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Computer skills for Digital Photography
These are the basic skills that everyone can aim for. During the year, we will cover most of them in some detail.
Photo related
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Basic computer skills
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Transfer to our new group website address
'skills' updated 14:59 Jan 7 2010
Browser Tips
These tips were written primarily to improve the experience of using the gallery, but they will help with many aspects of surfing the web.
Which Browser?
You use a browser like Internet Explorer (IE) to surf the Internet. There are no disadvantages in installing additional ones.
For extensive web browsing firefox [www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/] is excellent, strongly recommended and generally considered better than IE.
The tips here apply specifically to Firefox, but most work with any modern browser.
Fullscreen
To see more of the page visited, click F11 (or do View > FullScreen)
Click F11 again to go back to the normal display
Zoom
- Ctrl + to increase zoom
- Ctrl - to decrease zoom
- Ctrl 0 to reset to default
Searching on a web page
- To open the search bar, do Ctrl F
- Type text which will highlight the first instance. Text turns red if the text is not present.
Previous pages
To go back to previous pages do one of the following
- click the 'back' button on the Navigation bar
- press Backspace
Tabs and Windows
By default most browsers use 'Tabs'. To open a new tab do one of the following
- click the + to the right of the tabs
- press Ctrl T
- do File>New Tab
Refresh
If a page does not load properly or seems to have stalled, try clicking Stop and then Refresh on the Navigation toolbar.
Updates
For maximum online security, it is essential to use the latest version of any browser. Most offer you updates automatically, but to check do Help > Check for Updates
Understanding the first three lines and the last line
Title bar: top line
Website icon followed by the webpage name and the browser name
Menu bar: second line
Gives access to browser functions. Click each entry to see what's there.
You may find File>Page setup and File>Print Preview useful.
Navigation toolbar: third line
A set of icons followed by the current website address and then the search area
For more see Navigation+Toolbar+items [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Navigation+Toolbar+items] [new window]
Status bar: bottom line
Shows what the browser is currently doing
- 'done' shows that a webpage has fully loaded
- when you hover over a link, the address beneath the link is displayed here
Transfer to our new group website address
'browsers' updated 19:59 Aug 3 2010
How to copy images
There are many ways to make backup copies of images prior to editing, but here is one of the easiest screenshots from Windows XP.
See also the golden rule for the need to make permanent backups on a different drive from the originals
We will copy images from My Pictures to a folder in My Documents, but the principles work for any folders. You can use either the original or the copy folder for editing, but make a definite choice and stick to it!
The three steps are
1) Locate images or folders to be backed up and copy them
1.1) do Start>My Pictures
1.2) Select and copy
- Select pictures you want to edit (single click first, Ctrl+click others)
You can also select complete folders if you wish
1.3) Edit>Copy [or Ctrl+C]
2) Create destination folder
Skip this step if the destination folder is already there
2.1) click My Documents
My Documents is an example, but you may prefer to create a new top-level folder for backup copies.
2.2) click Desktop
2.3) right (context) mouse click > New > Folder
2.4) 'New Folder' highlighted ready for editing
2.5) Name folder
- type name
- click in white area to finalise
- click icon to left of folder name to open folder
3) Paste files
The final step
3.1) right (context) mouse click > Paste [or Ctrl+V]
3.2) here are the files ready for editing
'copyimages' updated 21:26 Mar 23 2010
Reducing image size for emails
The typical size of an image file from a modern digital camera is over 2MB, unsuitable for email or the web.
For the members gallery, the preferred size is 1024×768 pixels and jpg compressed file size should be from 125-250KB. For more on compression, see pixels to jpg
Use Picasa to create reduced size images
If the image also needs to be enhanced, refer instead to basic image editing
This is one of the easiest ways to email photos or to prepare images for the gallery.
With Picasa open, do Tools>Options>E-mail and move the slider until 1024 pixels shows up on the LHS (see screen shot). Click OK. You only have to do this once unless you wish to change the size again. Picasa has no option in the E-mail options dialogue to control jpg quality.
Then, in the library view, select the pictures you wish to send (single click the first, Ctrl+click others). Do File>E-mail to create a new email with the resized pictures attached. For an email, address, edit and send the email in the usual way. To get the reduced size images for the web, either send the email to yourself and save the images from there, or, with the unsent email open, right click on an image and select 'open' and follow the prompts to save the image to the 'Gallery' folder.
