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• Why Artists Hate "Photographers" 101
  by DrayeArt

  Now, before all you real photographers come lunging at me with pitchforks and fiery torches, I want you to take note of the asterisks on …

  Now, before all you real photographers come lunging at me with pitchforks and fiery torches, I want you to take note of the asterisks on the title. My beef is with the shutterbugs who flood these sites with everything they think qualifies as photography. I’m talking about the one’s who take pics at their kids birthday party, their dog or cat rolling around on the grass, the rustic old shack down the road, their wife or girlfriend stepping out of the shower(or some other equally unerotic pose), their vacation photos, etc. These are the one’s who take a picture of a bird on a wire, 10 different ways, and post them all. One shot of the old barn isn’t good enough. Why not take 20 more, get it from every damn angle. And post them all. How about the macro shot of the flower, always a banal treat. Oh, and don’t bother with that pesky focusing. Don’t want you to get slowed down. Now, I’m sure I’ll get replies like “Well, there’s just as many bad “artists”. This may be true, but it takes a lot longer to make a bad painting or drawing than it does a bad photograph. And you only can post one version of bad art. It matters not, because the bad art will never be seen, getting pushed out by 50 more bad photos. True, there are some serious photographers on these sights, one’s with knowledge of lighting, composition and color. One’s who have their own darkroom and equipment. One’s with serious commitment to their craft, and a discerning eye for what worked and what didn’t. But even their work gets buried under the schlock. If some of these digi-dummy’s would use more restraint and discrimination with their choices, maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to see the forest for the trees. If they thought to themselves “How can I put a fresh spin on this subject?” or “Should I bother, it’s been done to death?” , these sites would be a tad roomier. I made the mistake, when I first joined, of putting a few of these members on my watchlist. Now, I’m inundated every morning, with a new barrage of photographic excrement. I even tried taking them off the list, to no avail. It just keeps coming, like some Twilight Zone episode starring Pauly Shore. Moral of this story, is that I pick and chose after I see the work, now, and that the best place to show these pics, is at your next Christmas party. Digital cameras, the slide projectors of the new millenia.

• Making RES 101 - Scott Robinson's Bot
  by DieselLaws

  Hehehehe so i had some time to spare to make the coolest cardboard bot I have ever seen – Created by Scott Robinson...

  Hehehehe so i had some time to spare to make the coolest cardboard bot I have ever seen – Created by Scott Robinson and i even took photos of the process…p.s. The movie is going to be awesome!

• Photography 101 - On it's Maiden Voyage
  by Craig Goldsmith

  Hi and Welcome to Photography 101, / A group that I hope will grow into a great resource and community within the already great Redbubble …

  Hi and Welcome to Photography 101, / A group that I hope will grow into a great resource and community within the already great Redbubble community. Every photographer was once a beginner, and lets face most of us are still learning and honing our craft. I’d love to see this group grow into a place where both seasoned photographers and fresh beginners can come and share tips, techniques and philosophies behind the taking photos. In that respect I’d like to see the inclusion of various tutorials exploring the basics of light, exposure and composition (the real bread and butter stuff), as well as more exciting stuff like filters, flash, lighting, advance camera settings and whatever else we can think of. Of course this is just my idea of where the group may go, I’m also interested in hearing what you’d like included, covered and featured within this group. One thing I’ve been considering is a show and tell section, where you don’t use show off your photo (most of us have already been doing that pretty well), but we also go into detail on what was involved, explaining any of the techniques or settings used, but also the emotion or mindset behind the image. Regardless of where this group takes us, It will undoubted rely on contributions from all members so I look forward to your contributions. Enjoy and Happy Bubbling, / Craig

• Photography 101 - Group Guidelines
  by Craig Goldsmith

  Here are some simple guidelines on using the Photography 101 Group. 1. Play nice, in other words respect one another we are here to le…

  Here are some simple guidelines on using the Photography 101 Group. 1. Play nice, in other words respect one another we are here to learn and share, not to fight. 2. Please submit a maximum of three images a day to this group. 3. If you do submit an image please provide a description surrounding the image, how it was taken, why or the settings used (see here for a good example) group. 4. If you are looking for a critique on how to improve your photo please make that clear, placing a request in the Photo Help Desk is the best way to gain helpful feedback. (These guidelines will be updated as the group grows and we learn what works and doesn’t work, feel free to make suggestions it your community so help shape it).

