome as our parents get older and have health problems. I'm glad you are back again and hope you can get some enjoyment from posting photos and such--we all enjoy the! Go have some tea and relax---tomorrow is another day! Take care. Mickie :)
ReplyDeleteMickie... Thanks for you concern, I am still here although I'll see how the next month goes. I have had the photos loaded for the next post loaded for a long time before these two taking a break posts while I deal with these other issues.
DeleteThese have straightened up fine. It needn't be complicated.
ReplyDeleteCTRL+J duplicate the image. CTRL+T.....Free Transform. hold CTRL then grab a corner handle and pull the image straight. When you are happy click the green tick or press enter.
Photoshop has been developed over years and new features plonked here and there. Were they to rejig the interface the folk that can use it would be in a real pickle.
Adrian... thanks for your encouragement & inspiration. I appreciate how easy this is once I found out how to do it. However loading it onto here is virtually impossible even with the reduced MB to a workable size as Picassa refuses to accept it. You can tell that the text changes half way through the post as it seemed to follow the Facebook style. I'm not happy about copying and pasting everything through Facebook & you will also notice the quality loss in doing so, I'm 40% happy with the total outcome.
DeleteI hope everything is running smoothly with your Mum. You seem to have mastered photoshop elements better than me, I have not managed to sort out verticals yet.
ReplyDeleteI hope all your journey plans come to fruition, I shall look forward to the photographs :-)
Cream tea, ay? Well, at least you got an apology. You've shown some good editing work; I'll be interested to see the direction you take now.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about your mother. This week I have talked to so many people who are changing their lives to make sure they can care for their loved ones, and I see some changes on my own horizon. I think it's a good club to belong to.
JoLynne ... I'm interested to know which direction I'm going to take as well !! I have saved some watermark templates as a start and am going to look at a different program next to see what it will do. Photoshop elements is good for straightening out the converging verticals but it is difficult to load onto here even when the MB is reduced to a workable size. As a preview, next up is a few posts from Yorkshire before I move onto the good stuff. So there's a possibility that the watermark may not be ready for the next post.
DeleteThanks for your concern re: my Mother, it's a difficult one but I'm sure we'll all help one another through it.
Hi, Jayz. Glad to hear from you. Hope everything will be fine soonest. Stay safe and enjoy your break.
ReplyDeleteRizalenio... thanks for your kind words & support, always good to hear from you & I always enjoy your fun material.
DeleteCiao J., many wishes for your mother, and congratulations on the ever-beautiful pictures, but I wonder if there is still space in your refrigerator, for other magnets!
ReplyDeleteHave a good day!
Sciarada... thanks for your best wishes. No there's no more room on the fridge. I have to move the not so good ones further down as I create my masterpiece mosaic !!
DeleteI come back here now and then to see what's happening. I'll have to say that your refrigerator is a LOT more colorful than mine. Mine is covered with magnets too, as you know. But you've got better magnets. LOL I'll need to make another trip to England just to get a few different magnets. I'm still annoyed with myself for not bringing anything back from St. Martin-in-the-Field(except maybe a backache from sitting on those hard pews during a concert. lol)
ReplyDeleteYour posts have also made me eager to go to the Lake District, to Durham, and also to the coast. I regret not having gone there when we were SO CLOSE.
I love my fridge !! .. both inside and out !! It always provides a talking point for new visitors to the house & friends that return as it's something that can't be missed. When I moved house I had to make a note of the order that they were placed in as it would have been too difficult to start from scratch again. The top door is set in stone unless I go to some important place. All the flat ones are on the side & it all goes a bit pear shaped as it reaches the floor !!
DeleteI must confess I haven't seen a magnet of St Martins in the fields, I have the standard multi scene & Big Ben one. I bought a few too many from the different sights of Aruba, Paris and Prague. As a preview I haven't got anything else from Durham or the Lake District at the moment but I have got material from 28 locations (maybe about 35 posts), half of which you'll be pleased to know ... are from Yorkshire.
Well, just don't give up, J, everything needs its time. It seems to me that so many things are "easy if you know how"... and sometimes it's just a matter of getting the knack of it.
ReplyDeleteThe corrected building under the cathedral is beautiful!
Thanks for your encouragement Petra, even though the snowball effect of computer problems rolling down the hill has increased since I wrote this, I am more determined than ever to conquer it.
DeleteSorry I'm so late getting back to you regarding "Watermarks".
ReplyDeleteI found the BEST+FREE site to add watermarks to your photographs.
Something you should know about me, If I can do it, anybody can do it!!
I'm not your computer/program genius, but this is so simple it's ridiculous!
Batch Photo Watermark is the name of the program. Is it the best program for watermarking, I don't know. But it's getting my job done for listing my photo's for sale on my website.
Again, I'm sorry for being out of touch and not posting often to my blog and staying on top of your blog. You know, life just catches up with you!
My best to you and your mom! Glad to hear she's home.
Happy Travels!
Debbie
Thanks for your support Debbie. I have got watermarks images saved now ready for use ... I just need to grips with the new & difficult photo library now. I have a lesson tomorrow with it.
DeleteWell, I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with magnets from all around the World plastered on her fridge!!
ReplyDeleteIt is a conversation piece....."You've been to all these places?"
Have a fabulous day, J
Debbie's Travels
I had hoped to publish a "real" post on here by now but unfortunately my problems continue on 3 fronts...
ReplyDeleteMy Mother has been home for 3 weeks now and her independence needs managing a bit more carefully (running before walking !) & plans to increase the short term memory are slower than what I would like. The combination of those issues requires a consistent amount of time constraints on me particularly at the end of the day when I should be relaxing after a hard days work in front of ... the computer !!!