Reducing image file size in other ways
- the easy way uses a built-in Windows wizard
- the xnview page describes another easy way
- if you edit the images yourself, for the gallery make the longest edge 1024 pixels and adjust jpg compression to a target file size of 125-250KB.
Transfer to our new group website address
'email' updated 08:46 Dec 14 2009
Sending images by email - the easy way
This method, which works on most Windows PCs (jpeg files only *), automatically creates small copies of images and includes them in an email. A similar method, which works for all formats, is described on the XnView page.
Screen shots are from Windows XP.
Note: If you use an email program (Outlook Express, Outlook, Thunderbird...) this process will work.
If you normally use webmail (Hotmail, Yahoo...) I'm not sure what happens - someone needs to test this please.
This can be a tricky area at first. If you have difficulties with the instructions on this page, try one of these instead:
- emailing photos [new window]
- Send Photos Via Email (Windows) [new window]
Navigate to the pictures you wish to send
Click the Start button on your own computer and then click on either (My )Pictures or (My) Computer. You may have to navigate to a lower level folder to find the images you want to send.
Select the pictures you wish to email
Single-(left)-click on the first. To send more than one, Ctrl+click on others
Select Mail recipient
With the mouse cursor hovering over any of the selected images, right-(context)-click, and click on Send To>Mail Recipient
Send Pictures via E-Mail dialogue
For XP, make sure Make all my pictures smaller is selected, then click OK. For Vista, click Attach.
If you have used this dialogue previously and have changed the picture size, make sure the smallest option is selected - (click Show more options on XP, use selection box on Vista). For the Members Gallery, use the medium option (1024 × 768 pixels).
Send email
An email with the images is prepared in your email program. Add an addressee and send the email in the usual way. You can add more text if you wish. The screen shot below is what I see. Yours is likely to be different.
* This method works for jpg images, not tif, Photoshop, DNG or Raw. For those other formats, use XnView. If you don't understand what these other formats are, then your images are probably suitable, so carry on regardless.
'the_easy_way' updated 21:58 Oct 31 2009
Tips for files and folders
What name is best?
- for a filename guideline, see filenames
- for a presentation, an easy solution is to prefix filenames with numbers
- 010,110,120,130... is a good initial choice, giving room for inserting other images into the sequence later on
- images starting 90... will sort after this sequence, not before!
Make 'file type' visible
File type is determined by a filename extension, for these files usually .jpg
Although hidden by default, for this kind of work it's much safer to make the extension visible. Do this with:
- Start > (My) Computer
- Tools > Folder Options > and click View tab
- On about the 11th row, clear the checkbox against 'Hide extensions for known file types'
- Click OK
This is a permanent change for all file types, however you can change it back later if you wish.
How to change a filename
- Do Start > (My) Pictures or Start > (My) Computer and navigate to the photos whose filenames you need to change
- Hover the mouse cursor over a file, click the right hand mouse button and select Rename
- Type the new filename in the highlighted edit box
- Initially the whole filename is highlighted If you type, you will replace the complete filename
- To edit rather than replace the filename, click anywhere in the highlighted box to position the cursor within the edit box
- Do not edit the file type (eg .jpg)
- When you have finished editing, to confirm the change press Return or click anywhere else on the screen
- If you make a mistake and want to start again, click 'Esc' during editing
- If the file has already been renamed, do File > Undo Rename or Ctrl+Z
Batch renaming
Xnview, Irfanview and Picasa are able to rename many files at once (Xnview recommended).
For more complex renaming try A.F.5 Rename you files [new window], but avoid AF5 with RAW images.
Image editors can also rename files. Adobe Bridge, supplied with full Photoshop, is excellent.
Creating a folder for your reduced size gallery images
This is a one-time action
- click Start>[your PC User name]
- click Pictures (for example)
- right (context) click on the right of the window
- select New>Folder
- type Gallery to name folder
- click away from the filename to complete renaming
This folder can also be created directly with Picasa later on
Transfer to our new group website address
'filename_change' updated 08:06 Jul 26 2010