• TROLL 101
  by bchrisdesigns

  (Note: The following transcripts were taken from the Red Bubble School of Etiquette’s summer workshop entitled “Troll 101”. – Enjoy!) / ...

  (Note: The following transcripts were taken from the Red Bubble School of Etiquette’s summer workshop entitled “Troll 101”. – Enjoy!) [Begin transcript.] Attention class! Today we are going to talk about trolls and “trolling”. No, I am not referring to those horrible creatures that dwell under bridges and eat billy goats. No, the trolls I am talking about are not mythological. They are very real and they are among us. YOU could be one of them… Students, the first thing you must be aware of is that trolls may exhibit off-the-wall, abhorrent behavior that would seem, to the majority of us, as mean-spirited, off-the-cuff, and rude. Many trolls have anger issues or issues with ego and pride. You can read this Wikipedia entry for further clarification of classic troll behavior: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_ You can also find more information in this Red Bubble forum thread: http://www.redbubble.com/groups/redbubble/forums/4/topics/19793 As the Wiki states, a classic internet troll is some one who: ...posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion. But now that we have a better grasp of the common, classic troll, let’s put intentions aside, and focus on a more common and vicious threat to our very existence, students. That is right, I am talking about the elusive and very detestable Trollitis Egoramous, commonly referred to as the Ego Troll. Now, the Ego Troll can strike anywhere and at anytime. Beware that this is the most cunning and sly of all trolls, as it hides among us and takes on the ordinary, everyday appearance of an actual good person. These trolls will infest our community without so much as an iota of coldheartedness, until the day when they feel the need to bring us down, tell us like it is, and leave us withered and betrayed by the very people whom we’ve grown to admire. You, yourself, may even be an Ego Troll and not even know it! So, now students, can anyone tell me some signs that could possibly point to you or someone you know being an Ego Troll? Let’s all turn to page 222 and follow along as I read from the text: If you have done any of the following things, you may be an Ego Troll: Tell someone that they have grammatical problems in their short story? You troll!!!!! Tell someone that their composition could be a little better? YOU troll!!!!! Tell someone that their story confused you and maybe they should consider editing it a bit? You T-R-O-L-L!!!!!! Tell someone that their piece looks like…gasp!...a “snap shot”? You filthy troll!!! Tell someone that they could have been a bit more professional in their forum post? You good-for-nothing troll! Tell someone that you are not a fan of their design because it looked rushed. You lousy TROLL!!!!! Tell someone that you artwork is NOT porn but rather an artistic nude? Ugh, you troll bastard! TROLL! TROLL! TROLL! Now students, if you turn to page 716, you will find a brief example of troll-like behavior taken from one of our very own Bubble forums. Please, take a minute to read this excerpt silently to yourself… I am an overly blunt person and have been called a troll, even though what I said was (A) the truth and (B) constructive. Some people just do not like to be told anything because of inflated egos, pride, or for whatever reason that stems from their childhood. And, these people will take this definition of “troll” blow it out of proportion and use it against any person who happens to have an opinion different than thier own! I have seen it happen so many times to myself and others…who are, believe it or not, actually decent and loving people. I mean, it seems like a freakin’ troll hunt and any one who does not agree with everyone else and tell everyone else that their work is beautiful…omg! so cute…wow…amazing…you rock!... and that their forum posts are spot on…and that we agree…totally…omg, for sure… is tied to the stake and burned! Move over Salem, cause there is a new form of witch hunt abounding right here on the Bubble! Oh, and don’t disagree with anyone or have an opinion. Don’t post adult themed content – that is not art! Don’t talk about things no one else wants to talk about because it bruises their precious egos! Notice the ego maniacal approach here. Notice how the ego troll uses sarcasm, metaphor, and brutal honesty to make others feel wrong in their summations. Also notice how this troll uses terms like “truth” and “constructive” to mask its hidden agenda! Also evident here is the troll’s use of mocking and misogynistic undertones to cut down the opinions of those who may not feel the need to be so opinionated about such things. The identity of this particular troll is unknown, but, as you can see, students, you must be very cautious in your everyday dealings within the Bubble or you may one day become an Ego Troll. Just do what is expected of you and follow some of the core guidelines for Non-Troll Behavior that are outlined in your text and that I have taken the liberty of writing on the chalkboard. Let’s us now take a few minutes to commit these guidelines to memory. Guidelines to NOT be a troll: 1. Have no personal opinion. Just say what you think they want to hear. And, make sure it is all over-the-rainbow-nice! 2. Make sure the work you submit is rated R or less… none of this NC-17 or Rated X crap! That is not art…that is smut! Remember, even with an R Rating, you will be pushing the envelope. 3. Offer no constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is for workshops, college classrooms, and other websites that choose to belittle artists and writers and not put them on pedestals to worship…where they belong. Constructive criticism leads to the slitting of wrists and other body parts – remember that! 4. Join in on forum topics that have to do with movies from the 80’s, ice cream, puppy dogs, concerts, chocolate, and how much we love each other and each others’ work and how much we are all super-duper artists and writers! 5. Steer clear from taking part in forum threads that deal with anything about art, writing, society, politics, religion, and other themes that could lead to two adults firmly citing their opinions and debating the topic. Any forum thread having to do with why we are all really here should be avoided at all costs! 6. Wherever you go…BOOST egos! That is the best service we can all do for this community on a daily basis! Who cares if the photo is amateur, the story riddled with grammatical errors, the poem chliche, or that the art’s composition could be helped? These things may matter in the outside, real world, but not here in the Bubble where things are all roses and happy thoughts and fluffy-bunny-feelings. 7. Be sure to use and re-use words such as “wow”, “excellent”, “amazing”, “breathtaking”, and (my personal favorite) “awesome” when commenting on works in lieu of forthright and honest opinions, which may, in the long run, help the artist or writer. Use these words often and in abundance and you will surely be liked and voted for in challenges and competitions even if your art/writing is substandard at best. Remember, students, to NOT be a TROLL, takes patience, understanding, and marshmallow-y goodness. So, get out there and show them s’more love (well, except for the trolls, you can hate them because we all do because they are vile and disgusting and should be banished from the Bubble)! And, always be sure to call anyone who exhibits the behaviors of a troll a “Troll”, because that is what they are (by definition) and so that is what they need to be called. And, no, don’t worry calling someone a “Troll” does not make you a troll yourself because that person deserves it. Any further questions, my wonderfully talented pupils? No? Good. Class dismissed. [End transcript.]

