So yeah, it might have been connected to an anemic Dsl connection…but it’s the little things that make you feel at home.

Perfect.

This is what graphics card corruption looks like. Weeeeird.

I’ve been tossing around the idea of posting a series of photography ‘how-to’ posts.

Instead of writing about random issues, I’d much rather be answering questions that you guys might have. It’s all fair game– composition, lighting, apps– anything at all

Post your photo questions in the comments and I’ll start answerin’

Thanks to digital camera’s LCD screens unexpected blurry pictures are a thing of the past. ‘Shoot, check, adjust’ (if necessary)– has become the mantra of many a photographer in the ‘digital age’.

The upshot of digital is that, thanks to the LCD preview, you can see right away when you’ve shot a blurry photo and that’s good. But do you know why the picture is blurry? Do you know what to do to prevent blur? If your answer is no– fear not, you will.

Pictures can be blurry due to 2 common issues, subject motion blur and camera shutter speed blur. (There are other resons, depth of field, intentional post processing effects– we can cover those another time, as they’re usually more ‘intentional’.)

• Subject motion blur is easy to understand, think: Formula 1 Race car screaming by you at 180MPH. Regardless of the shutter speed you use, you’re going to get a little blur simply because the subject is moving so fast.
• Camera shutter speed blur isn’t too difficult to figure out either, basically, the slower your shutter speed, the more likely your trembling hands are going to shake the camera. You shake the camera, your picture gets blurry.

So, to recap, fast subject = blurry, and slow camera = blurry. Simple right? How about a few examples?

First up, Subject motion blur, or the F1 race car shot:

The blurry car is a fast moving subject. Assuming that your intent was to have the vehicle sharp you have 2 pretty obvious options:

Shoot with a higher shutter speed to try to ‘freeze’ the car in place

Shoot with a lower shutter speed and ‘pan’ (follow the motion of the car with) your camera– by shooting at a lower shutter speed, you’ll blur the rest of the scene, but by panning at the same relative speed as the car, you’ll get the car in focus

Next, camera shutter speed/camera shake or the ’shaky hands’ shot:

The solution here is pretty simple

Shoot at a higher shutter speed, using your focal lenght as a bare minimum shutter speed. In other words, if you’re shooting with a 50mm lens, try to use a shutter speed of 1/50th or higher. If you’re shooting with a 200mm lens, then try 1/200th or higher– more zoom you use, the more shake you’ll see…

• Use a tripod to steady the camera
• Use a flash, to freeze the action

The higher shutter speed will help reduce visibility of the shake, as will the tripod. The flash (if you use one) will ‘freeze’ the lit part of the photo in place, as well as provide additional light to allow you to use a higher shutter speed. In the end, you have any number of options to address camera blur.

So there you have it, subject motion blur and camera shake blur. Neither issues are bad– you might even intentionally use them– but now you know the why they occur and how to address them.

We’ll cover depth of field blur, and post processing blur once we get a few more basics out of the way…

“…you’ll feel like and asshole, that’s normal–it means you’re doing it right”

Via Lifehacker

I’ll cover two of those features today, Metadata Views, and Metadata Presets. Ellen Anon covered the step by step over at the Inside Aperture Blog, so I’ll be sticking to an overview– and an explanation of why views and presets are important features to understand and use.

First off, Metadata Views are all about viewing metadata, whereas Metadata Presets are all about entering metadata.

(Take a minute and re-read that last sentence–Apple does a poor job of seperating the two, and that can make it a bit confusing. Don’t get scared, this stuff is crazy easy and crazy useful. Remember, viewing data vs. entering data )

I. Metadata Views filter in what’s relevant to you at the time, and prevent information overload by filtering out the rest. Aperture ships with a bunch of metadata views as you can see here (choose Window>Show Metadata if you don’t see the metadata side panel):

Each view displays some relevant group metadata and filters out the rest. Each preset shows you a different slice of the metadata for a given image.

Aperture’s built in Metadata views are a great starting point– and it’s easy to make a copy of one of the built in views, and then add whatever else you need by clicking the buttons (Keywords, EXIF, IPTC, Other) at the bottom of the screen, and checking the box next to the fields you want shown. You can save your custom view using the action pull-down menu (the one that looks like a cog).

So, see what you want, hide what you don’t. Moving on…

II. Metadata presets allow you to fill in some information as a preset that you can rubber stamp onto your images. The beauty is that when a tool makes something easy you’re more likely to use it.

To create a preset, you simply enter in some custom metadata and then click save as preset. That’s it! then any time you want to add that metadata to an image.

You don’t have to type the same thing over and over again for each image you import– just select append or replace with preset, and BAM! your preset info is entered for you.

Metadata Presets help ensure that you enter the bare minimum metadata into your images: your name, contact info, and copyright info. This stuff is easy, and important.

I’ll get into some workflow related stuff next time out.

