# Sticky  Please read BEFORE posting images here.



## DonaldG

*Tips & hints*

These Tips & Hints will be added to as & when time and contributers permit.
If you have any hint or tip that you think will help and benefit others, please PM me & I will add them here.

At the moment these tips etc will be uncoordinated - as the forum grows and contributers come on line, they will become more organised.

* *BACK UPS*
Do you value all those family photos on your computer? With the advent of digital cameras, most 'family' photos are stored on a hard drive instead of being printed out by the chemist or photo booth/shop. How would you feel if that hard drive failed and all those pictures disappeared into thin air? Do you have a backup of those family treasures? At the very least, you should make regular copies of them on to a CD or DVD. Do not be tempted to make backups to a partitioned hard drive that holds the originals...If you have a second or external hard drive, backup up to that as an alternative

Do you have a backup regime? If not, have a look at SyncToy, a free utility written by Microsoft especially for photographers. Read this article then get your free copy of SyncToy here.


* *Don't work on the original image*
If you get into photo enhancing or manipulating, never work on the original image. Copy the original and save it with a different name. Then work on the copy. That way, if you make a mistake you can always re-copy the untouched original.

* *Working on images.*
In general, most amateur photographs will be in JPG format. It is important to understand that the JPG format is 'lossy'. When it is saved some of the data (and quality) is lost. If you open a JPG and save it again, more data/quality is lost. This happens each time you open and save the JPG. 

Eventually the image quality becomes very poor. To avoid this happening, if you need to open and save a photograph many times while you work on it, then save it in a 'lossless' format such as Photoshop native format 'PSD' or in Paintshop Pro, 'PSP' format. Only when you have finished working on it should you save as a JPG.

* *Essential check list before going out*
Is camera battery fully charged?
Do you have a spare battery?
Is the storage card formatted and empty?
Do you expect to take many photos? Do you have extra storage cards?
(Learn from my mistake: a lifelong ambition was to visit the Grand Canyon. After over 50 years of wanting, I ended up on the rim absolutely dumb struck in awe. I lifted my camera only to see 'Battery Flat' error. Fortunately I had a 35mm camera with a load of film but if I hadn't, imagine the disappointment!)
VIP: do you have a plastic bag in your pocket to put your camera in if it starts to rain?

* *The Golden Hour*
The best time to take photographs is within 1 hour of sunrise and 1 hour before sunset. With the sun at low angle in the sky, the colour if daylight is different and gives a much warmer glow and colour rendition to the photos.

* *Image Hosting*
If you want to show off your photographs to friends and relatives around the world, or just want to post a photograph to a forum like this, you can upload your favourites to a variety of image hosting sites. The free sites may have size restrictions, subscription sites have much fewer restrictions. 

Free image hosting:
Photobucket
ImageShack

Subscription image hosting:
Smugmug


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## Done_Fishin

*How to post an image hosted with ImageShack*

I like using Imageshack. I can drag'n'drop a picture into the reply box, upload, open the link given for the photo in a new tab then find the real source and link it straight inside my reply using the image tags


Code:


<a href="[B]http://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=194529241638269fj1.jpg[/B]" target="_blank"><img src="http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5935/194529241638269fj1.th.jpg" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" border="0"/></a>

open new link 


Code:


http://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=194529241638269fj1.jpg

click on photo to open "source"

copy URL 


Code:


http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5935/194529241638269fj1.jpg

wrap in *img *tags 


Code:


[img]URL[/img]

replace URL with the link found above 

result = picture


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## DonaldG

*Stepwedges for screen calibration*

These step-wedges will assist you to set up the correct brightness and contrast of your monitor. I have made 2 sizes. Use the large one if your monitor is 1024px or larger.

There are 26 steps from pure white to pure black.

You should be able define each step, especially the first and last 2 steps.

This does not allow for colour cast but will at least assist in setting up the vibrance of the screen.


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## DonaldG

*Re: Step-wedges for screen calibration*

To use the above stepwedges, it is a simple matter of adjusting the brightness and contrast of your display. 

Place the stepwedge in the centre of the screen. It is possible that some monitors fall off at the edges. 

Continue to do the adjustments until can see a pure black and a pure white and still define the subtle differences of all the steps, especially the steps next to the pure black & white ones.

Although they are saved in a jpg format, no compression was used. If you copy the images save them in a lossless format. Do not save them as a .gif. If they are converted to a gif, the gradient will loose its smoothness.


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## DonaldG

*Methods and Techniques*

As mini tutorials are created, a link to them will be added here

1: Text Styles/Decoration

2: Sensor Cleaning. Not a tutorial as such but will help in finding the right tools.

3: Exposure/Stop/ISO cross calculator/guide by Mack. A useful aid to exposures

4: How to make an OOB (Out of Bounds) Image

5: Image size Vs file size and download times

6: Adjusting Levels

7: Hand colouring a black & white photograph.


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## WereBo

*Photo posting limit*

Please limit your posts to no more than 10 photos per post, some folks aren't too keen on scrolling up/down all the time to see lots of photos. Photos are automatically resized to a 640 pixel width, but you can adjust this from the 'User Control Panel' in the 'Edit Options' section.


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