• Printing Images 101
  by George Lenz

  I went to the camera store to have some of my images printed, and ran into a couple of issues I thought I’d share with my fellow bubblers…

  I went to the camera store to have some of my images printed, and ran into a couple of issues I thought I’d share with my fellow bubblers. Maybe you already know this stuff, but it was new for me since I’ve mostly dealt with doing images online. 1. All my JPEG images were sized very large, like the ones we submit to RB. When they went to print these, say on 8×10, or 4×6, the proportions where not right. As a result some of the image was chopped off on the sides. For some images this was acceptable, for other is was not. On some I had them printed as 8×12, and put them in an 11×14 mat. They look fine, and I can offer these at the same price as an 8×10. Not too bad. 2. On some images I put a logo, but with the larger I prints the logo got larger too, and in some cases was chopped off because of the reasons I mentioned above. Those had to be fixed, and reprinted. The moral of the story is this. Save your original image, when you have it the way you want, as a big PSD file, with layers, including your logo. When you are preparing to print, open the PSD, and when done, save the file as a JPEG in the size you want to print. Use the crop tool to see how it will look. You may need to move the logo, or other items, around to make it acceptable. Don’t overwrite the original PSD file, and avoid re-saving JPEGs. The quality degrades after 4-5 saves. So, using this method, you can save the final JPEG for printing in the size you want without loss of content. Oh, and they recommended that you change the resolution for printing to 300, especially on larger prints, to avoid pixilation. Sorry this was sooo, log, but hopefully it will help you printing images. Cheers. G.

