Digital Photo Tips

I am so happy that Google has finally released PICASA 3 for Mac. I have missed using PICASA for my photo editing since I change over to using MAC OS. I prefer PICASA 3 over my iPhoto because I can insert water marks and text into the photo with one button.

I also find PICASA 3 gives better photo effects. So, if you are not the kind of person who like to spend a long time doing photo editing using the more advance software like Adobe Photoshop, then, try PICASA. It works real fast with just a few buttons.

You can download it here.

I embed the video on PICASA 3 on Mac here

I was looking at some photos hanging on my wall and feel depressed that the colors have faded eventhough the photos were just a few years old. My pinkish, chubby cheek baby’s face have turn a pale yellow and I decided to take down the pictures. So depressing, isn’t it?

So, I was wondering why some photos like those flyers and banners maintain their colors so well while ours faded. Then, I learnt that some of the printing have UV protection. No wonder the colors don’t fade. I learnt about the various types of printing from this site which offers color flyer printing.

If you are looking for printers, then, I suggest you take a look 1000s Postcard Printing is your full service custom postcard printing and mailing solution company. We offer our customers a variety of full color custom postcard, brochure, business cards and door hanger printing services for your business.

The company, Axis Flyers is a flyer printing company who offers full color printing of nightclub flyer and entertainment event business flyers. As you know, these materials must be damn glossy and glamourous so the printing need special attention. Besides that, the other company, Buycompcards.com offers model composite comp or zed cards. As a comp card printer they provide photographers a comp card printer for modeling headshot composite comp or zed cards including kids.

I am not familiar with their other services as I do not deal with printing. So, take a look if it is your area of business.

*This post is brought to you by axisflyers dot com*

I wish I have some flair in Photoshop-ing skills but the fact is, I have none. Normally I judge by how nice the photo looks on my PC. However, that’s quite a misleading way to measure because almost all my photos look nice enough on my Sony Vaio laptop but they look fake on my Samsung monitor which is supposed to optimize for games. Whenever I used that Samsung monitor, I will go, OMG, why are the photos so ugly!

Anyway, sometimes, I still use the setting RAW and JPEG on my Nikon D40. I wonder why I do that because I never bother with touching up any of my photos. I do not have the patience, time or skill. I just dump them into my PC, upload them to Flickr and that’s about it.

The rest, I just keep stuffing them into my external hard drive because my Sony only has 40GB + 40GB disk space and they fill up real fast.

So, what do people do with their RAW photos? Please tell? Spend time touching up to show off? Bask in their own masterpiece?

Picasa is one photo editing software that I cannot do without. All my cameras and laptops come with their own licensed photo editing softwares but none of them perform like Picasa. I am an advocate of licensed softwares because people work very hard to get the thing and it is only right we pay for them, right?

Now, Picasa is free, downloadable from Google. It organises all your photos and you can do photo editing with simple steps. If you like you can also put an affiliate link and you get paid USD1 or USD2 when someone download Picasa from your site. (Only applicable to US downloads)

Yet, I see many bloggers are putting up less than flattering photos of themselves online. Why don’t they just edit it a bit to remove those pimples, wrinkles and such? Not that I am vain or anything but really, those images tend to stick to people’s mind and I like to put my best sides forward all the time, if I can help it.

Here is a screenshot from Picasa. You just need to do a one click thing and you can have your photos in any style. I normally like to use the soft focus to hide those flaws on my skin. You see the below photo? I took some silly shots with my toddler last night. Our Pentax M20 tends to give a too reddish photo and I hate it because my facial skin looks horribly, horribly shiny and red. It is made worse when I am put next to a flawless four years old facial skin.

So, I cheated by making soft focus for my part of the photo, leave my toddler’s cheeky grin and there you have it. A nice shot, made possible by Picasa magical buttons. Oh ya, I also discovered our face looks different when we are lying down than when we are sitting up. Another tip for people with ageing facial expression like me. Hahaha, from now on, I will lie down and get my mugshots taken!

I stumbled on this site while doing favicon for my site. BTW, favicon is that little icon in the browser. I haven’t done it for this site yet but you can see an animated one at my food blog, MalaysiaBest.

So, what is an Image Embellisher? Well, you just upload a pic from your PC to the site here at html-kit and they will know process it for you.

You get a cube like this which looks like some product presentation, ya?

Or a marble with shadow like the above.

And heh, to boost the vanity, a CD cover with your personal image. Pretend it is my platinum hits CD, ok?