Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

Dipping Into Purple

June 4, 2009 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Photoshop

Took two of the photos from a local cemetery shoot and combined them in a diptych in Photoshop Elements. Not exactly as perfect as I’d like (at the bottom seam especially) but I didn’t want to mess with it too much.

(click for larger version)
purple diptych

(FYI, here’s a recent tutorial for making your own dips in Photoshop Elements)

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

Aftermarket Batteries: Update a Year Later

June 3, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

It’s been over a year since I ordered the replacement battery for my Canon XTi from Diamondback Batteries so I figured I would post an update.

How well has the aftermarket Diamondback battery held up against the original OEM Canon battery? I am afraid that it hasn’t held up so well. The Diamondback battery won’t hold a charge anymore; I charge it fully, and by the next day, it’s already half down. My Canon OEM battery is still going strong.

But truthfully, does it really matter that after a year the Diamondback battery isn’t so great? I mean, I only paid $11 for it. Compare that to $50 for a Canon battery, and it’s really not a bad deal.

Diamondback offers a “One Year Hassle Free Replacement Warranty” and I wish I noticed it a couple of months ago instead of 2 months over the warranty. But no biggie. I am going to order another one today. So yes, I do still recommend them!

Make sure to use the discount code for $5 off, it gives you almost free shipping.

My previous post on aftermarket batteries.

Finding Your Way

June 1, 2009 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography

Snapped this photo in between the rain storms last week.

Ants love peony flowers. They have been all over them since the buds appeared. I guess there’s a sticky substance that ants eat on the buds that help the blooms to open.

debbie T - Finding Your Way photo

Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Lens: Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Camera: Canon XTi
Edited in Lightzone (Relight tool)

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

Fingers Crossed

May 28, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

It’s been cold and rainy this week, but it was great outside this afternoon for snapping photos in the back yard! The rain drops were gorgeous and everything was so green and alive.

Happy Gorgeous Green Thursday!

happy gorgeous green thursday!

Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/2.8
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)

Nifty Fifty Walkway

May 1, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography

Happy Nifty Fifty Friday! Our front walkway makes a great photo op with the sweet white wildflowers growing up in between the bricks.

simple depth of field

EXiF Data:

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

Creating & Managing Aperture 2 Smart Albums

April 29, 2009 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Digital Photography • Mac Software

Bart Busschots and Allison Sheridan were discussing Aperture 2 on the Nosillacast podcast this week, and Bart was complaining about the way Smart Albums were working (or not working) for him. I think I have a solution to his problem.

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iPhoto – How to Resize & Export Photo Files

March 15, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Mac Software • iPhoto

My Dad just bought a cute Mac Mini, and he’s feeling overwhelmed. He used to use Picasa on his PC to export photos to use on Craig’s List, now he’ll be using iPhoto. This tutorial is for him. It’s a very basic beginner tutorial. I am using iPhoto 2008 but it is very similar for iPhoto 2009.

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Google Books

February 26, 2009 by debbie T | Books • CSS • Digital Photography • Internet • Web Design • Web Development • XHTML

I know I knew about this before, but never really looked into it….but Google has a very large collection of books to browse.

http://books.google.com/books

Add the books to “Your Library” so you can save them for later. There’s tons of web design, html, css, and photography books available, with links to Amazon & Barnes and Noble. Very cool!

Setting New Export Presets in Aperture 2

February 7, 2009 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Digital Photography

My friend Allison from the Nosillacast podcast was having problems exporting her jpg files. She was using the "JPEG – Original Size" preset to export, but she said that the exported files were only 200kb, much too small to use for a calendar. I am hoping that I figured out her problem toward the end of this tutorial, but before we get to that, let’s take a closer look at the Aperture 2 Export options and presets.

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Create Simple HTML Photo Page in iPhoto

February 1, 2009 by debbie T | Computers • Digital Photography • Mac Software • Web Design • Web Development • iPhoto

I maintain a basic web site for a local non-profit, and every year, I must update their photo page of Officers. It’s always been time consuming to try to reassemble the table html codes and move all the names and titles to their appropriate spots.

I wanted to find an easier way to create a simple html table for the photo page. I looked into iWeb, but the output page looked like a portfolio, and the code was virtually impossible to edit later.

I had imported all the necessary photo files into iPhoto, and while I was checking out the Export command, I noticed there was an option to export as web page.

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