• 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Mins with Deke McClelland
  by Alison Johnston

  I posted this in the Learning Centre thread over on the main forums, but thought it might be handy to make a journal entry so it doesn’t …

  I posted this in the Learning Centre thread over on the main forums, but thought it might be handy to make a journal entry so it doesn’t get lost in the soup. Surprisingly, I have learned more from this man about Photoshop, than anyone else ….. you’ll understand why I said that when you watch the podcast. Just a bit of fun on a Friday evening, all the tips are valid though :-) 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes And the text from the podcast. 101 Photoshop Tips in Five Minutes / The actual tips from 1 to 106 and back to 101 / by Deke McClelland Time it: Time: 00:00.00 / #1: Wanna copy a layer? I say jump it: Ctrl+J. / You a Mac user? Awesome. / #2: When I say Ctrl, press Cmd, the one with an apple on it. / #3: For a new layer, press Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd-Shift-N on the Mac). / #4: To delete a layer, get the move tool and press Delete (or Control-Delete). / #5: Every letter selects a tool. / #6: Except F for full-screen, / #7: Q for quick mask, / #8: and D / #9: and X for default and switch colors. / Who knew X stood for “switch”? / #10: Press a number to change the opacity. / #11: Or two numbers for better control. / #12: Press Shift+plus to advance a blend mode; / #13: Shift+minus to back up. / #14: Press Shift and Alt with a letter for a specific mode. / #15: Mac folks, Alt means Option. / #16: Ctrl+plus zooms in. / #17: Ctrl+minus zooms out. / #18: Spacebar gets the hand so you can drag the image around. / #19: There’s also Ctrl+spacebar in / #20: and Alt+spacebar out. / #21: Ctrl+spacebar-drag to zoom way the hell in. / #22: Ctrl+Z undoes. / #23: Ctrl+Alt+Z backsteps. / #24: Ctrl+Shift+Z steps forward. / #25: Ctrl+Shift+F fades an edit. / #26: F12 reverts, / #27: Itself an undoable operation. / You hear that? You can undo a revert? That’s a hell of a tip! / All that pasteboard stuff works too: / #28: Ctrl+X cuts. / #29: Ctrl+C copies. / #30: Ctrl+V pastes. / Dan Gookin of DOS For Dummies fame joked that V stood for “vomit,” as in vomiting up the Clipboard. His publisher refused to print that. They actually refused to print that! Time: 01:15.43 / #31: Photoshop’s most essential command? Image Size: Ctrl+Alt+I. / #32: It’s partner, Canvas Size, Ctrl+Alt+C. / #33: Ctrl+F repeats the last filter. / #34: Ctrl+Alt+F for different settings. / #35: Using a selection tool? Drag to start a new selection / #36: Or move a selection outline. / #37: Shift adds to the selection. / #38: Alt deletes. / #39: Shift and Alt finds the intersection. / #40: Press the spacebar to move the selection on-the-fly. / #41: Ctrl+A selects everything; / #42: Ctrl+D selects nothing. / #43: Ctrl+Shift+I selects what’s not selected and deselects everything else. / #44: Ctrl+Alt+R brings up Refine Edge. / #45: Alt-click with the lasso tool to draw straight-sided selections. / #46: Shift-click with a brush to paint straight lines. / #47: Press Alt with a brush to get the color-lifting eyedropper. / #48: Press Ctrl to get the move tool. / #49: Ctrl+H hides selections and other “extras.” / What’s an extra? Press Ctrl+H and find out? / I gotta quicken the pace. Shit! / #50: Ctrl+1, / #51: 2, / #52: 3 to switch channels. / Hell yeah, I’m counting those as three! / Here’s another one: / #53: Ctrl+tilde for full-color composite. / #54: Ctrl+L for Levels, / #55: Ctrl+M for Curves, / #56: Ctrl+B for Color Balance, / #57: Ctrl+U for Hue/Saturation. / #58: Add Alt to bring up the last settings. / #59: Mash your fist on Ctrl, Shift, and Alt and press B for Black & White. / #60: In Levels and Curves, Alt-drag that