The Photo of a Photo

Have you ever run across old photos in the family stacks from long ago, and wondered how to make it big enough to see, or to get reprints when the negatives are long gone?

You can take these to professional enlargers who will scan them on professional quality scanners, usually at high a price.

You can also scan them yourself on a consumer grade scanner at home. The results are pretty mixed, and old photos of poorer quality tend to reproduce poorly, and don't enlarge very well.

But there is another method if you are a photographer, and that, quite simply, is to photograph the photograph.

Ah, but unless you know how, it's easier said than done. I have had lots of occasions where I needed to photograph artwork, and the method that has reproduced the best results for me are pretty simple.

To photograph a photo, you should remove them from their frames whenever possible. Glass covering makes it exceedingly difficult to get a good reproduction. Keep in mind that if the original photo is very blurry, your results are also going to blurry. This is a flaw you can't really correct well.

Use sticky-tack to stick your photo flat on a blank wall, or poster board, or foam core board. I use foam core board most of the time. It's white and reflects what little light there will be without causing glare. Make sure the photo isn't curled up around the edges - try to get it as flat as possible.

The best lighting to do this in without causing shadows or glare on the photo is on a very dull overcast day - you need some light, but not sunlight. Where you place the photo should get the maximum amount of light you can get. If it isn't raining, outdoors is ideal. If it is, place the photo so the light source falls on it as evenly as possible.

The camera settings will vary depending on the amount of light, and the surroundings - whether the room has light walls (which will reflect some light) or dark walls. My little studio has light walls. For this tutorial, the camera was set at a very high ISO - 1600. My shutter speed and f-stop varied depending on the photo from 80 and f8 to 125 and f10.

Use a tripod, and ensure the focal plane is level - you don't want your camera tilted up or or down, or on a sideways angle. Take your shot and you've suddenly got an old memory that you can share with others.

The photo of the woman used in this tutorial was a print that was 2" X 2.75". The reproduction will print as large as 5" X 7", but the optimal print size would be 4" X 6".

The photos will have some grain at such a high ISO - how much will depend on the abilities of your camera. Keep in mind that most older photos already have grain. Most of the photos you see on the display board above are from the 1940s, and have a glossy finish, which is more difficult to reproduce this way than photos with a semi-gloss or matte finish, as this one here.


Reproduce a bunch of old treasures, tie them in a nice bundle with a pretty bow and make a gift of them for your favourite scrapbooker. Christmas isn't that far off!

Making Textured Collages in Photoshop Elements

Here's something today that's quick and simple, and can be done in Photoshop Elements, or in Photoshop, or in fact, in any image editor that has the capability for using layers.

It's very quick to complete, and once you have a basic understanding of blending the layers, you can have fun with this little tip.

Making a textured collage is simple. The tutorial (download the pdf below, as well as the image files) involves only three images, but when you work with your own designs, you can use as many images as you like to create your textured look.

Experiment a little with different textures and backgrounds, try text as a blended layer, mix colours, mix designs and play with the layer blending methods.

The image created using this tutorial is this vintage-style beach image; somewhat reminiscent of an old postcard, but you can easily creates images such as the horse above.

Download the tutorial in .pdf formate here: PSECOLLAGE.pdf

Download the image files in .zip format HERE

Download the image files in .rar format HERE

Photography - Painting with Light

I have a little release today that isn't a full tutorial, but it should get you started if you are interested in learning how to "paint with light".

If you want to get technical, photography by itself is "writing with light"; coined from two Greek words (photo and graph(y)) . The word "photo" transcribed from greek is defined as "light; ultraviolet and infrared radiation; radiant energy"* and word graph or graphy is given a definition of "to scratch; to write, to record, to draw, to describe; that which is written or described"*. Didn't you all wanted to know that?

I'm sure you all remember when you were kids...remember those sparklers you used to get and your parents would light? I wonder how many of you did the very same things as we did. We'd write our names in the darkness of the sky, or draw hearts and circles and you could always see the after effects of that for a few seconds before it faded into nothing.

That's just one way of painting with light. Though our eyes record it for mere seconds, our cameras can record it and spit it out in a printable format.

There are a number of different techniques for painting with light and you can do it using a studio setup or outdoors, with small handheld laser pointers and flashlights to outdoor floodlights.

