When I first bought my DSLR (a Digital Rebel XT), I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the jargon that surrounded it. The learning curve was steep, but I think I’ve finally managed to learn the basics. I just wish I’d had this page to help me.
Focal Lengh and Aperture Explained for the Photography Novice:
http://www.photoaxe.com/understanding-the-lens-focal-length-and-aperture/
With one of the most obvious domain names possible, digital-photography-school.com aims to do its best to give you the insight and thinking process to become a better (digital) photographer. With categories ranging from case studies, gear, travel and portait photography, and a veritable slew of other things photographic, this is a great one-stop shop for anyone looking for an easy resource to start the long climb toward becoming a “better” photographer.
The author, Darren Rowse, has this to say:
This ‘School’ is not a formal one by any means. There are no classes, no teachers, no exams - rather it’s a learning environment where I think out loud about what I know and where in our Flickr Discussion Group we share what we’re learning by showing our photos and ask and answer each other questions.
If that sounds like something you’re up for, check it out: digital-photography-school.com.
If you’re anything like me (And, really, who is?), you’ve undoubtedly deleted a few digital photos from a memory card that you didn’t mean to delete. If not, then you’ve probably accidentally deleted a master image from your desktop before you backed it up and after you formatted your memory card. Either way, you’ve lost the original photo. What do you do?
You download a copy of PhotoRec — available for anything from DOS to Mac OS X — and hope for the best. It’s free, open-source, and even a great general purpose file recovery tool.
via LifeHacker:
‘Tis the season for sharing home movies–but don’t try your friends’ and relatives’ patience waiting for something good to happen in the hours of tape you shot on vacation. You need to learn how to edit your video, to turn boring footage into compelling movies.
This is a great tutorial for those of you who know little (or nothing) about how to setup your video editing “workflow.” If you’ve got a DV camera, a firewire-equipped computer, and some time to climb the learning curve, this is a great way to start.
Read the rest of the article here.
PC World has posted a handy video demonstrating how to install and configure a dual-monitor (often called “dual-head”) setup for your workstation.
The video shows you how to upgrade your video card, explains the differences between analog and digital connections, talks about adapters, and wisely suggests that you backup your PC before you get started.
We’re big fans of the productivity gains from dual-head workstations.
View the video here:
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,367-page,1-bid,4/video.html
OS X experts tend to agree: Dashboard is a resource hog. Most folks will never notice and, consequentially, will never care. Me? I’ve disabled mine. Here’s how.
1. Open a Terminal window (found under /Applications/Utilities in Finder).
2. At the prompt, type:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall dock
To re-enable dashboard, just repeat those commands, but replace “YES” with “NO”.
Now, when you’re editing photos or rendering video, you’ll have a small amount more of performance to squeeze out of your system.
via LifeHacker:
“Nothing brings out the camcorders like the holidays, which is why this is the perfect time to admit an ugly truth: You suck at making home movies.
No, really. I’m sure you’re a nice person and all, but there’s more to videography than just taking the camcorder out of the box and pressing Record.
As with photography, good videography requires a bit of know-how. Luckily, I know how, so here’s my list of ways you can improve your home movies. You won’t come out Soderbergh on the other side, nor even Singer, but your Uncle-Henry-dropped-the-turkey-on-Aunt-Edna’s-head submission to America’s Funniest Home Videos will look a lot better.”
Read the rest of the article here.