white slider triangle to preview the clipped highlights / #61: Or that black one for clipped shadows. / Want to duplicate an image? Don’t choose this [Duplicate]; / #62: Just click here [Create new document from History state]. / #63: Press Ctrl+W to close an image. / #64: Y to save changes, / #65: N to abandon them. / #66: On the Mac, that’s S and D. / #67: Either way, it’s Esc for Cancel. / You know, Esc. C’mon, Esc! Time 02:48.36 / #68: Press Ctrl+T to invoke Free Transform. / #69: Press Enter to apply or Esc to skip it. / #70: Ctrl+Alt+T transforms a copy. / #71: Ctrl+Shift+T repeats the last transformation. / #72: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T plays a transformation sequence. / #73: Press a bracket key to change the size of a brush. / #74: Press Shift+bracket to change its hardness. / #75: Caps Lock for precise cursors. / #76: Alt switches dodge to burn and burn to dodge. / #77: The comma and period keys cycle through gradients. / See this tool [sharpen]? Worthless. Look at this. You want this? Worthless! / Yes, that’s a tip: Don’t use the tool! / #78: Bang, there’s another one! / #79: Ctrl-click a thumbnail in the Layers, Channels, or Paths palette to load a selection. / #80: Press slash to lock a layer’s transparency. / #81: Press tilde to hide the image while viewing a mask. / #82: Press backslash to view the layer mask. / #83: Ctrl+Backspace fills the background color; / #84: Alt+Backspace: foreground color. / #85: Add Shift to fill just the opaque pixels. / #86: Press Shift+Backspace to get the Fill dialog box. / Hey, look at that! / #87: That’s trans lock’s opposite [Behind mode]. It locks opacity. / What the hell is it doing here? / #88: Ctrl+bracket moves layers forward and back. / #89: Add Shift to go all the way. / #90: Alt+bracket selects layers. / #91: Press Shift to select multiple layers. / Press Ctrl+Shift+A to select all layers. / #92: That’s wrong. It’s Ctrl+Alt+A! / I don’t even know what Ctrl+Shift+A does. / It doesn’t, Adobe, it doesn’t do anything! I don’t think it does anything. / #93: But Ctrl+G, that groups layers in a folder. / #94: Ctrl+E merges selected layers. / #95: Ctrl+Shift+E merges visible layers. / #96: Ctrl+Alt+E stamps a layer onto the one below. / #97: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E merges everything on a new layer. / #98: Ctrl+Shift+C copies a merged version of the layers. / #99: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes an image in a selection. / #100: Alt-click here [Add layer mask] / #101: Or here [Cancel to Reset] / #102: Or here [trash without warning] / #103: Or here [color ramp to switch background color] / #104: Or here [eyeball to hide all others] / Yeah! / #105: Or here [horizontal line to make clipping mask] / #106: Or here [color swatch to delete]. Time: 05:08.16 / Holy crap, I just went over! 106 tips! No! No, no, no. / [to off-screen director] / You should’ve stopped me, you should’ve let me know. That’s your fault. / [to viewer] / That’s his fault. I do not fail. Remember, I do not fail! / Alt-clicks out. I want them all out. Gimme that time back! Time: 05: 27.92 / [clock rewinds] Time: 04:56.73 / Okay. Nicely done, me. For those wondering why I left out your favorite tips, / #100: Like Tab to hide all palettes / #101: Or Shift+Tab to hide just the right-side palettes. Time: 05:00.00 / I didn’t! Ha ha! I just mentioned ’em. Works for me!

• Some new images
  by Anne Staub

  These are new images, all using my own photography (one image only and composed while shooting), only texture and color was added/altered…

  These are new images, all using my own photography (one image only and composed while shooting), only texture and color was added/altered using Photoshop. I thought I’ll put them together on here. Any ideas about a new category for them??

