Photoshop Photo Editor

Photo & Video, , ,

Photoshop is probably one of the best known, if not the best, photo editors that you can buy. However, the one drawback to Photoshop is that it is expensive. There is a reason for photoshop being expensive and that is because of the extensive things that you can do with this kind of technology.

However, if you just want a simple photo editing software solution then there are other options apart from Photoshop that will not cost you as much and some of which are actually free.

Free photo editing software. Two of the most popular photo editing software suites are Picasa  (which is designed by Google) and Microsoft Photo Editor. Both have their advantages over the other and in tandem can provide a lot of the functionality that you need.  if you do not need complex software to adjust curves and balance then you might well be advised to just use free photo editing software.

With Picasa you can crop images, change the contrast and color balance as well as add various effects to your images like graduated tints and changing the image to black and white. You can also add text and straighten the image if it is not quite straight when you took it.

Microsoft Photo Editor is good for resizing your image if you want to change the size as you can pick exactly what proportions you want your image to be.

So if you are thinking of buying Photoshop then it is worth thinking about exactly what you want to do with your photos and if free software can do this for you. There are plenty of others available too in addition to the 2 I have mentioned. Check out this article on another free photo editing software that is more like Photoshop in it’s capabilities.

Getting Screenshots in Picasa

Computers & Electronics, Photo & Video,

When you want to take a screenshot for whatever the reason, one of the easiest ways to do it or to actually edit the screenshot is by using Picasa, the photo editing software from Google. There is a whole lot of changes that you can do in Picasa to enhance your images or just to change them a bit and the software is free.

So, to get your screenshot in Picasa there is one essential thing that you must do. To get the screenshot you would normally just click on the print screen button on your keyboard (located between the keys and the numbers on a standard keyboard or often to the right of the function keys on a laptop keyboard), however to get a Piacasa screenshot you actually need to have Picasa open before doing so.

Once Picasa is open then you can flick back to the page that you want to get a screenshot of and hit the print screen button. Immediately that you do this you will see the pop-over appear in the bottom right corner of your screen that shoes that picasa has another image loaded. If you click on this image as it pops over it will take you straight to the screenshot, or, if you are not quick enough then you can go to picasa and in the search bar enter ‘Screen Captures’. This will take you to the screenshots that you have taken so that you can edit them.

Screenshots in Picasa are initially saved as bitmap files but you can crop and change them and then export them as jpgs without leaving Picasa.

Photography – Rule of Thirds

Photo & Video, , ,

When taking a picture with your camera, if you are intent on getting a good overall image then you should try and think about the rule of thirds when creating your composition. Sometimes when taking a picture, you don’t actually have too much time to think about exactly what you are seeing int he viewfinder but in time, with practice you will automatically create images that will usually correspond to the rule of thirds.

So the rule of thirds basically points you in the direction of where the focus of your image should be. In basic terms, you would divide the picture up into 3 sections both horizontally and vertically and then your main focus point of the image would be near one of the crossing points of the thirds (see image below)

Rule of Thirds
Rule of Thirds - Main Focus Position

If you look at any of the great photographs or even great paintings then you will see that in some way, whether consciously or subconsciously the rule of thirds has been applied and the focal point of the picture is not in the middle.

You can also make use of the rule of thirds when creating some kind of landscape – i.e. do not put the horizon right in the middle of the picture but instead put it around a third of the way up (or even down). It doesn’t necessarily have to be exactly a third, but putting it in the middle does not lend itself to a great composition.

To see if you are really using the pule of thirds in your pictures, add a grid over the top and see which photographs have used that rule and which have not and decide which ones look better.

 

CNN – Anderson Cooper

News & Current Events,

Although not formally trained in journalism, Anderson Cooper is certainly the big hitter at CNN. He has his own evening show on CNN called Anderson Cooper 360 which he has hosted for 8 years and he runs live, normally from New York or a place of newsworthy interest.

Anderson Cooper entered the limelight at an early age with his mother being Gloria Vanderbilt, the famous fashion designer and heiress and his father being the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper. He appeared in television shows and modeled as a child.

He has had quite a varied life and career and spent a lot of time on the ground in war torn areas like Rwanda, Burma and Vietnam. He had a spell on ABC news, ending as co-anchor of a nightly news show. In his current CNN news show, Anderson Cooper tries to go behind the news stories to get different takes on the issues involved.

Recently, Anderson Cooper started his own daytime talk show called ‘Anderson’ – perhaps in a bid to fill the slot left empty by the Oprah show recently and to get a bigger hold on a possible global audience, outside of the major news niche.  Reviews of the new show, also showing on CNN, were mixed in the first week, but it will obviously take time for the show to bed in and for Cooper to get used to finding out what audiences want to see.

In the meantime this is just another stepping stone for the attractive, silver-haired American.

Rupert Murdoch, News Magnate

News & Current Events,

Rupert Murdoch is an Australian born media mogul who became an American citizen in 1985. He inherited his news empire, News International, from his father in 1953 and went on to turn it into one of the biggest businesses in the world. The company, News International, has media outlets all over the world including The Sun in the UK, Britain’s biggest selling daily paper.

In 2011, one of Murdoch’s British papers was involved in a phone tapping scandal which rocked the newspaper industry and ended in the shutting down of the News of the World paper with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Murdoch himself claimed no part in the phone tapping scandal but his son was asked in for questioning by parliament which had got involved in the case, but he is still under investigation for other irregularities in his business by the CBI.

In addition to owning the Sun Rupert Murdoch also owns the Times and the Wall Street Journal amongst a wealth of other global titles numbering over 150 around the globe. In addition he runs a large number of global and national TV networks and also owns 20th Century Fox. Truly his hold over the media of the world should not be underestimated.