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How to Edit MetaData Presets in Aperture 2

January 3, 2012 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Digital Photography

Every new year, I have to edit the year on my copyright for photos imported into Aperture 2, and every year, I search for the same web article online to figure out how to do it!

Well, for future reference (2013 and beyond…) here’s what I need to do to change my copyright date in the metadata preset:

In Finder, open the XML file and edit in Text Wrangler (or other plain text editor)
File is found at /Library/Application Support/Aperture/Metadata Presets.plist

Here is the original article:

http://simonabrams.squarespace.com/home/2010/2/4/aperture-quick-tip-update-your-metadata-presets.html

and where I originally found it:

http://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2010/2/5/updating-metadata-presetsthe-xml-way.html

Big Beautiful Photos on Craig’s List

October 21, 2011 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Internet

I was posting an ad on Craig’s List today, and noticed how crappy the photos looked after uploading them to Craig’s List. Yuck! There had to be a better way. I tried compressing them further, and no luck, Craig’s List still compressed them further and they looked horrible!

After googling, I found a forum post that helped! I never realized that you could upload your photo files elsewhere online, and then link to them using the html tag! Awesome!

So, I resized and optimized my photos again (larger) and uploaded them to my Google’s Picasa Web Album. From there, it’s easy to set up a link.

Here are the details:

Picasa Web Album

Note: this tutorial is specifically written for google’s Picasa online photo management, but you can use many other online photo management web sites like flickr or photobucket. But if you have a gmail account (and I strongly recommend that you do, especially if you’re regularly posting on Craig’s List), then you automatically have your own Picasa photo account.

In Gmail, click the “photos” link to go to Picasa Web Albums.

click link to picasa web albums

If you need help resizing and exporting your photos for the web using iPhoto, please read over my tutorial.

If you are using Picasa, I have a tutorial for that as well. Both tutorials are older from previous years.

Upload Photos to Picasa Web Albums

Once you are in Picasa Web Albums, click the “upload” link.

Type a name for a new photo album or “add to an existing album”

If you have the Mac Finder open, you can easily drag your files into the open space on Picasa, or if you prefer doing things the old fashioned way, click the “Select photos from your computer” link and choose them that way.

Once all your photos are uploaded, click the “ok” button on the bottom right.

Change Photo Album Privacy

You’ll notice that by default your album/photos are private, only viewable by you. To change that, click the “edit” button (from column on far right) and change the visibility to “public on the web”

edit privacy for photos

Get the HTML to Embed Your Photo Into Craig’s List Ad

Once uploaded, your photos will be organized in the new album. Click on the first photo.

On the far right, you will see some photo information. Click the link to “Link to this Photo”

Select Size: Choose the appropriate size to display your photo on Craig’s List. 400 px is a good size, so choose “medium 400” from the pull down menu. (see screen shot below)

Then check the box next to “hide album link” – this will only display the photo without the main album. (see screen shot below)

Lastly, click your mouse pointer in the little code/text box for “embed image” and the complete line of code will be highlighted. (see screen shot below)

get the html code to embed photo

Once the code is highlighted, click Edit>copy from your browser menu.

Launch your Craig’s List ad text in a new tab or window in your browser and when you are ready to insert the photo into the ad text, choose Edit>Paste and the code will be pasted into your ad.

The html code should look something like this:

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/###feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-###/filename.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a>

Now preview your Craig’s List ad to make sure the photo is displaying properly. If so, then repeat these steps for your additional photos; paste the codes after each other in your ad.

IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTE: I’m super paranoid about Craig’s List, and you should be too (there’s a lot of scammers and nefarious browsers out there) so be aware that these ad photos are linked back to your Picasa Web Album (and gmail email address) – My advice is to set up a completely new gmail account that remains separate from your home/personal email account. That way you are not inviting strangers to view personal/family photos that you might have previously uploaded.

Keep your Craig’s List photos completely separate from your personal photos! Even if you set your other photos as “private”, you could be inviting a hacker!

Good luck and I hope this tutorial helped!