• Featured Work - Graphic Editing 101
  by Ash Sivils

  Thank you guys. I appreciate the features more / than I can express.. I was surprised to say the least. / If you haven’t checked this group…

  Thank you guys. I appreciate the features more / than I can express.. I was surprised to say the least. / If you haven’t checked this group out already, I say go / for it … there are some talented members! Group Hosts: kcranmer / Stewart Wood / Thomas Dodd / Charles Winslow Another thank you to atomikboy “An ode to Ash Sivils FEATURED WORK: Graphic Editing 101 Insomnia In My Hands

• Photography 101 Group
  by ginnymac

  Can anybody enlighten me? I have posted this everywhere I can think of still no answer. I am having trouble getting images either reje…

  Can anybody enlighten me? I have posted this everywhere I can think of still no answer. I am having trouble getting images either rejected or not….. help! they just sit there waiting waiting sent bm to mods…no reply! please somebody talk to me!! getting older everyday may not live to see the outcome. !!!! I notice their featured pics have stayed the same for weeks too. / Gini. /

• Graphic Editing 101 - Featured Member
  by Lyra

  So I was noticing a lot of new traffic today – come to find out I am one of the featured members at the Graphic Editing 101 group. (sweet…

  So I was noticing a lot of new traffic today – come to find out I am one of the featured members at the Graphic Editing 101 group. (sweet) The group is very cool, created by mister Charles Winslow Come join us! Graphic Editing 101

• Straightening & Cropping 101
  by Trevor Patterson IPA

  Work flow is the one thing that Photoshop isn’t very good at imposing on / you (nor should it), or leading you through, but it doesn’t tak…