The pdf file I've got here is one I developed as a handout for a studio workshop, and describes in general the techniques we would use in the studio. While there are some specific settings given, they were developed for this location and conditions that the workshop would be given in. You'll have to play with them a little, but there should be enough here to get you going. Painting with light, like photography, is about experimentation...and exploration...and fun.

The handout also includes links to and information about two of my very favourite light painters - one works on large, eerie landscapes with fantastic colours, the other literally draws a new scene over the landscape around. Please take time to visit them both. You'll learn a lot more from them, than I could ever teach you.

Download the workshop handout here: Painting with Light

PLEASE NOTE: THE PASSWORD TO UNLOCK THE PDF IS notheft

*Reference: definitions from WordInfo

Horizontal 2010 Calendar Template

I've noticed the calendar templates seem to be pretty popular, so I've done up a new 2010 Horizontal Calendar Template, with a bit more flexibility than the vertical one. This one, however, doesn't have as much inlcuded for decoration, but I bet you can figure out how to add your own by now.

This calendar has each month on a separate layer, so you can decide where you want to place the month - in standard calendar format, staggered format, in a circle - whatever design you want to create with the months is up to you.



Using the guides in photoshop will help you line up vertical and horizontal rows evenly.

The heading (2010 Calendar) is editable, so you can change the font, or the colour, or remove/replace it altogether.

The only design elements included with this horizontal version are some aged "polaroid" picture frames.

The calendar is designed to print at 13" high X 19" wide at 300dpi. Reducing the dpi to 200 or 250 will get you an even larger print size, suitable for poster printing.

Here's a sample view (click to view larger sample):



For those whose editing software doesn't accept .psd (photoshop format) files, the calendar with blank picture frames is available in .jpg format. If your software has layer functionality, you can still insert your images, but you must ensure they fit within the frames by placing your image over the frame, resizing or cutting away the parts that don't fit and rotating them to sit properly in place. If your software doesn't support layers, draw your own pictures or doodles in the frame, or fill it with text.

HERE IS THE .JPG COPY OF THE 2010 HORIZONTAL CALENDAR - CLICK TO DOWNLOAD.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PHOTOSHOP OR A PROGRAM THAT IS COMPATIBLE WITH PSD FORMAT, DOWNLOAD THE PSD FILE BY CLICKING HERE.

Both files are under my copyright, but free to use. You may not claim ownership of my .psd or .jpg file, but your completed calendar is yours and you may place your copyright on any altered, finished calendar, so long as it is not the original file.

You may not redistribute my .psd or .jpg file (either for free or for sale), and you may not link directly to the download file. You may, however, link to this page or blog in order to share the free template.

Is This a Good Photo?

Now there's a leading question to which you could easily get a million different answers. What you'll find if you start asking, are different opinions. Some folks really get gripped by a fantastic stock-type image, some like artistic landscapes, others like experimental photography, some couldn't live without macro photography, and on it goes.

So, the low down is that good photography and good images aren't something you can define, unless you have a reason to define it. Let's move on to the actual results of photography - the photo or image, and leave the "good photography" to the philosophers.

Does it make sense that the same photo can be seen as good and bad?

Well, think of it this way. If someone comes to you for a passport photo, a good passport photo is one that contains a sharp image against a plain background, and only has the head and upper shoulders of the subject. It also must have no glaring highlights on things like eyeglasses, nose or chin, must not contain shadows, must be a straight on facial pose, no profiles, and the subject must be expressionless (ie: no smiling).

That doesn't sound like the sort of thing most people would consider a good portrait, but the passport office sure does.

If a bride wants an artistic shots with lots of blurring and motion for her first dance, the photo might show only small parts where it is fairly sharp, and the rest of the photo would be a swirling blur. There are photographers who think that would be quite a horrid shot because of all the blur, but the bride will love it. She'll think it's a great photo.

If you shoot for microstock, then you need a photo that is evenly lit, properly balanced in terms of colour (white balance), the focus must be sharp in the correct places (ie: the focal point), it must have good composition, it shouldn't contain a any noise, and it must have an appeal for commercial buyers. All of those factors would make it a technically good photo, and a good photo for stock, but not always a good photo for framing.

I think by now you can see where we are going.

In order to create good work photographically, you need to work to your market, if you have one or plan to have one. If you shoot only for yourself, then anything goes.

If you want to sell your work, research your market. By that I mean, if you want to sell Landscape Prints then start looking at places that sell Landscape Prints. Look at the work presented and see what type of style is popular for that niche. It's a good starting point, so look at a lot of places.