Facebook is Promoting Deleted Content – Facebook Doesn’t Delete User Data!

March 20, 2011 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Internet

I’ve always understood and accepted that Facebook saves all your content, even the stuff you delete. What I didn’t realize was that it’s still 100% accessible to anyone that has the right link, and worse, Facebook is actively promoting and encouraging access to your deleted content!

Today was a real eye-opener.

My Facebook friend and I were posting on a conversation on her wall about biking and walking to work. I happened to notice one of the “Memorable Status Updates” on the sidebar of her wall. There was an interesting conversation about exercise from about 18 months ago, so I clicked, and posted a new comment on the old thread.

My friend questioned me as to how I found the old discussion, since she regularly cleans her wall of older posts, deleting them. She informed me she deleted it months ago!

Now, as I previously mentioned, the fact that Facebook retained deleted content didn’t really surprise me. What DID surprise, stun and scare me was that Facebook was actually promoting and encouraging access to said deleted content!

So, that means that if you posted something terrible about your boss or inlaw, change your mind, and delete it a few days later, if you become Facebook friends with that person, they might actually find that post on the side bar listing “Memorable Status Updates”.

LESSON LEARNED! Don’t post anything on Facebook that you don’t want to last forever! NOTHING is every truly deleted on Facebook and Facebook can promote access to it any way they want…

Other Links:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/facebook-does-not-erase-user-deleted-content/4808

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/10/facebook-may-be-making-strides.ars

EDIT 2011-04-10: It’s funny, since I wrote this, I haven’t seen any instances of the problem. Thankfully, maybe Facebook came to their senses! But this proves that they CAN pretty much do whatever they want with your content, and the cat could be out of the bag before you realize there’s a problem! Don’t put anything on Facebook that you don’t want to be public – JUST IN CASE they decide to mess up again!

Good Mornin’

July 31, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

Happy Friday!

Good morning bug on a wet leaf

Don’t Be Afraid to Think Big!

July 12, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

We found this teenie tiny little guy this morning. Isn’t he adorable?

teenie tiny frog toad creature

Flight to Heaven

July 8, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

Taken on our July 4th Holiday weekend. We were eating lunch by a little airport near Lake Winnipesaukee.

flying a plane to heaven

Do I Love the iPhone?

July 2, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography • iTunes & iPhone • Wireless

So, I did pick up my new iPhone 3GS last weekend. Black, 32gb.

And I adore it! I love love love that I am able to have internet where ever I am. I loved the iPod Touch, but it was limited to only wifi, so I missed out on a lot. But the iPhone, oh I am in heaven!

I really love the camera, both still photographs and video are wonderful. And again, being able to upload or email immediately is so cool. (Can you guess this is my first Smart Phone? My husband has had a Blackberry for awhile, but this is MINE!)

iphone 3GS - photo of Mindy

The true test will be when we travel up north to New Hampshire or Maine. Don’t know how the AT&T service will fair in the boonies. I have a feeling I won’t be connecting on 3G, but it’ll be okay. My expectations are low, so I hope they will surprise me!

Wiscasset, Maine

July 1, 2009 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography

I love when we vacation on the Maine coast. It’s one of my favorite places!

Unfortunately, we won’t be traveling to the Maine coast this summer, but we do have plenty of other areas to visit!

Here is a photo from last year, taken in Wiscasset, Maine – edited in Lightzone and Aperture 2 (click for slightly larger version):

Wiscasset Maine coastal ocean photo

(all photos are copyright protected. Do not use or copy without written permission)

iPhoto Smart Albums

June 29, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

Cas Rifkin posted a question on a recent iPhoto tutorial. Cas asked about more detailed ways to organize photos inside events. Smart Albums are a very easy way to let iPhoto organize your photos for you. And you don’t even need to do much work!

First, let’s go over some of the terminology.

Read the Rest of the Article

Red Rain

June 25, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

Red Rain photo

Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Lens: Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Camera: Canon XTi

(all photos are copyright protected. Do not use or copy without written permission)