  Work flow is the one thing that Photoshop isn’t very good at imposing on / you (nor should it), or leading you through, but it doesn’t take a beginner / very long to work out that pretty much the first thing you will want to do / with your photographs, once you have loaded them into Photoshop, is either / Crop or Straighten them (or sometimes both). Although Photoshop / provides a tool specially for this job, it’s not very good at doing either / one of these essential tasks. The Crop Tool will straighten a photo, but you / have to rely on your ability to rotate the crop accurately. The Crop Tool / will also allow you to correct any perspective problems in your image, but / again, it’s not a very good method of doing so. The thing about Photoshop is / that it provides about six different methods to achieve nearly every task – which / method you use and when to use it, is left entirely up to you. Unfortunately / this approach causes Photoshop’s user interface to be mind bogglingly / complex to navigate. Cropping and Straightening your images The technique I’ll outline below relies on two unrelated, but very powerful / methods, of achieving a more controlled and precise crop and straighten, but / first things first. Your camera probably has a nice little feature on it / that allows you to view a rule-of-thirds grid through the viewfinder, which / you may use to help you compose your shots, but Photoshop doesn’t give you / this grid set up, does it? Well, yes actually, it does; it just doesn’t / come out of the box set up for you, so here’s how to set it up. Create yourself a new blank document or load a photo so that you have / something on screen to look at, and then go to the Edit menu. At the / bottom of this menu is the Preferences item with an arrow next to it. The / fly out menu lists all the different things you can configure for / Photoshop’s default preferences (actually, they all call-up the same Dialog Box). Select the Guides, Grid & Slices item and you will be presented with a dialog which allows you to set your preferences for…..you guessed it – Guides, Grids and Slices. Now unless you’re into web page design you can forget / about Slices, and I have to admit, I’ve never really investigated what Smart Guides do for you, but the Guides and Grid sections are important. You don’t really have much control over the Guides bit, just the colour and appearance of the guides; I have mine set to 100% Cyan and Lines. The Grid part of this dialog allows you to set your Rule of Thirds grid up, you just need to set the colour (I use bright yellow to match the grid on my camera) and dashed lines. Here is the important bit – set the ‘Grid line every:’ box to 33.33 and the drop down box next to it to ‘percent.’ For those of you who didn’t pay attention in maths at school, that’s one grid line for every 1/3 of the image – you can subdivide the grid if you like, although I don’t – and I have my Subdivisions box set to 1. Now click on the OK button to close the dialog and voilà! your rule of thirds grid should appear over your image (if it / doesn’t, you need to press ” Control + ’ ” keys and it will show the grid – this acts as a toggle, so just press ” Control + ’ ” again and the grid disappears). Now don’t worry, I’m not going to go into how to actually use this Rule of / Thirds grid to aid composition, as there are better explanations of the rule / available on line than I can give you here. I just thought you may like / to configure your copy of Photoshop to show you this grid so that at least / you can attempt to follow the rule, or see when your image breaks it. Now, the method I use to straighten my photos is as follows: on your Tools / pallet you will find the Measure Tool (I know what you may be thinking, but I / don’t want to measure anything, I just want to straighten the horizon on / this pic, so bear with me!) It’s one of the tools that’s hidden / underneath the Eyedropper Tool; armed with this go to your picture and / choose a horizontal or vertical element of the image – it may be the horizon / in your sunset, or the corner of a building, or whatever (but don’t choose / something that’s not straight because the perspective of the shot needs / correcting – converging lines are corrected later on in this method). Use a / window sill, the base of a building or anything that should either be / horizontal or vertical, but isn’t, because you didn’t hold the camera / straight, or you’d had too many glasses of wine! Zoom in on this part of / your image and with the Measure Tool draw a line across the two end points / as accurately as you can – the longer this line is, the more accurate the / result will be. Now go to the Image menu and select the Rotate Canvas item / and choose Arbitrary from the fly out menu. A small dialog will appear / telling you the angle of rotation and direction needed to straighten your / image, so that the line you drew with the Measure tool ends up sitting on / either a Horizontal or Vertical plane. All you need to do is click OK and / Photoshop will rotate your image for you. Now you will probably find that / your image has transparent areas around its edges where the picture has been / rotated, but don’t worry about that, because you will be fixing that in the / next bit. Okay Cropping; probably my favorite filter in Photoshop is the Lens / Correction filter found in the Filter menu under the Distort section. This / is where I do the rest of my cropping work – this filter is underrated in / my opinion, but with it you can correct: Lens Barreling – apparent when you have your lens set to wide angle. Chromatic Aberration or lens fringing – apparent in areas of high contrast / on your image (go on, zoom in on that tree, see the blue fringe on the edge / next to the sky? Yuck! Get rid of it with the aid of the sliders here). Vignetting – your camera may not suffer from this problem (mine doesn’t), / but you can also use it to ADD vignetting to your image for a pleasing / effect and it’s a good way to experiment. Perspective problems – converging lines on buildings which make them appear / as if they are going to fall over. Two sliders here allow you to correct the / perspective of your shot both vertically and horizontally. And lastly, you can use the Scale slider to get rid of those transparent / triangles at the edges that we introduced before. / You could also use this filter to straighten the image, but frankly, I don’t / think it’s as accurate as the Measure tool method – just my personal / preference, but hey! Go on give the Lens Correction filter a try, and see whether you like it! The only problem with this filter is it’s a destructive one (in Photoshop / CS2 at least), and by that, I just mean that once you click on the OK / button you can’t go back and tweak the settings – well, you can, but it’s / not very easy because you need to have saved them separately first. The important thing to remember about this Lens Correction filter is that it / only works on the active Fill Layer (the one you have selected in your / Layers Palette), so if you not sure about something make a copy layer first / (Control + J) and work on that. You can always delete the layer afterwards / if you don’t think it worked for you. Since areas of a layer can exist outside the bounds of your canvas you will / find that the bits of your image that you can no longer see are actually / still there! It’s not till you flatten your image that Photoshop gets rid of / them. Well I think that’s about it for cropping and straightening and anything / else comes under another title for another day. If you found this useful / then let me know, and I might be tempted to write about some other aspect of / Photoshop. (I saw a tee on RB which said “starving.. will web design for / food” well that’s me! ) I hope you found this useful and informative, now go out and create / something stunning!