Then, after you gather your data, decide what you want to do about it. Because one type of print might sell better than another, you might decide to work in a couple of styles if you are comfortable with those. Or you might decide that your style isn't going to fit with that genre of imagery.

But here's the kicker...this is where most people stop. "Oh, I don't shoot stuff like that, so I guess it's not for me."

Like art, photography is resiliant and flexible. If you shoot in a certain style and you think it doesn't fit in a Landscape photograph, do it anyway, and do it your way.

Go out and develop a style of Landscape photography that's different. There really are no limits in photography. When you work in any artistic genre, the biggest mistake you can make is not allowing yourself to try.

What limits us is our desire to have our work accepted by everyone as "good". If that's the case, then all we are doing is producing for others, and not out of our love of photography - we are letting others define what we think. Then photography becomes just another way we allow others to measure us.

That's not to say you can't blend those two things - as an example, many photographers love to shoot microstock photos, and they fit into that market and don't give up any of their own desires to do it.

In my repertoire are many images that others apparently don't like much - too blurry, or the colour is wrong or there's too much noise. But that's okay. They don't have to like them. Some of them have even sold, so a few people like them.

Me? As it happens, I love them. They have the ability to melt my heart, or make me feel comforted, or bring a smile to face and heart.

And that's the whole reason for doing it in the first place.

Photoshop Quick Tip #3 - Soft Vintage Style

A very quick tutorial today - number three in the Photoshop Quick Tips series. This one will take you from an ordinary photo to a soft, faded vintage feeling in a couple of quick steps, using only the tools that come in photoshop.

Because of the limited tools used in this one, it should work in Photoshop Elements, or any other photo editing program that allows the use of layers, and gaussian blur.

Once you are familiar with the steps in this tutorial, you can take a photo from original to soft vintage in five minutes or less.



How intense you make the effect is up to you simply by adjusting the opacity of the layers.

Download the PSQuick Tips #3 Tutorial in .pdf format here.

PASSWORD FOR THE .PDF FILE IS notheft

Wedding Photography for Non-Professionals, Part 3

Time to finish up this quick little series.

Setting up a plan for the wedding day will require you to meet with the couple, and possibly with the family members and/or bridal party, if that's what the couple wants. Be prepared to meet more than once.

Things you need to discuss with the couple are their own expectations for the wedding photography, and what you will provide at what cost, and whether or not you will be providing the engagement photo (pre-wedding, usually as part of the announcement in the newspaper, and also sometimes used framed as a "signature" board for guests to sign).

You will also need to know the locations of their planned shoots, and whether or not you are expected to shoot the wedding day preparations (dressing locations for bride and groom, hair and makeup shoots for bride, wedding day breakfast or lunch for groomsmen), how and when each side of the wedding party (bride/groom) will be arriving at the church, whether the formal portraits will be shot before or after the ceremoney, whether you will be shooting at the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner/party, what is allowed within the confines of the church during the ceremony, if the ceremony venue is not a church, then your questions need to involve the setting there, lists of "must have photos" from the bride and groom, how much of the reception you will be photographing, if any, and what "must have photos" they expect from the reception. And of course, timing for all of that.

As you can see, there are many considerations for shooting a wedding, and you will definitely need your notepad!

Before you meet, start by making lists of information you require - keep it in list format so it's easy for them to get through. Make copies for the couple and have them fill in the answers. A sample list might be something like this:

Wedding Day Photography

- bride's preparations photographed? Y/N
if so, time required & location (address)
- groom's preparations photographed? Y/N
if so, time required & location (address)
- groom's breakfast/lunch photographed? Y/N
if so, time and location
- pre-wedding photography with bride & her parents? Y/N
if so, time & location
- pre-wedding photography with bride & bridal party Y/N

etc. (see end of article for sample checklist)

Continue the list until you have listed all the aspects of the day that you are prepared to photograph. You can make your list "universal" including absolutely everything, if you like. This allows you to use the same lists for each wedding, simply striking through the things NOT required, and having the bride and groom initial them. Include the "styles" of photography wanted in your list, like "standard/traditional bridal party portraits; traditional family portraits; casual bridal party; photo-journalistic; creative art portraits, etc. And be sure the bride and groom select the type of portraits they want, so there's no confusion about what style they want for what portraits.

Preparing the lists assists you with preparing your schedule for the day, and lets everyone know ahead of time what to expect.

