How-To + Tutorials

Tips for De-Cluttering Your Computer

May 17

If you’re like most people, the computers in your life tend to accumulate clutter over time.  Hard drives fill up with pictures, videos, and all sorts of other files.  If left unchecked the whole machine might even begin to bog down.  It’s an easily corrected situation, if you know where to look.

First things first, assess where your storage capacity is being stressed.  You could do this manually, searching the many folders and subfolders through Windows Explorer for big unused files, but that can be a tedious task.  Fortunately, there are better tools!  For this process I like to use WinDirStat: http://windirstat.info/

This little tool makes it much easier to see what you’re actually storing.  It displays the content of your hard drive(s) in a directory list, for easy sorting, but it also has a graphical representation of those files.  Individual file types are color coded and folders, including their subfolders, are grouped.  I recommend turning on the “Show Free Space” setting, located under the “Options” menu, in order to get a better perspective on free vs. used space.

Read More

How To Make a Graduation Slideshow for your Graduate

May 15


Slideshow made with ProShow Web

Have a son or daughter, friend or loved one graduating soon? Creating a graduation slideshow is a great surprise and fun way to showcase photos from their childhood and growing up into the adult and graduate they’ve become!  Here’s what you need to get started!

Read More

Shooting Portraits with Natural Light

May 14

It’s been said that the best light in the world is free. Learn how to harness the power of the sun and natural lighting when shooting portraits in this awesome blog post by photographers Chris and Tammie Billey.

They show you how to manipulate the sun and turn ordinary photos into stunning portraits without breaking the bank on lighting equipment!

Read the entire article here >

 

Applying Slide Styles to Multiple Slides In ProShow 5

May 11

Have you ever wanted to apply the same effect to multiple slides at one time? It’s easy to do with ProShow 5’s new FX manager. I’ll show you how in this quick video. Open up your copy of ProShow Gold or ProShow Producer and follow along!

 

Adding Multiple Layers to a Single Slide in ProShow

May 9

One of the most frequently asked questions we get into our customer tech support lines is how to add multiple layers to one slide in ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer. This is easy to do and in a few clicks you can have a really cool looking slide layout.  Watch the video as I walk through how this is done.

 

5 Photo Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day

May 7

Mother’s day is less than a week away, here are 5 great photo gift ideas that Mom will love!

  1. Family Photo Slideshow: Make a slideshow with family photos from throughout the year then place it on a digital photo frame, iPad or burn it to DVD. Place next to a vase of beautiful flowers and you’ve got a winning combo!
  2. DIY Mini Album: This sweet mini album allows you to combine your favorite photos and quotes into a personalized album for mom. It’s easy to create and you can even download a template and step-by-step instructions over on the Simple As That blog.
  3. DIY Photo Letter Blocks: A cool, do-it-yourself project that turns ordinary letter blocks into gorgeous photo keepsakes.
  4. Ceramic Instagram Tiles: Turn your family Instagram snaps into really cool ceramic tiles. Perfect for around the house, paper weights, cup holders and more.
  5. Custom Photo iPhone Case: Check out these really chic iPhone cases from Shutterlfy. You can add your own photos and choose the design. Surprise mom by putting the case on her phone, she’ll love it!

 

Spring Cleaning Tips for Organizing Your Digital Photos

April 30

If you’re like me, you probably have thousands of images on your computers and portable devices. If you’re ready to do some Spring Cleaning, here are some tips that I find very helpful.

Don’t Save Everything
If it’s not a picture you’d be proud to print or share with the world, toss it! All too often I’ll end up with 10 or 15 shots of the same thing. While each photo may be unique in its own way, I don’t need to keep them all just because I was trying a different camera setting or lighting idea. Pick the best one or two and delete the rest.

Smart File Naming
Trying to find one picture in a folder with thousands of jpegs is a nightmare. So make folders -a lot of them! Categorize and even-subcategorize your images. I prefer to give my folders names that describe the overall event or theme. From there, I’ll create sub-folders that are more finite.

Even more crucial….rename your files! No one should ever have a folder where every image begins with “IMG_” or “DCM_”. Typically I like to combine a description, the date and a number for my file names. For example: “Summer_Vacation_June2012-001.jpg”.

Back Up Your Images
Save your photos….and then save them again using an alternate method. Your computer won’t last forever, so keep your memories safe by backing up your images in a second location. External hard drives and DVDs are great. Photo sharing services like Flickr or SmugMug are also solid options. If you’re looking for a cloud-based storage solution, check out Carbonite or Mozy.

Software for Organizing Photos
There are a handful of great tools that allow you to sort, tag, rename and manage photos. My favorites are Google’s free utility, Picasa and the Adobe products Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 »