• More Photography Web Sites
  by Patricia L. Ballard

  These are a couple of web sites that I’ve found useful over the years. Hope they help all of you, too. I’m not particularly recommending …

  These are a couple of web sites that I’ve found useful over the years. Hope they help all of you, too. I’m not particularly recommending them as the be all, end all of sites, but they are useful additions to the knowledge base. DPR, Digital Photography Review, http://www.dpreview.com/.This is usually where I start my price comparing for new equipment. Great list of links. Has forums divided by type of camera. Fred MIranda, http://www.fredmiranda.com/. He’s developed some interesting Photoshop plugins. My Digital Discount. Usually start comparing flash card prices here.

• Breakfast Cereal Combining 101
  by davoid

  This is my current breakfast cereal combination and typical amounts: Oat milk (organic) – 175ml / Uncle Toby’s Nut Feast – 25g / Cole’s …

  This is my current breakfast cereal combination and typical amounts: Oat milk (organic) – 175ml / Uncle Toby’s Nut Feast – 25g / Cole’s Bran Start – 15g / Kellogg’s All Bran Flakes Honey Almond – 25g / Sultanas – 15g / Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Clusters – 15g Method: / Heat bowl with hot water / Heat milk to hot and pour into empty heated bowl / Add Nut Feast, Bran Start, Bran Flakes and sultanas / Stir lightly / Add Crunch Nut Clusters Notes: / Nut Feast has a maple syrup/malt aroma and flavour. / Bran Start is very similar to All Bran but cheaper. / All Bran Flakes Honey Almond has slices of almond which adds some texture. / Crunchy Nut Clusters are basically corn flakes coated in sugary nuts with clusters of grain mixture for more texture. An alternative corn flake cereal I sometimes use is Sanitarium Granola Clusters Vanilla & Almond, although this gets soggy quicker it does have a nice flavour, with dried apple slices. By adding the Crunchy Nut Clusters last they don’t so soggy and make the mix a little crunchy. This is a delicious breakfast or snack that is healthy apart from the added sugar in the Nut Feast, All Bran Flakes & Crunchy Nut Clusters. Nutrition Facts per above serve / Calories 421 / Protein 11g / Fat 8g / Carbohydrate 69g / Sugars 29g / Fibre 13g / Calcium 180mg / Iron 4.4mg

• My work has been featured in the Graphic Editing 101 group *does happy dance*
  by TeresiaSimmons

  ‘What Kind of magic’ / has been featured in the front page of Graphic Editing 101 / THAT IS AWESOMETASTIC!!! / yeah… / I am a happy kid

  ‘What Kind of magic’ / has been featured in the front page of Graphic Editing 101 / THAT IS AWESOMETASTIC!!! / yeah… / I am a happy kid

• Composition 101
  by Chipper

  Composition 101 Summary from my notes on composition at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography weekend in Asheville, NC—2008 H…

  Composition 101 Summary from my notes on composition at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography weekend in Asheville, NC—2008 Have been familiar with the “rule of thirds” for along time and for some reason always applied it horizontally. At this meeting, they pointed out that if you apply the same rule vertically, the two groups of lines form a “tic-tac-toe” grid with a square centered in the frame. The instructor referred to the four corners of this square as “power points”; the four areas of the photo where the eye naturally tends to look in a scene. The upper left hand power point is the most significant. Regardless of culture and reading path (up, down, left to right, or right to left) the human brain goes to that spot first. (There is actually scientific evidence to support this comment.) The eye is naturally attracted to the brightest, most clearly focused feature of a scene. Triangles are the most powerful of geometric shapes in a composition. The triangle also helps to keep the viewer’s eye in the frame. THREE is the preferred frequency for number of items in a scene, ie: three flowers arranged in a triangle. These rules work for any subject matter whether it’s a landscape or a portrait. Example: Portrait – eyes on upper third line hopefully near the two upper power points. The shirt, drape, blouse, etc. should form a “V” below the face so that the eye line completes a triangle. / Of course, / Rules were made to be broken!