Other things you should discuss with the bride & groom are whether or not you will be able to gain access to the church and/or minister prior to the wedding, and also to the photography venue, and the reception venue. Seeing these before the wedding day can help you decide where the best shooting locations may be, and in particular, with the church and minister it's a good idea to introduce yourself and to ask the minister the preferences for photography within the church. Many don't allow flash during the ceremony, so you need to plan accordingly, and if necessary, practice some low-light photography before the day. Seeing locations can also help you decide what equipment you need for the day. In general, being able to view all the locations in advance will make photography on the day a little more comfortable for you, and give the bride and groom confidence in your ability.

All this might seem like a little much just to photograph your friend's wedding, or your cousin's wedding, but it will expose you somewhat to the actual business of wedding photography and give you a professional presence at the wedding. It's good practice for anyone who thinks they might want to take this sort of work to the professional level.

The other thing you require is a contract - yes, even for friends and family. Be sure to explain that it's for their benefit, as well as yours, and helps you be prepared for your future plans. There are many samples of wedding photography contracts on the internet. Do your own search and download a number of free samples that are different. It's a good idea to tailor your contract to your own work, so make sure to write your own unique contract. Be sure to check the legal stuff against other contracts; remember to include the payment structure and payment schedule. Include a copy of the signed/initialed lists with the contract, so everyone is reminded what exactly was contracted for. Don't forget to include an expected delivery date for the proofs and the prints following their selections.

If arrangements are made for advance payments (ie: deposit or downpayment, be prepared with a receipt book and give them a receipt that clearly the states the deposit amount, what it's for, the date and the balance owing on the contract.

Lastly, dress and act like the professional on the wedding day. Be prepared to answer questions. Be prepared to respond to requests from guests for "special" photos - make a price list ahead of time. Be flexible - even the best laid plans can go awry.

Most of all, try not to be too nervous.

Download the sample Wedding Checklist in pdf format HERE.
Note that this is a SAMPLE list - meant for additions and subtractions - not necessarily to be used "as is" - it should get your started on your own list though.
NOTE: password for pdf is notheft

Photoshop Elements 6 - Making a Brush in PSE6

A quick little tutorial to show you how to make your own custom brushes using Photoshop Elements 6.

It's a reasonably simple process - using an image, or text or even a drawing of your own. Just a couple of steps - no isolation necessary.

Take the image from colour to black and white, tweak a little and save as a brush. If you want to share your custom brushes with friends, select the brush, open your preset manager, save as a new set in a different location (ie: create a folder in "My Documents" called "My Shared Brushes") and your new brush is ready to share with other users.

It's all in the tutorial. Oh yeah, and here's the brush created during the making of the tutorial (see the license below).

Download the Canadian Flag Brush for PSE 6 HERE - to place the brush in your program unzip the file (the brush download is in a zip file) and open the Photoshop Elements 6 folder on your computer and then open the presets folder. Put the file in the "Brushes" folder. (typically, the path would looke something like this: C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop Elements 6/Presets/Brushes)

Brush License: You may use this brush for personal or commercial artwork. You may not share this brush with friends; you may not give away this brush on another website or in any other collection; you may not sell this brush; you may not claim ownership or copyright to this brush. You may not link directly to the download file. You may, however, link to this page, or share this page link with friends.

The tutorial can be downloaded by clicking HERE. This pdf is password protected. The password to open the file is notheft.

If you want to share any tutorials on my site with friends, please link to the tutorial page, and not to the download file. I have had to move some of my files to different locations when I updated my website, so some of the old download locations no longer exist. The tutorial pages, however, will be updated with the new location.

How To Start a Website - General Information for the Unitiated (read as "Newbie")

NOTE: This article has been republished by the author (myself) on "Helpful Information for Newbies"

If you are fairly new to web technologies, this little info package is designed to get you started. I won't build your website for you, but this will help you understand where to go to get one, and what you should ask yourself before you start - also, what not to do.

These days we get a lot of questions on how to get a website (usually they are after "free" websites), or how to make your own website. The fact is, if you don't know anything about web design and don't understand anything about coding, then the easiest way to get started is with a web host that also provides web building tools.

Where you start is going to be entirely dependent on what you want in a website. If you just want to share your experiences with the world, then blogging is the perfect platform for you. Most free blogs are "ready to go" services. You select a template design (the look and colours of your blog), add "widgets or gadgets" (things that let you add stuff to your blog) and start typing.

