NVMUG eNews 6/09/2007
Last updated 6/12/2007
Video Recording, Digital Photography, and Questions and Answers
Interviews with NVMUG members were video recorded. Warren's digital photographs lead to discussions, and Closeup Shooting was added to the NVMUG library. Questions were answered. And, we had a brief look at Photoshop CS3.
1.Video Recording
The meeting started with Janice Raphel video recording short interviews with Hartley (that's me) about NVMUG. Then interviewed Warren Walker about his digital photography. She interviewed Richard Smith's son about sports and Richard Smith about his Special Education Documentation program. Nevada is now interested in the program.
Janice interviewing Richard's son. From left ot right, Russell Carlsn, Richard Smith, Neil Raphel, Janice Raphel, Stephen Farber and Richard's son.
Neil Raphel explained that she edits them in iMovie and converts them to Quicktime movies which reduces the file size. Neil showed a video on his laptop that was taken before they had the separate microphone so you could hear some camera noise. He showed iMovie clips and explained how they add transitions. He said they sometimes take a frame and use it as a still picture, and they use GarageBand record a voice over and then edit it with the iMovie.
They may put the video on YouTube or Google, tag it as St. Johnsbury, and refer to it from the St. Jay Works web page they are developing. They said that they would like to link to video because two or three pictures of the FarmerÕs Market does not convey the flavor like a video does.
Janice interviewed Stephen Farber who is interested because his wife is making videos for historical records. They edit them in iMovie and put them into iDVD to make DVDs.
Midge came in late because Richard woke her up early to see a moose in their yard. I am sure that is what she said. Janice interviewed Midge and who talked about NVMUG and our first President, Scott Pelok, who wants to do an internet conference with us from Michigan. Midge said we are a Macintosh support group. We have no dues because we only have an email newsletter, but may have to have collect a small amount of dues to cover expenses. Midge said that Warren learned from a book, but many of us appreciate hands on help, and learn better by watching someone else do it.
Neil has put one of the interviews on YouTube. The link for all of the St. J. Interviews (for now) is http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stjraye&search=Search
2. Digital Photography
Midge showed two framed pictures by Warren Walker. The smaller wildflower picture was for Warren's father, and the larger foliage picture which would sell for $100 will be displayed in a store window. MidgeÕs business is in making frames and selling framed pictures to stores for resale.
Midge showing framed photos by Warren.
Warren was asked whether the picture was enhanced using Photoshop. Warren said that he only adjusted the exposure slightly. He said he spent about 10 minutes in a marsh getting the composition the way he wanted it.
Warren used a film camera for many years without good pictures. When he began using a digital camera and framing the images on an LCD screen he learned good composition and his images improved. Now, when he started using a digital SLR using a view finder, he realized that he was looking at the subject, not the picture. He had to start consciously composing, and his pictures are now better than before the new camera.
Warren visited a professional photographer's studio who teaches photography in Montpelier on Open Studio Weekend and was amazed by her pictures. He said his next interest is in flash. On camera flash is limited, but off camera flash can offers many alternatives for better lighting - even including an LED screen that produces a broader light like a light-box.
I said that is why Warren was going to be the first to read our new NVMUG library book, Closeup Shooting from O'Reilly publishing, which has excellent coverage of the use of flash in closeup photography. (This book was reviewed in the meeting announcement, and the review is now on this NVMUG web site.)
Warren carries a coffee filter that he puts over the lens to adjust white balance for better lighting. In using 35 mm film, photographers used filters over the lens, and bought special film to try to get the correct light balance (or the one they liked). Today, in RAW, they can change the white balance in processing on digital cameras.
Warren and Barry Hayes agreed on the importance of getting the right exposure in the first place for quality images, because you cannot get the best results by just compensating in Photoshop. Warren said that brightening leaves that were in a green dark light area gives results that are not near the color that was there. Barry said, "Crap in, crap out."
Warren with example of well exposed trilliums.
Warren said a snapshot is using a camera to preserve a moment, a memory, that is its purpose. Photojournalism presents serious legal and ethical limits to editing because it is a history, while in fine art anything that makes good art is OK. Barry said you are selling memories, and people are looking for the meaning in it.
3. PC to Mac User's Questions
Russell Carlson decided to go from a PC to an eMac when he saw an ad for a three or four year old eMac for $200. It has 384 megs of memory which will run a OS X 10.4 minimally. It can be increased to 1 gig if he decides to do it. But Russell only want to use it to learn about Macs before investing in something like a 20 inch iMac.
Russell's first question was how to hook up the HP printer from his PC to it. I had brought an HP 935 printer to the meeting that I no longer need, and Stephen Farber recommended that we give him the printer, and let him keep the old printer connected to his PC.
His next question concerned a problem adding and updating programs. No disks came with the eMac, and he does not know what the administrative password on it might be. Barry Hayes suggested that he try leaving the password blank, which will work if the former owner left it blank. Stephen said it the button is blue you can just click OK you can go on.
Midge has a disk with the OS X 10 for an eMac that she would let Russell use to reinstall the software from scratch, and then he can set his own name and password. Nell said, to choose a short name to make it easy for the future.
Russell's last question was what to do when Safari unexpectedly quits. Some members said they like Firefox better because it works on more web sites that Safari. Russell may get it because he liked Firefox on his PC. Neil likes the new version of Opera. I is real fancy, can have 9 pages on the screen, and he recommended that people try it. Smith said there is a Safari Enhancer plug-in, which disguises it so Safari works on any secured site.
Gene Levine said one thing that bothers people in moving from a PC to a Mac is that they are used to things being more difficult on a PC. They expect the Mac to be more difficult and that makes it more difficult. He said to try it because it just works. Neil said that if something is bothering you, and you cannot immediately find the answer in Help, type what is bothering you into Google. He often types it into Google first and gets the answer.
(I bought a new HP for wireless connection to our two Macs. There were instructions for connecting on a PC and on a Mac. The person who wrote the instructions must have been a PC technician. No matter what I tried to follow them, it did not work. I sent an e-mail for help, and the answer was probably from a Mac technician. It was so simple I couldn't believe it.)
4. Data Rescue
Barry Hayes is running Data Rescue on Neil's machine. He booted with Data Rescue and it has been running for over 24 hours to try to rescue the data from the dead hard drive. It will be awhile before he will know how much of the data it rescued.
5. Photoshop CS3
Barry Hayes has Photoshop CS3 and offered to demonstrate on his MacBook Pro near the end of the meeting. Unfortunately, I had to put my laptop down to see go over to see what he was doing on his laptop, and without it I have no notes.
Barry Hayes showing Photoshop CS3 on his MacBook Pro.
He demonstrated the new desktop layouts with palette docks, and the revised RAW processing which includes a nice little change in the white balance adjustment. He also demonstrated the greatly revised Bridge with its improved image management tools. He demonstrated how and the ability to compare multiple images in Bridge helps when working with a client.
It would be great to have Barry give a longer demonstration of Photoshop CS3. He is a Photoshop instructor.