My Computer problems have increased, partly because I didn't have the time to apply myself to learning different applications. Essentially the 30 day trial of Photoshop expired without the opportunity of giving it proper justice in only attempting the partially successful watermarking & rectifying converging verticals. I had to store everything straight to the desktop as the elements editor got corrupted and replies from the forum sites were not understandable as the process of repair that I was directed upon didn't correspond with the pages that I was getting ... I lost confidence in it & have sidelined it for the moment.
My photo library was getting too large and even though I have images backed up onto a general computer hard drive, a 2nd one that just contains images and all the original cased SD cards(OCD i know !!), I was waiting to watermark the images before deleting most from the working library. Unfortunately I was working with a variable of 5 - 10 GB due to downloading all these programs and updates that it gave me no space in the meantime to load more images. That in itself wasn't a problem this year as I have had my travel wings clipped but i needed to fulfil a trip with 7 Yorkshire friends to Lisbon that was booked last year... I find it impossible to go to a place like that and compromise on saving ... GB space. I decided to upgrade from a 250 GB HD to a 650 GB. It would seem like it would solve all of my short term problems and I could always change the hard drive back to the original once I got sorted if it caused me any functional problems. However despite all the relevant back ups that were transferred on to the new HD, there were a huge amount of updates required and in the long list of these was the one I had purposefully been ignoring for some time to update my photo library. This newer version is substandard to the one I was used to using and I can't revert back to it as there is no no purchase receipt as it came free with the computer. I have now downloaded the more difficult aperture 3 program with which it looks like I need a lot of help with as the page is a mess and needs sorting out. I had previously stored sets of images into albums and these duplications have been transferred straight into the library so I need to sort out which one's which before deleting them into a workable sized library. Just to give you a clue as to the scale of my problem, the data suggests that I have 38,000 items (I did have 15000) ... I may be some time thanks to my naivety about posting images on the internet and a Hotel in Sidmouth.
Lastly, even though I enjoyed the tiring trip to Lisbon (1... I recommend that you find the most comfortable walking shoes ever due to the beautiful but hard on the feet street tiles that are everywhere. 2... I'll have to think of a way of sharing those images on a separate page after the other designated 20 - 30 waiting posts), I have amassed other problems that I did not envisage that could be either helpful or a severe conflict of interests. Anyhow one of the outcomes is that I am off sick from work at the moment which is why I am having the time to write this.
Life can only get better ... :-) haha !!
Hi, Jayz. Glad to read some updates from you. I'll continue to pray for your mom.
ReplyDeleteRe your workloads, maybe you need an assistant. I'm raising my two hands. I'm a fast learner.
I miss reading your posts, J!! I do stop in now and then to read your tweets. Hope the flu is a distant memory and that you'll have a good weekend coming up. We've had unseasonably warm (and snowless!!) couple of weeks here with temps in the 70s and 80s. It's marvelous, and the first spring that I haven't really missed England. Still, I would love to be along the east coast today, maybe Scarborough or Whitby...and then driving up to visit Durham Cathedral. sigh.
ReplyDeleteall the best...
I appreciate your comment Cranberry Morning. My flu is just about gone & I have another appointment in the computer shop on thursday with the photo library lesson. I am more determined than ever not to be beaten by this and will come back stronger than ever. For obvious reasons the camera has taken a back seat at the moment but be assured that you will not miss anything that I have already captured. I had hoped to get a March post done but I am having to prepare for the big trip in less than two weeks time.
DeleteCiao J., Happy Easter to you and your loved ones!
ReplyDeleteDear J..
ReplyDeleteYou have been missed!!
Wish you from heart a Happy Easter!
Stay well and take care of yourself!!!
Hope all is well with you, my dear friend. Stay safe in all your travels.
ReplyDeleteI think I have about 44 GB of photos on my hard drive. I too got a new hard drive which is supposed to be 640 or so GB. Deleting the 14.9GB of emails helped a lot. lol
ReplyDeleteEager for you to share your trip with all of us out here in blogland. We've missed you. Oh, my post tomorrow is about St Cuthbert Gospel, which, I read, will be on display at Durham Cathedral and the British Library, alternately. Lucky you!!
Hope all is well there and that your mother did fine while you were gone.
Wow! You have so much magnetic souvenirs on your fridge!
ReplyDeleteThese are something I will collect in my trips and gifts for
my friends and colleagues...
The complicate and heavy computer works of photography also
kill me, always have many RAW and JPEG I need to resolve...
I think you need a 'Wisconsin' refrigerator magnet! :-)
ReplyDeleteCurious about the 10th. Cant' wait to see what you've been up to.
Sad news here: My camera died. And this is not the time of year that we can afford a new camera. Besides, I want the old one back. I don't want a newfangled camera with lots of new stuff and gizmos I've got to deal with! Grrrr.
Hope you're having a good day. We're getting wonderful rain. My newly-planted alfalfa field is loving it!
Hi, Jayz. How are you? Hope evertthing's ok. Take care.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you dear J? We all miss you!
ReplyDeleteTake care!!!!
Can't help you with the garden except to say you should check out my blog post today if you want an EASY WAY to keep weeds out of the garden. Of course Britain may have rules about a Daisy and Onslow garden, but it works for me. :-)
ReplyDeleteHurry up with the watermark. We miss you on Blogger! :-)
I'm a lot closer than you think. I've loaded up 6 or 7 images in a draft. Just need to write some text. It'll be a bit of a surprise when it arrives because I even surprised myself with this interim post.
Delete