If you don't intend to add any advertising sponsors to your site, then you can use Wordpress or Windows Live, LiveJournal, or one of many other blog platforms (just search for "free blogs"). If you think you might want to add some paid advertising in the future, opt for Blogger.com

If you are out to build a "website" as opposed to a blog, then you need to look for a webhost that offers free websites. Here's a list of free website offers that appear to be reasonably popular to the "free website crowd" to have a look at:

• Google Sites
• WetPaint
• OfficeLive
• Yola
• Weebly
• SnapPages
• Edicy
• DotEasy

For those looking to setup photography sites, or photographic galleries there are offerings like SmugMug and Redbubble, among a bunch of others that offer similar things. Not all of them allow advertising either.

Of all the above sites, I maintain an account at Redbubble, and have an account at google sites, though that is yet undeveloped. Not having used any of the above, I can't give any real recommendations, I only know quite a few people recently have tried these sites.

Then there are places like Squidoo, Hub Pages and Google Knol. In essence they are one page "shorts" that you can build on just about any subject. Simple and easy to start.

And, if you really don't want a website or blog, there are all kinds of community/social sites that allow you to share things in little short snippets, like Facebook or MySpace (I don't care much for MySpace - there's way too many users who spam), or orkut (don't care much for this one either) and a host of others you can look up. Then there's the ever popular "twitter", though for the life of me I can't see why it's so popular. Everything on twitter runs about as slow as molasses, and became so frusting I cancelled an account within days of opening it.

Regardless of which option you choose, there are things you'll want to consider - whether or not you intend to use sponsored advertising, or if you want to sell your own advertising.

Many free hosts already do place their own advertising or banners on your free website, so you'll want check whether or not advertising by the website owner is allowed. Many forms of advertising require you to be able to access the code or html for the site, or require the use of widgets, gadgets or plugins, so giving consideration to your future plans when you select a free webhost is something you'll want to do before making your final decision.

Once you've decided, and signed up an account for your choice of spots, then you start filling it with interesting stuff.

Now, if you surf around the net a while you'll see a lot of places that carry the same content, things like news aggregators, and articles on a huge array of subjects, but...many of these same articles, very nearly word-for-word, can be found on hundreds of different websites. That's known as "copied content". Copied content isn't all that interesting to most people.

Let's face it, if I want to know about a Nikon camera, I'm going to start at Nikon and from there, I might look for some user reviews, but I would be more likely to read a camera review from someone whose used it, than someone who copied their review from another website.

What you need to write, is something of your own. A lot of you are probably asking "what do I know that's interesting?" Think about this for a moment. Is your life an exact duplicate of anyone else's? You might have similar stories, or been through some similar things, but you as an individual are unique. You probably won't see everything the same way anyone else does.

The easiest things to write are those things that have a personal impact on you - your thoughts and ideas on anything from politics to health, to raising a family or remaining childless. What ever it is, it should be something you can write about from your own experience. Imagine if Erma Bombeck had never sat down to write her tales of family life? I'm not saying every personal blog will be an instant best seller, but writing what you know is the best start you can give yourself.

Once you have experience with your website or blog, you can branch out. Research things that are of interest to you, and then write about them. Share things like family recipes, or "how-to-s" if you have hobbies or a home business.

Do anything, except copying "canned, pre-written" articles.

Right about now, there are thousands upon thousands of websites carrying "information" on finances, stocks, forex, news, and technology. And the majority of them carry the exact same articles, and the exact same information. People are getting tired of those. Very tired. They want something fresh, something new, something unique. Don't get caught by thought of easily filling up your space with these free articles. For the most part, nobody really wants to see them again and again.

And here is a very big "what not to do". Don't get caught in buying into these "make money on the web schemes". There are almost none that will win you any income, save a very few (and they do not advertise with big flashy web pages or ask for money up front) and most will cost you a great deal, both financially and emotionally.

Scams play on the need for money - who doesn't need money today? They practically guarantee big returns, instant cash and lots of it. They nearly always offer you a "free info package" all you have to pay for is shipping (anywhere from 99 cents to $1.79 or $2.29 etc.)

The catch is in the fine print - and yes, it really is there if you read it. This free information pack or free trial costs you a fee every month (usually $59.95 to $79.95 or so) if you don't cancel it within a certain number of days (usually 7 to 15) - the biggest trick of all is that the "free trial" often doesn't get to the purchaser within that specified cancellation time.