*Metadata views can be helpful for data entry as well– a well crafted ‘data entry’ view will prevent you from getting bogged down in useless info, make good use of your limited screen space when importing, and make it easier to see what info needs entering.

So if you have a iPhone you can use it to take notes– to start, go to your Mac and launch Address Book.

Yes, Address Book*. Create a new Group called ‘01 Notes’, and then create a new ‘company’ contact in that group with the name you want to give your notes list. Then scroll down to the notes section of this new contact and put in any of the text you’d like.

Type away to your hearts content– when you plug in your iPhone, the new contact you created will be synced back to your computer. You can edit the notes in the contact on the iPhone and all those changes will be synced back to the Address book on your Mac.

Creating a group makes it easier to get to your notes, and putting the number at the top forces the iPhone to alphabetize it to the top of your groups.

*Now, if you’re scratching your head wondering ‘why use contacts when you could use Notes?–here’s why: Notes doesn’t sync back to your machine in any way– where as Address Book contacts (along with the notes you create and edit) do. Using Address Book you can have synced access to your notes on both your computer and your phone, instead of just making/viewing notes on the iPhone alone.

• Always BCC added to email settings so you can carbon copy yourself
• Battery diplay updates to provide more accurate display of charge
• Passcode lock can have a longer timeout– prevents you having to enter your passcode EVERY time the phone goes into standby mode– instead allows you to picke a time frame to allow the phone to wait before it requires a passcode
• Audio out now works on many popular stereo docks and adaptors

So, back to the regret part…I really only listen to music in my car. Until this update my iPhone just couldn’t take the place of my iPod– it had iPod features, but no audio out to my car’s iPod setup.No matter how many ogled over the iPhone, or how many times I used Google maps–no amount of ‘cool!’ helped me shake the feeling that I’d potentially made a $600 (plus tax) mistake. The pitch had been ‘one device to do everything‘, and here I was still carrying around my 5th Gen iPod Video, AND an iPhone.

Along comes this supposed security update, and BAM, audio out through the dock connector– meaning, I can use it in the car!

I can’t explain how happy I was when this thing worked like I knew it could. It was like getting an iPod all over again (which by the way, can’t be explained, if you have one, you get it– shuffles don’t count…).

In the last 2 days, I’ve had time to really judge this thing as an iPod, and take a look at some of the new features of this ‘best iPod ever.

My favorite example of the iPhone’s improved iPod? Shuffle.

Now before you laugh at me, and call me names, try out this situation: you’re listening to your iPod, on shuffle, and a GREAT song from an even GREATER album comes on. All of a sudden, you need to hear that album. With iPods of yesteryear, you have to Menu Menu Menu your way out, then select Artist, or Album and scroll to the Artist or Album in question.

Now, I would never do this while driving…but, I bet some have and do. It’s a potentially dangerous pesky interface, and a total buzz kill.But with the iPhone? Screw that son, you just shuffle away, and when one of those DEEP TRACKS comes on, you can just hit the track listing for the album, and BAM, you have the entire listing of that album to choose from.

I can’t tell you how great this is. Is it worth 600$? Well, having something work the way you hoped it would, and having a pet peeve eliminated goes a small way toward making me a bit less impetuous– but $600 less? I think that’ll take another few ’security’ updates…

Over the last weeks and months, many of you have met my girlfriend Kellie. In the last few months the two of us have been running as a way to get in shape, and recently decided to enter a road race– the Falmouth road race on August 12th in Falmouth, MA.

We’re doing it for a reason– we’ll be running as part of the CCFA’s (Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America) ‘Got Guts’ team. Each year the race provides guaranteed entries, exempt from the lottery, to selected groups which offer the entries out to runners who then gather donations for the charity.

Support of CCFA is something that’s important to both Kellie and myself, as she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease 2 years ago.

Half a million people in North America are affected by Crohn’s disease. It is a lifetime disorder that involves the small intestine and colon– causing abdominal pain, upset stomach, and fatigue. The cause of Crohn’s disease is not known, and currently there is no cure. Researchers believe that the immune system mistakes good bacteria found normally in the intestines for foreign substances and launches an attack. In defense, the body sends white blood cells into the lining of the intestines where they cause inflammation. A number of medical treatments are utilized with the goal of keeping the disease in remission.

There is no currently no cure for Crohn’s disease. Instead, a number of medical treatments are utilized with the goal of keeping the disease in remission. These include steroids, immunomodulators, and biological medications. Crohn’s disease affects approximately half a million people in North America, and there is a genetic component to susceptibility.

It would mean a lot to me to have your emotional (and if possible) financial support as we run on the “Got Guts” team. You can pledge online by going to the Got Guts website,  or you can contact me directly.

All of the funds we raise will go directly to CCFA to support their mission, which is “to cure and prevent Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis through research, and to improve the quality of life of children and adults affected by these digestive diseases through education and support.”

With the deadline coming close, I’m almost there, with just over 700$ raised so far!

Thanks for your help everyone!