Even worse, most people don't bother to read the fine print, and may not discover til a month (or many months) later that they are paying these fees. By the time they try to find the website they got the free trial from, it may be gone entirely, making it very difficult to the find the trail to cancel the "program". What often happens is the consumer ends up having to file a dispute for the costs with their bank or credit card, then having to cancel bank accounts and credit cards and setting up new ones.

If you are interested in earning money online, regardless of where you find the original offer, don't ever sign up for
anything until you've done some research.

After all, would you buy a car without checking it out, or a pair of pants without making sure they fit? Buying into anything online is no different, but it's a lot easier to find out information online, all you need to do is run a websearch for the name of the program or website and check out the search results. When you see a lot of bad reviews or information, back away quickly.

It's time for consumer's to take responsibility for what they do. If we all learned to do that then these scam sites would go out of business pretty quickly. Consumer's online need to educate themselves.

For most, all it takes is to be scammed once. What surprises me are the ones who sign up for one scam - discover after paying for it all that's it's a scam, and then a couple of weeks later sign up for another.

If you don't learn after the first time, you deserve what you get the second time. Yeah, that's harsh, but folks, we are supposed LEARN from our mistakes.

Now...go have a look around the net for a place that feels like home, and build your website :)

Protecting Your Work On the Net

NOTE: This article has been republished by the author (myself) on "Helpful Information for Newbies"

In at least one of my recent endeavours I've come to realize that taking time to protect your work online can be pretty important for some things.

Not just images, graphics and photos, but your written work, like blog posts and articles, stories and poetry. Pretty much anything you put on the net.

Some folks won't worry much about whether someone has copied their blog post or photos, but for those who are concerned, there are some steps you can take that help. While there is no real protection for anything you put out on the internet, making the effort can do two things - offer protection from those who just don't know any better, and help to educate them about copyright and plagiarism.

Anyone who follows any of my free blogs will already know that I'm pretty happy to share much of what I do with others. That's just my nature. What I'm not happy to see is other people claiming my work as their own. While none of these methods shown here will really stop anyone who is out to copy your work and put their name on it, some of them will help you find any work of yours that's been used elsewhere.


Copyscape is a service that will search the internet for written work. They offer a free service (limited, but it works) and paid programs for greater coverage. You simply put in the url of the page where your work is displayed (a blog page or website page), hit enter and wait. It will search around the net looking for whatever article or written work is on your page and then list places it found it, if any.

CopyrightSpot works essentially the same as Copyscape, though the service is at present, completely free. It is, however, still in "alpha testing", but it does seem to work reasonably well. Like copyscape, it is designed for the written word. You can also use their logo to show that you check your work against their service on a regular basis. While this won't stop someone out to purposely copy your stuff, it might give them pause if they realize you will eventually find them.

For images, the same folks who put out CopyrightSpot have MyFree Copyright. Here, you can upload a small version of any image or graphic and create a footprint for it, then get a registration number to place on your images, along with the logo if you want. This service also works to protect a file of written work, or text whether it's a web page or pdf or other form of written work. It too is provided freely. Each item you register generates an email to your account, showing the date of registration and registration number. While this is not the same as registering work with the Registry Office, it can provide a "time stamp" for your work, so if it's necessary to provide proof that someone else copied the work from you, this can be helpful. Like any other service, it doesn't stop unauthorized uses (nothing really does), but it has it's uses.

And one more place where you can upload files, including chk sums and other details and get it time stamped to help protect your ownership of your work. Copyclaim is also free, so those who write articles, poetry, tutuorials or upload .pdf files might find it useful.


TinEye doesn't actually offer protection, but it can help you find your images on the internet. It's still in beta, and has a ways to go before it will become really useful, but it too works if images are used in a lot of different places. TinEye is essentially a "reverse lookup tool" for images - you can upload a low res version of your image and it will search around the net and list places where it's found. If you prefer not to upload an image, you can use the Firefox browser plugin, where you simply right click on your image, and it will search from that. Note that with the browser plugin, this won't work if you are using the clear gif method of protecting your image, because all TinEye will see is no image and a clear gif. There is also a version for macs.

The image bank TinEye uses to search is still somewhat limited, so if it doesn't find your image, that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't in use somewhere else, it just means that wherever the image is, TinEye hasn't indexed that particular site or space yet. The more people who use TinEye and submit sites for indexing, the better it will get.

Get the TinEye Plugin for Firefox here.

Get the mac version here.

While there are other similar services for protecting your copyrights, many are paid services. If you earn your living with imaging or writing, you might want to invest in a paid service, and/or register your work at the Registry Office for your country or state. But for the average blogger who might have a need to prove the work belongs to them, these free services should be sufficient.

How to Add "Alt Text" to Your Blogger Images

"Alt Text" - what is it?

AltText is something many people might have heard of, but equally as many don't really know what it is, or what it's purpose is.

When you upload an image to your blog, the "alt text" is the stuff you normally won't see, but it describes your image to those who can't visually see your image.

And there are other purposes - a search engine bot (robot) is what crawls through your website or blog and indexes your pages and posts. These bots can't "see" images, they only read text. If your image doesn't have alt text, the bot doesn't know it's there, so your article or website might look like it has a lot of big spaces to the bot, and very little actual content.

This is particularly a problem for those whose sites contain a large number of images - such as mine do. If you want to be indexed properly and have your sites and pages show up well in search engine results, you need to optimize your images by using alt text.

Another good reason for using alt text is your visitors themselves. Some people still do have dialup connections, and some can be pretty slow when they need to load a lot of images. Because of this many dialup users turn off image loading in their browsers, which means they will only see a blank page if you have no text, or very little text and a lot of space where the images should be, or simply a bunch of boxes with red "x"s in them in place of your images. If you use alt text, these browsers will see that text so they will at least know what the image is.

And then there are those browsers who are blind, or classed as "legally blind". And before you ask, yes the blind do surf and enjoy the internet. At least when people consider them and use alt text for the images. There are voice programs which read text on internet pages that are used by the blind. Their computers read to them, but this software can usually only recognize text, just like a search engine bot. If there's no alt text, there's nothing for the software to read.

Lastly, if you own the image (and you should if you are uploading it) or if the image is being posted with permission of the owner, you can also add this text in the alt text area so people are given proper credit for the images.

Those who don't use alt text as often as they can could be missing out on a lot of visitors.

NOTE: THESE INSTRUCTIONS HAVE BEEN UPDATED FOR BLOGGER'S 2011 DASHBOARD AND IMAGE UPLOADING - PLEASE SEE THE POST LINKED BELOW IF YOU USE THE NEW DASHBOARD:

Updating the Alt Text Tutorial for Image Tags on Blogger

So, how to put the alt text on your images? If you use a blog service like wordpress, they have a box right in the imager uploader where you can type your alt text. Blogger doesn't have that, but it doesn't mean you can't still add it. You just have to use the "edit html" tab to insert it.

• upload your image
• click html tab and find the image code
• type description between alt= " "
  

One you've found the area with alt=" " you type your information in that space and you're done. You've suddenly added a great deal more content for search engine optimization and other visitors.




Make your blog or website more accessible by using the Alt Text whenever you upload an image!

Remake of the Calendar Tutorial - Updated for 2010

I figured it was way past time to update my old calendar tutorial. The last template I put out was 2008. The new one is 2010 and comes with 4 different designs, as opposed to 1.

Here's a sample of the full calendar, using one of the designs that comes with it. It is designed to print @300dpi as 19" high X 12.5" wide (that's a size that can be printed on wide-carriage printers, or by a print shop), but if you reduce the dpi (which can be done for printing on poster paper) you can get a rather large sized calendar out of it - possibly as large as 36" high. This is the "Patriot" set.

(Patriot - Set C)

Each set has individual components on separate layers in the .psd file. This means you can enable whatever components you want for each set, and turn off the ones you don't want. You can even mix and match components from each different set to create your own design.

(Retro Film - Set A)

(Country Swirls - Set B)

(True North - Set D)

The background itself holds the entire calendar for 2010 and each set has a spot for including your own photo.

Simply open the .psd file in any program that is compatible with the file type psd. (This was created in Photoshop CS3.) Turn on the components you want by clicking the little eye beside each layer. Layers are labeled (ie: photolayer Set A, Frame layer Set A etc.) so you know which ones belong to each set. Once you have enabled the set you want, open your own photo and place it over the photo on the photo layer, resizing it by using the transform function (on the menu select "edit" then "free transform" then "scale").

When you are done, flatten the layers (all the layers that are turned off/invisible will be removed in the flattening) and save the file as a .jpg. If you reopen the .psd file, all the layers will still be there and you can start fresh with another design or the same design and a different photo.

You can download the .psd template file for the 2010 Calendar by clicking here.
(Large File Warning!)